36. Surge
How we bust out. Momentum for my next animated short film, stylistic explorations, character studies, a process video. Chamoe screens in Manhattan.
The key to the whole duck is the eye and where it is placed. It's like a little jewel. It's so perfectly placed to show off a jewel—right in the middle of the head, next to this S-curve with the bill sitting out in front, but with enough distance so that the eye is very well secluded and set out. When you're working on a film, a lot of times you can get the bill and the legs and the body and everything, but this eye of the duck is a certain scene, this jewel, that if it's there, it's absolutely beautiful. It's just fantastic.
—David Lynch
Hey,
Sorry for the later-than-usual delivery today—it’s still Tuesday in California where I am for a blip and time has been tricky.
Second, thanks to all who’ve been reading and engaging with Ruminations (creative inspo, sidebars)! They’ve been fun to write.
A friend forwarded this meme a few weeks ago:
We’d been fluctuating between 65F and 85F for weeks, but temperatures have cooled off for real, dipping into the 40s and capping off in the 60s. I can finally take down my AC unit.
It is now Actual Fall.
Spring and summer are great, but I love always-open windows, warm drinks by a fireplace, snow storms. I’m also most productive during dark daytime hours. I’m looking forward to cocooning.
As if to herald the changing of the seasons, I had what felt like a surge of momentum for my next animated short, tentatively titled:
Masks.
A reminder that however certainly I talk about Masks, it’s possible that I’ll end up going another route. We remain very much in exploration mode for this next film.
For now though, disbelief gamely continues to remain suspended. And in case you’re wondering, I am still getting a lot of mileage out of those sticky-note brainstorming exercises (6.5 min video):
As I shared in another video for Issue 33, an outline and rough “storyboard” came out of those exercises:
I put the latest iteration into a timeline for ease of review. While the result isn’t a true storyboard (though I know I’ve been calling it that)— it’s a solid precursor. I’d run it for you but right now the cards mostly look like this:
So I’ll share when it’s beyond the chicken-scratch + notes phase.
I did pick out scenes to paint
the past few weeks, exploring broadly. I fiddled with line work as secondary animation style, line work as primary animation style. I went muddier, paint-on-glass-ish. I scaled back, went way off-piste. I was listening for a resonant stylistic note to galvanize the story:
After a week of this, I arrived here:
Below, I go into more detail on this potential direction, how I’m thinking about it, why I’m excited about it—along with character studies and a process video at 8x.
BTW, Chamoe just screened at Imagine This Women's International Film Festival in NYC this past weekend. I’ll share more in the next issue.
Oh, and the Encounters Film Festival is happening right now. This year, online programmes are unfortunately geo-blocked to the UK but you can pay-what-you-want for select individual films. SOTW has recommendations, most of which are available in the U.S.
Anyway, members: read on for details on process. Rest of y’all, see you next time!