Live Brief - 48hour Cardiff Quickdraw Animation Challenge

Making the Film 'Together' Alone

The final story idea is that of a bottle cap that realises it has to find its original bottle or else it will end up on a plastic cemetery at the beach. It supports the idea that bottles and bottle caps do not need to be separated when put into the recycling bin, often dropped and forgotten it creates waste in streets and in nature.

Here is a further edited version after the submission https://vimeo.com/408808204 .

Day 1: Initial ideas

Day 1: Moodboard

Day 2: Important ingredient, green washing-up liquid.

Day 2: More important ingredients, bottle caps (carefully collected from local street and washed - all with gloves) and clingfilm. 

Day 2: Testing the set, will the reflection from the bottle be enough? No, I will need to pour it out. 

Day 2: More set testing.

Day 2: Fun with the set. 

Day 2: Test with the washing up liquid on the clingfilm.

Day 3: Puppet, green milk bottle cap with plasticine face and wire replacement features, ready for action.

Day 2: Storyboard, with few options of the ending.

Day 3: Story timing, information for the music composer. 

Day 3: Workspace - shifting floorboards and daylight.

Day 3: Light mounting. 

Day 3: Beach close up. I found it weirdly fascinating.

Day 3: Sunlight is really getting in my way here. If I continue it will get worse but if I stop, the change in light will be too drastic.  

Day 3: An attempt to eliminate the harsh sunshine with my pet's blanket. 

Day 3: Close to the deadline, it is starting to get dark again and I am having the same issue, the lighting is nothing but consistent throughout the scenes. It is difficult to edit and put together. 

Day 3: Sending off the file

Day 3: Successfully received

Day 3: Excited moment, viewing the film on a TV after submission, the TV makes it look good. 

I signed up for this challenge, knowing myself, I best work to short deadlines and this seemed to be a perfect way to get one Live Brief out of the way. I was warned by my tutor, Dotty, that even though the challenge is only 48 hours, the recovery afterwards may take some time. I kept this in mind and got a good amount of sleep both nights - which did reduce the time I could work on the project but I did not burn out.

Afterwards:
Feeling great, animation put up on the Cardiff festival website after a live screening, lovely comments, portfolio exposure, networking. 

There were a few challenges along the way. (Drawings - Covid 19 self-isolation vs Stop Motion, collecting bottle tops, sunlight).

However, thanks to organisers who set up an online chat room on Slack, I could share where I am with others and see what everyone is up to. Really good, especially when working on the project alone. Thanks to this group chat I could approach Tom Kavanagh, who offered to compose music for guys doing this challenge. So that ended up being a very good collaboration, Tom made the music and SFX for my short film that I later named 'Together'.

I made a rough storyboard for myself, however, staying away from PC animation, I did not think to make an animatic until Tom has asked me for one and at this point, it was a little too late. I gave it a go, but there was simply not enough time now as it was the morning of Day 3. So Tom ended up working on the music with my storyboard, rough timing of the piece and tone of the story.

Result? 42 seconds of stop-motion animation, collaborations and networking, portfolio exposure and a lot of hardened cane sugar to clean up.

So what could have been better?
- Leaving more time to do the edit.
- Have a blackout room or animate at night especially it being a weekend event when the University is not open for half of the time. Alternatively, make a call to the weather Gods to keep the sky cloudy.
- Put credits and title on as part of more time for an edit. (yup, mine got screened without neither during the live screening a few days later and yup, someone asked about that in the chat)
- Have someone make the animatic by day 2 the latest.
- Have a team? Although, coronavirus, this was just two days before the University has closed and many people have been self-isolating already due to Covid-19 situation.