I Wish I Was There- MORE Festival Announcements!!

This is all so new to me- I've never had so many!! And I have three in the same weekend- meaning I won't be able to attend all the screenings, unfortunately. A nice problem to have though and I'm super grateful and proud for the festival recognition it seems to be garnering of late... So without further ado, I'll get announcing!

I'll do it in the order in which they are being screened, to make things slightly less complicated. Oh and they're all BIFA qualifying festivals, which is like super cool, too. And it goes without saying, but all of the films its programmed alongside look absolutely amazing, so if ya don't like mine, you might like one of the other ones!

First up, is Worcester Film Festival- my hometown 'gig' if you like! Sadly, because of fixture clashes, I won't be able to attend the actual screening, but I WILL be in attendance for the majority of the festival which runs 22nd-26th September (I'll be heading back up north on the evening of the 25th). My film screens as part of Shorts Block 34, 10am, Saturday 26th September. Tickets to the screening are just £4 (purchase by clicking here), but you can also purchase day tickets and full festival passes from the website, as linked above. I also wrote a short ‘behind the scenes’ type thing for this one, which you can read here.

Then, on Saturday 26th September at 6pm, my film is playing at Mansfield Town Film Festival, a festival endorsed by no other than filmmaking legend Ken Loach! It’s screening in the Something Has To Give block, taking place in the Director’s Lounge. I’ll be hanging about the festival the full day on the Saturday, so come say hey! I attended the programme launch on Friday just gone and they’re a super friendly and down to earth bunch, so looking forward to heading here. Tickets are an affordable £5 and you get can those here, but like with Worcester, you can buy day and full festival passes, too.

And then on Sunday 27th September (see, I said this was busy!) it is screening at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival, taking place at The Light cinema in my current base of Sheffield! My previous film won an award at this one back in 2023, so it’s lovely that they’re having me back for more. I’m also super hyped that this is showing at The Light- the screens are enormous, so can’t wait to see how it’s going to look in such a venue! It is showing as part of the Northern Spirit shorts, which is at 12.50pm and you can get tickets for a reasonably priced £6 here. And like with the others, you can purchase full day/ festival passes.

And lastly (for now*) is that my film made the honours list for the Women X Film Festival up in Darlington, which runs 17th-20th September. My film is NOT screening at this festival, but it was an ‘almost made it’ hence the honours list. I may or may not be in attendance at this one, I’ve not yet decided- but it may be one too many, due to all the other screenings in the two weeks following this one, but we shall see…

*there’s another big one to be announced, but I don’t know which day my film is screening yet, so I’ll not post that until I have the full details or I’ll only have to create another post, essentially doing an awkward double announcement!

Ok, I think that’s everything. I love films and I love film festivals!! Can’t wait for all these- see you in the cinema xo

On a Panel- photos!!

Just sharing a few images taken last weekend at the excellent We Crip Film Festival which took place at BFI Southbank. The festival was so lovely to be part of, met some great people and watched some amazing films- would highly recommend checking this festival out next year!

Photos taken by Jess Sansom @jessicasansom_stills 

panel left to right: Sarah Meeks (BSL interpreter), Charlie Little, Tara Brown, me(!), Simon Panrucker, Emma Malins, Klarissa Webster

Also, keep your eyes peeled here for some incoming festival announcements- these are also very exciting!! xo

I Wish I Was There- Super Exciting Announcement!!

Whenever I get a film festival acceptance email, they are of course, equally exciting because it's never guaranteed, and more often than not it's a 'thank you for submitting your film, though unfortunately, we are not able to include it in our program this year' response. And I am loathe to single this one out as something extra special, as all festivals/ screening nights have their merits- I have attended all 7 out of the 7 for I Wish I Was There thus far and they honestly have all been absolutely amazing experiences. But, as a film nerd and someone who feels they haven't quite ‘cracked the industry’/ gives strong outsider vibes(!) and have sort of done things my own way, to have my film playing at BFI Southbank is, I'm sure you will agree, some extremely exciting news!

It’s playing as part of the important We Crip Film Festival, which highlights and platforms disability screen stories and talent. The line up looks amazing- so I’m extremely honoured to be part of such a vital festival. You can find out more about the festival as a whole HERE and you can find out more about the specific film screening my short is included in HERE. You can purchase tickets through both those links, too. I will also be taking part in the Q+A, alongside several of the other filmmakers. I can’t wait for this one, see you there xo

I Wish I Was There- June Screenings

Just a quick one to let you know about a couple of upcoming screenings for I Wish I Was There…

First up, it’s screening on Saturday 20th June, 12.30-3pm at The Ferret in Preston, as part of the North West Independent Film Festival. I’m super pleased it was selected for this one as it’s where I lived prior to moving to Sheffield and where filmmaking all got started for me. So it’ll be one of those nice ‘full circle’ sort of moments. Tickets are just £6 and you can get those here.

And not even a week later, it’s showing as part of Milk Teeth’s North x North Northeast short film night at 6pm on Thursday 25th June, at the iconic Hyde Park Picture House up in Leeds. Should be a fun one, plus excited that my film is going to be screened in this venue! Tickets are pay what you can and you can get those here.

I will be in attendance at both, so come say hey if you’re around!

Right, I’m off to Sheffield DocFest, where I’ll be gorging myself on films and only films over the next five days xo

I Wish I Was There bts #3

This will be the last clip in this mini ‘making of’ series for my short film, or at least for now. This is one I actually shot back in my hometown of Worcester, where I was able to source a community centre for some of the wider/ full length/ longer shots, which I didn’t have the space to film round my house:

Thanks to my mum for sorting the location out in this instance! Luckily the community centre had a corridor next to the main room, which was perfect for this shot. I could have shot it in the main hall, but because shooting in an actual corridor would provide for a better reference when it came to drawing the background, I opted to shoot it there.

…so I went with that. The background took a fair amount of work for this one, so I’ll add in a few pics of the process it went through. The first version was quite faithful to the actual corridor:

Oh yeah, and if you’re not familiar with my way of working, I tend to do all my backgrounds with whacky colours when I’m creating the mattes in Photoshop. This is so each panel is clear and so I know what’s what for when I finish them off in TVPaint. And also so that the colours aren’t too similar to final colour palette, or I’ll be lost when I’m designing it.

Despite being very similar to the corridor I filmed in, the background just did not look right. It irked me for the longest time, before deciding it needed some tough love and re-doing altogether. So I went back to drawing board and sketched out a version I much preferred:

And here’s what it looked like in ‘neat’, before finalising it:

And the final background image:

I’m so pleased I went through this process and didn’t settle for something I wasn’t happy with and that didn’t look very good. The finished background is one I’m actually pretty proud of, because perspective shots like this are not easy! Or at least not for me anyway… And I love the aesthetic of it.

It’s actually been quite fun revisiting these shots from my film and digging out a few behind the scenes bits to show on here. It’s also been quite inspiring for me- I’ve not animated now for almost a full year and coming back to this project has really got that side of my brain excited again. I am still keeping very creative- I’ve been doing a lot more ‘art’ in the more traditional sense of late (I’ll likely stick some of that in here at some point), plus working on a really cool crochet garment I’m pretty hyped about, but there’s nowt like just sitting and animating is there?!

In terms of animation, I have though been busy working on my feature treatment/ pitch deck these last few months, as I expect I’ve already alluded to several times in this blog, though unfortunately that is on hold for the time being due to personal circumstances. So once I’m ready to get to work on that again, I’m sure test shots/ storyboarding images will come flooding out of me. That’s kind of a weird way of putting it, but whatevs!

And lastly, I have 2 BIG screening announcements to make regarding my film, so as soon as the embargo has been lifted on those, you will be first to hear!! Exciting times ahead… xo

ps. apologies if the grammar etc is all over the place in this one. I'm tired af because slept terribly last night, but wanted to get this post out today regardless

I Wish I Was There bts #2

Here’s the second clip in the ‘making of’ videos I’m posting this month:

So, yep, this blank wall in my bedroom did indeed become an airport departures lounge! I wrote about it in more detail in this post so I won’t repeat myself here, but this one went through a fair amount of iterations in terms of the location (train first, then a taxi), before settling on the airport setting.

I don’t have a load more behind the scenes goodies from this shot unfortunately in terms of extra imagery such as sketches or anything, but I found this mockup reference I created for the background:

…As well as this screen grab from the animatic:

Which was still using the original train setting- though I get that you can’t really tell from this shot, as there’s not much going on outside of the character! But suppose it’s nice to show anyway. I love seeing the progress of the storyboard/ initial sketches through to the finished piece, so I’m guessing I won’t be the only person who enjoys seeing that side of things... xo

I Wish I Was There bts #1

Morning! As it’s been over 7 months since finishing my short ‘I Wish I Was There’, I thought it was high time that I shared some behind the scenes footage- don’t ya think? I’ll be rolling 3 clips out over the next 3 weeks, so keep an eye out on here for those.

Besides writing about screening selections etc, I’ve not really put much on here about my film since it was finished, but over half a year on, it’s nice to revisit it a little and show some of the workings behind the final piece. Maybe these extra clips might even tempt you to go check it out at an upcoming screening if you haven’t already done so. Who knows…

There’s also a lot more of a detailed deep dive into the ‘making of’, on my weekly updates I did on here throughout the whole process of creating the film. You can see those if you click HERE (scroll past all the screening selection stuff and then you’ll get to all the relevant juicy bits). Also, if you’re lost at any point, I wrote a dedicated post about rotoscoping 7 years ago, which you can see HERE, where I explain what it is and how I use it etc. Granted some of the links might not work anymore because I’ve changed IG handles and that, but the essence of the write up still stands. Maybe I should get round to changing those links.

I filmed a lot of the reference material of the film around my house and this first BTS clip illustrates that. So yes, I was lay on a sun lounger in my front room, dressed in a hospital gown, surrounded by skateboards in the depths of December 2024!

The process is basically outlines first, which I drew by hand frame by frame (side note: I DO NOT use AI in my work, just to clear that up. Generative AI can get to f*ck), using the reference material as a guide:

Then colour:

Lastly, I draw in the background. This one went through a few stages before settling on the final idea. As it was a dream sequence, I eventually decided I wanted a sort of surreal/ impressionistic background, harking back to the holiday setting the film is in, as opposed to the more literal representations of a hospital I had for the first few iterations of this scene. The first image below is the one I ended up discarding.

Hope this has been an interesting little look into my process. See you in the next one xo

I Wish I Was There- another screening announcement!

Hello! It has almost been a month hasn't it?! My bad, but I have been busy working on my feature film pitch deck, as well as a new crochet garment, a lot of football, skateboarding (spring weather I love you, please keep this up) and a new (well, revisited) venture into clothes making- watch this space! So, I am working on things, but nothing yet finished enough to share on here thus far...

But, I am excited to announce another screening for I Wish I Was There, this time in Manchester! It is a curated film night hosted by Obscure Film, with a focus on disabilities, chronic illnesses and neurodiversity. And yes, mental health issues are a valid disability. It will take place at Cultplex (a super cool little indie cinema) on Friday 17th April, 6pm. Find out more and get your tickets here! Programme looks absolutely fantastic!

And I know it sounds like I'm having a fair few successes with my film in terms of screenings, but I'm not writing about any of the rejections I've garnered so far (which have outweighed the number of screenings/ selections). The rejection side of it doesn't really get any easier and you sort of become accustomed to it, yet for some reason it doesn't stop me from hoping. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing I guess. Anyway, shan't dwell on this for too long... xo

I Wish I Was There- more screening announcements!

Super pleased to announce another couple of screenings for 'I Wish I Was There'. I'll do them in order of appearance(!), so firstly, on Saturday 14th of March (2pm), it will be playing at Chester Animation Festival. The screening is part of the wider event that is Chester International Film Festival, which all takes place at Storyhouse Cinema, Chester. I am stoked to be part of it! You can see the full line up (I'm in good company) and buy your tickets (at the ridiculously good value price of £3!) by clicking HERE!

And then later in March (Weds 25th), it will be playing as part of Screener Short Film Night, in that there London! It will be at 93 Feet East (150 Brick Ln, London E1 6QL) doors open 6:30pm and there's no need for tickets- just turn up ready to enjoy a great selection of short films!

I'll be in attendance at both of them- be lovely to see some familiar faces. Really looking forward to the events and checking out different cinemas/ community screenings around the country and seeing some amazing short films.

Despite all this positive news, I have had a fair amount of rejections: I've had 5 'no's' and 4 'yes's' up to now. Probably right messed up my apostrophes there, but whateves, it's my blog, I'll do what I want! But, I will do a longer post about that I expect, perhaps when it comes round to putting my film on line or something. Anyway, we shall see. Just thought I'd quickly add this note at the end for balance and so no one thinks it's all going swimmingly for my film! xo

I Wish I Was There- screening!

Super excited to announce another outing of 'I Wish I Was There'! It's going to be playing as part of the Kelham Film Club short film festival. The festival is a FREE two day event over 10th and 11th Jan 2026, showcasing a load of local talent. Held at Alder Bar, Sheffield. My film will be playing on Sat 10th, with the event starting at 6pm. Get your free tickets HERE! Love to see you there!

Crochet Cricket Ball

Pretty much the title! Also, hello! It’s been a while. Okay, maybe not- the last post was only nine days ago, but it feels like forever for some reason. I think it’s because I’ve been super busy with a lot of stuff, so feels like more time has elapsed than it actually has. Unfortunately, a fair amount of it are things that I can’t yet post about on here. But soon though, so keep your eyes out!

Before I continue, I should say that the first screening of my film went down really, really well last week at Showroom Shorts. To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed with the response it received. In a good way. Hopefully that’s a good early sign of things to come for the festival submissions, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. Though secretly (shhh, just between us) I am, because it’s hard not to. Especially when you want something so bad. But whatever, what happens, happens. I’ll keep you updated on here for any future screenings… Here’s me chatting about my film on the night. Photo credit Ben <3

Also, while on festival talk, I was at Manchester Animation Festival the week prior and I honestly had the best time! Seriously enjoyed it all: the films, catching up with a load of lovely people, meeting cool new people and taking part for my first time ever in the infamous Skwigly quiz! Same time next year, then! Thanks to all the staff and volunteers for making it such a good one this year, I really think it was my favourite MAF I’ve attended! Few photos below, where I was candidly captured at various events. The first, me looking like a total nerd watching an immersive VR film and the second one, at the quiz, for balance! Photo credit: Chris Payne.

Now am I going to chat about the crochet ball this post is meant to be about? Nope. No I am not. Just need to put it out there that yesterday I LANDED MY FIRST EVER KICKFLIP!! How about that, eh?! I got heelflips three weeks ago and now these. Love it.

Right, okay dokie time for crochet! All this build up for not much:

It was basically an exercise in using chenille yarn, because I’ve never used it before and really wanted to try it out, with the aim of creating more amigurumi plushies. It’s such a soft yarn, but wow, the stitches are hard to see. They get lost within the fibres so easy, so it’s not the fastest and it’s easy to lose where you are in the pattern, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it if I use it more often. The next task I’ve lined up for myself is to create said amigurumi out of it, to see how that works out. But, that might not be for a while yet- the amount of ideas I have for crochet is honestly quite ridiculous! It’s one of those things where you just keep having ideas of stuff you want to make and the list just gets longer and longer and the ideas don’t stop! I don’t think I’ll ever have the time to do them all, but wow, I am going to try!

I also found out that I’ve been crocheting amigurumi inside out. But luckily I found this out fairly soon after having started it, rather than several months or even years later! No wonder my work didn’t look quite like how they’re intended. This ball was the correct way, but the previous two I made way back when, were wrong. And this one looks so much better. I did under stuff it slightly, but it’s super soft and squishy, so makes for a quite nice stress ball in fact! It’s a nice distraction on my desk.

This one was never meant to be a cricket ball as such, I was just playing around with adding stripes while working in the round, but when I had finished it, it was definitely giving cricket ball vibes! Subconsciously thinking about cricket, I guess…

I Wish I Was There- first screening!!

Excited to announce that 'I Wish I Was There' has its first public outing on Tuesday 18th November, at Showroom Shorts, at (you've guessed it) the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield! The night starts at 8.30pm (until late) and it's always a good time. This is the 14th birthday of the event as well, so alongside the quality films being shown, there's going to be an even bigger raffle than usual, plus cake(!) and more birthday shenanigans I should expect! It's also FREE entry! Bring your friends, bring your enemies, it's going to be a good 'un xo

Short Film: completed it!

My film ‘I Wish I Was There’ is done. Yes, 100% completed. What a journey, 17 months of hard work, including 781 hours of animating (not counting creating the animatic, scripting, filming, editing and so on which all took a lot of time). Here’s the teaser:

Synopsis: Whilst relaxing abroad on a solo holiday, a woman receives a series of phone calls from the hospital. She decides to ignore these in effect to enjoy her vacation, but her imagination gets the better of her. An unpleasant time ensues, with the growing realisation that she needs to confront her fears.

It’s been a while since posting anything about my film, but I was still quietly working away on it in the background. It just felt a bit silly updating every week, when there wasn’t a lot of big new news on it etc!

I completed the film Friday 19th September, but for some reason it’s taken me forever to get this post out. I often feel strange on completing a big project such as this- kind of a weird sort of empty/ sadness feeling. So trying to come up with something to write about on here regarding the completion of the film hasn’t been the easiest things to do. I think experiencing this feeling on completing projects is quite common within the world of creativity (a lot of creatives speak about this) and it’s a feeling I’ve experienced many times before and have written about in here previously, so I won’t dwell on it too much. I know I’ve just got to ride it out and distract myself with other things (skating, crochet, football etc) until it passes. But still, it makes it hard to appreciate what I’ve accomplished. Which is a lot.

I’ve animated a film from start to finish all by myself with no external funding or pressures. Which is a big deal. It’s hard to finish projects, especially big ones like this which have a lot of challenges. But I did it! I pushed through the difficult parts, found solutions to the problems and came through the other side.

Whether it does well in the realm of festivals or not, it is a piece I’m extremely proud of in terms of both look and feel. It’s a step up in that regard from my previous short, and the story is a lot tighter and more refined. It’s also a film that shows the kind of work I want to continue to produce as a director: thematically and stylistically. Yes, it’s not perfect, but to have been able to produce what I have done without a budget shouldn’t be ignored.

Despite it being largely a solo effort, I’m not going to gloss over the help I received in various ways throughout, such as trusted friends giving me feedback at different stages, family for helping out with locations and friends for technical tips. And, my wonderful partner Ben, who kindly supported and encouraged me throughout the whole process, listening to my turmoil at times when the project wasn’t going so well and giving me honest feedback on various story aspects. As well as assisting as camera operator for a lot of the live action rotoscope reference shoots. Thank you <3

I also have my voice cast: Nathalie Codsi, David Holt, Marta Madrid Manrique to applaud for breathing life into the characters, as well as Tom Parker, Lucia Pires-Reeves, Najma Heybe, Ronny Calow and Charlie Lightning to thank, who played the amazingly creepy nurses:

And then, Barnaby Templer at Fonic, for providing me with the best sound design I could have ever asked for. I always felt it was the sound design (or lack thereof- I tried, don’t judge me!) that let my previous short down. So for this project, I was determined to not repeat that and instead have the sound design created by someone who knows exactly what they’re doing! I also didn’t want to include a score in this film, so the sound design was especially important, because that would be the thing that would be used to build tension and emotion.

This is the first film of mine I’ve worked properly with sound designers. I must admit going into it, I was a little nervous about how it might go and whether we’d be on the same page etc. I didn’t want to not give them any creative freedom, but at the same time, I didn’t want the film sounding not as I had imaged it. But, he did an honestly fantastic job with only minimal direction from myself. He picked up the themes and story and ‘got’ exactly the film I wanted to tell. I think this was because we had several long calls about the film before work was started on it, so could get to know the story I wanted to tell, plus who I am as a director and person. I’d say he pretty much took the film from around 70% to 100%. So Barnaby Templer (sound design and mix), Stephen Maxwell (foley recordist) and Andrea King (foley artist), I can’t thank you enough!

Right, have I done gushing about all the help I’ve received? I think so! So, what’s next? Is it going to be that feature I keep going on about that I want to make? Yes, yes it is.

Short film: clip!!

Not an official update post (sorry!) but I do have a new clip to share:

I cut this one from my film this morning. It just wasn't fitting well with the film unfortunately, so had to chop it. I say 'unfortunately' here, because I really like the aesthetics of it, especially the background. But, you can't (or shouldn't) keep a shot in, even if you enjoy how it looks, because the film will be weaker for it. Story over style, right?

I knew it had to be chopped a while back, but I was leaving it in to see if it would work, but it was there in the back of head for the whole time knowing it's got to go. Anyway, I feel I've pretty much reached a picture lock now (yay)- though I may have said that last time! The picture will be locked on the final export. Then I need to let it into the wild. A lot less tasks to complete now, exciting stuff! xo

Short Film: Update #37 almost there

The visuals for my film are now complete. See, I said this update would be a big one didn’t I?!

I am so proud of what I have achieved so far and so happy to have got my film to this point, after almost a year since starting the animation. It’s been quite the journey- though that will not be news to you if you’ve been following my updates over here!

It’s not finished yet- there are still several outstanding tasks on my to do list, but having got the film to this point is not a landmark to be ignored. I should take a few days to appreciate my achievements thus far (she says, simultaneously fine tuning the edit) and look back over the year and enjoy the fact that I have come out of the other side from the struggles that I’ve faced during the creation of this project. I do feel a little more relaxed, but as I’m quite aware of the fact it isn’t 100% complete, I don’t actually feel that much lighter, because I know there’s still a bit of a hill to climb.

To be honest though, I’m finding it pretty hard not to take my eye off the ball with it, because I’m so excited about all the other creative projects I’ve now got going on (embroidery, zine making [how have I only just discovered this amazing medium??], photography and more animation ideas/ feature film et al). I feel because I’ve been working almost singularly on my film since April 2024 (I’ve not really let myself work on anything other than the film), I’ve got a load of pent up creativity inside of me, and it feels like it’s all coming out now that I’ve kind of allowed it to, if that makes any sense?! Once the actual animation tasks were finished on this film, I’ve sort of gone full force into other bits and pieces, but that needs reigning in for the moment, or at least until I’ve completed my allotted tasks on this film. Which does still need to take priority if I want to hit my 22nd August deadline (which I do)!

Anyway, before I go on too much about all my big ideas, I’ve not yet said anything about the impending extras shoot I was been alluding to in these updates for some time, which was giving me a fair amount of stress. If you haven’t gathered from here, I honestly dislike the ‘producing’ side to filmmaking, such as arranging things like locations/ actors/ casting etc. I have always found it stressful and anxiety inducing, which was why I found myself gravitating towards the post production side of things, then towards animation. So to need to book a location, plus five other people to act as medical staff, alongside purchasing costumes, became somewhat of a challenge for me personally.

But, combining asking people I know (some actors, some filmmakers and some skaters) and a public call out (in which I only got one response- shout out to Najma who became one of the cast!), I secured all five. Who all showed up at the required location, on the required day and at the required time! I think I’ve been haunted by my student days of actors pulling out at short notice, which is likely why arranging this kind of thing is no good for my nerves. But, the shoot went super smoothly and was done in under an hour (without needing to rush anything) and I was extremely happy with the footage. I’ll stick a few pictures down below: the first is me alongside my cast (still in costume) celebrating the end of the shoot. Thanks to Ben for the photo (and also for helping me immensely on the day).

And, below is a grab from the final animation of it:

I also filmed and animated a couple of hand acting shots, both of which I feel strengthened the story a little more. I had delayed the filming of them for the longest time, because they didn’t feel especially important, plus felt like I could animate them really quick (and I did) once they were filmed. Honestly, I just wanted the medical staff shot out the way first (including the animation) before I started work on these. But having done them, I think they add a lot to the film: one being a more creative addition, whereas the other an enhancement of the narrative. Screen grabs below of the latter (off and on)!

I’m now in the process of casting for the third and final voice actor, alongside final tweaks on the edit, as well as about to embark on frame checks for the full film. I think I’ll do three rounds of that- you never know what you might find when going over everything at a painstaking rate! There will likely be another fairly big gap between this update and the next update, because in truth, it won’t make for an especially thrilling read! But hopefully that will be the one when I declare the film complete, and I’ll have a trailer to share. We shall see…

Before I go- amazing stuff from the Lionesses once again, retaining their European Championship crown! So many legends in that team, super inspirational. Hopefully they will leave a lasting legacy (and quite rightly), as well as a well needed injection into the women’s side of the game in this country (and Wales- they too made history in this tournament). There’s so much more I could talk about on this topic, but I appreciate you are here to read my animation musings and I should probably get back to the edit anyway! But first- f*ck the misogynists and the racists: there is no place for you in this game.

Peace and love xo

Short Film: Update #36 winding down

Hello hello! Being as this week I finished off pretty much all the visuals, I think I’ll put a pause on these weekly updates. Just feels that there won’t really be that much to write about and might pose a risk of ending up sounding all quite same-y. So from now on, I’ll write these as and when I see fit, rather than a fixed weekly update.

Apologies if you’re an avid reader here, but I don’t want to bore you: I probably do that enough as it is! And it’s not like I don’t have a load of other stuff to write about on here anyway. Being as the work on my film is significantly slowing, it actually gives me space to focus on my other creative ventures, so yes, you’ll hear less about my film, but more about my other stuff. Which for me is very exciting! I genuinely love and get such a thrill out of creating things and I have a load of fun project ideas to get to work on, so watch this space!

Anyway, rambling away as usual, so back to my film: I did another decent re-edit during the week and I really feel like it works as a solid story now. It was quite difficult to get the first couple of minutes down- and to balance the pace/ dramatic elements, but I think I finally figured it out (with the help of my boyfriend who gave me some very honest feedback about what was working or not). Editing is so hard to do alone sometimes (especially at the latter stages of a project) and is very useful to have someone to bounce ideas off and also keep you grounded.

I also had one of the voice recordings back from one of my voice actors, which was great. It was only one line, but it has already made an improvement to my film and makes it feel like it’s all coming together nicely. So thank you David Holt!

And lastly, on Friday I managed to get a load of other (film related) stuff done! These tasks were only down as ‘maybe’s’ on my to do list for this project, but I had a wave of enthusiasm/ inspiration/ whatever come over me enabling me to complete four leftover little tasks. I just went for it! And it made me feel so good and positive about the project. Plus it wasn’t like they were really easy things either- one was an After Effects shot and they were all a bit of a faff to be honest. So yeah, I’m mega happy about that, especially as I wasn’t sure if I was even going to bother doing them at all. But they’ve made such a difference to my film. It’s the little details like these. Picture of the Premiere timeline below, because I don’t have much else to illustrate this blog with today!!

Bet you’re all wondering how my skate progress is going as well, aren’t you?! Oh go on then. I Ollied my first stair set the other day- it was only a very small two stair, but it was a nice trick to have got done, because I’ve been trying for the longest time to get the commitment to land it. I’ve had the ability to do it for quite some time, but not the self belief/ confidence to stick the landing. I think if I believed more and had more confidence I’d progress at a much better rate. I need to stop telling myself I’m bad at things because I end up believing it. Same with animation/ creative stuff or life in general. There are so many skills in skateboarding that are transferable to real life… xo

Short Film: Update #35 a clip again- at last!

This one is a pretty short one this week, as there’s not all that much to report: I’ve predominantly been working on one shot. It was a shot full of extras walking across an airport walkway, essentially an establishing shot/ scene building shot towards the end of the film. I finished it yesterday and I really like how it turned out:

Ooh look, a moving picture! I appreciate I’ve hardly shared anything moving from this film and especially not recently, because to be honest I’ve not really had the time or headspace to stop and think about what to export out to share. But things are wrapping up on the visual side of things at the moment and this shot doesn’t exactly give any story away, so thought it would be nice to put something out there. Enjoy!

There were six characters in total, plus the background to create. Hopefully I’ve got all the times correct on the clocks! If not, some kind person please let me know before I export the final animation!! I also did the shadows for the characters, which I thought added a nice touch (and some depth to the shot).

Besides this, I’ve not done a lot else in terms of creativity this week- the other bits I’ve been doing have been more admin-y type things again. Stuff I’m not going to bore you with on here! Plus, the previous shot took 34 hours in total. So it wasn’t like I had loadsss of extra time anyway. Ok, think that’s enough now- see I said it would be a short one! See you in the next one on here, unless I see you in real life at Sheffield Doc Fest this weekend! xo

Short Film: Update #34 back on it

Hello! How are you? It’s now June, so happy summer!! You may have guessed, but I was on holiday last week hence no post. Down in sunny south Wales, via Worcester.

Also got some decent skate clips in the interim- improving on my boardslides and landed my first Varial Kickflip on a flatbank. Definitely going to start filming myself more, as I think it’s imperative for progression, as you can easily see what you’re doing wrong/ how your form is. Basically looking at my tricks from an outside perspective. It also makes stuff less scary, as it takes you out of your head, too. Couple of pics down below:

But, me talking about my jolly’s is likely not the reason you’re reading this- am I right? It’s that all important film progress you’re after. I think. Though I can (and will) happily chat skateboarding all day if given the go ahead…

So how is my film going? Since returning from my week off, I’ve come back full force on this project. I finished a few more things off my to do list, plus did a load of admin-y type bits, such as booking the location to film the shot with the extras and writing up my sound design notes. I also did a slight restructure of the edit, which improved the pacing/ tightness. Sometimes it’s hard to cut the stuff you’ve spent a lot of time animating, but if it’s no longer right for the film, then it needs to go. I can always post the unused clips on my socials and on here, so it’s not like they’ll go to waste as they’ll still get seen if I want them to be. Down below is a grab from one of these outtakes. It is technically still being used in the film, but this was a duplicate shot earlier on in the narrative, but ended up cutting as it wasn’t necessary to have it in twice.

I also started animating one of the three big remaining shots, plus created some clouds for one of the scenes in After Effects from this tutorial. I must say it’s been really nice to be doing some more rotoscoping again, as it’s been a while. It is something I find extremely relaxing and rewarding, plus also means I get to catch up on all my podcasts and music I’ve been wanting to listen to, because when I’m doing the editing or anything like that, I much prefer to work in silence with little distraction.

The film is feeling the most complete it has done at this point and I’m so pleased with how it is turning out, in both narrative and style. The end finally feels like it’s in sight and that is mega exciting! All the hard work I’ve put in definitely is paying off. Right, that’s it from me, time to do some more animation! Oh, by the way almost forgot: I’m hanging out at Sheffield Doc Fest next week, so if you see me, come say hello!

Short Film: Update #33 picking back up

The first half of this week didn’t go especially well, if I’m being totally honest. The (brand new) SSD I purchased over the weekend (see last weeks post) ended up being faulty, so I had to take that back. Then I had to wait a few days for a new one. So, yeah, that was fun. Resulting in a bit of a delay in being able to crack on with my project.

But, I was able to do a little work while I was waiting, as I copied a few assets over from my backup drive to my Mac, enabling me to do some stuff, albeit in a slightly preoccupied manner. I picked a couple of things which were more ‘low key’/ parts that didn’t need the full Premiere project or anything like that. Meaning I was able to drop them in the project once that was all back up and running again.

One was this re-do of the ‘drink shot’, which will become a photograph the protagonist takes in the film. The old version is first, followed by the re-do:

As the first version took a while to create, I kind of convinced myself that I liked it or that it was good enough to stay in the project. But the more I watched the film through, I knew that my instinct was correct and that I’d need to re-do it. The second version, in my opinion, is much better and deserving of a place in the film. I’m not even sure what the first one is trying to be, to be honest! But anyway, I guess I don’t need to think about that one anymore!

And since the enforced break because of, well, the (hard drive) break, I have been very, very productive. I blazed through a load of my to do list, which included fixing some things that had been playing on my mind for quite a while. For some reason (probably because of having a bit of time off the project), a few trickier bits seemed to just come easier. Not that I’m complaining, mind. Meaning the visuals really are, nearly almost done! I think the fact that the new SSD is a lot faster than my poor old HDD, is making my time editing my project a whole lot smoother, because it’s actually running as it should in Premiere. This is even with several layers of PNG sequences all stacked on top of each other. Whereas when playing through on my previous drive, it would skip/ stall as it just couldn’t keep up, making editing extremely frustrating (and difficult). So maybe the fact that the hard drive broke was actually a good thing. And I’m not just trying to be positive for the sake of it either!

Despite wanting to share a few more of the bits I finished this week as I’m kind of excited about (and proud of) them (especially one shot), I haven’t decided if they’re parts I want to publish prior to finishing the film. I think it’s best not to give everything away beforehand, at least not publicly anyway. Maybe in the trailer, when that’s ready, but we shall see… I held back parts of my previous short, and I think that was the correct decision, so apologies for the teaser but I guess you’ll just have to wait! So on that note, I’ll leave this one at that. There won’t be one of these next week, so see you in two! xo

Short Film: Update #32 breaking things

This week has definitely had its ups and downs. The major ‘up’ I experienced was finishing off the backgrounds- well first pass anyway, I still have a few tweaks to do on some of them. But, that is very exciting news and a great position for my project to be in. It didn’t actually sink it straight away: I was mainly just pleased for having finished off background for shot 016, which was giving me a bit of trouble. Then later in the day after I had stopped working, I realised that 016 was the last one! Which was a nice thing to have realised, but I can’t feel too happy about it just yet, because there’s still a fair few tweaks to do like I said above. And I do have three shots left to animate (one of which I haven’t even filmed), so it’s not all fun and games just yet. There’s still plenty of work to do. And some of it a little daunting.

So that’s the ‘ups’ out the way, we’ll move on to the ‘downs’: the first one being a render issue I’m experiencing in Blender. Cue crying. I do have one or two contacts who maybe able to help, but if they can’t fix it, then I’m going to have to screen shot the video frame by frame and then rotoscope it in TVPaint. Something that I’m not wildly looking forward to doing, but it’s a last resort solution if I’m unable to get the breakthrough I need to get it to work. I experienced this at the beginning of the week, so it went from my euphoria of creating the shot in Blender (which I was quite proud of as 3D isn’t my thing), to then quite quickly the opposite end of the emotional spectrum when I came across the aforementioned issue. Anyway, to be continued…

And finally, the big one: my hard drive decided to break on me yesterday.

More crying. I do keep a backup drive which is pretty much a duplicate of the one which has given up, so I’m not in a panic about it as I have copies of everything. But I’m more frustrated, because 1) these drives haven’t exactly lasted very long and 2) it’s a hassle/ expense/ time sap I can’t really be bothered with right now. But anyway, the new one is on the way and hopefully I can collect it tomorrow or latest Tuesday and get back to working on my film as soon as possible. I’ve decided to go for an SSD this time, and still use the HDD I was using as a backup still as a backup, until that inevitably breaks as well. Then decide how best to store/ backup my work. Anyway, I realise these last few sentences are probably pretty boring! Right, see you in the next one and hopefully things are going a bit better by this time next week! xo