The first person I pitched to outside of class was a grad student at Harding School of Theology named Jake Stalvey. I pitched with him for overall concept and thematic concerns. He brought a much needed fresh pair of eyes to my story. He mostly critiqued the idea of Nerine letting go of her lighthouse in the story. He felt (and rightly so) that the impact of her turning off the light in the confrontation with the fish wasn't there. I decided to work it in the story now that she always turns on her lighthouse every night even though the modern lighthouse across the bay is always on too. Nerine's lighthouse's beam of light isn't as strong and doesn't travel as far enough proving that it serves no real purpose outside of her own. By Nerine turning this off at the end it shows more tension and greater sacrifice on her part.
The second person I pitched to was Meredith Root. I went to her for technical/visual concerns but she also helped with adding a little more context to my story as well. Some of the minor things were like making the historic lighthouse's light clearly inefficient compared to the modern one and at the beginning of the story having Nerine receive an eviction notice from her home due to it being dangerous to give more tension to her staying. Also with the eviction notice there could be some sympathy cards for the loss of her parents to immediately give background context to prior events off-screen. Her biggest concern was what visual format I was going to use. For the longest time I've been leaning towards a "cleaner," and fluid type of animation with the individual actions done in Toonboom and then the pieces mostly composited in After Effects. It was a sort of pegged character/ traditionally animated hybrid. Meredith brought up that some of my better work has been utilizing puppetry or puppet-like animations. She felt that having more of an intitional, stilted look to my piece would help with making it seem more "handmade." I was thinking of drawing up characters by hand and then scanning them in and animating and coloring digitailly so that they appear more "puppet" like. This is of course taking my visuals in a very different direction.
New Inspiration:
"Looks That Kill" by Yuki 7
This is a James Bond parody done mostly in After Effects with little handdrawn elements. I really look to the overall character pegging and how that benefits and plays into their sort of limited movements. Even though the characters are very clean (vector) in their overall design they still have a handdrawn, illustrative quality to them that I'm interested in trying to replicate.
Alice: Madness Returns - Intro Trailer
This is the opening trailer for the recently released video game, Alice: Madness Returns. While I don't intend to depict things as gory and macabre as this game does I do like puppetry aspects and again the overall handdrawn feeling to all of the animated characters. I would want my characters to move around a little more than how limited these characters are, mostly allowed to only swing their heads and arms.
II. Job and Demo Reel Research
When looking into jobs I mostly looked into internships mostly because I haven't done one yet and imagine those are one of the best ways to working towards a future job in the animation field in particular parts of production.
http://www.obsidianent.com/jobs/art/jobs-intern-2denvironment-20110629.html
Obsidian Entertainment is looking for an intern to help work on 2-D backgrounds and props. They want the intern to work with senior artists to help create designs from sketches to final illustrations. They require good knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator. While they are looking for a 2D artist it is seen to grasp a good knowledge of 3D environment art. They also obviuosly require a good understanding of architecture, perspective, and color. You'll work in a pipeline environment with being able to come up with creative solutions to problems. Its also a plus if you've worked in webite design, 3D programs, After Effects, and experience with creating teaxtures. They want a web portfolio the demonstrates examples of 2D background work.
http://www.mandy.com/1/jobs3.cfm?v=42359797&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed
Mariposa Pictures (based in LA) is looking for an clean-up artist and colorist to help with a live-action short blended with traditional 2D animation. You'll be ultimately responsible for helping create 12 minutes of animation with the studio. They preferably want someone using vector work with Illustrator and Toon Boom. Mostly your job will be to make the sketches and rough designs into the clean overall asethtic standard, coloring using a provided color palette, and keeping all the files organized on a hard drive.
https://careers.timewarner.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_jobdetail.asp?jobId=585576&PartnerId=391&SiteId=36
Time Warner, Inc. (Burbank, CA) is looking for interns in many different job titles. This one is specifically in the Action Adventure Development section. They're minimum wage and last 12 weeks at a time which would be difficult to transplant yourself for 3 months. The program is designed to teach interns about development processes in both live-action and animation projects. They want to focus on writing and analytical abilities because most of the program consists of working with the intern supervisor and see a project go from pitch to script to screen. Special projects will be assigned according to the project at hand.
Demo Reel Research
This is a graphics motion reel by Diana Paez. I personally was attracted to this one because all the use of pegged characters and animation. Her opening and closing bumper titles were nice bookends that draw the viewer in and help give an overall theme in her work. There are some pieces that I feel aren't as successful in execution or drag on for too long such as the scene with the women unclogging the toilet (00:22) and the growing flowers (00:57).
This is a character animation study by Dony Permedi. In this reel he mostly showcases his 3D commercial work for advertising. He awkwardly placed a vector based 2D animation 00:45 seconds in which I think just ends up cutting the reel in-half because after that segment it continues with more 3D. He has many different transition shots and cuts which makes the reel lively. All the movement selected from each piece and the overall design aesthetics of his work are cohesive. The piece outside of the one 2D all play off each other well and its nice how it ends by the bird jumping off the cliff and the appearance of his information.
This is another character study by Aziz Kocanaogullari. It is all 3D work but has no sound. I understand that some reels focus mostly on the work presented and don't recognize the sound in their work unless they are interested in sound production. It just comes across as silent and creepy especially with 3D work and how it can sometimes come across as vacant and sterile. Its just ultimately really annoying how the first scene had dramatic music then when it cut, it was just silence. Most people naturally turn up the volume assuming a speaker problem. Then the next time the sound kicks in when the girl is talking it can dangerously blow out your ears. His movements of the human faces and the many different types of characters are all wonderful. The problem I feel with this reel is that the actions of the characters carry for far too long. The cutting in sluggish feeling and even though the movements are nice and appreciated knowing the time and skill that went into it but it ultimately comes off as boring. The three segments that include sound at least have that to carry the movements and keep the viewer tuned in but the ones without would loose interest quickly and make the viewer want to look up something more entertaining.
III. Plot Additions
After my pitches with outside sources I've decided to add to the story that in the opening scene there are evening establishing shots of the room and Nerine lives in at the bottom of the lighthouse. Then the door opens and Nerine enters. She puts down her bags and looks to her desk to reveal on top an eviction notice of the lighthouse but she pushes that away to look at sympathy cards she's received. The viewpoint will show a family portrait hanging on the wall. Then as she's putting on a pot of tea she notices the sun sets and the other lighthouse automatically comes on. She hurriedly makes her climb up the steps to manually turn on her light. Its not near as bright and the beam doesn't travel as nearly far out as its predecessor. By Nerine turning on the light every night even though its clearly not needed it further develops her need of this light being on even if it serves no other purpose than for herself. I think it allows for more sacrifice and tension when she finally decides to turn it off later. I was thinking of when she uses Morse code to talk to the returning fishermen that the kettle of tea has started whistling which startles/distracts Nerine and that allows for her to shine the light down into the water. Then it gives the fish some time for introduction and the plot to show consequence setup while she is distracted. When she returns to the light she witnesses the beast attacking the boat below. Also from the feedback I received I was thinking of a more "nebulous" time setting where its clearly established that man utilizes electricity and sensor monitoring devices but that not all individuals take on such advances nor are they always present.
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