Short Film: Update #16 closing in...

I didn’t get quite as much animation done this week as I’d have liked (I don't know if I ever do), but I did manage to film several more shots/ sequences (including one I was super nervous about), so I guess that sort of balances it all out. I now only have two shots left to shoot- well one shot and one (two camera set up) sequence. Which, hopefully, I’ll get to do next week if the weather plays nice- they are both exterior scenes. In fact, there is one more shot actually in addition to what I outlined above, but that’s with extras only (I am just behind the camera on that one). Though that shot always slips my mind because when it’s not me in front of the camera, I find it nowhere near as stressful!

With closing in on the filming, I feel like that’s such a weight lifted and I can solely focus on the animation.

There isn’t actually a load of outline animation left now, though despite it being nearer completion, for some reason it feels even farther away. I just can’t picture it being done if that makes sense?! But suppose I just need to keep plugging away at it one line at a time and it will eventually be finished. Plus I think one reason it feels so distant now, is that I know finishing the outlines is only one element of it- there’s still the colour, the backgrounds, the compositing and all the other bits left to complete. So I’m probably seeing the finishing of the outlines as only a third of the way through the full film completion, despite it being a big landmark in creating the film.

I should still make sure I celebrate each stage of completion though and appreciate/ acknowledge how far I’ve come, rather than just moving straight on to the next bit. Perhaps I’ll treat myself to a nice day out somewhere once all the outlines are done! Mid February as a realistic target for that sounds good- though it’s always hard to predict with animation as some shots take a lot longer than what you think they might and it’s usually the shots that you don’t expect!

Right, I think that’s all for now. I’ll leave a screen grab down below of one of the clips I shot earlier in the week of what will become the balcony shot. Plus the storyboard image from that scene and the makeshift prop balcony I formed from a clothes drying rack and piece of dowling shoddily taped on! Enjoy!

Talking on a Panel

Basically the title(!)- on Tuesday 4th February, I will be talking about my filmmaking journey on a panel alongside four other excellent filmmakers at HOME in Manchester, as part of their PUSH festival. The event is at 6.30pm and tickets are only a fiver, so what are you waiting for?! For more details and tickets, head HERE.

Short Film: Update #15 short and sweet!

Morning! Just going to keep this short today, because other than the fact I’ve mostly been animating this week (with a fair amount of editing/ admin), then there’s not much else to share! Pointless writing a load of stuff for the sake of writing, when I could be using that time to continue animating… So here’s the the tracker, and see you in the next one!

Short Film: Update #14 busy busy busy!!

Hello! Now the festive period has all settled down and I kind of know what day it is again, it’s definitely time to start up these weekly round posts for my film again. Since the last one I’ve been busy, very, very busy. I started looking at background/ colour ideas and carrying out some tests:

Above are a couple of the tests I carried out and potential examples of what it all might look like when finished. I definitely need to do more development, especially on the character and look at how it all might work while animated as well. But I feel on the whole, I’m going to go with a textured background (similar to above) and a smooth character style, so there’s a solid bit of contrast. Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking at this point, though it is still early days. I’m also thinking to keep it all in TVPaint (the software I’m drawing all the animation in), in order to keep my work flow as streamlined as possible. It also makes any background components that may need animating a lot easier to do there and then, rather than swap from program to program. But I’ll see, who knows, I might say all this and then go and draw all the backgrounds in Photoshop or Procreate! Anyway, more on this at a later point when I’m at the stage to fully focus on the backgrounds and colour.

I’m super pleased that I did manage to spend a few days looking at the above though and doing a few tests, because it’s the part of the process I’m least confident in (the rotoscope animation is where I feel most comfortable). But, it’s actually boosted my confidence, because yes, although it still needs more R+D, I’m really happy with the direction it’s going in and I absolutely love the look I’ve created so far. It was nice to have got some of this done before I’ve finished all the outlines, because it means I can be mulling it over as I finish animating the character footage. It has also put me in good stead for when I do get to the background/ col stage, because I won’t be starting from a blank canvas so to speak.

I was also able to get a chunk of filming done:

…which has made me feel a whole lot happier. The filming is definitely a part of a process I find least fun, especially when I am not only behind but also in front of the camera (though I must admit I am pretty pleased with my performance so far). I now only have about four sequences left to shoot with me on screen, plus one shot using some extras. Just cracking on with it early this week has been great for the momentum of the film and has been a big relief to have been able to get it done. Though when it’s about 2 degrees outside and everywhere is covered in snow, it’s definitely not a time to be waltzing around in a dress and bikini pretending it’s summer!

I have also been busy animating for the remainder of the week:

On the last one of these I posted about a month ago now, I was on shot 044. So yes, significant progress has been made! The film is looking a lot more fleshed out in the Premiere Pro timeline and I’m really pleased with the pace I’m getting through the outlines. I’m also super happy with the quality of the animation I’m producing at the moment.

I’m feeling really positive about the project right now and it feels like the end is (almost) in sight. Or at least for the filming/ outlines part: I’m not under any illusion about how long the backgrounds/ colour/ score/ sound is all going to take. But I just need to keep at it one shot at a time and not let the rest of the project overwhelm me. I was able to take a little time over the festive period to actually take a look at festival deadlines and prices, as it was becoming quite apparent that the end of Feb deadline I had previously set myself was going to be wayyy off. On doing this, I realised that the prices don’t jump up that much, providing I get it done by April 30th. Which sounds a lot more achievable. So that is now my deadline.

What are my plans for the coming week? To continue animating the footage and see how far I get with it- it’s unrealistic to say that I’ll get it all done as there’s quite a lot, but I feel I can make a significant dent into it. So yeah, I’ll mostly be stationed at my computer! See you in the next one!

2024 in Football

And now for the final 2024 round up post and it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for: football! So first things first- the all important stats! In 2024 I attended 97 matches, with 95 of those being ‘new’ (previously unvisited for me) grounds. The revisits were Wembley and Wembley again- I’ve become one of those people haven’t I?! One time for the Women’s FA Cup final and the other for the Lionesses vs the USA in an international friendly. The highest attendance was 78,346, for the aforementioned Lionesses game and the highest domestic attendance besides the Women’s FA Cup final (76,082) was 18,078 for Tottenham Hotspur Women against Leicester City Women in a Women’s FA Cup Semi Final game. The lowest attendance was (approximately) 8, for a Sheffield and District Fair Play League Division Two game as Sheffield Union FC took on Thurgoland Welfare FC on a cold Saturday morning at Norton Playing Fields. I saw 417 goals in total, averaging 4.3 a game and my most seen team was Manchester United Women (3 times in total).

It was a bit of a year in two halves actually (similar to my summary for 2023 as well)- the first half was spent visiting more exciting/ interesting grounds, as well as taking more photographs, alongside completing our ‘road to Wembley’ quest (attending a fixture from each round of the Women’s FA Cup). This was the highlight of my year in terms of football: it brought us to some completely different places and really made us pick some interesting fixtures/ grounds to visit. It was a great focal point for the 23/24 season. Hard recommend!

The second half of the year (after the summer break) was not as exciting: if you are a regular here then you will know that I’ve been mega busy working on my film. This has lead to me having less free time, meaning that photographing games has, unfortunately, taken a back seat. It’s not so much the photographing that takes the time as I’d be out anyway watching football, it’s more the editing and sifting through that takes a full morning (and more often than not, a bit longer). I’m hoping to remedy this once the weather gets slightly more pleasant and I’ve actually written a small list of grounds I want to photograph this coming year to keep me excited/ motivated. A large amount of my film has been completed, so I feel in a few weeks or so, I can start shifting my time around to allow for a little photo editing. Anyway, watch this space…

On a more positive note, since the new season began myself and my partner have actually started watching my home town club (and the club I support), Worcester City. Both the men’s and women’s teams were promoted last season and they now play in regional midlands based leagues (the Northern Premier League Midlands and the FAWNL Division One Midlands respectively). In both leagues, there are several grounds which we haven’t previously visited, so have been able to line up a few fixtures for both. We have watched two for each so far, with both the third games we had lined up postponed due to the weather. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting behind the club I support in person and it’s made for a really fun/ interesting venture to our weekends. I’ve a few more planned out for each for the remainder of the season. I am also now the proud owner of a Worcester City FC scarf (thanks Santa)!

Right, that’s the stats and summary complete, now for the fun bit! Here are my top ten grounds/ games I attended last year. These are not all just the ‘nicest’ grounds I feel I visited, but I’ve also taken into account enjoyable days out/ great clubs/ good overall football watching experiences. These are in the date order I visited.

Sharpenhoe Road

Luton Town Ladies FC 0-6 Brighton & Hove Albion Women 14/01/2024
Women’s FA Cup Fourth Round Proper
Attendance: 1235

Silverlake Stadium

Southampton FC Women 1-3 Manchester United Women 11/02/2024
Women’s FA Cup Fifth Round Proper
Attendance: 4554

Broadfield Stadium

Brighton & Hove Albion Women 0-4 Manchester United Women 09/03/2024
Women’s FA Cup Quarter Final
Attendance: 3701

The Polegrove

Bexhill United 2-3 Eastbourne Town 13/03/2024
Southern Combination Premier Division
Attendance: 164

Kenilworth Road

Hashtag United Women 2-1 Newcastle United Women 23/03/2024
FAWNL Cup Final
Attendance: 3719

Edgar Street

Hereford FC 2-2 Buxton FC 01/04/2024
National League North
Attendance: 3004

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Tottenham Hotspur Women 2-1 Leicester City Women 14/04/2024
Women’s FA Cup Semi Final
Attendance: 18,078

Garden Walk

Gornal Athletic 4-0 Bustlehome FC 20/04/2024
West Midlands Regional League Div 1
Attendance: 220

Millmoor

Wickersley Youth Ladies FC 16-1 Eckington Belles Ladies FC 01/09/2024
Sheffield & Hallamshire Women’s & Girls League Open Age 4
Attendance: 40 (head count)

Southwold Common

Southwold Town FC 3-0 Hopton and Hawthorn Devs 05/10/2024
Lowestoft and District League Div 3
Attendance: 30 (head count)

Film Recommendations 2024

Like last year, here are my top 25 film recommendations out of all the feature films I watched during 2024. In total I watched 143 (including 2 rewatches), up from 91 last year. My target is generally 104- which is two (new to me) watches a week. As a filmmaker, I appreciate the importance of watching feature films and look at them not only as entertainment, but also material to study.

As ever, it was a very hard list to compile- there are just a lot of good films aren’t there?! I feel this list is a nice overview of the films I have enjoyed during the year, so there’s a mix of live action, animation, documentary, bigger budget, smaller budget, British cinema, World cinema and so on. Which actually reflects my taste anyway- I’m up for watching a whole plethora of films.

This year I also did something unprecedented: I delved into the world of unlimited cinema! For a several reasons I have never looked into this (financial and not having a local cinema which would justify the cost- only screened the very mainstream/ high budget films), though since moving to Sheffield and being blessed with a choice of 6 cinemas (plus several alternative cinema offerings in the form of Kelham Film Club and Film Unit Sheffield), as well as being in a better financial situation, I decided to dive right in.

The first (yes, I did this more than once) cinema I chose was The Light. I selected this cinema because of it’s dedication towards supporting independent film, plus the chain hosts film festivals (Sheff Doc Fest and Bolton Film Fest- maybe more as well), I wanted to put my money towards something good. The viewing experience is great: large screens, decent audio, as well as comfortable, spacious seats. It was also very reasonably priced at just £15.99 a month for as many films as you like- and I really did indulge! I watched 45 with the 6 month membership, justifying the price and then some. Because I could see what I wanted, it made me pick several films I likely would not have seen without the pass, so it really opened me up to watching films I might not have picked to watch otherwise. Top marks!

Despite enjoying the pass immensely (as well as The Light cinema itself), once the 6 months was up, I decided not to renew the membership. The main reason: I live 3 miles from the cinema and to just watch a film, I was taking a whole afternoon out my day- an hours walk each way, plus the duration of the film. It also meant evening screenings were a little difficult and it felt like I wasn’t just paying for the cinema pass, but often bus fares to/ from home. Which added up cost-wise. If I lived nearer, I’d snap up the membership again in a flash.

After a couple months off, I was definitely craving cinema visits again, plus with it heading to ‘awards season’ it meant there would be loads of good new releases. The closest cinema to me offering a pass is Cineworld- it’s literally a 20 minute walk from my house, so super convenient. It’s slightly more expensive and the cinema experience isn’t quite as nice as The Light, plus it’s a much bigger corporation, meaning I don’t feel my money is going to something quite as ‘good’. But I am grateful to have a cinema so close to me offer an unlimited deal. It also shows a lot of the films I want to see, which is obviously a positive! When this pass runs out, I am likely to renew, because I love watching films in a cinema environment, and as I said, it’s so convenient with it being so close.

Wow, that was a bit of an essay, wasn’t it?! Right, back to why we’re here: the list…

These are listed in no particular order. The title of the film is in bold, followed by the the date which it was made according to IMDb (in brackets) and then the name of the director(s).

1. Last Resort (2000) Pawlikowski, Pawel
2. How to Have Sex (2023) Manning Walker, Molly
3. Hello My Beautiful Creatures (2024) Bernhagen, Eric; Haver, Joel
4. The Holdovers (2023) Payne, Alexander
5. All of Us Strangers (2023) Haigh, Andrew
6. The Zone of Interest (2023) Glazer, Jonathan
7. Perfect Days (2023) Wenders, Wim
8. Robot Dreams (2023) Berger, Pablo
9. Copa 71 (2023) Erskine, James; Ramsay, Rachel
10. Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) Lambert, Rachel
11. Monkey Man (2024) Patel, Dev
12. Blue Giant (2023) Tachikawa, Yuzuru
13. Reality (2023) Satter, Tina
14. Anatomy of a Fall (2023) Triet, Justine
15. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024) Mabott, Michale; Rosenberg-Lee, Lucah
16. We Can Be Heroes (2024) Mia Wong, Carina; Simmons, Alex
17. Fancy Dance (2023) Tremblay, Erica
18. Strike: An Uncivil War (2024) Gordon, Daniel
19. Wilding (2023) Allen, David
20. Silver Haze (2023) Polak, Sacha
21. Sky Peals (2023) Hussain, Moin
22. The Outrun (2024) Fingscheidt, Nora
23. Threads (1984) Jackson, Mick
24. A Different Man (2024) Schimberg, Aaron
25. Memoir of a Snail (2024) Elliot, Adam

Hope you enjoy and I’m always open to any watch recommendations, so write ‘em in the comments! xo