Wednesday 24 October 2007

The past weeks and a bit!

Hey!

Firstly...

A detailed weekly production schedule for this term was produced by me and giles. Then together we went forward in creating a weekly schedule for the whole film production. This was given to my team in the next meeting.

After reading the story breakdown first draft, i made notes on the areas that i thought needed changing, then presented these ideas to the group for disscussion. Most of the changes were supported, and i considered their ideas/views too and then changed the scenes/shots accordingly. Some of the additions/changes included: the bridge shot leading to the temple was taken out of scene one, the idea of seeing the whole outside of the temple was scrapped, the first explorer now comes back near the end of the film for comedy aspect (hit by another trap before trying to stop second explorer). The very start of the tansformation/artefact magic is now seen before the shot of the shocked animals in scene five. The explorer that is turned into an animal is seen tugging the artefact out of the temple entrance after the ending credits.

The group suggested the idea to take down the character count, after reviewing the production schedule i thought it would be wise to do so; as the size of the project was already big enough, this would make modelling and animation easier, by having more time to focus on the other characters actions and timing. Hopefully producing a more professiobal result. It also meant that the story flowed alittle nicer, especially when the motives of the animal charcters have changed; they are now watching over the artefact, and protect it by operating the deadly traps below.

The second draft of the story was completed by me, rob and giles. The story is getting stronger, but i think that its getting longer! Going to organise a meeting with Dan our lecturer to review our story, to rip it apart a bit and give us feedback.

While working on the screen writing section, I have also undertaken an environmental concept artist role and organised the part-time concept artists, most of them produced nice work, though some didnt meet the deadlines that i set, which put me back behind schedule slightly. This meant that i couldnt assess the character designs all together and make decisions for development go-aheads.

My main character concept artists were working on their initail sketches at the time. The next main meeting came and the amount and level of work produced worried me alot. Some of the team seemed deflated and unethusiastic, it was hard because i didnt want them to think that i was pressuring them for work or being harsh, but if this film is to reach the professional standard i want and generally keep up with the schedule i needed to take real control of my project; and so set deadlines, gave each member of the group detailed information on what work is expected and when it has to be done for. After talking with the group as a whole, asking if their were any problems and informing individual artists that their work areas needed to be changed, styles/ideas developed and the amount they produce to increase, i felt alot less panicy about the amount of work we have to undertake.

The following meeting was excellant! The work, styles and ideas produced reassured me that we can get this film made! The character concept art from Ben was great, with possibley three of the four characters ready to be developed for production. The group really liked my environmental concept art! Im going to continue to develop and design the inside of the temple.

After hours of discussion and sketching the rough temple map was produced by me, rob and giles. At this point in the project i feel we are still slightly behind, i have informed the team that we are to carry on concept art and story development and start thumbnailing the storyboard on monday. We have a formative on tuesday!

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