Flora Martyr.: Short Film: Update #11 getting back on track (again)!!

You can probably tell by the optimism in the title that the film is going a little better than last week… I came back to it on Monday with fresh eyes (as I said I would) after having had a couple of days off from it over the weekend. I did a little further editing, then exported it again and watched it through and wow, it’s so much better! It’s a lot more aligned with the story I want to tell, but without any of the bagginess of the previous versions. The clarity is almost there- yes there are still a few tweaks I feel I’ll need to do such as adding a scene here and there, where there are gaps, but on the whole, it is much, much better.

I actually feel full on excited about it again and I’m extremely motivated to continue with it. Which probably explains why I had such a productive week: I did some more filming, animated a few shots and tied up a few loose ends on a couple of other shots which previously I hadn’t quite finished in full.

I didn’t expect to go into this week and film anything, but I felt fresh and therefore needed to strike when the iron was hot and get on with it. I’m really pleased with the footage I got, too- I must admit I actually quite like the acting I did in one of the shots, if I should say so myself! I plan on editing what I have over the weekend and then hopefully have animated all of those shots in full by this time next week- we shall see…

I also have more of a fixed deadline in mind now actually, which is end of Feb/ start of March next year. Which gives me 3 months. Eek!! It might be a little too tight and I am not going to rush it if it gets near the deadline if I’m still way off. There’s a ridiculous amount to get done, such as colour and backgrounds, voice records and sound design/ score, plus compositing etc. And to finish animating the outlines, of course! But that’s the date when some of the festivals I want to submit to close their cheaper submission rates. And as a person who has created this film independent of any funding, cutting costs down such as festival submissions is an important factor to consider. Submission fees really do add up and to be honest, I kind of loathe paying them as it’s a complete gamble whether your film gets in anyway, so often it’s just money wasted. Yes, of course I believe in the work I create and always think positively that my films will get in, but being realistic, myself and I expect a lot of other filmmakers, have more rejections than success when it comes to submitting to festivals. That’s just the way it is. Lot’s of the time, it doesn’t even reflect the quality of your film- it might just be down to programming or something like that.

I know you don’t have to submit to festivals at all and you can just upload it online or something, but I’d hate to put all this time and effort into making my film, for it to get 235 views on YouTube. I have a fairly small online following, so for it to break through organically is not that likely (again, not trying to sound super negative here- just speaking rationally). At least with festivals, there’s a chance of potential collaborators/ producers/ funders seeing it and liking what you do, which could lead to positive things in the future. My goal after this is to make my feature film, so if this film does well at festivals, then it opens up my chances of realistically looking into funding options for that.

I’ll add a few images below as there’s been a lot of words here. At first, it was actually a quite minimal post in that respect, but then I remembered I should mention the potential deadline I have in mind and then my hands couldn’t stop typing! I’ll also chuck in my Spotify wrapped while I’m about it, so you can see what kind of music I listen to while I animate!

These first two are from the footage I shot this week. PSA: hospital gowns are not warm- and I must have been in it for at least two hours at a time. But I suppose being so cold probably spurred me on to getting the footage quicker as I just wanted to get the clips done and then some warm clothes on!