A statement.
I hope that the film will become a success and that children will be able to watch the short film and it will help them, even a small bit to open up to discuss their feelings and emotions. The topic of children's mental health is so current and if this piece of work can help then I hope it can be used properly.
The development process.
The design aspect of the film had flown pretty well as I feel as though I am quite confident in the style and technique that I approached to the visual design aspect of the film. I have always been using ink and water colour and feel as though the technique worked exceptionally well for ‘Monsters’.
The poem.
The poem had changed only a tiny bit during the process and the theme had kept the same throughout.
The animatic took the longest to do, as it was only myself working on the project the entirety of the film took a lot longer than I originally was hoping it would. If I had a proper team of people and the funds to do so, the animation could of easily been done in a few months, but hey-ho! maybe in the future I'll be able to produce even higher standards of animation!
The initial designs of the characters had developed into a very pleasing style that I will be using again for my next film after the degree has finished. The characters, some roughly designed or monsters also had been passed through a fine comb of design which helps enhance the world of Monsters. One idea that I was looking into was to hand draw the entire film on Toon Boom, however it would of taken even more longer than anticipated and I'm quite glad that I changed my mind for the better. Moving forwards this new style is something that I can imagine myself carrying on in the future with my next film.
One idea that I had during the process was to turn the film into a stop-motion film instead of a 2D one. Thankfully Sarah talked me out of it as I think this version of the film stands out so much better and stronger. The limited lack of stop-motion accessibility worked against me anyway though I can officially be happy to offer this film to festivals. If I did stop-motion, where would I be now? I’m not entirely sure.
Thankfully, I have two close friends, Kate and Lina who were able to help me design the backgrounds and colour in props for the film as they were very tedious to do and took a lot of time up if I was to do it myself. I’m very thankful for their work as I would probably be still continuing with the film as I write this up! Unfortunately Bee Joy couldn’t help assist with the animation due to other commitments though it hasn’t affected the project and due to this the style of the film had changed.
Yes, I believe that the animation could be more well done however I see myself as more of a designer and less about the animator. This entire project was more to do with the message behind the animation and not so much the animation itself, though for what it’s worth, I think I did a great job. There are always going to be things to tweak but i’m still happy with the outcome.
The sound was one thing that I left till the last minute. Something that I may go back and edit again as I was the only one working on it, I ended up using free sound.org and all of the sound effects were royalty free. I quite enjoyed this process of picking out sound effects to use for my film.
Note to self: Give yourself time to edit. I did the editing within a few days but I wish I gave myself more time to be able to edit the film. The film took over 2 hours to render all-in-all and it was very much up to the deadline.
After completing the MA course I aim to release the film into global animation festivals which will hopefully encourage growth of the project. I also would love to show charity companies alike NSPCC, child line etc this project and maybe request commissions from them to help promote the message of opening up about their emotions and feelings.
I aim to publish the film online once it’s had a fair long run on the animation festivals circuit, doing this will hopefully help adults with children - including teachers to use as an aid to encourage children to open up about their emotions.
The children's book, “The adventures of Berry & Barry”, is an on-going project that I would love to carry on post-MA. I know that the book needs reworking and reediting again but I felt as though this is very much a prototype to the world of Berry and Barry. I also need to find a cheaper alternative to Blurb - as it cost me £15.00 with a discount code to buy, which is quite a lot of money for what it is. IF I was to publish, the price needs to come down to at least £9.99!
In the future, I aim to pitch ‘The adventures of Berry & Barry’ as a TV series - as I feel as though the style and the concept of the story is something that has an audience for.
In November, Manchester animation festival is having a workshop to give advice to those who are looking to create their own tv show - which I will be attending and I will be looking for more information on the matter.
I aim to start my own company titled ‘LYVE LYFE productions’ with my close 2 friends, to collaborate and make new content in hope that it will offer us more work. I have decided that ‘LYVE LYFE productions’ first product is Monsters as it was a first collaboration with the members of the group, even if it was mostly myself working on it.
...and heres to the future!
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