Thinking about Birdie's Arc

I've been working a bit on Pickled recently but it's slow going. I've been working for a long time on a pencil test of two shots that hookup. It's coming along technically. My recent task is to really think about how Birdie feels and what she's projecting in the film and in this shot. I feel like I should do rough pencil tests of her throughout the film before focusing in on any given shots. Which seems overwhelming. Creating pencils tests for 3 minutes of screen time and then going back to those tests later, scene by scene will probably be a bit confusing. I think the benefits will outweigh the negatives though. Visually rough blocking out a clear character arc in detail before focusing in seems like a great idea.

This week I watched Indie Game: The Movie and Brave

On Monday I purchased and watched Indie Game: The Movie and last night I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of Brave! Both were awesome and inspirational. You can purchase Indie Game: The Movie here: http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/. The film follows several game makers while they are working on their independent projects. I love seeing their devotion, drive and perfectionism. Brave was not the action packed mysterious fairy tale I had imagined, but more of a situation comedy and heavy on character interactions. I guess I had imagined something heavier and darker. I really enjoyed the mom and dad characters as well as the clan leaders. Well... Merida and her brothers and the clan leader's sons were all awesome too. A lot of really entertaining characters. There was one shot in the film that is utterly breathtaking in terms of animation quality. The shot when young Merida sits on the grass and her dad has just gifted her a bow. Her reaction. I have to see that again.