Goals and Reflection_Manni Zhang

Written Goals and Reflection

1. Logline

A girl who likes to keep beautiful things in specimen ends up making herself into specimen as well.

2. Themes

The obsession of beauty and the fear of getting old.

3. Mood of the film

Naive, lonely

4. The medium and why

I’ll do this film in 2D-digital way.

First of all, I want to work with 2D hand drawing animation after graduation.  Though I’m also interested in stop motion, in order to find a job, I need a piece that can show my ability of drawing. But I don’t have this kind of piece right now And that's why I decide to use 2D.

Secondly, I think I’m good at drawing, but handling this long piece is still a huge challenge for me. Based on my previous experience, I’m not good at showing characteristic and the squash and stretch in my hand drawing animation. So I want to work on these weaknesses and try to make improvement in this film. If I can do that in the end, I’ll be very happy.

Finally, 2D-digital can be very convenient when it comes to the coloring step. Because I abandoned the idea I explored last semester, I have much less time than others. However, I am still considering of using a bit of traditional method to do the coloring, such as watercolor. Because watercolor is another medium that I feel confortable with and I’ve been working with it for a long time. But I haven’t done any experiment with watercolor in animation, so I’ll stay with the digital method before I do some tests of that.

5. The experience I expect the audience to have

I want the audience to remember my grad film among many of my peer’s work. If people don’t get what I’m saying at least they remember the story, that’s what I’m hoping for.

6. Why is this subject important to you?

The protagonist represents a kind of persona that I admire and I’ll never become. She would spend all she has to contribute her goal even with her life. This kind of act can be extreme and dangerous, and this kind of persona is taken as scary and creepy in the real life. But I admire this kind of persona. Compared to myself, I don’t have such passion for anything as this and I will never sacrifice too much of what I have for my own aim. That is why I feel this extreme act is very touching and respectable.

Another reason is I adore beauty. Showing the sense of beauty is one of my passion and also a kind of satisfaction when making my own artwork.

7. How did the idea come out?

I’m 22 years old now. I went back to my country this summer and stayed with my parents for 2 months. During those days, I realized that I’m having the best period time of my life, because I’m young and energetic, my parents are young and healthy too, and I haven’t experienced those losses and sorrows yet, so what do I expect? Nothing! I wondered, “this is probably the best time of my life and there won’t be any better time than this later.” So the idea of freezing the time and keeping the youth and young for ever emerged.

Based on this desire, I created the character. She is somehow representing my wish of staying young and in the best time of my life. At first, I want to show that she wants to preserve the beauty. But “preserving the beauty” is hard to present, so I immediately think about the common way that people use specimens to preserve stuff. That’s how the specimen part comes into the story.

8. What kind of sound belongs to your film?

I think quiet, slow pace melody quite fits with this film. I will also use some sound effects that give realistic feeling of the environment.

9.The most satisfactory part

When I make good character animation and feel the emotion in my work by myself.

10.The hardest part (How are you planning to address them?)

Animation. Like I said before, I’m not good at presenting characteristic in my work. But it is a thing that I really need to fix it as early as possible before I begin looking for jobs. I already start reading some animation principle books to get more knowledge about that.

Sound recording. I don’t have much sound recording experience. Basically all my sound materials are from online sound sources. I know we are having some tutorials about sound making, which is good news for me. I also have trouble finding people who can work with sound with me. As an international student, I’m not familiar with the sources of where I can get the contact of people who does music and sound. I’ve been asking for some of my friends but none of them knew.

Coloring. I just don't feel so confident with TVP. I hope we can have a session about TVP if it is possible.