Throughout the year, many CalArts students worry
that they won’t finish their films, that their files will be lost, or that some
unforeseen event will prevent them from entering the Labs (the rooms where most
students create their films digitally on cintiqs -- computers with a touch-screen
that allow us to draw directly on the screen).
I was no exception. I worried, since I had never made a film
or a project on such a grand scale as the first-year-film before.
At CalArts, every student makes a short-film over the course of the year (on top of their regular classes) that is due in the end of April. Faculty then gathers in a room, watch them all for about seven hours, and grade these films. The ones with the highest scores are selected for the Producers' Show – a screening in Hollywood with notable guests of the film and animation industry.
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BFA1s preparing for the CalArts Producer's Show 2015
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As a BFA1,
the task was to create a ninety-second animated film without dialogue, in black and white, and with the
correct settings and format as set forth by CalArts. My assignments until this
movie had all been three-second animation clips that could take me up to three
weeks or more to perfect. I thought of my film as a series of three-second clips –
otherwise it was too daunting!
When I was making the film, it really hit
me how crazy the concept of animation is! Let’s draw every frame of a film!
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| My classmate became a part of CalArts itself while creating his film |
Even so, I would do it all over again if I
had to! I had the most fun making the film and felt excited getting up to work
on it in the morning. It really is true that you learn the most from doing
something, as opposed to theorizing about it. I learned so much making this
film – about the programs I used, such as TVPaint, Premiere Pro, Adobe After
Effects, and Photoshop; about story-boarding; about sound effects; and about
animation!
If you’re a first year at CalArts about to
make your own film, here are some of the things I did that I found worked
really well for me over the five months I worked on it. I also share some
thoughts on what I would have done differently.
Make a schedule
I planned out a schedule early on and stuck
to it. For instance, I knew I had to animate a total of five seconds a day for
a certain number of weeks. I had a week to make the intro. I had to be done
with rough animation on a certain date so I could move on to clean-up, etc. In
this way, I was able to finish on time.
Find a daily workflow
I found getting up early in the morning to work was the best workflow while I was making the film. On
the weekends and during Spring Break, I would be ready to start working at
6.30am and be done by 11pm at night. If I went later than that, I still got up
to start early the next day. I’d also recommend working on your film daily, as
opposed to on certain days, even if you have 9 hours of classes (for me, the “Long
Tuesday”). Just get a little done every day. If that doesn’t work for you, set
a deadline of things you have to have finished weekly.
Hold off compressing your files
I would recommend waiting to export your files from TVPaint with the best compression until you are in the finishing phases of production (by this, I mean exporting them as TIFF/PNG vs. Photoshop. ALWAYS use the correct format and plan your shots as 1920x1080 and 24 fps and nothing else, unless CalArts has changed the rules. Double-check with Fran Krause). Just make sure to save the original files from TVPaint, and not just your exported images. This way, you won’t have huge files and you can go back and make changes without waiting a very long time for everything to export again. Also, rendering won’t take as long. Then, composite your files with the correct compression when you you’re happy with the result. There is something very satisfying about being done and waiting for everything to render.
Test the camera moves
There are many camera moves in my film. Before
making my backgrounds, I tested out the camera moves with rough sketches in
After Effects to make sure my backgrounds would be the right size. For example,
I have a shot in which we pan down Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland
Paris. In the story-board, there was plenty of time for a slow-pan and the full
castle because I showed three separate drawings to make the illusion of a
camera move. But once I tested it out, the actual camera move was too fast and
the whole mood was ruined. And the movie could be no longer than ninety seconds! I
couldn’t drag out time (neither did I want to). So, I “cheated” and made the
castle smaller than it is so that the move does not take up as much time.
Hopefully, the viewer can’t tell when they watch it!
Back-Up
I had multiple back-ups for my files on
USB-sticks, Gmail, my hard drive, and my CalArts user account. I use the Toshiba
DTD210 1TB hard drive for storage.
Think about your health
I made sure to drink enough water and to
go for walks outside. When you’re sitting inside all day in a dark room without
windows and staring at a screen, fresh air and exercise can work wonders for your energy levels. A group of us
went outside to play Frisbee daily.
Take breaks
I scheduled breaks. I would start at 6.30am and work until 10am. Then, I had a 30-minute break during which I had a few snacks. Then, I had a break again around 12pm to eat lunch. And another break at 3pm. And another at 6pm for dinner. If I had classes during the day, I would consider the class a 3-hour break. During a regular break, however, I would play the game Ligretto with my friends to do something non-computer related.
Pick classes wisely
I did all my reading/writing assignments
for my “critical studies” classes in January/February, ahead of time. Otherwise,
I knew I wouldn’t have time to finish these assignments once crunch time came
around. Many of my classmates had to drop classes halfway through because it
was too much. If you’re able, I’d recommend not having any classes that will take
up a lot of your time during the Spring semester.
Regrets
If I could change anything, I would have
started exploring story ideas earlier. This way, you have enough time to
massage the story and make it the way you want it to be, while still feeling
confident you have enough time for the rest of production.
If I could, I would go back and ask for
more input from faculty and peers. I received a lot of feedback for my story. But
for executing my film, I should have asked for more advice and shown more
people what I was working on. The teachers are right there and they are so
helpful!
-Christine-