I've been working on this for quite a while now, but here it finally is - my animatic.
Some sections will be going through revisions, as this is still early in the year but here are the first two acts of my film as it currently stands.
There is a third act completed and was part of the animatic but I decided to leave the final scene as the changes I'll be making will greatly affect the film's impact and meaning. Apparently it's good - but it's not what I want.
A struggle for an artist is a balancing act of creating for others versus creating for yourself.
Also I want a do-able film. This animatic's length is 6:42, and with the third act it ends up being 7:44.
The expected length of a student film at Emily Carr is 3 minutes. So this isn't good.
I'd be setting myself up to be doing more than twice the amount of work that is expected.
Of course, there is the argument that being ambitious will bring out good things and will show how passionate I am about the things I am pursuing... but there's other ways to show that.
Making more than double the length of a film is a disservice to me and my well-being.
Overall, I'm glad I was able to flesh this out. In writing the story there were a lot of things that I couldn't piece together or articulate - not until something was drawn out.
This speaks to the nature of my artistic practice in knowing that development requires both making and thinking.
Thinking vs Making
This is an important lesson for myself, artists in my year, for other visual artists, and for anyone who enters the arena of creating something.
Theoretical analysis is important... writing out your thoughts and creating a framework for your work to function in. Designing a story meant writing the plot, writing the main character, antagonist, conflict and dilemma that will happen. Components need to be tied together and make sense on a theoretical level as we make sense of what we are creating. Maybe we are capable of creating the entirety of a film from that process alone, but I am not. More and more, I am finding that others aren't either.
Artist block happens. We work, work, work, but reach a point where things are no longer being created. Thinking about wanting to do this or that, but not being able to because of that or this. We feel paralyzed and have worked our way into a corner. It has been frustrating seeing talented people go through this.
Not saying this is the solution, but what works for me and maybe others, is redirecting the thinking process and applying it in a different arena. Making. To simply make things.
This has to be uninvolved with the theoretical thinking process, as the two can disrupt each other. If there is too much thinking, an artist has to find a way to simply make things without intellectual consequence. That's how making can happen.
That's what I had to do to start making this animatic because there was plenty intellectual fodder to keep myself from opening up Photoshop and drawing these frame by frame - questions that were left unanswered in writing my story.
Advice I've been hearing from several teachers... sometimes you've gotta make, sometimes the answer will come through the visual. Sometimes the answer won't be squeezed out of your brain. If you've gotten here then there's a certain way you react to visuals... it is a habit you can develop by recognizing it and using it to fuel what you do.
This was a rant... but has played a big part in what these last few weeks (if not, years) have been like for me
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