Very frustrating, even more so as other events means work on this project will cease until early October. So, what’s gone on this week or more accurately: what hasn’t gone on?
This was meant to be my week of filming, or at least a lot of it. If you’ve been following these updates, you will know that I have animated everything I have shot so far and can’t really progress with that side of things until I have shot more reference footage. I started shooting on Tuesday, edited what I had shot and even started animating some of it, all as planned. But whilst editing/ animating I still felt that the outfit was not ‘right’. The silhouette wasn’t very appealing and the whole outfit doesn’t have much style to it. I know this isn’t meant to be a fashion show(!), but no one would really wear what I had the character wearing- yes it’s something I would wear, but in the context of the film it didn’t look appropriate.
***Side note: the work I have completed up until now is other sections of the film in which the character isn’t wearing this outfit- some is bed clothes, some bikini and some close ups where you don’t see any outfit. So none of those sections are wasted- those are all staying in the film.
It’s extremely hard taking myself out of the character and looking objectively at it. This is why costume designers are used, aren’t they?! After this extra week of deliberation, I feel I have finally cracked it (I hope/ think). I did extensive research into what ‘normal’ (I.e. people other than me) might wear, by scrolling Pinterest, Google images and clothing retailers websites. I think what I have come up with now is much more fitting to the story and the character.
For some reason I thought it would be a lot easier and I wouldn’t need to think this hard about what the character might wear. You know, just throw on an outfit I feel comfortable in and that be it. But that is not the case. Costume/ character design is incredibly important in filmmaking and needs just as much thought as all the other elements which make up the picture. This is definitely something I’ll learn from and take into my projects going forward.
It has felt a bit of a waste of a week as far as this project is concerned (and in general actually), but it’s better to spend the time getting it how it needs to be, than rushing into it. Yes, the animation would be finished quicker, but forfeiting the correct look for the project. And I’d rather spend the time to get it to look how I want, because I don’t want to put all this time and effort into something, for the end result to look just a bit ‘off’. So although it feels frustrating and slow paced right now, I know once I get going with it properly, I can feel confident that it’s on the correct path, rather than feeling in the back of my mind it’s not quite ‘right’. I’m also thankful that I came to this realisation so early on and I hadn’t shot/ animated loads already. I spent 3 hours in total this week on one of the (now) discarded shots, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t all that bad.
Here’s a screen grab (with super rough temp background) from one of the rejected shots. It’s good to share both the lows and the highs of filmmaking on here, as that is the reality! See you in the next one xo
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