It's 12:45 pm as I write this... I only stayed until 9 pm yesterday though the lockdown went until 11 pm. I look forward to the screening - if only because it'll be finished then!
So far today I've done two shots, and I've scaled back (of course) on my ambitions - making a complete movie comes first, so I need to make sure I have an ending before I get fancy with what's in between. Here's a frame from the second shot this morning.
The pencil is busy stirring the inside of my head and we'll see what bubbles out. A metaphor for the lockdown itself...
It's 3 pm. Warner Brothers cartoons are playing in the classroom and Nightmare Before Christmas is on in the large project room next door. I've shot the last shot - not so much that I've done everything I wanted but because it's time to move on to fine tuning the editing. Here's a frame from the final zoom:
After the premiere tomorrow I'll write more about it. Meanwhile, editing awaits!
It's now 4:10 pm and I'm rendering an assembly of "Sleepyhead" on Norman, the Windows 98 machine I'm using for editing. (I name my computers for people I think are noteworthy - which Norman do you think I'm thinking of? My notebook is Lumiere - for the Lumiere brothers who first projected movies about 1896. It's where all us moviemakers come from.)
With about 15 seconds of titles added, the running time is close on 1 minute 25 seconds. I'm thinking that the soundtrack will consist of snoring - obvious, but if it'll work and be reasonably easy to do, why not.
If you've been checking my sample frames, you'll have noticed that they're 1280x960 pixels. I decided on the size because it gives more control over motion and scaling the images smaller reduces artifacts. For the screening, Quickdraw needs a DV/DVD compatible file; scaling down to 720x480 works well. At least in my experience.
It's now 7:45 pm; I came back to add the mouth positions for the snores... and tonight (as you may well expect) is busy. Here's a view of animators completing their movies in the large project room.
I've reviewed the snore mouths; they'll do. Sound tomorrow morning and a complete movie by noon! And then in front of an audience tomorrow night: I can already hear the applause. :-).
