Without including the picture of the real dog in my credits, I’m sure none of you would have expected this film to be based on a true story (unless you’ve been with me at any point in production this past year). Some might think basing a film off of real life events would make writing the story run so much smoother, but it was certainly a rude awakening when I found out that was definitely not the case. I scripted and storyboarded my film numerous times just in Capstone Seminar alone and, after that semester, I was really set on my story and how I would tell it. Or so I thought. Animatic night the following semester was an eye-opener for me as it was really a quick ten minute brainstorm on how I could better tell this story without straying too far from reality like everyone had previously been advising me to do. At this point, I was still holding onto the hope that I could tell that same story, I just needed to find a way to capture an entire day’s worth of narrative in under five minutes. Again, I set back to writing and that is the story you have seen here today; I was able to keep to the true story enough to satisfy myself but changed it enough so it would still be a film worth watching. There are certainly still areas I would have liked to change more, mostly because I still hear Brian’s question of “but why is this animated” still looming in the back of my mind, but I am happy with this final film regardless.
The journey that led me to today was definitely not an easy one to say the least. In addition to my struggles with narrative, I also had to face modeling and rigging for my film head on as those are not areas of production that I see myself pursuing. Before this point, I realized I had only really ever modeled aliens or intentionally grotesque creatures, and I now had to model not scary-looking humans and somehow also model a dog that was both cute and scary simultaneously. Luckily, I had some great friends, Bailey and Hunter, who helped me bring my film to life and I am incredibly grateful for all they have taught me through the making of this film. Most issues that arose with my film evidently were toward the beginning of production in the fall semester. Unfortunately, my computer also decided to take itself out of commission right around this time which only added to the stress.
Aside from the struggles I encountered on this project, I was able to recognize a few things. For one, no matter how stressful at times, I enjoyed working with a larger team of concept artists, modelers, rigging artists, composers, and sound designers. Secondly, after having animated an action-packed junior film and this more emotional film with lip sync, I have confirmed my love of animating and I plan to pursue a career in that portion of the pipeline. Lastly, I have come to terms with the fact that, when making a film or working on any project really, things will go wrong and things will go right, but in the end, you will always get the product you worked for and that is all I could ever ask for.
Thank you to all of the SOFA faculty and the friends I have made over the years. I will always be grateful for my time here at RIT.
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