Since my first day of high school I have always wanted a film of mine shown at the PAC (Performing Arts Center). I remember when I was little going to a film fest at the high school with my mom and falling in love with the life size Oscar statues and red carpet. This made me thrilled when my class decided to bring back the film festival, but the thrill was immediately followed by concern as I needed to decide quickly what I was going to do. After coming back from my amazing opportunity with the St. Louis Cardinals, I only had roughly a month to complete whatever it was that I wanted to do. Animation is where my heart has been set and it has been a dream to have one shown on the big screen but one minute of animation takes a team of animators roughly 2 weeks to make. I was looking at a story that would take about two minutes and I had only one month to complete it. The first week was dedicated to finding the story. I had an idea for a while about a series of people and how they dealt with the frustrations of LA traffic. The problem was this story had nothing to do with the word why. On Instagram I had been recommended these posts of photos from old viewmasters. It gave me the idea to start the story highlighting all the amazing sights and experiences of Los Angeles in the 1950s/60s. This introduction was also partly inspired by the beginning of Ratatouille where we learn about Gusto's restaurant from an old TV broadcast. From their we are transported to an interpretation of present day where everything mentioned before is almost completely nonexistent. I was losing ideas on how to properly end the animation so I watched a video about Chuck Jones who was the main director of nearly every successful Looney Tunes cartoon. The video taught me that your character needs to have something that he wants and you can use this "want" to help build the story. With this information I was able to find a good ending and make the story have a proper beginning, middle, and end. I was able to bring the lessons that I learned from the Fantasy Camp to this animation which I think played a big part in this being the first animation that I finished before a deadline. This being the first animation that I have completed before a deadline definitely makes me feel confident about my abilities for when I go into the real world. If you want to watch the final film click here and if you want to take a peek at the inspiration and references in it, scroll through the photos below!
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AuthorMy name is Mate Daus. I am a filmmaker, editor, Musician, and artist. Archives
April 2023
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