#i finished the storyboards and script 2 years ago but i just never got around to it again lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brandonk10 · 6 years

Link

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MOAmdC3rcX7WNTQMGAZaNS_FMNDZI7oD

Above are the Images I did this summer that I’m really happy with!

So as a TLDR for the post,

-Animation Compilation below, has OC's in it, whom are credited to the creators.

-My favorite images from this summer that I did, either for commissions or fun, are in the comments with an additional image showing all the character models I made or tweaked in the past year, which tallied to 68.

-I'm fixing the storyboards for Jade's trailer to begin production once I get to college.

-JADE is moving from Remnant to a new world of my creation. They aren't RWBY OC's anymore. Answers to any questions you might have are possibly located in the FAQ part of the post that I'm sharing.

-I'm not going to stop posting here, since it does not break any rules, and have spoken with an admin on a schedule. I will be able to keep my weekly schedule since it is only one post per week, and isn't diverting the group from it's primary focus. But if I do stop posting, then most likely I broke a rule.

Hello Everyone!

So I’ve reached the last week of my summer break before going back to College! So I’ve got a couple of things to get to.

First of all, I have compiled all the animations from this year that have been posted on this page, but not on my youtube channel. The finish date has been posted. I’ve also attached the 3 Commission Animations that I did for Recent Commissions!

https://youtu.be/h0iylBttnTY

Second, here is all the quality images that I have completed this summer! It contains plenty of OC’s that I did for either Commissions, or as fan art for my friends! The OC’s and their owners shall be listed below! On top of that, I did a tally image of all the models I have worked on, or modeled from scratch and rigged in the past year. That tally reached 68 Models. Now those OC’s will be listed with their owners below if they do not belong to me. Now if we were to count models that weren’t rigged I technically have over 100 models, because of some fun requests I did around a year ago.

Thirdly, I am currently working on fixing up the storyboards to be easier to read in terms of poses and action. I will be finishing up the storyboards over the next few days, and should be able to finish the animatic before going back to College.

Finally, next week I will be releasing a poster to announce the production beginning on Jade’s Trailer. Now with that will be a visual reveal of something that’ll change how the series functions. JADE is jumping ship from Remnant, and will no longer be considered “RWBY OC’s”, instead they are going to be characters in a world that I am currently creating. It isn’t fully completed in concept, but the events of Jade’s trailer will be easy to pin in this world since the concepts of this new world that’ll be present in Jade’s trailer have already been planned out. There are several reasons for me doing this, firstly, I really adore these characters and would love to make the series to it’s full completion, but unless I work for RT, they green light the show (Which their internship pages have illustrated that they are not looking for a new show concept, unless if you are a higher-up in the company, which is fair), and I’m given creative control on the project, I cannot create the show as into the future as I would love to, while being able to sustain myself without simply infringing on copyright. Which is, again, a fair point. Secondly, I am doing this because it would allow me to be more creative with the world, and improve my writing abilities by forcing myself to do research overload, a task I find oh so exciting. Thirdly, it would probably be more appropriate for the series in reflection, because all drafts of any script or outline for JADE since beginning making RWBY OC’s in general involved me conceptualizing new ideas for Remnant ranging from locales, cultures, aura systems, and aura abilities making those drafts’ only attachment to RWBY seem to be the color team name, aura, dust, and semblance.

To address some questions before they do come up, as they are fair points.

-I will be doing my best to separate JADE from RWBY as much as possible. In fact, their team name was never based on a color in it’s origin, it’s actually an inside-joke amongst them. So if I decide to keep the joke, I’ll keep the name, but if I don’t then the name will vanish. As a warning for the future of this update, I will be using the Remnant counterparts to the systems in this world.

-The “Aura” of the world, will not feature a primary defense mechanism, and is currently being conceptualized as an idea that groups people into various classes of combat, and life in general, since it can be used to determine personality. I’m going to try to enhance upon that so I can differentiate between this culture and Remnant’s.

-The “Dust” of the world, will not have lead to man’s creation, will not be explosive, will have additional types that will differentiate it from dust, and will need further tweaking to properly distinguish it.

-The “Semblance” of this world will not be based on a personality trait, but a flaw, since a theme of the story will be about self betterment, or achieving perfection. So the power is designed to counter-act that key weakness in their character, forcing them to begin to change, but not get the instant answer.

-The “Grimm” of this world, are different in every way I can imagine, as they were designed to, and will take on a more natural approach, as opposed to silhouette-like designs.

-Characters will not be named after colors, there will be birth reasons for it that aren’t related to colors. Sadly, this is an idea I only realized was an issue recently, so I will be making an effort to properly think this through so it won’t be subject to an accusal of plagiarism.

-All-in-All I’m going to try to make the world as far from Remnant as possible.

If you decide to stop supporting this project, I hope I’ve entertained you with my Animation, and that you have a fantastic life, and if you haven’t already, go watch NYON Episode 2, it’s just so much fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nXYbPGqVjA&t=447s

All OC’s to the best of my Ability from Left to Right in that Group Image:

From Left to Right (As Best I can):

Auburn Perrault: Aundreya Garcia

Avena Sharpe: Garrett Calvery

Noirie, Niya and Mella Mavros, and Jade Tengu: Gabe Chestnut

Ivori Levina: James Wright II

Dage: Nico O'Gorman

Marian Loreli: Kristopher Kernan

Venus Rosebind: Jayden King

Lavender Fairclough: Dre Taylor

JC Avatar: https://twitter.com/jcthedawn

Rocco Obsidia: Kyle Duffy

Kobolt Walthers: Michael Lopez

Rai Tempest: Jezreel Deity Tuldague

Artemis, and Yue Hinto: Demetri Li

Verdell Hydra (Also Chibi), Elroy Minos, Nigel Harbour, and Magenta Rachnera: EL Austria

Mourvédre Rolandé Vinvalier, and Regynt Richelle: Nico O'Gorman

Vera: Maevis Tobi Richardson

Silver, Lavender, and Violet: Scott Callahan

Mika Anuna: Christian Perez

Grey Korudo: William Raymond

Mallaithe o'lFreann: Sara Rhys Whipple

All Models were modeled, textured, rigged, and posed/animated by me.

All "Jade" Characters belong to me

I do not own RWBY, all ownership belong to Monty Oum, and Rooster Teeth Productions

If you're interested in seeing my Animations, my YouTube Channel is here:

www.youtube.com/user/StopMotio…

If you want to be updated on things elsewhere, such as WIP's and Progress, here's my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TeamJADEAnimation/

2 notes · View notes

blschaos3000-blog · 4 years

Text

its 10:02 pm dark/chilly/woah!!

Welcome to “8 Questions with….”

Before the cheetah and I teamed up to become the best film reviewers ever,I used to just use films as white noise (I have shared this story in a past blog). Around 2015ish I started to actually WATCH what was on my screen and one of the early films I did take a interest in was a movie called “The Hit List”. I bought it because it had former teen star Joey Lawrence on the cover looking very dapper and with a very cute blonde. Now I’ll be perfectly honest here,I wasn’t expecting much because I had never seen anyone cast Lawrence in a serious way. But to my pleasant surprise,”The Hit List” was really good and Joey Lawrence was easily the best thing about the film,up to that point,I can say its the best thing he has done and I was really impressed with him. I looked at who the director was to have that much faith in Joey and had gotten such a good performance from him. I saw the name Minh Collins and then promptly forgot it. Now its 2020 and a young PR guy named Phil Herman pings and wants to know if I am interested in talking to a director of a new horror film called “Clown Fear”. I type up Clown Fear up in IMDb and see Minh Collins name,when I looked him up and saw his credits and “The Hit List”,I was pretty pumped. Hell YES,I would love to talk with Minh. I knOw that this man has skills and more importantly,he was into taking chances with his casting choices. To be able to get the best out of a cast is never a easy job for a director and I’ve seen that enough while reviewing movies. Minh Collins is such a director and I really enjoyed putting his 8 Questions together and even more happier that you get to read them……so let’s get going,shall we?

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your latest project ,”Clown Fear”?

Hi, my name is Minh Collins. I’m the writer/director of the new horror film “Clown Fear”. This movie was inspired out of frustration while casting another action film called Asphalt Jungle. I had funding in place for that movie but needed to cast a name actor. My team spent about a year in preproduction and were on the verge of signing a big star, but it wasn’t meant to be, because at the last minute we had scheduling conflicts. I was then informed at that time of Lionsgate opening slots for their horror films in the coming year. I immediately switched gears and started writing the script. I knew casting for a horror film would be much easier because I didn’t need to rely on a name actor to greenlight my project. By the way, here’s a great story of how I cast all the female leads in my horror film. I was at a bar in North Hollywood while having drinks at a friend’s birthday party. I was talking to a group of ladies and one thing led to another when someone suggested we all do a film together. It was all talk at the time while under the influence of several cocktails, flash forward a year later we started principle photography on Clown Fear. I kept my word and hired all the girls for the movie. I truly love the casting process on this project because it was so much easier to not rely on one actor to greenlight my project. My producer Asif Akbar and I made all the decisions and as you can see, most of the cast are friends that we have worked with on past projects. There are so many amazing talents in LA.

What was growing up in the Collins home like? Did you always love films even as a young child? Were you parents very artistic and did they encourage you to express yourself?

Growing up in the Collins home was pretty normal. My family loved sports and my brother and I were athletes. We lived in Ventura near the beach so I participated in Jr. lifeguard every summer, played youth football during the fall and little league baseball in the summer. My dad was very involved with us kids and coached our team until we went on to play in high school. Pretty much year round sports for us, so I had aspirations of playing professional sports but an injury while playing on the varsity football team at Buena High School was a setback. My parents wanted us kids to be doctors or a lawyers so being artistic was not encouraged in our household. Growing up, my hobbies were photography and painting.

When did you know you wanted to get into the film industry and and how did you end up behind the scenes when so many want to be in front of the camera?

While working at U.C.L.A. medical center, I learned about the film industry. My first job was doing background on a T.V. commercial. The first time I stepped on the set, I knew I wanted to direct. I quit my job and started working as a P.A. on the U.S.A. network show called Pacific Blue. Even back then, I never had any aspirations of being in front of the camera. I did appeared in a small role in Star Trek Voyager years ago where I played an alien.

What was directing your first project like? What were three things that prepared you the most for directing? Should new directors do short films as a rule?

I directed my first short film back in 2004. It was a twisted comedy call “Gratuity”. It’s available on Youtube if anyone would like to visit my very first film. I had such a fond memory of that project and also learned so much. This was back when digital was just emerging as the new media and everyone shot in 35mm. I remembered the Canon XL1 was the rage but I didn’t like the looks of it at the time. So I decided to go with the Panasonic HVx 100 that gave the movie a closer to film look. We shot the short in 2 days at the old Holiday Inn on the beach in Ventura. That film led to acquiring funding for my first feature film “Hit List”. So, yes I truly believe directors should do short films. It’s the best way to show investors a sample of their work. I don’t know if I have three things that prepares me to direct a film. It’s more like 100 things but here are three very important things to me. 1. I believe a director needs to have a vision. Without a vision then it’s very hard to convey what is needed from the cast and crew. 2. A director needs to know his/her shots. Either a storyboard or a shot list. 3. This is the one that I believe should be the most important, a director needs to know how to work with all type of different personalities on a set.

What is the biggest difference between being a film director and a producer? Which hat do you prefer to wear and why?

This is a great question! I prefer to being a director than a producer. The director has all the creative control of the film. Of course things can change in post but I like to also work with my editor to finalize the final product. On this project, we had an extremely short shooting schedule and it was up to me as the director to capture all the shots. I needed to be 110% prepared with my shot list because there’s not enough time to try and figure things it out during the shoot. I like to describe the role of the producer as someone that creates the atmosphere for the director to paint his art.

What was the genesis of “Clown Fear” and why do you feel people are so scared of clowns? How did you draw Grindstone and Lionsgate into the project?

I’ve touched on how the concept of “Clown Fear” was inspired earlier but as why people are afraid of clowns. Hmm? It’s an enigma to me. Everyone has phobias and coulrophobia is definitely a very interesting phenomenon. I’m not afraid of clowns, but I have a theory why. I believe it stems from childhood when parents have a clown at their children’s birthday party. A kid’s first association at the age of five of some weird clown makeup person could be extremely scary on a child’s impression.

Going into this project, I knew we had a good chance of getting Grindstone/Lionsgate to look at the script. Of course there were no guarantees of them picking up the distribution. I’m glad we were able to finish the deal once we were done with the film.

How hard is it to co-write a script with another person? Walk us through a typical writing day and tell about your process.

The writing process was very tough because I knew we had a short window to turn it in for approval. I was finishing my documentary at the same time with my producer on a documentary film “Rocking The Couch”. We spent about twelve hours each day for two weeks straight editing and at the same time I would be writing.

What is the line between “horror” and “torture porn” and how does a director decide when enough is enough in terms of violence?

There are many horror films that I considered torture porn. For me, it’s when the nudity and sexual content stops being a part of the story. I try to stay within a certain criteria for “Clown Fear”. We were able to get the “R” rating through the MPAA board. If it doesn’t pass with the “R” rating then we would have to re-edit the movie to meet the criterias. Fortunately, we passed with the “R” rating the first time through but I knew we were well within the criteria. Each pass can be extremely expensive due to re-edits and re-submissions. Grindstone/Lionsgate would not accept our film if it got an “X”.

What is the health of the indie horror industry in your opinion?

I believe indie horror industry is doing well in today’s changing market. There was a recent article in Forbes about the horror genre still being the most lucrative for investors. The reason is due to a horror films can be produced at a low cost and there’s a constant demand for new contents from horror fans.

What three actors have you enjoyed working with the most and what makes them so great to work with?

You guys really ask tough questions. I really enjoyed working with so many actors over the years. I had such a great time working with Joey Lawrence on “Hit List”. Joey and I had the same understanding of the script and we saw his character in the same light. When the lead actor is easy to work with then it makes my job a lot easier and we can focus on being creative. I love working with Darcy Demoss on Clown Fear. Darcy was such a great person to collaborate with on this film. It’s nice when someone is a pro at what they do, then it’s easy to mesh the role into one vision. The other actor that I enjoyed working with is Marv Blauvelt aka Tiny Clown. In life, sometimes being in the right place at the right time is what it takes to get that break. This was the case with Marv, I had problems with the lead actor on the first day of filming and decided that it Iwasn’t going to work out. I had kept Marv on standby and decided that day to do a last minute replacement. Marv gladly dove into the lead role of Tiny Clown and never looked back. He had a lot of energy and passion for the part but just needed some direction to create the persona that made the character come to life. I loved what he brought to the table and there were times I knew it was too over the top and curved him back. I prefer to work with someone that is enthusiastic with a role than someone thinking they are above it and will just go through the motion.

What scares you?

Well, for one I was never afraid of clowns until we filmed this movie. LoL! I don’t have coulrophobia if that’s what you’re thinking but I have respect for them now. There were so many “fires” during the filming of this movie. We had so many things that went wrong that it became a standing joke with my producer and I. We blamed it on the “Clowns” as if they were playing jokes on us. So after all the craziness that happened, I now believe there was a real clown entity that was there playing a role with the entire production. It’s like the clown spirits watching us, so now I understand why people have a fear of clowns.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch your latest film but we are a day early and now you are playing tour guide,what are we doing?

I’m going to run you both by my town of Hollywood Florida. It’s the best hidden gem of the east coast. Most tourists will visit Miami or Fort Lauderdale but nestle between these two cities is my little town of Hollywood Florida. It’s a quaint beaches community with great restaurants and bars on the ocean front. Beautiful sunsets on the intercoastal waters and the best film festival in the state (Hollywood Florida Film Festival). https://www.floridahollywoodfilmfestival.com/

I like to thank Minh for taking the time to talk with us about his craft. “Clown Fear” is out now and can be found at Wal-Mart,Best Buy and other large retailers. While you’re at it,snag a copy of “The Hit List” off Amazon or EBay,you’ll be glad you did!!

Thanks to Phil Herman as well…..this was a lot of fun!

As how you can follow Minh’s next move…….

You can follow him on his IMDb page. You can follow him on Twitter. You can also follow Minh on his InstaGram page.

Thank you for reading and sharing Minh’s interview with your friends and peers. If you’re new to the blog and the “8 Questions with….”series,you can catch up here. Feel free to drop a comment….

8 Questions with………..film director/producer Minh Collins its 10:02 pm dark/chilly/woah!! Welcome to "8 Questions with...." Before the cheetah and I teamed up to become the best film reviewers ever,I used to just use films as white noise (I have shared this story in a past blog).

#8 Questions With #casting #Clown Fear #Film director #goals #Grindstone #Hard work #Hollywood-Florida #indie film makers #indie horror #Joey Lawrence #Lionsgate #passion #Producer #screenwriting #visionary

0 notes

63824peace · 4 years

Text

Tuesday, 22nd of november 2005

A friend pulled me into conversation this morning without even saying hello. "I saw a Quake-Cloud last week. It was terrible, frightful... just awful."

He claimed to have clearly seen a cloud shaped like an arrow, pointing from the sky to Roppongi Hills. He said it was obviously a Quake-Cloud... a premonition that Roppongi would suffer tremors.

The sight had shocked him so severely that he couldn't tell anyone about it until today.

"Last week?" I said. "But when? Which day?"

"I don't remember... perhaps Thursday."

"I hadn't heard any news of this."

"No, there's no mistaking it!" he insisted. "I saw a Quake-Cloud!"

He usually watches all sorts of television programs related to these matters. He's probably an expert by now.

"A Quake-Cloud, eh?"

What do Quake-Clouds even look like? Are they magnetic fields created from seismic distortions in the bedrock? I'm clueless on these matters.

I listened to him doubtfully, and he seemed to lose patience. The prophet muttered his forecast: "A huge earthquake will hit within two weeks." He appeared somehow relieved, and then he hastily tottered away.

A big earthquake, huh... maybe it'll come, and maybe it won't. If I start to worry about something as small as this, I might as well worry forever.

I should still prepare for the worst though. I have readied myself for the reality that a huge earthquake will hit someday.

I relayed the story as a joke to Matsuhanan, and he reacted with a serious expression.

"What's wrong?" I said.

Matsuhanan lowered his voice. "I'm not saying this to scare you, but--" His voice cut on the word. He leaned closely and hardened his expression. "I dreamed of an earthquake over the weekend."

"So?" I said. "What about it?"

"I had a dream, and in it we all got hit by an earthquake."

"Hmm. Well, still, that's just the sort of thing you'd expect from a dream, right?"

"However," he said. "On top of that, my wife also dreamed of an earthquake that very same morning."

Two similar events can happen, and we can still dismiss them as coincidences. Something more enormous than mere coincidence emerges when three similar events occur. How ominous....

Everyone who had not paid attention to our conversation earlier now listened intently. The air thickened, and the very atmosphere changed immediately.

Matsuhanan and I had both experienced the Kobe Earthquake. Memories from that time bubbled to the surface of my thoughts. I don't ever want to experience or see anything like that again. I decided to shut off these negative emotions as soon as possible.

"So you and your wife both dreamed of earthquakes? The answer's pretty simple here--you must have been on top of your wife without knowing it!"

"H-hey! That's not true!"

"Sexy Matsuhanan!"

"Oh, be serious."

I managed to ease the tense, nervous atmosphere with a little juvenile obscenity. We settled the matter with laughter.

We've seen some pretty scandalous problems lately regarding cover-ups of some buildings' vulnerability to earthquakes. The news broke when everyone concerned themselves with earthquake preparations. "How can we prepare for the big earthquake?" they asked. "And what will we do after the earthquake actually hits?"

I heard that some buildings can topple even under a small earthquake. If a building will collapse under just a small one, what will we do when the big one hits?

Dangers fill our world.

An earthquake will definitely hit us one day. No one knows when, of course, but Tokyo can't avoid its fate. It may hit tomorrow, within ten years, or even fifty years from now.

Still, we can't squander time worrying. We live in Tokyo, and we can't leave it. We certainly won't abandon it. We live with the possibility of disaster every day. Most importantly, we must avoid panic while also keeping ourselves prepared for our future quake.

A long time ago, Toho produced a movie called Jishin Retto (1980). Kaneto Shindo wrote the film's scenario; he's one of my favorite directors. The last scene disappointed me because it was just a rehash of the famous panic movie, Earthquake (1974).

The film's contents aside, the advertisement copy was great. It went something like this: "I knew it would hit one day... but I never thought it would hit today."

Over the past weekend I finally got to watch the bonus disc's extra footage from War of the Worlds. It lasted a total of 165 minutes.

They presented the Previsualization Method developed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). The method draws out the full potential of scenes that use a lot of CG and CGI.

Film-makers traditionally edited the CGI and V/A composition into the film after they had finished shooting. There's a problem with that method though. According to these traditional methods, we needed to shoot the film against a blue screen background. We could have a hard time feeling out where the non-existent objects, scenery, and atmosphere belonged in the shooting studio.

Each person's imagination differs from other people's imaginations. We have a lot of room for miscommunication and misunderstandings. The shooting studio only becomes more chaotic when everyone on the set works out of sync with the total scenario conveyed on the blue screen.

ILM invented Previsualization to solve this problem. Think of it as a storyboard transferred into 3D images.

Each person can coordinate himself with the total scenario when he examines the Previsualized images in the shooting studio. People can arrive at a consensus understanding among themselves before they shoot... the actors, the special effects team, the stuntmen, and the CG team.

We can use this to determine how all the visual elements will correlate. We'll also work more efficiently with ILM's Previsualization Method. Production costs will drop. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

James Cameron made a small model of his set while working on Terminator 2 in order to shorten his production period. He used a small camera to test various angles, and then he started to shoot. He cut back on the time needed to make his set that way.

Previsualization uses the same idea. We can decide how to adjust our special effects and our camera placement by moving character models through scenery in 3D space. We can decide how to handle our set, visual characteristics, props, and CGI usage after selecting the camera location.

This is how they produced War of the Worlds so quickly. Spielberg is known for a quick turnaround on his films, but Previsualization made this one possible.

I thought about how similar Previsualization seems to resemble our own development methods when I saw it in motion. We naturally used those methods when games became 3D in the late 1990s. We didn't pick it up from anyone... it's simply necessary to make our games.

We first construct the game using simple models and scenery. We treat the cutscenes the same way because they require cinematic effects. We test the module while minimizing all our resources, such as processing speed, MGS-defining characteristics, camera, and general operations. We must reduce everything to its bare qualities in our Previsualization Phase.

Once we fix everything using trial and error, we move on to full-scale production. The film industry's shooting phase equates to this.

Likewise, we don't use the older methods of making the game's map. Instead of drawing it directly, we structure the game according to the script team's provisional map. Once we've done that, we hand everything over to the designers. The pre-production period always lasts the longest while making a game.

The film industry could only have realized its Previsualization Method through digital technology. Film has finally evened out with the game-making process. Some aspects of game-making are behind the times. Other parts, however, are well ahead.

I ate lunch at the Nishi Azabu restaurant La Brace. I ordered spaghetti with ground chicken and Chinese cabbage. I wanted a drink of wine, but I controlled myself. Customers all around me wet their throats.

It's only on the lunch menu, but that was a big salad.

The pasta tasted delicious too. I paid a cheap price considering how much I ate.

We held our hiring interviews in the afternoon. After that we worked on our projects for MGS4 until evening, just like yesterday.

The project certainly is fun. I'd love to work on it twenty-four hours a day. I only want to create.

I'll totally shift my focus onto MGS4 once our new PSP project gets off the ground. I'll try to avoid entanglements such as interviews, clients, meetings, or lectures. I have to focus on my work during the pre-production and Previsualization periods.

At the bookstore I bought the fifth volume of Complete Cobra. I buy manga to read at a later date these days. I haven't got time to read any of them now, and the same really goes for novels. I finished reading Mr. Kurokawa's book Ansho, and I have started reading Parker's latest, Melancholy Baby.

I received my copy of NewWORDS, an entertainment magazine for mature adults. Kadokawa Publishing will release it November 25.

The cover really impacts the reader. It's a shot of Natalie Portman with her head entirely shaved! It will catch the attention of people in the bookstore. The magazine's first issue comes with a UMD Video that contains an episode of Blood+. I think it's really hip that they're not just including a regular DVD.

I wish this mature entertainment magazine great success.

I am actually helping NewWORDS by giving them an interview and writing introductions to movies. I'd like many adults to read it.

People in the past used to call Otaku a new type of subculture. Now we have all become adults. These Otaku now work as members of society, and they pay the usual taxes. They register to vote, and they participate in politics. They have married and now take care of families with children. They have become aware of their larger human community.

The Otaku's loneliness has disappeared, but his responsibilities have increased. These Otaku swore never to grow up -- yet they grew up without even noticing.

Nonetheless, games and anime still mean a lot to them.

People started calling manga "graphic novels." Manga became acceptable as dignified adult entertainment as time moved on. We also ought to have anime and games made specifically for adults.

But here's the question: will supply or demand come first?

Nothing will happen if we just wait for an answer. We're not looking at an issue of "When will it happen?" We're dealing with an issue of ‘Who will do it?’"

Who will innovate products to serve this market?

Now that I think on it, people in the last century used to call Otaku a new type of human being or an alien race. I think that Otaku should take a lesson from War of the Worlds -- they should return as adults from underground.

Our bodies retain the sturdy weight of our time's residue. As adults at last, we shall shed the filth on our own.

0 notes

scottsdalegoodreviews · 4 years

Text

HubPages Interview With Author Amelia Griggs

Take a peek into the life of one of our long-time authors who writes about a multitude of topics and has just published their sixth book.

We want to get to know you. Can you provide us with a brief “about me” paragraph?

In my day-to-day job as an author, instructional designer, and eLearning developer, I continue to discover new things to share with others. My goal is to make people’s lives easier by providing simple instructions and educational content to help everyone accomplish their goals. I have always loved writing for as long as I remember. I have self-published three educational books on Amazon, three children’s books, and I’m working on more. I also love creating training videos and I currently have 90 videos and counting on my easylearningweb YouTube channel. I also love writing short stories and rhyming poems. You can search for me on Amazon to see all of my published books.

As far as my background, I have a Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology. My interests and talents are in computers, education, e-learning, health, finance, parenting, cooking, exercise, fitness, of course, writing!

Why did you decide to join HubPages?

Approximately nine years ago, I was looking for a way to self-publish articles online, as well as be part of a community of writers and authors. When I came across the HubPages website, it seemed to be a perfect fit. I envisioned it as a gateway to share my knowledge and help others, be a part of a growing online community, and learn from others as well.

What made you want to stick around for all of these years?

It began as a wonderful networking experience, and truly helped me become better and more confident as a writer. Once I started writing articles on HubPages, I received a lot of feedback and replies from other writers on HubPages. We helped each other as we improved as writers and shared our knowledge with each other and the world. It helped me take baby steps as a writer and grow each and every day. It was a fun experience when I started, and it has been a sweet ride ever since! It was the springboard that got me interested in self-publishing books.

When you first started writing on the site, what inspired you to partake in a 30-day writing challenge?

After writing articles on HubPages for 5 years, I had a little over 60 articles, but my goal was to write 100 articles. I wanted to come up with a challenge for myself to increase the number of articles I could write in a short amount of time and go a step further. Although I did see other members of the HubPages community embark on a 30-day challenge, there wasn’t a current challenge at that time for me to join. So, I created my own 30-day challenge to write 30 articles in 30 days. I knew it would take a lot of planning, researching, writing and time, but I was ready for the challenge. I kept picturing this analogy: I imagined myself swimming lots of laps—like a swimmer might do before he or she enters the Olympics. I figured if I could write 30 articles in 30 days, then I could write books too and learn how to self-publish as well. It worked and I just self-published my 6th book!

During those 30 days, which article did you have the most fun writing?

Wow, that’s a hard question to answer, because I had writing so many! The ones focusing on food and technology were some of my favorites. I would have to say the one I enjoyed the most was the one I wrote after I was finished my challenge, because I truly felt like I climbed a small but steep mountain. It is called “30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge Results” and it contains a list of what I learned, statistics, and most of all, what other challenges I wanted to consider moving forward, including the challenge proposed in the “The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale.” Two of his many quotes that stuck with me are: “Life should be an exciting adventure.” and “Every person should be glad to get out of bed in the morning and do a job because you like to do it.” Those are words to live by and inspired me to continue pursuing my dreams of writing a book.

What does your creative process look like?

I believe all of us possess the ability to create anything we set our minds to. My formal process is to start with an outline and work from there. There are varying degrees of my formal process that I use, depending on what I am creating. For example, I use storyboarding, sketching, scripting and various tools to design and develop whatever I am creating. However, before the formal process can start, you need an idea. Creative ideas come to me randomly all the time, so I have different types of journals, big ones and small ones, in various rooms throughout the house, ready and waiting for more ideas to be jotted down. You never know when the next big idea will come to mind. Write it down right away so it doesn’t fly out of your head. Write it down somewhere, preferably in a special notebook, journal, or electronic document. If you write it down, you have a better chance at remembering it tomorrow, next week or a year from now.

What led you down the self-publishing path?

I have always loved writing. Even as a child, I love writing stories and drawing pictures. In addition to writing, I loved reading poems, especially ones that contained rhymes. I even saved stories that I wrote as a child, hoping that I could turn them into books someday. After writing on HubPages for years, I started writing short stories and entering writing contests for fun. After two of my short stories won 1st and 2nd prizes, in a monthly contest, they were published in a real book. After that, I became interested in the self-publishing process. The reason I decided to pursue self-publishing was because of the faster turnaround time to self-publish vs. using traditional publishing. Self-publishing also gives me a lot of flexibility with book formats, including eBooks, paperback, hardcover, and audiobooks.

What are you working on now?

I just recently resigned from my corporate position to return to freelance. I’m currently self-employed as a freelance instructional designer, eLearning developer, and author. This allows me to have a more flexible schedule for family/work balance, and devote more time to writing, self-publishing, marketing, and of course, writing more on HubPages!

Any advice for new or aspiring writers?

Write because you love it, not because you have to. If you write from the heart, it will show in your writing. And don’t be discouraged if your 27th draft comes back from an editor with more revisions. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, remember: “Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end, you are sure to succeed.”

As you go about, pursuing your writing dreams, remember to reach for the stars. It does not matter how little or far you reach, just reach! Earl Nightingale puts it best when he said:

· “See yourself reaching your goal.”

· “You are guided by your mind.”

· “To be successful, you must work hard.”

· “In order to control your life, control your mind.”

· “The architect of the universe did not build a stairway leading to nowhere.”

· “Refuse to believe that there are any circumstances that will prevent you from reaching your goal.”

Finally, I would like to share the six steps to being successful, as stated in “The Strangest Secret” video, according to Dr. David Harold Fink:

Set yourself a definite goal.

Quit running yourself down.

Stop thinking of all the reasons why you cannot be successful, and instead, think of all the reasons why you can.

Trace your attitudes back to your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful if that is the way you have been thinking.

Change the image you have of yourself by writing a description of the person you would like to be.

Act the part of the successful person you would like to become.

To learn more about, follow me on my social media sites.

All the Best to You!

Amelia

from HubPages Blog https://ift.tt/338qi7I via IFTTT

0 notes

lorrainecparker · 7 years

Text

ART OF THE CUT with Despicable Me 3 editor, Claire Dodgson

Claire Dodgson has been working on animated films since starting as 2nd assistant editor on Corpse Bride (2005). She also assisted on Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) as 1st assistant. She was an associate editor on The Tale of Desperaux (2008) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) before working as the editor on both The Lorax (2012) and Minions (2015). Art of the Cut caught up with her as she wrapped up her duties as editor on Despicable Me 3, completing the sound mix at Skywalker Ranch.

HULLFISH: So you’re at Skywalker Ranch? Are you enjoying that experience?

DODGSON: Oh yeah. It’s pretty fabulous. I was talking to Pierre, our director, and he said, “It’s like a reward for finishing this movie, being here.” It is! It’s so lovely. We’re really spoiled that we get to come here.

HULLFISH: I’m going to have to do another movie that will mix there just so I get a chance to go on holiday for a while. You’ve worked a long time and very hard to get there, right?

DODGSON: It’s kind of funny because I was here exactly two years ago just finishing Minions. It’s kind of nice the second time around knowing there’s light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of being at the ranch. It’s pretty great.

HULLFISH: Most of the people that read these interviews I would guess are not animation editors. It’s kind of pre-editing in a way, right? You’re editing before you have content. So, let’s talk just about how that’s different for the editor. Because you’re really involved in workshopping the film in way, right?

DODGSON: You’re right up there from the beginning when the story is evolving. Obviously it’s mainly the screenwriters and directors who are driving it. But you’re around to give input. As the editor, you’re the first member of the audience. You get to react to everything.

This is Despicable Me 3’s Paris team: Rachel Brennan, associate editor and Dodgson standing and on the sofa Orion Fernando (2nd) and Romana Cicova (1st)

HULLFISH: Your background is mostly animation, correct?

DODGSON: Yes, I didn’t really discover what animation editing was until I started working in it as an assistant. I’d been working a lot in TV dramas as an assistant in the UK. I wanted to work in features, and I got the opportunity to work on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride as a second assistant. When you get involved with animation you fall in love with it pretty quickly. Because you’re around when everything gets created.

HULLFISH: I worked at Big Idea which made an early animated feature film, so I got to see that process in depth. One of the things I’ve heard from so many people is that having limitation helps with creativity in many ways, but animation has no limitations. So having complete freedom, I would think, is kind of scary.

DODGSON: It is, but you really don’t have complete freedom. Especially at the beginning, when we first get script pages, we record the dialogue. So you’re recording people around the office who are game for a laugh, but they’re never going to win an Oscar. That isn’t having complete freedom. That limits you. That bolts you to the floor, anchors you down straight away. And sometimes I think that is where my most creative work comes in, because you’re forever just kind of trying to eke a performance out of something. And with the storyboards, yeah, they can draw anything, but you have to convince everybody they’re watching a film when really they’re watching black and white drawings. I totally understand that anything is possible and in a way, at the beginning, it is. Pre production is all about just kind of narrowing in your story and honing in on your characters.

HULLFISH: Does an animation editor have a super strong sense of story? Maybe stronger than a regular editor? Are some skills stronger and some skills weaker for an animation editor?

DODGSON: I don’t think so. I’d say one of the biggest differences for me is you don’t have any rhythm to work with other than the rhythm of the dialogue. You literally have still images and no performances to riff off. In live action you don’t often encounter that and I think for me that is the biggest difference as an animation editor is that at the beginning you have to give the film a beat and bring it to life.

Storyboard version of the Avid timeline of a scene from Despicable Me 3. It is the opening heist / chase sequence that was cut to Michael Jackson’s Bad.

HULLFISH: That’s exactly where I was going with that. Because, if you’re dealing with live action you’re able to cut on movement or decide when to cut on someone’s eyes. But with animation, you have nothing.

DODGSON: But sometimes that’s absolutely wonderful. You just made me think of a scene in Despicable Me 3 where Gru is having to tell Agnes that unicorns aren’t real. It’s a really nice, intimate scene and the storyboard artist drew very, very charming storyboards – a lot of emotion in it – and it was just this one frame of Agnes, all wide-eyed as Gru is trying to break the news to her…. I thought I just can keep cutting back to this frame and it is always going to be a funny reaction….You’re always looking for the motivation to cut, the reason to cut. Yes, most of the time that can be movement but the cuts are stronger if you find another motivation to cut.

HULLFISH: In the animation process, there’s a period when you’re using these nice emotional hand-drawn story panels, but eventually, you move to “layout” where these nice drawings are replaced with kind of robotic, unartistic unlit, unmoving 3D poses. Is that hard? Do you have to kind of remember the drawings?

DODGSON: Totally. First of all, our layouts have become particularly advanced. They can do a lot of animation and movement, but like you said, it’s lacking the expression. It’s something in the eyes. It doesn’t have any life yet.

HULLFISH: Could you explain to the readers what you mean by layout.

DODGSON: When it goes into layout it’s the first time when we have the actual sets, and the actual characters, and cameras. It’s the moment when you first move into 3D space. Quite often once you get the sets and the cameras, you start again from the ground up. So layout is mainly about figuring out what the camera is doing, and how everybody’s moving in the space.

HULLFISH: And at that point you can discover things: like the character can’t get from here to there.

DODGSON: True. Quite often, especially on the Minions movie, because they’ve got very, very tiny legs, you realize it will take them too long to exit screen. We work on scenes for a long time in storyboards, trying to find the shape of the scene. Then you finally all agree that this is the perfect scene in storyboards. And then layout comes along and all of your timings are completely obliterated because of the characters need longer to move in 3D sets. Then you have to figure out a way to try to keep the rhythm of the dialogue going and find space in the scene for the characters to move around. So the scene is destroyed and then reborn. It’s kind of interesting in a whole different way.

HULLFISH: Interesting. How locked in are you at that layout stage to what you did in the storyboards, shot wise?

DODGSON: Not at all, not at all. Because the layout team is super creative, and they’ll get their cameras in there, and give you rushes. For one action sequence, a car chase through a village, they were still figuring out the set for the village and they didn’t know how much set they needed to build for this car chase…. so what they ended up doing was pre-vising it and then I had to cut the pre-vis to figure out how many streets the car would drive through. And then everybody could build the set… So that scene I cut several times…. Sorry I can’t remember what your question was.

HULLFISH: How much are you locked in? Because the reason you do the storyboards is to let the rest of the animation team know, “This is what we’re getting.” Because it’s not like in regular editing. In live action, if it’s a conversation between the two of us we would have all of your close-up for the entire conversation and all of mine for the entire conversation. Plus, two shots and masters. In animation editing you don’t get that. They don’t just “roll film” on six cameras for an entire scene

DODGSON: Absolutely. But I totally have license when I get the layouts to change it. So if I think something is too slow I will use motion effect to speed it up. If I want something a bit longer then I’ll add freeze frames. I’ll picture-in-picture. I’ll do anything. One of the wonderful things about animation is that, as it goes through all these different departments, everything gets plussed. So you start with the storyboards, then it goes to layout. Layout says, “Oh we can do this. We can do that.” Then I get it and say, “That’s great but if we can do this, then it doesn’t have to be this long, or its even funnier.” Then you pass it back to them and then when it goes to animation, then it’s another level of creativity that gets laid on top of it.

HULLFISH: If you’ve got a live action scene shot and you don’t have the angle you want, you’re basically stuck. But as an animation editor you can say, “I wish I had a shot from directly above the character looking straight down.” And you can get it.

DODGSON: Yeah. It’s really good. The way the directors worked with the layout guys it is as if they’re shooting the scene. And then when the layout is delivered to editorial the first thing I do is grab Kyle, one of our directors, and we watch it through together and talk about all of the shots, much like a live action director would review dailies with the editor. That’s the moment where I can say, “Have you thought about this?” Or “I don’t quite understand what’s happening in this shot.” Or “The action is playing a bit too fast.” or “I’m a bit confused about where I am here.” Then we normally call in the head of layout and we discuss the retakes together. It’s really important that I speak up, because I’m the first audience and if I don’t understand what is going on then chances are the general audience won’t.

HULLFISH: Once you get past storyboards, are you editing more in reels or scenes? Or when you get to the layout phase, are you staying in a reel more because you’re kind of covering up the storyboards you have? Or are you still staying in a scene even though you’ve got layout?

This is the Avid timeline for the “compo” version of the same chase scene as the previous timeline. On the Compo version, they are no longer carrying the published quicktimes as they are not needed.

DODGSON: One of the things I always find watching animated films – and it’s something to do with the production process – everything is broken down into those 36 sequences, and everybody’s got a schedule about when these sequences need to be approved and everything. So everybody’s concentrating on sequences and you can often feel that when you watch animated movies. For that reason, I like to work in reels as soon as possible because I want that flow. I want to know where I’m coming from, where I’m going to. Psychologically, I like to working in reels because it’s one of my strategies to beat that sequence feeling of animated films. When I first started editing as a student, I was on a Steenbeck, so everything was in rolls, and that’s the attitude I’ve adopted whilst working in the Avid: I build KEM rolls of everything, so when I get my storyboards, the guys deliver it to me in a timeline. I can just load in my source monitor; or when I get the scratch it’s strung out so I can put it in my source monitor. The same with layout, because it’s just a way to not click so much.

Another thing, which is a bit different to the way other animation editors work, is that I blow away the storyboards as soon as I get layout. As an assistant, I once worked for this editor and they had so many layers and layers and layers and layers of video… It was a nightmare as an assistant, especially back in the early days when you didn’t have as many video tracks. I also think then, it’s like the decision hasn’t been made. I use the storyboards as a guide whilst I’m cutting layout in, but then as soon as that sequence is approved it’s like Tetris. Everything goes down.

HULLFISH: “It’s like Tetris.” I like that. But that’s very unusual because everything I’ve ever seen is layers and layers and layers in animation: stacked final lit animation on top of rough animation, on top of layout, on top of storyboards. That’s why I do these interviews. Horses for courses, right?

MIRANDA COSGROVE in the VO booth.

DODGSON: Absolutely. As an assistant, I just saw too many things going wrong. I saw editors when they go back a version and they’re cutting it into the reel, all the video tracks would become patched the wrong way and what was on the bottom gets on the top, et cetera. I have all sorts of phobias from being an assistant. In terms of blowing away the storyboard timeline, I obviously up-version (saving an old cut before making revisions). We keep a bin of everything we ever show, so we always have the version that was approved. Once layout is cut in, if I was just to go back and turn on v1 and play it with the storyboards there, there would be big holes and it wouldn’t be playable anyway. I know back in the day they used to try and keep the storyboards on track with the layout so they always had a playable version of the current cut in storyboards because – like you were saying – the layout is missing a lot of the acting information. But I think layout is more developed now and we make these films so fast you can have animation within a matter of weeks on a sequence, especially as we get closer to screenings, they always try and get as much first-look animation in there as possible.

HULLFISH: Part of your job as an animation editor is this constant “feeding” of the other departments. The animators always need to be working, so you need one scene edited in storyboards so that some layout artist can start on it and get that scene done so that some animation artist can get done with it so some lighting person can get done with it. It’s constant. Somebody needs something at all times.

This is the RLO version of the same scene’s timeline. About this timeline, Dodgson says, “On the RLO version the publish quicklimes have been moved to V2 and on V1 I am carrying a dummy track. We make this for each reel when we first turnover to sound / music, it gives us something constant to generate our change list.”

DODGSON: Totally. In editorial, we’re the smallest department, we’re this small cog in the middle of a giant machine. Everything we do keeps everybody else moving. And also, to add to that, there’s things with production dialogue quite often. Lines will be tweaked whilst they’re going through layout. Although we have recorded the actors in the scene already, it’s another opportunity to look at the scene and just clarify a few things, so they might decide to tweak a bit of dialogue, so we have to get that cut in very very quickly and approved so that it can feed animation. So there’s all these different elements that come in and the assistants in Paris – that’s very much their job – to keep production fed and to know whether the priority is to keep layout moving or animation.

HULLFISH: What are some of those deliverables? What did the assistants – since you were one yourself and are supervising them now – what do they actually have to do? Are they sending individual shots and post them as a QuickTime or something for a reference?

STEVE CARELL in the VO booth.

DODGSON: Well that’s how I used to do it. It’s thankfully developed now. The assistants make a QuickTime reference of the scene with a burn-in about how much I’ve sped a shot up or whether it’s a freeze frame and then they produce XMLs and they export the sound, and that all goes to animation. Basically it is like doing a change note by hand. The assistants take the last version of the scene that was delivered to production and the new version, and they gang roll it and note of all the changes between the old and new versions of the scene. They send these incredibly detailed emails that go out to the department about old shot length, new shot length, what I’ve done to it, whether the dialogue in it is scratch – therefore they shouldn’t animate it – whether it’s new production dialogue, whether I’ve moved the sync of the dialogue. It’s incredibly forensic and I think it’s very similar a VFX turnover…

HULLFISH: And they’re doing that on a shot-by-shot basis or a scene-by-scene basis?

DODGSON: Scene-by-scene basis, which can take them a long time if it’s a big scene. Sometimes we’ll actually split a sequence up into several parts so it can be published quicker.

HULLFISH: And when those new shots come in, is that something an assistant automatically sticks in and then you review, or do you feel like you need to cut those shots in over the old shots yourself?

DODGSON: They cut it in and I check it. I actually work closely with my associate editor on the animation. I like them to cut it in because once it’s gone through layout, its structure is locked. There may be an amazing animation performance idea that changes timings, but with animation it’s quite often eight frames on the end of the shot or something like that, so it’s not reinventing the scene. I like my associate editors to cut it in just because I want them to make sure everything lines up properly and everything is in sync, and they tidy up all of the temp music edits, quite often find associate editors haven’t done a lot of work with music, so it’s really good grounding in terms of how to extend music and loop things.

Animation “shoot” on Friday night at the end of the week, and so on Monday morning we have a lot of animation to bring in. The assistants build me a little roll and the associate editors and I sit in my room on and we watch all the animation that’s come in. That’s a really nice thing because then you’re seeing things out of order. There will be a couple of different sequences going through animation so things will be randomized and that can give you silly little ideas like, “Oh that scene actually plays really well into the other scene.” Any place where you can have happy accidents, I like to encourage them. My associate Rachel, when she’s cutting the animation in, she’ll put a little locator on all the shots extended by animation. I’ll go through and review all of those locators. And then what I’ll often do is put a “TBT locator” on it, which means “to be trimmed,” because quite often you’ll get shots that open up and you feel like maybe they don’t need all of those extra frames but perhaps there is a visual effects element I haven’t seen yet, but my first instinct is that I want to trim this, so I put the shot on “probation” by putting these little locators on. And then after a screening I’ll go through, and if I am still feel the same, that’s when I’ll start triming shots.

HULLFISH: What are you temping with? Are you trying to stay in the Despicable Me world?

DODGSON: Yeah, I do. Especially on this. It’s been quite easy because I’ve had two of Heitor’s (composer Heitor Pereira) scores to pick and choose from. Generally, with the temp music we’re kind of left to our own devices in editorial and it will be a while before Heitor becomes involved in the project, so we’re just trying to use the music as a tool. I think that when you are looking at black and white images, temp music is your color. When you haven’t quite got the full emotion in the storyboards or you don’t have the actual performance from the actor yet, music can provide you with great emotion. It’s really a tool we all use to help get everything feeling a bit closer to the finished film.

HULLFISH: Many live action people are trying to hold off on that temp music until almost you start screening for audiences, but for you, multiple people are screening the movie from a very early stage and they need that support, right?

DODGSON: Absolutely because you find a great sting and it can help with the timing of a joke and all sorts of things. I know I’m doing the composer absolutely no favours putting all this temp music in. I feel guilty about doing it, especially because on this movie Heitor came on about six months before we finished it, but for a year and a half they’d been listening to my temp, and the crew had a bit of temp love… But because music is such a strong storytelling tool, when you’re having to use so much imagination at an early stage, I can’t not use it.

HULLFISH: You did 2D animation editing too or at least associate editing?

DODGSON: Stop motion. I started as an assistant on stop motion, and then I cut a TV series that was 2D, and then Tale of Despereaux was actually 3D, and that was my first one as associate.

HULLFISH: Is there a technical difference between 2D and 3D? A workflow/process difference?

DODGSON: No not really. I think there’s a bigger difference between stop motion and CGI. Stop motion you work more into shots because you’ve got like twenty sets with animators working on shots. There’s only ever twenty shots live in the film that people are working on and there isn’t really any room for retakes, unlike in CGI, where you can go back to a shot and change it. So that’s very different. You’re locked in. What’s nice about it is: you’re in storyboards and then you go straight to a finished shot almost. I mean there might be some VFX in it but with stop-motion there’s no layout in between. They might do some camera tests or movement or something, but normally they don’t and you just start to get like a blocking version of the shot so everything’s got color and everybody’s wearing clothes.

HULLFISH: Talk to me about that blocking version of the shot. So you do a storyboard and everything is hand drawn, and then they go onto a little miniature set with little puppet creatures, and they would just stand them there or slide them around and say, “Okay he starts here and goes over here?”

DODGSON: Pretty much. It’s quite articulated blocking: key frames to block it out action with the cameras. Sometimes you would just get a still frame to come in so you could cut it in to just see if the framing was lining up with the shots on either side. In terms of the assisting work, you pretty much just had to give them the audio file and the frame count for that shot.

HULLFISH: So you’re at Skywalker Sound right now. What input are you having on the soundstage? Why are you there? It’s expensive to bring somebody from France to California, so you must have a purpose!

DODGSON: Gosh! You know sometimes I’m sitting on the stage and asking myself that very question. Obviously I have an Avid set up here just in case there’s any changes we need to make to the film. A lot of it’s about production dialogue, because I know that better than pretty much anybody. One of the things I’ve been doing on this film is – quite often we’ve felt a need for like an extra little giggle from one of the girls – and I can just go up into my Avid and grab something and give it to them. It’s mainly just to support the director. This show has quite a few action sequences and I’m thinking about my audience and about the little kids and I’m thinking about their ears and maybe “this is getting pretty loud now.” Especially at the end of the film, I was looking for places for us to try and take a breath – maybe lose some screaming here or make this a music moment rather than a sound effects moment. So there’s all that kind of thing that you get to input as well.

HULLFISH: I remember talking to someone that said that they were very picky about their original temp sound of thunder, and the real sound editors had replaced it with what they thought was better thunder, but it changed the rhythm or the flavor of the scene. Are you finding anything like that? Or are you just realizing that these guys are doing great work and it’s better than anything I put in there originally?

DODGSON: Most of the time when I hear what skywalker has done I’m super embarrassed that they ever heard the sound effects that I put in the temp. It’s a very humbling experience. There are a few things – like there’s a stomach sound effect that I’m just crazy in love with. Minions are often hungry in these movies – and every time skywalkers tries and change it I say, “No, I like my stomach growling sound effect.” There’s things you get a bit silly over.

HULLFISH: Did you record that sound by yourself around 10pm? Just stick a mic on your stomach? No?

DODGSON: (Laughs.) Yeah, at the end of one of the production meetings. No. I think it’s some really weird one like a whale-moan sound or something. But it just works.

HULLFISH: I did an interview today with Martin Walsh who cut Wonder Woman. One of the interesting things we talked about was the idea of a director and editor as a marriage. It’s a sense of trust, it’s a sense of protection. Talk to me a little bit about that director-editor relationship and what you feel like you need to do just as another human being.

DODGSON: On a regular working day, when we’re in the middle of production, I see my directors twice a day. I have them at eleven o’clock, and then I have them at half past two. The directors job is so hard, their role can be very stressful… I want them to feel like editorial is a safe space, like there’s no such thing as a bad idea and I always try all of their ideas whether I think “this is crazy” or not. And also just to be their cheerleader a bit. It’s a slog making these movies, and I always want to make them happy to be in editorial. My philosophy is: the more fun you have in the room, the more fun is on the screen, which – when you’re making children’s animated comedy – is an important thing. Everybody should be having fun. Everything is about the directors. I have learnt to read all of their “tells,” like, “I know you didn’t like this cut because you were tapping your foot along and then you stopped tapping at this moment, so why did you stop tapping your foot along?” It’s things like that. It’s a very interesting relationship because you go through quite stressful times. I always want them to know that I’m looking out for them as much as I’m looking out for the film.

HULLFISH: Can you tell me anything about these scenes?

DODGSON: The soup scene was one of the first scenes to be animated. Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig did a lot of great ad-libs for eating the soup. Everything played so funny, I had enough material to make the scene twice as long…. Cutting down ad libs is hard work because you are leaving out funny stuff but you know for the good of the film moments cannot play too long…

DODGSON: I love the minions singing! One day Pierre (director and voice of the Minions) gave me an audio file to listen to and it was him singing Pirates of Penzance’s in minioniese.. I fell off my chair laughing…. It was so unexpected. It ended up being the easiest scene to cut in the film because the song is so funny the scene effortlessly worked from the start.

HULLFISH: Is there anything else that you’re passionate about editing whether it’s pacing or story or things that when you’re with another editor you like to chat about?

DODGSON: One of the wonderful things about working at Illumination is – especially when I was cutting Minions – I had Ken Schretzmann, editor of Toy Story 3, in the room next door, cutting secret life of pets, and I had Greg Perler, editor of Enchanted and sing a few rooms away…. So I have some great editors to ask for advice if I’m struggling with something and I can just pick their brains…

I think the thing I’ve been trying to figure out is music, because I don’t have any musical background. That’s mainly what I end up talking to other editors about, trying to find out what scores they’ve been using or listening to. When you’ve been working with the same people for a long time, everybody is sick of hearing Mouse Hunt. It’s a really great score that’s “cuttable-up” and has lots of great stingy bits, so it’s really great for comedy.

HULLFISH: Mouse Hunt?

DODGSON: Mouse Hunt. It’s a great score. It’s got so many funny little moments in it. I use that a lot. I am sure the directors are tired of hearing it in their films…

HULLFISH: I’m buying that right now. I had the Carl Stalling’s Project CD a long time ago, that I loved for animation.

DODGSON: Ooo, what’s that?

HULLFISH: I got to see if I can find it. If I can find it I’ll send it to you. But it’s just the great old Bugs Bunny-type cartoon stuff.

DODGSON: Which is what you need sometimes.

Claire Dodgson and first LA assistant, Scott Jacobs in a photo taken at Skywalker Ranch during the sound mix.

HULLFISH: It’s been wonderful speaking with you. Enjoy your time at Skywalker Ranch.

DODGSON: Thank you, it has been great to talk to you.. I hope it all makes sense, sometimes editing is such an abstract thing to talk about…..

Thanks to Brandi Craig, Todd Peterson and Jada Sacco for transcribing this interview.

To read more interviews in the Art of the Cut series, check out THIS LINK and follow me on Twitter @stevehullfish

The first 50 Art of the Cut interviews have been curated into a book, “Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV editors.” The book is not merely a collection of interviews, but was edited into topics that read like a massive, virtual roundtable discussion of some of the most important topics to editors everywhere: storytelling, pacing, rhythm, collaboration with directors, approach to a scene and more. Oscar nominee, Dody Dorn, ACE, said of the book: “Congratulations on putting together such a wonderful book. I can see why so many editors enjoy talking with you. The depth and insightfulness of your questions makes the answers so much more interesting than the garden variety interview. It is truly a wonderful resource for anyone who is in love with or fascinated by the alchemy of editing.” MPEG’s Cinemontage magazine said of the book: “In his new book, Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV Editors, he gathers together interviews with more than 50 working editors to create a mosaic of advice that will interest both veterans and newcomers to the field. It will be especially valuable for those who aspire to join what Hullfish calls, “the brotherhood and sisterhood of editors.”

The post ART OF THE CUT with Despicable Me 3 editor, Claire Dodgson appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: ART OF THE CUT with Despicable Me 3 editor, Claire Dodgson

#viddy find

0 notes