Importance of Story

Break was not productive!

I had a slight breakdown first week coming back. Really felt the pressure of making this thesis. I kept saying to myself - It's ALL dependent on you! YOU need to get your stuff together. No one is waiting for you to go to the lab and whipping your back to get working. You are your own enemy. YOU need to graduate and get a job, not get deported etc etc.

This drained and intimidated me. But I realized through wise words and encouragement that I'm not only doing this for myself and my graduation. It is dependent on more people than me! I'm doing this for my friends and family... I wanna make them proud and excited by the end of all this and show them why I came all the way here to LA! I want to inspire even beyond that. People are rooting for me... so I'm not alone.

Thinking about it as a huge blob is intimidating... but breaking it down into small tasks makes it manageable. It's refreshing doing a production schedule because I can really start organizing my time. It's hard to know how much I'll finish every week and how to pace myself but to write it down is the first step.

This week I focused on completing more shots in my stop-motion segment. I managed to finish 3 shots with the worm. Some problems I faced was keeping the worm standing without any rigs. Also light pops were a constant issue. Apparently, if I kept the camera running too long, the light stops going into the lens as much. But these things I will fix in post.

I also asked myself: What is the most important part of my film that I should concentrate on?

The answer? The middle. That's where all the fun stuff happens. There was way too many distracting, confusing bits in the beginning so I cut them out and decided, all he really has to do is smoke the pipe and the brain explodes so why all the fuss with the vines?

So now, the worm just becomes the brain and the boy picks it up and smokes it. In the end, I'm keeping the dragonfruit head and all the vines covering him. It still makes sense!

I think I will end up using Photoshop to animate the middle just because I'm familiar with it already... even though it's not the best for efficiency.

I plan to finish my stop-motion entirely by next week and then the 2D excitement begins.