Short Film: Update #21 outlines completed- kind of!

Yep, the title: the outlines are finished!! 86 shots. About 8/9 minutes of animation. Done. Well, at least all the footage with me featuring in- I do still have a few more shots with some extras (though I’m yet to shoot that stuff). But, it feels like the film is well on it’s way to completion at long last and it feels like a pretty major landmark in making the film:

So I’m taking it easy over the next day or two, to celebrate my achievements and take stock of what I have done on the project thus far. Having a little time away from it will also allow me to come back to it after the weekend feeling refreshed and raring to go again. I’ve so far treated myself with doing a spot of embroidery: something I haven’t done since December (though feels like much longer!), plus a relaxed skate sesh, along with having planned a few cinema outings and football trips over the weekend. I also got myself some chocolate ;)

Contrary to how the last paragraph may sound, it’s not all fun and games: I am doing some light work as well, being as the project needs to keep on moving forward. So i’m having a little time to consider how to go about the next steps: backgrounds and colour, alongside gathering some reference material for said backgrounds (and a few of the extras, too). The website Pexels is an absolute saviour!

I watched the film in full yesterday (Thursday) after having completed the last shot and I am quite happy with how it played out. The story felt fairly intact, which I was super pleased about, especially being as there were no backgrounds and only extremely minimal audio to help it along. So doing that gave me a boost that my efforts aren’t going to waste and I am well on the way to creating a cohesive film. The edit definitely still needs tweaking and a few establishing shots do need adding, but it feels like the foundations are in place.

The filmmaking process is so weird, because it’s quite hard to translate the story you have on paper (or storyboard form), to the screen. You really are constantly crafting your story, even after you have a “locked” script. There’s that famous Robert Bresson quote about (I’m paraphrasing here) how a film is made or ‘born’ three times: in the writing/ scripting stage, then in the shooting stage and lastly in the edit. And it really does ring true- it was the same when creating my previous film. But suppose it’s just one of those ‘trust the process’ things, right?! And on that note, I think I am done here, I have a film to make, see you next time xo