Premise: Reflective Statement

Looking back at what I have managed to achieve for this project over the last few months, I think at this point that I have done well with what I have finished, but the project itself still needs a long way to go. In terms of the characters and the environment design, I feel that those are the strongest elements I have for the project, especially around the protagonist Drew and how there thoughts and feelings play into the role of the story. I like how in depth I managed to construct the backstory for both the characters and the environment, which I feel in the end has defiantly helped with constructing a story and a continuous theme that I wanted to explore. 

I ended up working on this project backwards in someways, by coming up with the character design and backstory before having a story outline, which at the beginning I was hesitant about it majorly effecting the outcome of my story, but for this I feel it gave me more confidence around exploring and developing the story later on. I am also happy with the construct around the story, and from experience from making other stories I am glad that I managed to create an effective theme and story without creating too many characters or props that might have hindered me later on when I convert the story into Maya, so I can also say that I feel confident about my future workload and that I didn’t approach the story with an overachieving mindset, which I have done in the past and has affected the outcome of my finished products. 

Outside of the design work, I also want to mention that for this project I was able to find a rhythm around handling my workload, which I also think has helped with the outcome for my animatic and the supporting work in my Art of. For this project, unlike some in the past, I was able to think more around the usage of sound within the animatic, as well as thinking more about timing and improving upon the animatic once I had the basic layout done, which I also think has helped me improve not only the outcome, but also my confidence within this animatic and how I can build upon it for further progress in year three. Thanks also to this routine, I created I was able to develop an ending and improve upon some glaring structural issues I had within my animatic, as I was struggling in the beginning to address the issues and flow of the story with just the storyboards, so creating the animatic early gave me the chance to see how the story would come together fully which I think also helped with the outcome for the animatic. 

However I do have a few glaring issues surrounding the outcome of this project, with one of them being the translation of the themes and elements I wanted to portray within the story to others. I didn’t end up getting any early feedback on my story outside of tutorial appointments, which I think along with the isolation due to COVID-19 made me become so absorbed with the project that I don’t know it looks like from the outside, and if it even makes any sense. Looking back now I think the decision to not get any feedback from others came mostly from fear that the feedback would concern them not being able to understand the story or Drew’s journey, so I continued to build upon the story with concepts and ideas that made sense in my head, but I am concerned that it don’t make sense to other people. 

The animatic itself also has a six minute run time, which I would like to trim down as well because I am concerned about not being able to get in done in my final year and I feel that some elements within the story could be cut out. The middle section of the animatic I feel that I need to get some outside opinions on, because I think it’s the weakest portion of the animatic, as not very much happens and also there are some repetitive shots and motions within the film that I would like to change. One example of this I feel is during the third act, when Drew meets their Dad, I wanted to have a moment of venerability and growth for Drew, which was sparked by their Dad, with the venerability being shown through Drew grabbing and holding on their Dads hand and shaking their head to portray their anxiety and concern. This scene happens twice and within a short space of time in between that I feel might make the story feel confusing and repetitive, so I am going to develop that, by probably changing the first time it happens, but keeping the second time it happens, as I feel that scene is more impactful and translates better. 

I decided to add sound effects instead of music to the animatic, because I felt that music would take way from the large dark space and the visual atmosphere I wanted to create from that. I liked the way it turned out in some elements of the animatic, such as the continuous usage of the background / crowd noise in the beginning of the animatic, that I decided would be a good audio cue to portray Drew’s growing anxiety as well as the wind in the sequences where Drew walks through the large, dark space which I think helped emphasise the area they were in and also gave a more eerie effect. In the future I would like to record my own sound effects, just because I wanted to have more echoing on the sound of the footsteps and the fabric to, again help emphasise the vast, empty space they are walking in. I would like to explore the concept of assigning sound effects the lights within the story, as I did try this briefly with the light that Drew sees under their bedroom door in the beginning as well as when Drew accepts their own light at the end, just to make them feel more alive and also help the audience with distinguishing between them better. I did like the outcome that the sound effects brought towards the story, and at this point I still don’t think I will be adding any music onto the animation. 

At this point I am planning on combing through the animation and making improvements upon the story, but not before I gather some outside feedback so I can focus more on making the animation more audience friendly. I am going to take a break firstly from the project before I start making any improvements however, as I feel that I have tunnel vision for the project at this point and need to give myself a chance to look at the project with fresh eyes after not seeing it for a while. I also think I there are still some old themes that are still lingering in the animatic that don’t need to be in there after doing so many improvements and story edits so I also am going to try and focus on a maximum of two themes within the story, just so it doesn't become to overcrowded and confusing. 

But overall I had an interesting time making this animatic and developing this project. I feel confident that I can develop the story further over the summer so it's more tight for my final year and I can go into development with a clear understanding of what the story is. But for the animatic itself I am happy with the outcome and am proud of some of the shots I have in the final video, as well as how the sound has corresponded with them and helps to elevate the scene better. I am confident about doing extra improvements over the summer as I feel the animatic is a good foundation for what I could use to improve the project, but I don't think its quite finished yet.