TITLE: Go FIsh
STATUS/DATE: (2006)
GENRE: Animation
APPROX LENGTH: Approx 3 min
LOCATION: Produced in Columbia, South Carolina

WHAT IS:
(no I don’t have a fish fascination if just worked out that way) .. A lone fisherman begins to catch bigger and better fish and the biggest fish will get the final word.

PRODUCTION:
This started out as a group project. But as time went on it became abundantly clear that I was the only person in the group that had any idea on how to composite anything with Adobe After Effects. This completely puzzled me since it was the end of the semester in the animation class I was taking. All I kept thinking was how can people procrastinate like this? So In the final hours of the semester (don't you know it everything converges at finals) I set up my living room in the apartment I had at the time production style.  First off, there were three tables set up. The first table was set up to accommodate an animation light table. This is where I set making drawings  and organizing them according to scene.  The second table had a table with a high resolution flatbed scanner connected to a laptop. The person sitting at this station was in charge of scanning the drawings color correcting them and putting then into the correct folder according to scene. The third station had a person sitting in front of a desktop computer with a copy of Abode Photoshop open putting the drawings in the correct ordered layers so that they could be brought into Adobe After Effects to animate.

After we parted ways, and thank you's were said  I sat down to begin animating, I discovered that the drawings were not scanned properly, and the Photoshop files that were to be brought into After Effects were incorrectly done (layers wrong order and proportions and positions). As the the whole assembly line was still set up, I just went through each station again doing the steps myself (minus drawing again).  I made the other students sweat a little while, made them think I was having trouble getting it done on time, when in actuality it was completed days ahead of time.  I highly recommend the assembly line set-up. But I also recommend using people that know how to do the most fundamental of tasks without supervision to the point that you end up doing it yourself.

The project started when a class of 30 animation students turned in treatments concerning different ideas to do for this composite project. Then we were grouped  sections of about 7-8 under which ideas won in a class-wide vote. The group and the idea I was grouped under was as follows:

"A man is out whaling in the ocean and gets eaten by a whale because... like... some cosmetics are made from whales...."  I cannot even explain the terror I felt through my spine, though I try to be open minded and see where things take me. First off I began by asking questions to get oriented and understand the direction of where this thing was going- questions such as: Is making cosmetics out of whale parts illegal? Is the fisherman wearing make-up? Is the whale upset that he may be later applied to someones face and or body? How do we give the audience the proper information to help them understand what the hell is going on? I was asked to produce a script for the short cartoon at which point trying as I could, really could not get to the logic of the story. I told them "let me just take a few of the ideas you have and put something together and We'll see if you like it". I handed them the script and showed some  excitement and energy and they bought it, to my relief, hook line and sinker as it were.

A fun script. Simple with ideas and logic that an audience could easily follow. It also helped to visualize exactly how the thing was going to be animated as it was being written. It was being written for the animation and I figured for good measure I would story board simultaneously to properly convey the "new" direction. As short as it was, I stressed Importance to make a script have closure both narratively and visually as well as the importance of building up to a climax. I tend to like pieces that complete themselves full circle. This short film ended with the "peace" of being outdoors much like it starts with the opening. The distinctive style  of this cartoon continued from earlier produced “The Walk”. Certain ambient sound effects were added. At one point on a clear summer day I sat in front of my apartment and recorded sound of birds, one in particular I thought was very distinct and fascinating. This bird ended up working real well in contrast to the music I used ( which was a mixed version made specifically for the piece from the Primus' song "Fish On" from the album "Sailing the Sea of Cheese"). Since this was a school project it was ok to use, but I look forward to finding something replace it when I release it commercially perhaps on DVD as an extra or possibly on this very Website.

Thanks for your interest,
TJPARSONS