Post-Research

Happy Wintery December, Everyone~

I've been on a lookout for art as usual, and was referred to this image posted yesterday by ~latyll on Deviantart:

 

I will be posting images that I find that have the same feel to Healing of Snow.  That's all!

HEALING OF SNOW

The Journey is Finally Over!

After 2 years, I'm finally freeeeee!

I want to thank the following people who helped make HEALING OF SNOW possible talent-wise, technically, supportively, and financially:

Father Actor:  Jason Davis

Lumi Actress:  Katrina Ireland

Editing:  Joanna Leitch

Thesis Instructors:  Maureen Selwood, Laura Heit

Sound Design:  Rodrigo Garcia-Flores

Final Sound Mixer:   Raffaello Mazza

EA Faculty:  Hillary Kapan, Soyeon Kim, Maureen Furniss, Paul Vester, Emery Martin, Gordon Kurowski

Character Faculty:  Dan Hansen, Jim Hull, Robert Lence, Matt Williames, Lisa Keene, John Mahoney

SPECIAL THANKS:  AMDG, M, D, Fam, [R], Cold-Hearted Critiques, Ahmenson D2, EA MFA 2o12 Class

This is my new poster for 2012:

YAAAAYYYYYYYYY!

Why I Never Hated the Wolf

In fairy tales, the Wolf is portrayed as very big and very bad.  This was due to the livestock that got eaten when the shepherds dozed off for the night or whatever looked like juicy freebees at the time.  However, only recently did graphic novels, animations, and films start portraying the Wolf's side of the story.  This is why I could never hate the Wolf, and this is why mine must die as well...

Link to entire strip:

Friend In Winter

By Pettrybyos

Murphy's Law

You know, it's so funny how RIDICULOUSLY close in similarity with very different people making art in different parts of the world.  It's even more ridiculous how all of these similarities just spring up while one's completing a long-labored project...

This traditional piece was done my Alector Fencer from Germany.  She actually posted his summer of 2009, which is the summer I transitioned into CalArts.  Her character's name is Lumri, which is my character's name without the 'r.'  Crazy, or what??  I should really just hire people to animate my film for me...

We Are...

Whenever I Close My Eyes

Self Prisoned

Winter Begone

Quietude II

Quietude

Annie Winners and Nominees

Last night, I was able to go to the Annies with a couple of friends from my MFA 3 class at CalArts, and found that a LOT of films are out this year that have a human and a dog character establishing a heart-warming contact with each other...

This film is directed by Minkyu Lee, and apparently consulted with Glen Keane?



This was a nominee that didn't win but was in the same category:  Best Short Subject.  The Girl and the Fox by Base 14.




And after researching on the latter film, I find a really SIMILAR storyline to mine already published and made into a film...  Should I just give up on my thesis now..............?

The Fox and the Child summary:

A young girl of about 10 years lives in a farm house in the Jurassic mountains in eastern France. One day in autumn, when she walks to school through the forest, she observes a hunting fox. Of course, the fox escapes, but the girl yearns to meet the animal again.

She spends most of her free time in the forests trying to find the fox during the following months, but she doesn't meet the fox again until winter comes. During the winter, she follows the fox's tracks far across the fields. Suddenly she compares her hand to the size of the tracks near to those she is following and discovers they are relatively fresh wolf tracks; she is alarmed as a wolf pack begins howling near her. She runs away panicked, falls and hurts her ankle.

The ankle heals very slowly, so that she has to stay at home during the winter reading a book about animals of the forest and foxes.

When spring arrives, the girl is looking for fox holes and waits for a fox. The fox has young babies and moves holes because of her observations; therefore the girl decides to observe the fox from a greater distance.

She finds the fox again and tries to get the animal accustomed to her. She feeds it with meat. Later she can even touch the fox and is led to the new den. Finally, the fox arrives at her house and she lets it inside, wanting to show it her bedroom. But the fox becomes distressed at not being able to find a way out and escapes by jumping through the closed window breaking the glass. The fox is hurt badly, but survives and the girl learns that she cannot keep wild animals as pets at home.

Years later she tells the whole story to her son, as seen at the end of the film.

ACT II: Snow Scene!

Almost forgot about this blog dedicated to what has now taken over my entire LIFE.  Haha, happy 2012~



Entire ACT II outlines over storyboards overlapping to create different looping mini-narratives for MFA 3 Show at CalArts.

:: Nietzsche's Motto ::

Yesterday, I gave my Thesis presentation and the discussion about Edward [Lumi's Father] came into question.  Is he trying to be protective, while being annoyed at the same time?  Yes.  Is he trying to be the "bad cop" to be the "good father?"  Yes.  His methods are rough and unrefined, and this results in a tragic choice of killing off one of the two good characters in the end.  Lumi or the Wolf?

Edward is very in-tune with who he is.  German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is NOT one of my favorites, but I do read what he has to say, because some of it I agree with.  He believed that people who are willing to stand against the grain follow their "inner law," thus, as Pindar used to say, "Become what you are."

Edward is a father:  He becomes this in a very extreme way; there is no stopping him.  He is also a hunter; his instincts come first, before reason.  I put him in the position of a murderer from the beginning,  but making it subtle, until the very end.  His intention of killing is about survival; he kills to eat, and he kills to not be eaten.  I'm probably putting too much thought into the characters, but hopefully at least some of this complexity comes out in the film.  :]

:: Way Down East ::

A spontaneous divine intervention happened today--the day before my 3rd year Thesis Presentation...  I got editing help!  Thanks to Joanna Leitch, I am one step closer to having a film that makes more sense.  She also gave me the 1920 silent film Way Down East [D.W. Griffith] as reference for the snow scenes in ACT II of my film.

:: L’heure entre chien et loup ::

"The hour between dog and wolf, or the time between dog and wolf. I'm told it's a common expression in French, referring to the hour between the end of the afternoon and the beginning of the evening. More simply, the twilight hour.

The hour when the dog and wolf are indistinguishable. The text implies that symbolically, good and evil (dog and wolf) are lost in the gloom of twilight."

At twilight the world burns red. There, a shadow creeps down the hill. Is it a friendly dog? Or a vicious wolf? This is the hour when I can't tell... L'heure entre chien et loup.

Translation © 2008 D. Bannon.

Jean Genet's Prisoner of Love

"...the expression entre chien et loup [literally, between dog and wolf, that is, dusk, when the two can't be distinguished from each other] suggests a lot of other things besides the time of day. The colour grey, for instance, and the hour when night approaches as inexorably as sleep, whether daily or eternal. The hour when street lamps are lit in the city, and which children try to drag out so that they can go on playing, though their eyes, suddenly active, are closing in spite of themselves. The hour in which - and it's a space rather than a time - every being becomes his own shadow, and thus something other than himself. The hour of metamorphoses, when people half hope, half fear that a dog will become a wolf. The hour that comes down to us from at least as far back as the early Middle Ages, when country people believed that transformation might happen at any moment." (p. 254) Referenced Site

:: Visual Artist Looks ::

Over the past week, I had a really hard time with my film and the look of winter.  There were three illustrators that I thought would be good to look at for ACT II of my film.  I chose the scene of LUMI trying to cautiously feed the Wolf.

This first still is in the style of Seth Fitts:

These second stills are in the style of Junyi Wu:

This last still is in the style of Tom Keating:

This was the first time I copied the look exactly of a specific artist, and although it's a good exercise to expand one's styles, I don't know if I will be doing this again any time soon.  Thank you for the inspiration, though, illustrators.

:: Stills and Composition ::

The snow and ice in the first 30 seconds or so is something to look at for a possible feel of my film.  The rest of Amasia turns from peaceful, to chaotic, which is a direction I'm NOT ruling out from my film as well.

:: Kiki Smith ::

My thesis instructor told me to look at Kiki Smith's work because she does women and wolves a lot.  I really need to educate myself on artists out there.

:: D0CUM3N74R135 ::

After watching a few documentaries on Youtube and Netflix, I understand wolves a lot better on a natural living level.  The following are the links to the websites of the documentaries:

Living With Wolves
BBC Wolf Battlefield
National Geographic A Man Among Wolves
Montana PBS Wolves in Paradise

:: Slow Summer ::

This has been the slowest summer I've had yet, creatively.  I've travelled and had new exciting experiences, so my input has been quenched; but my output has been disappointing.  I've been watching new things from movies, to tv shows [online since I don't have television], to cartoons, to live dance and music, and animations on Vimeo.

These following animations resonates with my thesis, even though style, story, and meaning are all different:

:: 4CT i :: BG5 ::

These are my first pass at the backgrounds for the whole of ACT I.  I've changed a few things to mold everything together better, but these are close to the final versions.  Animating LUMI in ACT I, Part I currently.  These backgrounds were done on February 4, 6, and 11.  Yay~

:: B4MB1 R3W47CH ::

It's been about 12 years since I remember last seeing this movie, and all I remembered was the baby part where everything was about discovery.  Only when I went to Ralph Eggleston's talk here at CalArts last Friday was I able to see the genius of the Disney movie from 1942.  Too bad I already did most of the backgrounds for ACT I of my film...  I'll be posting those next!

These are some Bambi backgrounds from http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/

:: P0W3R 0F 7HR33 ::

Jessica  A.M. Chen

February 2o11

Healing of Snow

∆  THE POWER OF THREE  ∆

ANIMATION: Outline, Color, Background

SOUND:  Nature, Humans, Wolves

ACT I, II, III: Part I, II, III

ACT I:  PART I:  SETUP

                     Enter forest, establish human characters, kill missed

PART II:  CONFLICT

Grass rustle, pull back, fork in forest

PART III:  CHASE

Bunny chase, fall, lost

TRANSITION:  SEASON CHANGE

ACT II: PART I:  LOST

                     Winter comes, father calls, snow fall

PART II:  WOLVES

Wolves attack, wolf den, surprise

PART III:  DEN

Rat kill, berries present, don’t touch me

TRANSITION:  FADE TO BLACK

ACT III: PART I:  AWAKEN

                     Wake up, snow play, fun and games

PART II:  FOUND

Father hears laughter, runs over, watches

PART III:  ENDING

Lumi falls for third time, father shoots, death

TRANSTION:  BLOOD FLOW ON SNOW

CREDITS:  Story and Animation by:  Jessica "JAC" Chen

                 Thesis Instructors:  Laura Heit, Maureen Selwood

                 Sound Mixers:  Raffaello Mazza

                 EA Faculty:  Hillary Kapan, Soyeon Kim, Paul Vester, Emery Martin, Gordon Kurowski

                 Character Faculty:  Dan Hansen, Jim Hull, Robert Lence, Lisa Keene, Matt Williames

                 SPECIAL THANKS:  AMDG, M, D, Fam, [R], D2 2O1O, Cold-Hearted Critiques, EA MFA 2O12

:: 2o11 PR0DUC710N 5CH3DUL3 ::

Jessica  A.M. Chen

THESIS CONCEPTS

Laura Heit

February 2o11

Healing of Snow

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE 2O11

JAN  PRE-PRODUCTION COMPLETED.

FEB    1 – 5:  BGS for ACT I, Part I

            6 – 12:  Animate Beginning and color

            13 – 19:  BGS for ACT I, Parts II and III

            20 – 28:  Animate rest of Part I / Setup

MAR     1 – 5:  Tweak BGS to final for ACT I

                 6 – 12:  Get feedback for BGS, edit

                 13 – 19:  Animate Part II / Conflict

                 20 – 26:  Keep animating / catch up on BGS [if needed]

                 27 – 31:  Collect sound for ACT I/ Continue animating

APR      1 – 9:  Mock sound on Parts I and II, cut everything together

                 10 – 16:  Present for feedback, edit

                 17 – 23:  Start animation on Part III / Lost

                 24 – 30:  Color from beginning all ready scenes

MAY     1 – 7:  Continue coloring and shading

                 8 – 14:  Finish coloring, start effects

                 15 – 21:  Check lighting, leaves falling, snow flurries

                 22 – 28:  Implement mock sound for Part III

                 29 – 31:  REST / Collect sound for ACT II

JUN    1 – 4:  Start BGS for ACT II, Part I / Season Change

               5 – 11:  Snow loops and wind, start animation for Part I

               12 – 18:  Start BGS for ACT II, Part II / Wolves

19 – 25:  Animate Part II - a / Attack

26 – 30:  Continue / Catch Up

JUL    1 – 6:  Incorporate mock sound for ACT II, Part I and II – a

               7 – 13:  Animate Part II – b / Surprise

              14 – 24:  BLACK OUT DATES / ALASKA / Color??

              25 – 30:  Start BGS for ACT II, Part III / Den

AUG     1 – 6:  Start ACT II, Part III animation

                 7 – 13:  Continue Animation

                 14 – 20:  Cut ACT II together, edit

                 21 – 27:  Add mock sound, start effects

28 – 31:  Color basic / shade?

SEP   1 – 3:  Continue color / shade

                 4 – 10:  Rest / Catch Up

                 11 – 17:  Start BGS for ACT III, Part I / Awaken

                 18 – 24:  Finish BGS, get feedback for ACT I, II, and new BGS

                 25 – 30:  Edit any BGS, start animation on ACT III, Part I

OCT    1 – 8:  Continue animation

            9 -15:  Get Feedback, edit

            16 – 22:  Color in Part I, add mock sound

            23 – 31:  Add effects and lighting, check other ACTS

NOV    1 – 5:  Start BGS for ACT III, Part II / Found

             6 – 12:  Finish BGS, start animating Father

                 13 – 19:  Animate

                 20 – 26:  Color, sound check

                 27 – 30:  Feedback, edit, effects

DEC     1 – 3:  Edit, color, effects

                 4 – 10:  Animate ACT III, Part III / Ending

                 11 – 17:  Animate, feedback, edit

                 18 – 24:  Edit, color, effects

                 25 – 31:  Add mock sound, Record Katie?  Catch up, PICTURE LOCK

--------------------------------------------*--------------------------------------------

Healing of Snow

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE 2O12

JAN  Natural sounds, talk about layers and DOLBY

FEB  Father actor record, human sound layers

MAR  Tweak sounds, FINISH MIX

APR  Edit final animation, if needed, or sound…

MAY  GRADUATION