How did you come up with the concept for your short film?
Joseph Kim:
It’s funny because I always thought I had so many ideas for short films and so many things I wanted to animate, that finding a concept would be easy. But when we actually started Class 5 and the reality hit that I would have to solidify my idea into a pitch, storyboards and a final product in such a short time, I realized how difficult it was to commit to one idea.
I had no shortage of ideas; the only problem was none of them were any good or achievable by me in that time frame. I found all the ideas I tried to “invent” were weak because I didn’t know anything about the subject or the characters. Like I had one idea of a guy going to the gym and getting into all sorts of trouble. But I never go to the gym so I really didn’t know what I was talking about. I found I had a lot of ideas like that, where I was imagining a scenario that I didn’t have much personal experience in. They ended up feeling uninteresting because of that. I realized I didn’t have a lot of time to research a topic, so I should do something simple I know about already.
Every morning, I caught the bus to work with the same group of people without fail. Subconsciously you can’t help but notice their manner and way they appear to each other. In particular, there was this one guy who looked really quirky, lost in his tax book and constantly irritable. Always first to get on and reserving the seat next to him with his briefcase. In contrast to him, every morning this small girl would get on stomping her feet down the aisle thoroughly enjoying the racket she would create. I never consciously thought, “they’d make awesome characters.” But as I developed the idea of this guy at the bus-stop I think I associated my characters with what I observed in the mornings.
Animation Mentor:
What important lessons did you learn from making your short film?
Joseph Kim:
The most important thing I leaned making the film, was how critical feedback was for every single stage of the project. During the very first story pitch, it is clear straight away if people don’t understand the idea straight off. Getting that first reaction from your mentor and classmates, who don’t know anything about the idea yet, is really an invaluable indication if you should pursue that idea. People can offer so many ideas and feedback to your story that you think is “working” and so being open to all possibilities at the early story stage makes all the difference in how it’s going to turn out. I found it was really helpful and made my story a lot better than I initially had it.
It is important to be open to any ideas people may have, because as they are not as personally attached to it and don’t actually have to do the work themselves, they will fearlessly throw heaps of ideas and suggestions at you that you would never have thought of. I believe subconsciously when we do our own stuff, we filter any of our own ideas for changes within our own mind because we fear changing the story too much and having to redo a lot of work. Showing your stuff to others is great because they don’t hold that fear and can suggest things freely that could never come through otherwise.
Of course, you have to decide if the ideas are practically achievable in the time frame. But even impractical ideas are helpful to consider, as many times I found that thinking about them indirectly led to another idea that could not have been arrived at directly.
So many of the things in my film were arrived at in this way, from feedback sessions from my mentor, classmates, friends and family.
Animation Mentor:
How long did it take to complete your film?
Joseph Kim:
The film was completed in Class 5 and Class 6.
Class 5 was 3 months of story development, animatics and layout.
Class 6 was 3 months of animation.
Animation Mentor:
How much planning was put into your short film? Did planning help make the process easier?
Joseph Kim:
I think for me, all of class 5 was planning for animation. This was a really excellent time to make the story as good as you could and begin to draw the storyboards.
The animatic process was really helpful because you can thumbnail out things so quickly and really experiment. I did several animatics while I was still trying to lock down the story, and I found it to be my most valuable tool. I did a version of the animatic where the characters were switched. So the main character was the woman instead. I never showed it though, because I knew it didn’t work as soon as I played it back, but having the freedom on paper to loosely experiment around and discover the story also was really enjoyable. I don’t think there will ever be a more intuitive tool than the pencil and paper. So planning out the story in thumbnails made things so much faster and easier before getting into the computer.
After that I translated the 2d animatic into the computer and explored more camera angles and cuts. I decided early on I would not have much camera movement, so mainly concentrated on getting a nice layout and composition. My mentor and classmates helped immensely on figuring out the shot mix and perspectives to make it more interesting and appealing.
Animation Mentor:
What obstacles, if any, did you experience during the creation of your short film? How did you work your way around them?
Joseph Kim:
Finding the characters’ right personality and keeping them consistent was a great challenge. From Animation Mentor I leaned that writing down a bio and summary of the characters personality traits helped me keep constant track on keeping the acting consistent. I made a notebook with a thumbnail of each shot on each page and wrote below each image “What is the point of this shot? And what will I learn about the character?”
Before starting each shot or even acting out any of my video reference, I would answer that question on the page and write a list of things I wanted to convey in that shot and things I should avoid.
As I got into blocking and splining, I would review my playblasts and pull out that page and see if I was still answering what I had originally written.
Animation Mentor:
Tell how your Animation Mentor experience helped you in creating your short film.
Joseph Kim:
I don’t think it would have been possible to make this short if I wasn’t at Animation Mentor. Not just because of the professional feedback from my mentor which is invaluable in itself, but also in the way the class was structured. During the class, we have definite goals and milestones we are expected to meet in order to complete the project on time. Being expected to show your progress to your mentor and the rest of the class every week really pushes you to keep moving forward. The Animation Mentor structure and schedule really mirrors what its like at a busy studio. It was a lot of late nights, but being in a class with so many people crazy about animation really inspires you and keeps the motivation alive. For me, there was no other place where you could be with people from all around the world - all learning animation, and striving to each tell their own unique story. Being in an environment like that was an amazing way to learn, and really a remarkable way to animate a short film.