Space Race: January 2009

Colman by D.WALTERS

It has been slow to start with the blog, but we have been up-to-date with the initial stages of the story creation. As of last quarter, the winter 2009 pre-production students have been writing scripts. The "gauntlet" began as a brainstorm of excitement. Every student coming first week with a script.

Through a process of elimination, students had to "sell" their story and pitch it to a panel of instructors. The panel paid a lot of attention to the script writing both in format structure as well as creative content.

From these interviews the panel would then narrow the number of scripts down to more than half. With 8 scripts still on board, those students became directors. The remaining students gravitated to the scripts that interested them. To then become a part of that production team, thus ending "round-one".

With both excitement and anxiety, the students gathered with their respective teams to a formulate a game plan. Positions, duties, skill-sets. Decisions to make either a 2D or a 3D-animation. Revisions of the script, you name it. Styles, themes, and characters had to be conceptualized in both personality and visually.

Concept art is the general term for these visual pieces. They can range from simple character model sheets to a full digital paintings of a scene. Students became quickly aware of the script writing process. Aiming for no more than 5 to 7 minute animations, scripts had to be shortened, or the opposite; expanded. From revisions of characters, of themes, to even total overhauls of scripts were being taken place.

Come following week and fully re-armed, the eight directors and their teams gave a second pitch. Not only showcasing their concept material, but this being the first time the rest of the class gets introduced to each others scripts.

After a private discussion, the panel decided to keep the majority of the remaining on board. Differences only in what the teams need to improve; some more than others. Below is a selection of some of the concept art done for this last pitch. With my skilled team at hand and my duties of director, there is more to come!

-Alex

*click on the images to view full-size*