Short Film: Update #28 light at the end of the tunnel

Hello hello! As suggested, there wasn’t one of these last week, so lucky you, you now get two. Joking, of course! Got you though, didn’t I?! Shhh, leave me alone, it’s my blog and I can make as many silly jokes as I want!

Right, so what has been going on since last time?

No, I didn’t mean that, although that was how I spent the bank holiday weekend… Seven games across four days- not a bad way to celebrate the resurrection of christ and all that!

That’s more like it: the backgrounds are really, almost complete. And I couldn’t be happier! But I still have a few left to do and they aren’t the easy ones. But I’m kind of at the point now where I’m picking the lesser of two evils each time I work on a background (or any of the remaining tasks), because they’re all pretty difficult as yep, I already did the easy(er) ones. But I’m definitely in the swing of things now with them, so the harder ones aren’t feeling quite as daunting as they did a month or so ago.

As you can see from the screen grab above, I also figured out how I was to finish the background for the nightclub scene. I had decided on the use of 16mm film a while back, as it gives a strobe effect by its very nature, alongside some great patterns and colours- somewhat reminiscent of the type of lights you get in such establishments (in a very abstract/ impressionistic way, of course). But the ‘extras’ were still just a figment of my imagination, until the beginning of this week when I got a great idea of how to add those in. Again, I wanted them to be quite impressionistic as well, so the focus stays very much on the protagonist, but I didn’t want her dancing in an empty club either, as that just would have looked bad. Or at least not suitable for the type of atmosphere I wanted to convey in this sequence.

So I went on to the stock footage website Pexels like I have many a time for this project and downloaded a load of clips of people dancing. I then selected 12 of those and rotoscoped the silhouettes of the people, but I did this on every other frame, so it would feel more ‘club-like’. I then brought them into Premiere and changed the opacity and blend mode, so they merged with the background. When moving, it really does look like they’re under strobe lights, and it gives the type of feel to the background I was after.

The nightclub shot was definitely giving me a bit of stress, as I had no idea how I would be able to set about creating it, or if I’d be able to pull it off altogether. Yay, self doubt. It still needs a bit of tweaking, as I have’t quite established how I’m going to organise the background characters- it’s turning into a mini logistical nightmare (but that’s nothing new at this point)! But I can see that once I get that sorted, it’ll be a really impactful shot: I’ve done a few test exports of that section and I am pleased with how it’s looking, even if it’s not quite there yet.

Next week, I’m planning on working through the remaining backgrounds, though there are a few which require reference shots, but hopefully I can get those this weekend. I’ll admit that I’ve kind of taken my foot off the gas with the film at present in terms of pace/ output each day. This is likely because of the difficulty of it right now, so it feels like half a days work is plenty before my brain starts to get too frazzled! Most of the work on it right now is ‘thinking work’, rather than just rotoscoping/ colouring etc, where it was easy to complete 7-8 hours of work daily. But completing a section or two each day at the moment is a pace I’m happy with. As long as I get something done on it every day, then I’m fine with that.

In addition to the above, I’ve also relaxed any deadlines I had- or at least any for this years festival cycle. I now have the end of August/ beginning September as my completion date, which has definitely released any stress the deadline was giving me. And judging by the fact that my sleep has improved almost 100%, then that was probably a lot! See previous posts for context… There’s no way I’d be able to finish it by the end of May anyway without rushing it and likely ruining my mental health in the process! Disappointing it will take longer than I had imagined, but the film (and my wellbeing) will be all the better for it. So yeah, I just wanted to quickly update on that. And I feel this Autumn deadline is much more realistic too and hopefully won’t need to shift any further.

Ok, this has turned into a bit of an essay as usual(!), so I’ll leave it here and see you in the next one xo

Short Film: Update #27 the struggle continues

This week has been a bit of a mixed bag: I was optimistic going into the week having just completed all the colouring, but that was dampened fairly soon after struggling with a few of the backgrounds. Some of them are proving a lot more complex than I had imagined, which kind of sent me back into the ‘disliking my film’ slump I was in a few weeks ago. I appreciate that’s not the most mature response to a difficult task, but I honestly felt extremely out of my depth in terms of skill to be able to pull what I wanted to off. But after my little tantrum(!) and once I was over the initial hurdle of ‘oh, these might actually take a while and be pretty difficult’, I ended up producing a fair chunk of work, some of which I’m quite proud of, too. A lot of trial and error went in to the making of these backgrounds (some more than others), but I thought it was better to get them ‘right’/ how I want them and spend more time doing so, rather than settle for something I’m not especially happy with. Nothing good ever comes easy, does it?!

There’s one or two backgrounds I’d like to redo and/ or tweak from earlier on, too, when I was getting into the swing of things and ironing out the process. But those can wait until I’ve done the first pass, then I can asses in full what else needs doing, including any effects I need to add etc.

I exported the film again Friday afternoon, to appreciate what I had achieved during the week and to give myself a well needed confidence boost. Which actually worked! It has come on leaps and bounds from the week prior and has made me feel better about this weeks progress, especially when it has felt quite slow at times. It feels like I’ve been working a lot on various shots, but not especially having anything to show for it, due to it’s been a lot of sketching stuff out and trying to make things work. But watching it through has shown that I have done more than I think and it is actually looking quite filled out now. There’s actually not a whole lot to go- how exciting!! It has also showed me that I can overcome the difficult shots if I just keep working at them, even if I don’t manage them straight way- a little bit each day works wonders! I also received some positive external validation towards the end of the week, which was a nice feeling, as the only other person to have seen the film since the animatic stage (back in July last year) has been my boyfriend, so it’s nice to know it’s landing with other people, too. I understand that validation isn’t the be all and end all and if I’m happy with my film then that’s what matters, but it is nice when you do get some feedback in this way, when you’re essentially working in a bubble.

There may or may not be one of these next week as it’ll be a shorter working week for me, as I’ll be taking some time off to enjoy the bank holiday weekend: seeing my family, watching lots of football and getting a few skate sessions in too, of course! So if I do, it’ll be on Thursday, but if not, it’ll be the week after. I’ll see how I feel! Right, back to the backgrounds..!

Short Film: Update #26 colouring completed!

So this week, I hit another landmark: I finished the colouring for all the shots I currently have outlines for (around 80 or so)- how exciting is that?! I exported the film and watched it through in full yesterday morning and I am quite proud of it so far, I must say! The colour finished, combined with around three quarters of the backgrounds completed really makes it easier to see the film as a whole, alongside giving me motivation to push through these final stages of completion.

It’s easier to see the story coming through now- or at least to me! Hopefully it’ll translate for other people as well. The edit definitely needs a few tweaks here and there which I’ll do on Monday, but it really is shaping up quite nicely. I one hundred percent feel better about it than I did a few weeks/ months ago! I guess it just goes to show that you can’t really judge something when it’s only half/ quarter/ third complete. Which is easy to do as a creative, especially if you’re as self critical as I am! And when working on something for so long, it’s frustrating when you’re not seeing the results immediately. You sometimes go though long periods where it feels like you might be doing all this work for very little reward, in case it doesn’t end up turning out how you want/ imagined, because it’s not always easy to see. But this is testament to the whole ‘just keep going’ thing and if you push through, and put in the work, you’ll likely get where you want to be. Plus, it’s not finished until it’s finished, so there’s that as well!

I’m still not sure about when I might get the whole thing finished- I think my deadline of April 30th is definitely a bit optimistic at this point, especially if I don’t want to rush it, so I’m thinking more the end of May. Which I’ll be happy about, but we shall see! I actually still need to film a couple of shots which involve extras and animate/ colour those as well. And I haven’t even organised those shoots yet. So I need to start thinking of that this week too. This is (one of the reasons) why I need a producer! One of the parts I really dislike about the filmmaking process is sorting locations and actors, because it’s not something I feel especially comfortable doing. But I’ve just got to get on with it in the case of this film and maybe have a producer next time around- fingers crossed…

My plan next week is to sharpen the edit somewhat, alongside complete the backgrounds for the remaining shots and get to work on some of the scenes with extras. I’ll be extremely happy if I can get the backgrounds finished by this time next week, but I’m not going to put pressure on myself or rush them, so if they aren’t able to be done by then, then they aren’t able to be done by then! At the end of the day all these deadlines I’m putting on myself are arbitrary and don’t actually matter! Like I’ve said before on here, I’m not going to cause myself unnecessary stress over something that isn’t even real.

That’s it for this week, see you next time xo