Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The 72 hour script...

About 2 weeks ago i gave myself an ultimatum....

Well actually it was an idea i got from watching TV. I was watching some really bad horror movie on the Chiller network (which by the way i didn't even know i had) and realized that they had a budget of about a buck twenty, and a weekend to film it on a school campus. This was low budget filmmaking to a "T". And as i saw this, and thought of my armchair critic friends, with their "I could make a better film with my left pinky... if only i actually had the will to move from this chair...", i said to myself: I can do this! I will do this!

And so an IDEA was born. This was a late Friday night, after a long day at work, with 2 more to come. I said i will give myself until monday morning to write a script. Whatever i am left with at that time i will storyboard, design, create and animate in the weeks to come. I knew i would be working on this late at night, working 12 hour days and finishing it in a rush. But in a way that was the point. Don't give yourself time to over think, over design, or procrastinate. By the time i could get bored/distracted with writing it'd be finished. Like the nike ads always said: JUST DO IT!

And so i did. the script is done. I wish i had more time to tweek things here or there. Maybe had more time to embellish or flesh out a couple more scenes. but it is done. The first stage of SB are done. I need to finish designing my characters, so that i can better draw the second draft of the SB. I have most of their personality down, but i am still plugging away. Maybe in a week, i can show you the boards. But for now i have taken to the habit of skating to my local park. Listening to kids play, and i draw the life of these characters, that you will soon one day see.

I encourage you to do the same. Create your own buck twenty mini movie. Don't think big. don't think it can't be done. And even if its animation (which makes people think that it requires massive amounts of time and effort), don't think that we can't make low budget horror/action/love/dramas over a weekend.

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