If it looks like a dud, and sounds like a dud...then it's a dud

Well....
I can't ignore it any longer. My film is just straight up not working!
 

so......

NEW DIRECTION!

Let's do this thing.

The Good and the Bad

From organizing all this grad show business I realize how effin hard, and kind of how much it sucks, to be a leader. If things go wrong, the finger gets pointed at you, even if it wasn't your fault. You can't please everyone and eventually people attack you personally even if it's  a professional situation. It's really hard. And it makes me sad because I don't think I can handle it and I guess I always felt like I would be good at being a director, but  I have waaaaay more to learn. WAY.

But this being said, I love working with me...and here's why

• I'm pretty good friends with myself, we get along together well
• I'm honest with myself and don't talk behind my back about childish issues. if I have a problem I'm usually like "Hey D-L, quit it. that sucks" and then I'm like" Chyeah due, you're right. Still friends?" Then I say " YOU KNOW IT!" *high five*
• I'm punctual and able/willing to take on responsibility
• When I ask myself to get shit done, I actually do it
• If I fuck up completely I have no one else to blame. Likewise if I do well I get to bask in all the glory! ;)
• I don't need anyone else to motivate me.
• I try my best to stay positive, despite my natural pessimistic disposition.

Considering this though, here are some things that I'm trying to be better at.

• I don't always handle stress the best. Sometimes I blow things out of proportion.
• My memory is worse than my grandmothers, seriously. I can't remember things minutes after they happen.
• I can be a bit impatient.
• I can get carried away when I'm angry and hold a grudge (but I'm getting much better at this, however).
• I really can't tolerate working with apathetic/incompetent people.
• I take horrible care of my body. I'm probably worse than a bulimic teenager.
• I HATE NOISE SO MUCH, so much.

The Good news is that I am very far along with my animating and I'm very excited. Splicing together all of my footage really makes me remember why I'm doing this and it's very exciting. Though I have A LOT of editing to do.

Right now I'm taking the good with the bad, and trying my best to learn from my mistakes. Mostly I'm trying to not get caught up in the bad (as is my tendency) and just remember the good. i'm making a film, it's actually coming along, I'm surrounded by awesome, inspirational, talented people, my boyfriend is awesome, supportive and feeds me, and my cat loves me extra when I dance with him to MJ. Who cares if I'm not cut out to be a director just yet.


D-L

Leica Reel.

http://vimeo.com/19004818

Here's my leica reel everyone. You can find the password on Moodle. If you don't know what moodle is, than you can't see it basically, which I'm sorry about.


Taking a deep breath and getting ready for the intense animating scene. Water effects, particle explosions, many layers of compositing. how do you make a puppet wade through a piece of paper, and keep some transparency!? I don't know! But hopefully I'll find out. My animation dead line is Feb 15th, so I best be crackin.
I still have a climax I can't stay set on!

Film making is damn hard people. But it's so cool to watch when it's done.

PEACE OUT hommies

Production skills...bg render experiments.

This is the closest to what I see in my head, but with a little more sense of depth.

I'm not quite as fond of this paper texture.

 

 

Nor this one....which is the same and also too grey.

I'm also thinking about using just a bright white flat color which I think makes the puppet pop more and seems more luminescent. i suppose I will really nail it when I get to play around in the compositing stage.

Detailed Shot list

Run Detailed Shots list:
Red text = shot finished
Blue= shots split into parts to be compiled in compositing stage
black = not yet shot

Intro
Letters on the ground
Arms swinging (ECU)
Feet running (ECU)
Mouth panting (ECU)
Letter swarm
Title Card

Scene 01
(Cu)Mouth profile, panting.Pan up to eye, it looks behind.
(CU) Face, running. front on
(WS) Enters the scene and falls down
(M) Stands up and looks around. the danger seems to have vanished. She     takes a breath and wipes herself off.
(W) Swarm of letters
(FS)She fixes her hair clip
(CU)The letters appear again, closer. shorter clip
(MCU) She hears something and then turns around, shocked.
(ECU) letters
(LS) jamie freezes as the letters barrel towards her.
(CU) she closes her eyes and waits for the impact
(WS) the letters stop right before her face and stay there for a few         seconds
(MCU) Slowly opens her eyes. It she watches it and it seems to             investigate her, but suddenly it rears and slaps her in the face.
(WS) It wips at her feet and she dodges. (compositing part A and part         B needed)
(FS) Grabs her by the waist
(WS)She’s lifted into the air and then plunged back into the ground
(MS)Falls through the air
(CU)Slammed into the ground,groggily gets up...Fade out.
(FS) Fade in, she gets up. Looks around and runs off screen.

Scene 2
shot 01- (WS) There is a wall in the foreground indicated by a black line. In the distance you can see her running.
    (4 part compositing: run cycle, animation, blue   screen)
shot-02- (MFS) She peeks from behind the wall and comes to the other side. She takes a breath and then peeks behind the wall again to make sure she is safe. She takes a moment to gather herself and then sneaks off screen. Off screen you can hear a shocked sound from her, then she backs up back into the screen.
(ELS) The monster is now waiting for her on her right. She slowly backs away
    (Monster and jamie shot seperately)
(CU) Jamie’s shocked reaction
(CU) Monster poised to attack.
(MFS) She backs up but the wall has shifted and is now behind her. She     bangs on it and it suddenly flips over

Scene 03
(WS) Jamie holds her head and sits up

(MCU) She quickly looks around to make sure she is safe. As she             relaxes she hears another sound offscreen *ping*

(WS) A letter falls from the sky. Slowly, then rapidly beings to rain down on to her like a down pour.

(Letters shot seperate from Jamie)

(LS) She Covers her head and runs for cover. (cycle) But suddenly the ground “gives out” and she falls through.

(Run Cycle, fall sequence, rain cycle)

(WS) she free falls through the air

(ELS) She falls and hits the ground hard.

Scene 04
(MCU)(camera blur/sharpens) As she regains consciousness there is YET         AGAIN (!) and offscreen sound which is growing. She looks up in panic.
(all giant letters are shot separately and composited together)
(WS) She scuttles backwards as a giant letter crashes to the earth. As     it does so it shatters into tons and tons of tinier letters.
(ECU) She shakily gets to her feet as the ground quakes beneath her         due to more of these giant letter explosions happenning all         around her.
(camera shake-AE)
(LS) She manuevers around crashing letters and runs from left screen         to right screen)
(LS) the letters turn into a wave and sweep her up
(MWS) She’s swept around in the waves.
(ECU) The waves toss engulf her. The camera moves down into the waves and fade to black.

Scene 05
(uuuugh not totally determined yet...eep) CLIMAX!

Scene 06
(LS)She scrambles out of the hole. and quickly patches it with her own     letters
(MWS)She stands up and realizes something is weird, so she turns             around
(CU) She gasps and her hands go up to her mouth ( if i can figure it out, maybe tears in her eyes)?
(WS) (dirty over the shoulder) She stands in awe. In front of her is an ocean with a red sail boat rocking in the waves. Her hand goes up to her hair clip
(LS) She begins to walk into the water.
(CU) Boat, sounds of wading.
(MS) She’s sitting in the boat and looks back at the shore. She turns around with the slightest smile on her face and looks forward as she steers the boat.
(ELS) We can see her boat shrink into the distance as the credits begins to play.

A little extra

Soon I will post my newest leica reel which now has sound!
It can be pretty hard to direct a sound designer when your project is constantly in flux and I'm lucky to have such cool people to work with. Right now I'm enjoying the melodies and compositions they have come up with but there are a lot of places where the sound really has to be pushed or pulled back. i feel bad they they worked on so much and then I'll have to tell them I want next to no sound in these areas. It's their first time doing music for a film so I don't think it's easy for them to understand that no sound can be at times more powerful than none. But at this point it just feels great to have some working sound going. It has really helped people understand the tone of some areas that I was having issues with...i.e the ending. The ending is supposed to be simple, not happy, but quietly hopeful and it was hard to portray that with my imagery alone and the sound really hits the tone right on the head.

So anyways once I revise my leica properly I will post the reel for you to see.

I have been animating more which is awesome but I realized I ave to make another puppet on a smaller scale. So that will be work I can do over x-mas.
I have been held up by other class projects so I haven't had as much time to animate as I would like to.
Here are my last two motion graphics projects.


I am Harry Potter. from Daryl-Lynn Ramsay on Vimeo.

and


The Final Countdown Rainbow Rocket! from Daryl-Lynn Ramsay on Vimeo.

also here was an experiment with particles to see what a potential opening credits sequence could look like. Sorry for the crummy resolution.

My favorite teacher is Mr. Mistake.

So far in my years at school, teachers tell you to do things and they say why and you absorb it and tend to agree because it's logical and makes sense but maybe you don't actually completely understand. Because there is a huge difference between hearing and experiencing. This is what I find my Fourth and final year at ECU is all about.
For example.
 We have spent months perfecting our stories and really focusing on pre-production because it is the foundation for the rest of the work to come and it needs to be strong. Logical.  And yes I understood this, but I saw myself getting overly anxious about my workload and needed to begin animating and I see this urgency within my peers now. So I set my leica reel aside, chose a piece that I knew wouldn't be altered and began animating. Now I'm in this weird spot. I have gathered some momentum with my animating and it feels good and I'm really enjoying it, but I feel like I'm lost and can't continue because I didn't SOLIDIFY my story or fix my timing. Now my sound designers have a leica reel that isn't properly designed and I have to back track a few stages to rework somethings, and lose the momentum I have gained.
This isn't something I regret though. I can be particularly bullheaded at times, and I know that I needed this kind of mistake to teach me a solid lesson, and I really do want to gain a better perspective of my film before I continue on half blindly.
Is it better to listen to the people who know best and just stick to what they suggest, and maybe never run have into these types of problems, or is it best to fumble your way around it and learn for yourself even if it means making some critical mistakes?

D