Week 5 Tuesday: Howard Rosenman response and Lighthouse building plans

I think more than anything of what I learned from Howard's lecture was the importance of networking and how simple it can be and how to be friendly and engaging with an audience. All the stories that Howard brought up of how he ended up working for by people by simply being their waiter or of Todd's story of how he set up a business deal through facebook show the importance of how easily connections can get started if you do it in a professional but efficient manner. Also I enjoyed how relaxed but informative Howard was about giving his lecture. He was inviting and interesting to listen to because he sounded as if he was talking to all of us individually. He wasn't reading notes nor did it come across as if he rehearsed a thousand times even though he did. All in all he was an effective speaker and he was able to get people to listen to him. Also he was able to be patient and kind to people's questions no matter the relevance. He inspired me to try to be more natural and easy with public speaking and proves that it is possible to be an effective speaker without being uptight and impersonal.

Week 5 Tuesday: Results of Research and Meeting with Gadsby

Background Research:

So from the results of my rough story-boarding critique, I realized I needed to really reseach into older lighthouse run on oil and how they looked in previous centuries before electricity. It was the most obvious thing lacking in any of my story boards because I was subconsciously drawing around the lens (while inserting some crude icon for it) when in fact that is also one of the major characters of this story. Mostly what I looked into were Fresnel (fray-nel) lenses and carbide lamps. Many Fresnel lenses employed electricity but i was thinking of just replacing what would be the bulb with just a glass funnel and Nerine light the lens with an old fashioned carbide lamp (were extremely bright) like what was seen on old bicycles and even before that in lighthouses. Also I thought about the entire lens being rotated by a clocking mechanism that has to be rotated (by weight) every few hours which would show how high maintenance the lens is and show how easily it could be slightly inaccurate in rotation. I looked into size too. All lenses are measured by Order with the largest being 1st order (around 7'-8' tall) to 6th order (1.5" tall). 1st - 3rd order lenses are used for coastlines and reach the greatest distance. 4th - 6th are used for harbor areas and have the short light range. I was thinking of the lens being somewhere around a 4th order or roughly 3' tall but up on a pedestal column in the center of the room. One of the glass panes on the lens would open revealing the gears and lighting mechanisms.


Interview with Gadsby:

I went to meet with Gadsby about how think schedule-wise in seeking internships and resume mock ups. She suggested to me to look into really trying to have a remote internship in the Spring semester around here in Memphis while still enrolled. My plan is to still at the least have a Summer internship. I'm strongly considering furthering my education in the Fall with possibly trying to get a Masters or at least a certificate school. Many of the places I'm drawn to are in California and are very expensive so there's a lot to consider and weigh in on to decide my best options. As of right now Gadsby just wanted to focus on interning somewhere to at least have that experience before I leave. Right now I'm investigating local Memphis businesses. Also she helped me with my resume as to catering it for this particular field which I've haven't really done yet. Apparently what I had so far was good but I needed to cut out things that weren't directly related to getting me hired at an animation company like just other retail job experience details. While they're nice to include to show dedication and reliability, they don't need to be in detail as the main focus is on my skills as an animator and what I can create.

Week 4 Thursday: Pitching Day

Elevator Line: A rampaging sea monster, in a twist of fate, forces a young woman to choose between her beloved lighthouse or her future.

Theme: My story deals with memories holding back someone from moving forward in there life; essentially a coming of age story.

Quick Synopsis: Nerine lives in historical lighthouse located in a commercially developing area. She still lives in this lighthouse after the passing of her parents, which is also her family home. One night while thinking of her parents, she absentmindedly makes a pot of tea and then tends to the lighthouse oil lamp. She fails to notice that the lamp itself is slightly off kilter when lighting it but is interrupted by her tea kettle whistling downstairs. While she goes to address the tea pot, the light's beam reaches out into the depths of the ocean and awakens a monstrous fish. It decides to physically attack Nerine's home. As the fish rams itself into the side of her lighthouse, Nerine is trapped inside only to witness the destruction of it. Finally, the foundation crumbles and the tower falls into the sea. While the wreckage is sinking, Nerine hesitates to leave the lamp and swim to the surface. The fish decides to intervene and pull her to safety on shore. Nerine realizes that her home is destroyed and decides to pack whats left of her belongings and travel to a new city.

Week 4 Thrusday: Reference Photos

   Reference Photos from Background Research:

Week 4 Tuesday: Rough Draft Storyboard

Week 4 Tuesday: Updated Story with Final Major Editing

The scene opens with a focus shot on Nerine's lighthouse from the ground level entrance. She then walks into the scene with her back facing the camera. The shot cuts to her approaching the front door were she puts down her bag of groceries to notice the eviction notice taped to her front door. Her hand hesitates but then she tugs the note off the door and with her shoulders slightly deflated enters her home. The next shot is from inside facing the door. We see her take off her flat shoes and place them next to a pair of heels and pair of men's oxfords. She tosses the eviction notice into an over-spilling waste basket by the door. The scene cuts on her walking to the kitchen (towards the camera). The next scene is facing the kitchen from the entrance she just left. The viewer sees Nerine's back as she makes her way to the table at the other end of the kitchen. Its full of vases of flowers in various stages of wilting.
Then she walks to the stove just to her right to make a grab for the tea kettle. The next cut is now from outside the window over the kitchen sink looking in to watch Nerine fill up the kettle with water. Then it goes back inside now from Nerine's right shoulder. She looks up out the window and pauses. The view outside is of the new lighthouse across the bay up on the cliffs. Back inside she looks over her shoulder. As she does the shot focuses on her fridge with many family photos on it at various points in her life (and a sympathy card or two). The camera focuses back on her as she glances up (metaphorically making eye contact with the lens of the lighthouse upstairs). We get a close up of her putting the kettle on the stove.
The next shot is from at the top of the lighthouse as Nerine is making her way up to the platform. She pauses when she gets to the top and stands there. Her back is to the viewer and we see the entire room including the lens in the middle. A vision of her and her father turning on and positioning the lens flashes before us and then disappears. The camera cuts to a close up of her face in a bittersweet smile and then walks forward. She kneels down and starts tinkering with it trying to get it to turn on and all it ends up doing is flickering before dying quickly. She starts to get rougher with it to turn it on but is suddenly startled by the kettle going off (there is a quick cut to the kettle whistling). She accidentally gets it to turn on and the light shoots to down in the water (show on the surface of the water the light focusing). Nerine looks at it for a second and then leaves quickly to get the kettle.
The camera cuts to the surface again and submerges down to the bottom where the light focuses on a dark shape. Cut to quickly Nerine picking up the kettle. Cut back to the dark figure as one of its eyes opens. Then the camera is set back a little to see the whole creature swimming upward. Back in the lantern room, Nerine merges with a hot cup of tea. She walks over to the lantern and sets down her tea. Down below, the fish is swimming around at the base of the lighthouse and when the len's light shines in its eyes they glow frantically and it roars. Then it submerges quickly and jumps out of the water. A quick cut to show from a profile view it hit the side of the lighthouse.
At the top of the lighthouse, Nerine falls over from the impact. She then gets up and looks out one of the windows to see the fish ram into the side again. She braces herself against the window. Then she looks over and focuses on the lens as the lighthouse continues to shake. She runs over to shield it from breaking.
Then the fish rams the lighthouse one more time and it with the lighthouse all come crashing down into the sea. The camera focuses on whats left of the foundation and slowly zooms out to the same shot as the opening. A large fin appears out of the water with Nerine and lays her on the shore. She opens her eyes to see the fish submerge into the water. She then looks over her left shoulder to see whats left of her home. The camera switches to a wide view of the remnants with her standing as the camera slowly zooms out. The next shot is of her sitting aboard a train with the view of the lighthouse ruins. She looks at it one last time but then looks down to a brochure in her hand. The train continues over a hill into the distance.

Week 3: Thursday Demo/job research Blog posts

The demo reels that were posted were all over the place in terms of timing. I felt the most successful ones were between 35 s - 2 mins. Anything over that I could easily feel my interest waning. Also I would actually hesitate to click on them just knowing how long they were beforehand; similar to when you see that you have to read pages of text to understand a concept. You naturally don't want to do it and I can imagine with companies that have to look through reels everyday. The second they see that your reel is like 5 mins then they think if you can't tell me why I should hire you in 2 mins or less then we'll move on to someone who can. I noticed many people picked 3D work including myself. However I noticed that many of the videos were specifically about modeling or texturing which I found odd since most of the class is doing 2D based work and therefore wouldn't have to worry about modeling/texturing. Some of the 3D reels that cover character designs and animation are fine or effectively showcase a tight reel or weak one. I feel though that most 3D reels look very similar and after awhile I would get them confused. Basically I felt individual personalities were lost on some of these. Also the best videos included a variety of content that showcased different skills but ultimately felt related and displayed their personal interests. The ones that didn't work involved basically one piece, or very few, and had an agonizingly slow pacing combined with choppy, awkward transitions. They often had little carry-through in the transitions whether its matching actions or fading in and out.

The job research mostly involved linking to high level jobs. Very few people looked into internships or if it was then it was just like one. All the others were full time, dream jobs. These are nice to have a goal to work towards but what about what to work on in the meantime? From what I've seen most of these jobs look like a much higher level of skills than I imagine we have now. Many of these jobs would only benefit from already working in the industry and are ready for director titles. Also many people just inserted links with nothing else to go on until you click on the link and quickly try to scan the site.