7_1

Pixar's pro tip for yesterday was "Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite."

I'm finding myself rewriting in places I wasn't expecting to. But all for the better. Just cleared up another bit of unnecessary dialogue, while refining other surrounding dialogue. A few minor segments of OH's previous script incarnation still remain, but have mostly been weeded out due to the fact the previous movie version's characters are somewhat different. Jon rightly pointed out, the past version of Adrian wasn't so much educated as innocent - as such, his responses to some of the following events were initially rather cold.

There was also some issues with rather jerky emotion flow and interactions between characters toward the end of scene 7, which have been fixed. I owe many thanks to Jon and Mike for helping me with these. C:

You get to see a moving segment of scene 7 today. Notes on the segment's production can be found in the comments. Enjoy!

Wall Refs and Resolution

This is on the wall in front of my studio comp. It helps to remind me the heights of currently relevant OH species in relation to one another. It has a few old specie names on it because I made the chart before deciding on alterations.

The production still set is something I pulled up today, primarily for showing my Great Uncle but it works as a nice promo too. The video resolution scribbled on the side is the one I'm going to aim for with OH. Having realised about working in widescreen resolutions a little late, the first few scenes of the movie are in odd and varying sizes. It's going to be a bit of a challenge to get them all consistent.

End of Year Review - 2011

Click above to see larger version

The production timeline gives you an idea of where the movie stands in terms of how finished it is. Being the optimist I am, I see this as being halfway through production.

Not to say there isn't a LOT of work left to do, but the feeling of what I have already got done is a very good one right now - edits and all. Every cut, tweak and adjustment has made the movie flow more naturally and, while some of the animation is still fairly rough, I'm starting to actually see the Outcast Hero in my mind's eye become reality on a computer screen. And its exciting.

Jon has been working alongside me during the refinement process, letting me bounce ideas off him with regards to edits and giving suggestions and pointers for timing, dialogue and some visual aspects. I asked him how he thought the drafting was coming along:

"The sketch draft looks brilliant! Watching the movie in animatic form was really something that made me smile. While the movement was rather limited, the dialogue, setting and the visuals engaged me as an audience and as a staff member. The way that Gemma portrays the characters through their expressions and their dialogue really brings life to them, all with a unique personality and a conscience of their own; a trait that I've seen in only a select few movies I've watched.

To see the animatic evolve through the sketch draft makes me even more excited! To see the fluid movement and see the characters come to life... it's truly amazing!

Though I won't say that the sketch draft stages isn't at all challenging. From what I've seen, the expressions and movement are now being tested in terms of making the characters seem real and not just a 2D series of movement. Not only that, but it seems that the animated sketch draft tests our observation in terms of the movie's script and the personalities of all the characters.

Though thanks to the refining of most of the scenes and the input shared between Gemma and the rest of the team, I think we're on the right track!"

On the subject of dialogue and adlibbing character lines, there was a little more insight:

"Adlibbing is rather challenging for me, especially since I'm a man who stutters quite a bit, so I try to write down good ideas that pop into my head. I try to say them out loud in the character's voice to see if I can get the line within the same tones, suitable vocabulary choice and the right quirks as them.

They say that the longer you hang around someone, they start to rub off on you. I think the same could be said about voicing characters, heheh. The longer I've voiced Marlon, the more my brain develops a "Marlon mode" of some sorts, in which I can sometimes roleplay as him and think what would be the best way to handle a situation if I was Marlon himself.

As for Reegan, thinking about his dialogue actually seems... easier. I think it has to with the fact that I've grown up in a family full of members in the military and a few war heroes. Also, since I've played games and watched films involving war, I can get the same vibe as Reegan, be it his love for his arsenal or the old war father figure personality that exists within him.

From there on, trying to think up of dialogue for other characters can be challenging since I don't voice them, minus a few temporary recordings. For the case of Adrian, I'd actually have a talk with Mike and see what he'd think Adrian would do in that specific situation. For dialogue suggestions for Muxlowe, I'd try to wing it and mimic how Tim would voice Muxlowe and have fun with being a goofy ego-bag."

I also asked Bianca -who has been assisting on inbetweens- for her thoughts:

"I think it's looking brilliant! ... it's a lot smoother and well formed than the animatic was, the script is flowing better... and the animatic was amazing to begin with so... ...well on the right tracks."

Everyone at Team OH hopes you'll stick around and see where the next year takes us! :D

The Mystical Anticut

Well scene six is as finished as it's going to get right now.

I spent more time today further refining parts of the script in order to get information across to the audience in a less complicated manner. But a weird phenomena keeps occurring with my movie. The more I go about trimming any unnecessary segments of the project away, the longer the movie gets. How does this even work?

Scenes one to six of the animatic ran to approximately 32 minutes, whereas scenes one to six of the sketch draft run to around 31 minutes. And those scenes have two vital segments missing from them - things I was going to go back and animate later! Very perplexing.

I'm not worried, though. There's a stigma about long movies, especially animated ones, but I figure if people are entertained by what they're watching, they won't notice the duration they're watching for.

Voice Cast News

I'm going to apologize in advance. This is my first time in a director/filmmaker role and as such, lots of things have ended up being learned the hard way. As I continue the sketch draft, it dawns on me that I didn't realise how much refining the movie would be going through at this stage. Scene segments are being cut and edited left, right and centre. Some people have shifted roles during this time, others I'm not even sure will be playing their current roles in the final version.

Consequently I have taken the decision to only keep main voice cast members on the OH main site. Background character VAs will need to expect to either retake lines or play entirely different characters, depending on how the movie develops. I'll keep you posted.

6_6

Less talk, more screenies? Aye aye!

I'm rather excited as I'm very close to Outcast Hero's pivotal event point 1 of 3. Also lots of humour. C8

Thank You, Pixar.

Thank you, Mr. Lasseter and you Pixar pioneers. With every documentary and interview about your studio that I watch, I know I'm on the right track.

Your passion for strong stories, memorable characters and high quality work has been nothing but inspirational.

On those days when I drag myself out of bed -sore, worn out and contemplating the reasons for continuing my movie- those inspirational quotes stuck to my wall push me onward. It is as if I am associating with kindred spirits, reading those quotes, even though we are very much unknown to one another.

In a world where animation is sometimes observed with raised eyebrows and often crammed into a place reserved for one age group, to hear people express just how much they love creating animation for everyone -treating it as the art form it is- that is so emotionally stirring for me.

If there was a way to let you guys know how much your enthusiasm and vision drives Outcast Hero, I would.

- Gemma