Production Schedule

December

Week of 19-25

Complete additional cut-ins

Enjoy holiday

Week of 26-31

Finish all cut-ins by the end of December

Continue working on battle sprites

Toni comes back from holiday, continue to work with her on BGs

January

Week of 1-8

Begin work with Stephanie Blakey on colors for the film

Continue working on battle sprites

Week of 9-15

Continue working on battle sprites

Keep up with Stephanie and Toni

Week 16-22

Continue working on battle sprites

Keep up with Stephanie and Toni

Week 23-29

Continue work on battle sprites

Get completed BGs from Toni

Talk with TJ about composer

February

Week 1-5

Work on monster sprites & battle sprites

Take a break for my birthday (go see Avenue Q!)

Week 6-12

Work on monster sprites

Go over sound design with TJ

Go over BG colors with Stephanie

Week 13-19

Finish battle sprites

Go over user interface

Work on monster sprites

Week 20-28

Finish monster sprites

Look over everything completed and make sure there is cohesion in the look

March

Week 1-5

Go over the look with Stephanie, give her things to color

See if there is additional work for Toni to help with

Compile everything and test what I have so far

Week 6-12

Give TJ what I have so he can begin working on sound

Talks with composer

Test test test everything

Week 13-19

Piece things together, render it

Make sure there are no problems

Put it together with the sound

Week 20-26

GO OVER EVERYTHING

Go over it with Toni, Stephanie and TJ

Make changes if needed

Week 27-31

COMPLETE THE FILM BY THE END OF MARCH. Goal set.

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What a lofty goal, eh?

A huge wrench might be thrown into my whole plan this Friday anyway. This will need to be revised if that is the case. I might be getting an internship, which I'll be doing 3 days a week. Let's see what the future has in store for me.

Production stills & tension chart

Inspirations...

I have quite a list of inspirations for my film. Generally, it's aesthetic inspirations.

Paul Robertson

His work is a huge inspiration of mine. Visually, he creates life out of such few pixels. The personality he brings into their animations are always a treat to see too.

Paul Robertson's animated video for the song, Devil Eyes.

Devil Eyes is an extremely depressing music video to me. But what stands out about it to me, is not that it's sad. But that the general aesthetic masks such a sad story. I love this. Something that goes much deeper than what appears on the surface. I want my film to be something like that.

Souleye

Souleye's compositions and chiptune-style of music energizes me. I listen to his music while I work and I don't realize how much time passes by because I'm just so into his melodies. I know chiptunes aren't everyone's cup of tea, but the ability to create something so amazing out of such limited technology astounds me.

Souleye's "Positive Force"

The Super Nintendo era

The 16-bit gaming era had a huge impact on me. This was when I learned that games could tell me a story. That they could get me attached to fictional, pixelated characters. That it could give me memories that would last for the rest of my life. One of the most shocking gaming moments I had was when a heroine completely gave up. The world had collapsed. Her loved ones were dead. She was stuck somewhere by herself. She didn't know what to do. And in an act of depression and desperation, she decided to commit suicide. Nobody had talked to me about suicide as a child, and no stories that read or watched had included something so serious. Sometimes, heroes give up too. This changed my view of gaming forever. I won't forget the stories that I played, and the aesthetics of the games are something I refer back to in my film.

An introduction...

So to start this off... I'll give a little background as to why I want to create this film.

This story is my story. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect upon my life these passed few years, and I’ve recently come to a depressing realization. I came to Canada, from the United States to escape my life there. I know this part, and I was happy to leave my old life. However, I didn’t expect one my issues back home would bring so much baggage with me to Canada. I tried to forget about it and move on with my life. I thought that I had gotten over it. My father died when I was about 13 years old. I never talked about this with my friends back home. I don’t discuss this with my new friends here. And through the 3 and a half years that I’ve been with my former partner, I’ve talked about my father twice with him. This is an issue that is still eating away at my insides and I know it’s quietly killing me. I’ve got to get it out of me. Out of my system. This film, Insert Credit, summarizes the more monumental moments of my short lifetime. I’ve decided to theme the story of my life to look like a video game. The knowledge that “David likes video games” is easy to deduce and is something visible on the surface of who I am. So I want to combine this theme with something so deeply personal to me as to cushion the blow of just how emotionally damaging this story is to me to work with. I think this will help me get through this without hurting myself too much. I also want it to look like a cartoon or a game at first, and take people by surprise by having it actually be about something personal. To disarm the viewer somewhat. The film will be done with pixilated sprites, akin to video games of previous generations. It will purposely look like ‘retro’ technology. Health bars of each player in my life will be displayed at the bottom, and players will come and go accordingly in the story.

The kind of research that I thought about doing were to look into more old video games of a certain era, to look into the works of other pixel artists, and to look up technical limitations of the era as well. I want the animation to look genuine, so I need to do a lot of research into the kind of games that I want to emulate. The 80's era of games had a much simpler, different look than the 90's era. I want a more modern interpretation of the sprite art aesthetic. A pixel artist that I look up to is Paul Robertson. His characters have so much personality and the art and animation looks so smooth. His website and community blog 'Mecha Fetus' features much of his work, and I will be perusing it constantly, trying to get a feel for his work process.

The online community 'Pixel Joint' is another huge source of information and inspiration for my film as well. There are many established pixel artists as well as several up and comers that look for tutorials and beginning tips. Many tips that I'd need as well, and since everyone in the community seems so open and friendly, I look forward to talking amongst them.

My dad's death has had an effect on me that cuts deeper than I care to admit. Only upon reflection do I see how I've let this eat away at me, and even then, I tend to remove the thoughts from my mind shortly after.

This film will either be extremely therapeutic, or my emotional downfall this semester.

Either way, I'm ready to take the chance. Finally.