September Update: Development, Pitching & More Animation!

Dear Patrons,

Aaaaaaahhhh, it's the 16th of September already - time is passing so fast! There has been a lot of stuff happening this month - pitch events, animation festivals, and so so many applications. Plus a few extra pieces of visual material being worked on for good measure. So without further delay, let's jump into it!

TALES OF ZALE TV SERIES:

Today's preview, is the last animated shot from the pilot that I am allowed to show you for the time being. This one is animated by Ash McDonald, who really went above and beyond!

I haven't tallied up the amount of rough animation that we did yet, but I'd guess that we ended up covering around 80% of the episode. There will still be little things to adjust, especially on the model - but our 3 interns by far exceeded my expectations. With this, the animation testing period comes to a close. I have gathered a lot of really nice information that I want to bring with me into final production. As soon as time allows it, I'd really like to set up a skeleton of a library system with plenty of character references, and look into creating super simple rigs for some of the more stand-alone elements (such as the compass, and maybe some lip sync).

In terms of the TV-series, there isn't a whole lot of new stuff to report, since we're still waiting for the finance department on the broadcaster's end to figure out how much they can support with. I think this will likely be a conversation taking place sometime during November. There have been a few different news stories coming out that confirms to us that they for sure don't have the budget this year, so we're looking into budget projections for next year anyhow.

I can say however, that I've chatted with the execs at both the broadcaster's yearly producer day at the end of September, as well as during the Viborg Animation Festival, and we've been having some nice ongoing conversations. I do feel that there's a good dialogue going on.

TALES OF ZALE PROMO MATERIAL:

Speaking of Viborg Animation Festival, it has just concluded! A whole lot happened, and I'll be covering what's relevant in the upcoming segments. But here's a little extra thing. A few weeks ago, the festival arrangers reached out and asked if I'd be willing to make some Zale figures that could be printed onto cardboard and placed around town. So I did a little proof of concept:

Unfortunately, it turned out that they were out a little too late for the printing to be done in time, so no city Zales this time around. But hey, then they at least have them for next year!

I've quite enjoyed making these vector illustrations. I feel like it's a good way to test out his look with the same software and means that will be available during the hopeful TV production. So I have a hope to make more of these at some point. I also might print them in some form myself - maybe it's time to make some new wooden cut-outs?

MUSICAL PIPERS:

I've been a bit too busy with all the other stuff to really give a lot of time to Pipers, but I'm still chipping away at this shot. The production is coming together quite nicely - I can't wait for everybody to be able to see it!

RE:FLECTION:

Alrighty, so a lot has happened with this project this month, so let's start from the top! Last we left off, I'd just started working on the Vest-Danish Film Fund application.

I continued onward with this, and also sent off and application to the Danish Film Directors' fund. I made some super duper preliminary explorations for the characters and key images for these funds, although I didn't want to take them too far until the actual visual development was to begin.

The applications did require some visual material though, so it was just a matter of putting down some rough foundation to give an idea of what the project could be, more-so than making something that necessarily reflected the final direction.

I also used these key images to lay the foundation for the pitch at Viborg Animation Festival's "That's Pitchin'" event, which has just concluded. I ended up basically making a small animatic of key images, implementing some simple motion graphics into each slide to keep things interesting. These are some of them:

I was a bit nervous pitching an all new project at such an early stage. I'd definitely settled pretty well into my Tales of Zale comfort zone. But it went really well if I do say so myself. I felt like my speech was flowing quite nicely while I could also improvise a bit and keep people engaged. Now, this was only a 7 minute pitch, with is definitely one of the easier formats - and I was also pitching on home turf, so I knew I wasn't likely to meet much resistance of skepticism.

Actually, that's probably my one regret. My main reason for pitching was to gather more feedback and perspectives in this early stage, but everybody were just very nice and supportive. Which is nice, but not always helpful - I know there were imbalances in the story I was pitching at that point, and I was looking forward to hearing some different takes on that. But the jury was being very careful with the projects.

Anyhow, presenting a project in front of a crowd still at least still allows me to imagine the project from different angles. There's still a lot of information that can be gathered from what is not said, and that can be just as valuable.

Which brings us to present day, where I am challenging myself to rework the story slightly in script format and go down some different rabbit holes. That's what I'm going to be focusing on this week while I am away from home house-sitting and taking care of a sweet dog. Dog walks are perfect for thinking about things and coming up with ideas!

Next week, we will officially be starting visual development! We were granted funding by the Open Workshop for this part, and that will go towards having local concept artist Maria Kruse working with me in exploring the film's art direction. I'm currently building up a Miro board for the occasion.

One piece of bad news though is that the fact that we got the Open Workshop funding may disqualify us from receiving the Vest-Danish Film Fund support. Something about the two funds coming from the same pool of government development money and not being allowed to overlap. I wasn't aware of this until I spoke with a representative during VAF. There's a small chance that we can justify the two funds going to something separate, since OW goes towards development and Vest-Danish goes towards pre-production. But this was not made clear within the application, so chances aren't great. Live and learn - I'd better count on making the storyboard and animatic without funding... as I've done in the past. Next time maybe!!

HULLET I HÆKKEN:

During Viborg Animation Festival, the world premiere on the TV-series I've been animation supervising was also held. It was cool to see everybody's work on the big screen. The series will be out in Denmark come November, and I'll be sharing the teaser for it once we get closer to that date. This project isn't very close to my own personal sensibilities, so I don't want to overshare it too much, but I do still think it's fun to show a bit of. I don't know how much it will travel globally - it is filled to the BRIM with Danish word-plays. So what I share might just be the only peek you get!

FEATURE FILM:

Right now I can focus on the short film. Once I'm done with the animatic for that, I can see what bits and pieces I can prep and have fun with for the Tales of Zale TV-series. But after and between that, I've been asked to animation supervise once more. First on a feature film heading up the collaboration between a few different countries. And then on a TV-series once more. Both of those are set to take place sometime next year. Of course, if we manage to raise funding for Tales of Zale or the short film production before either of these, then directing will take first priority for me. But, as you're all too familiar with at this point, that can still be a process that takes time, so it's good to have a few balls in the air at the same time. We'll see!

ROUND-UP:

So much stuff happened this past month!! And in the middle of it, I also held my birthday. I think I got a bit swept away - hope I got to say 'thank you for the well wishes' to everyone.

This month's bird picture was one my mom took while she was over to celebrate. Hazel (in the picture), who I have had since he was an egg, has really slid into his mother's role as the tame canary in the house. Whenever I'm over by the kitchen sink or the closet, he lands on my shoulder, arm or head, and demands offerings in the form of his favorite seeds, egg food, cucumbers or broccoli. It may be that I am the one who has been tamed, more-so than the other way around.

In other bird news, remember the two "females" that I got last month? Well I've been in and out of a few different vets since then - long story, it's been a bit of a journey - and they are overall doing better. Chili (the yellow one) is a male, it turns out. He's just been too sick all of his life to ever sing, so the previous owner thought he was a female. Now he has re-found his voice, although I wouldn't say he's 100% healthy yet. His breathing is still a bit more troubled than I'd like, but stress won't help him either, so I'm going to give him some time to build his strength before we look into any further options for him. Chia (the one with a hair cut) is a female. But it turns out she can't fly at all - just like a previous canary I'd had, which had also had a very rough life. She seems otherwise happy though. I've set up some branches and ladders for her to easier get around, and she is making more effort to use her wings now. So time will have to tell if she becomes able to lift off.

Ok, that's the bird news, I couldn't help myself. Other than that, it's been an eventful and enlightening month. I'm left with a positive impression overall and look forward to moving into the next stages with everything!

Till next time!

-Sif