Logline

Despite his timid personality and obstacles like his father and school bully, Tod is determined to push through and finally speak to his crush. However, there may be other obstacles he'll have to overcome, both internal and external.

Possible Locations

Match Edit Examples

Eyeline Match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv93covb53w

Action Match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI-V0rrlZBo

Natural Transition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyGcUc8LmY

Graphic Match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUf7iGGf5MM

3 act structure

"Don't forget.."

Act 1: teenager coming home from school

Setting: house and playground near the suburbs 

Todd- 15 years old

Father- middle aged man 

Jake- friend number 1

Tyler- friend number 2

Son comes home from school and father asks him not to forget to do his homework 

-shot of his father grabbing the belt and putting it on-

It's implied that Todd is afraid of that belt.

As his father leaves he hears a knock on the door and his friends want him to join them at the park.

He decides to go with them and return later to do his homework.

Act 2

They're at the park and Todd is having fun in the children's playground with Tuler and Jake.

Suddenly he thinks he hears a woman on the phone say "hey when are you going to be home from work?" And it causes to remember.

He looks at the chain of the swing he's sitting on and it suddenly turns into his fathers belt

Todd runs away desperately trying to reach home.

Over the course of his journey, his head plays tricks on him and makes him think he hears his fathers intimidating voice but it's nothing more than other people at the park saying things such as "HEY! Hurry up!" To one another 

This causes him to think it's his dad pressuring him to come home, to avoid  getting punished.

Act 3:

He comes home and realizes it's 6 pm, two hours before his dad gets home.

He ends up doing his homework but strangely enough, he did two of the same worksheets.

His father comes home and reviews it.

He asks him why he did the same work twice.

Told replies with "it's extra credit"

His father then says "good. I expect you to be an overachiever. Goodnight I'll see you tomorrow" then Places his hand on Todd's shoulder triggering a flashback.

It's his bully, who always makes him do his homework.

It's yet another fear Todd has to deal with.

Career Workshop in Art Education (K-12)

Despite the fact that I have absolutely no interest in the field of teaching, I went to the workshop to at least listen to the spokesperson and hear her out. It came as no surprise to me that you need certain skills and assets in order to teach a certain grade, and furthermore, you need to WANT to teach because teaching requires lots of patience not just for yourself but the listeners as well. It's a little more complicate with art given that mos people prefer to have their own style. I wasn't too involved in the speech, especially when she talked about shelby county schools, which I attended majority of my life. Needless to say, I would not put up with the kids and did nor find this very helpful

Artist Lectures for Dynamic Imaging

Andrew Cefalu

Andrew Cefalu was a student here at MCA and in this Skype session we learned a little bit about him. He gave us the basics, majoring in illustraton and he gaves us tips here and there about some of the things we can do after we graduate. He gave us a cheesy speech about art being our life. Overall, he seemed to know what he was doing, but he didn't tell us anything too great. I do personally enjoy his work, however, though most of it looks like early concept art for a video game.

Demo Reel Review

Erica Pinto-  Her characters have nice, fluid movement. They sound effects and voices perfectly match the characters. However, she only showed her ability to animate cartoony animals, I would have liked to see her show more humans.

Dia de Los Muertos by Whoo Kazoo- This award wining animation is outstanding. The story is not hard to follow at all. Very straightforward. There aren’t any voices. Instead everything is told by action. The animation is solid, nothing seems off. The creator does a good job at giving his characters life, specifically the skeletons.

Origamy by Joanne Smithies, Eric De Melo Bueno, Michael Moreno, and Hugo Bailly- This animation is pretty good, and the design of the origami creatures are nice. It's also very atmospheric, utilizing the light of the paper creatures to signify balance and focus, while the black ink-like material signifies imbalance and lack of focus. The boy is a simple character, but, one who is made relatable, because he goes through something that we all do: impatience and lack of focus. His character arc is, naturally, to go through this surreal, dreamlike state, keeping his eye on the light, and focus on the task at hand, while avoiding the darkness, which signifies his own impatience and lack of focus. In the end, he learns to keep focused, not by ignoring the darkness completely, but, keeping it in perspective, and using the light to be his guide. While the animation could definitely be better and character design changed to fit the person better, the overall portrayal of the boy’s struggle was easy to follow.

Paranoia by 4 students for Thakur-Toonskool Advanced Animation Academy- The animation style for this demo is interesting. The students use both 2D and 3D. The animation is great, and facial expression/movement is 100% appropriate for the tone. It’s a very intense story that does not allow you to turn away, instead you are immersed into this story. At times you feel like you are the character. The animation end in a cliffhanger and you can’t help but want to find out. In real life, we often come across people we find suspicious and become a little paranoid. Certainly, we can relate to this guy. Despite being good at building tension, but there's no payoff. It doesn’t end as much as it just stops. I wish the creators had chosen a different way to end it.

R'ha by Kaleb Lechowski- In the realm of student animation, human interaction is very common. In this animation, we are taken to this sci fi world. It takes place in a futuristic world where a member of the R'Ha race is held accountable for defending his planets against an oncoming threat. Being a CGI short, it is definitely mind blowing, this almost seems like a movie trailer for an actual film. The protagonist’s animation is jinky at times, however, especially after it escapes. The story has an interesting, but predictable, twist. It seems the creator focused on plot and visual representation and gave very little time to character development. I would say in terms of visual effects, it’s successful for the most part. In terms of plot and character development, it’s not very successful.

The Origin of Creatures by Floris Kaayk- This creepy animated short film is made by the filmmaker, and visual artist Floris Kaayk. This futuristic vision of a post-apocalyptic world has very interesting visuals. We see mutated limbs apparently trying to communicate to build something. It starts of with one, but soon more of these creatures join. The CGI is great, it has lots of atmosphere and the movement is appropriate. However, it’s easy to get lost. It seems like there isn’t much plot, just the same repetitive limbs climbing, walking, building and oddly communicating. The category that this falls in is truthfully up to the one who perceives it, though it is a beautiful and delicate render of whatever it is trying to capture or portray. I was left unamused and unentertained by the end. I had no idea what was going on. Apparently it is based on one of the most well-known tales about collaboration, the Tower of Babel. This tale is transformed and twisted and is set in an imaginary future, after the world is hit by a catastrophe. Human bodies are divided into separated parts of the body and are fused to special beings. Together, these creatures form a colony, they can only survive when collaborating. In the rubble of destroyed buildings they are trying to build a nest as large and as high as possible, so that the colony's queen gets enough sunlight to reproduce. Most of the viewers wouldn’t have known this and instead would have thought this was only supposed to show off the animator’s render and animating abilities. As far as plot and character development goes, it’s dull.

On board by ESMA- This was made by five animators. Great animation, but the plot seemed unsuccessful. There was too much character and less plot. I kept asking myself who the people with the weird eyes were. The story didn’t answer that. I had to find out AFTER I watched it. It turns out they’re dead people. It was a custom to put coins in the eyes of the dead so they could pay the shipman for the ride to cross the styx in Greek mythology. It seemed to be going to be more mysterious due to the other-worldly landscape, like perhaps the shipman was escorting the dead to Hades, and the reason why he kept rejecting the monk was because it was not his destiny. By the end the shipman gives in and lets the monk on board to realize in the end that he has gone to hell. Character animation and design was good and detailed. As good as it was, the monk seemed to have more energy than he should have when you look at his physical appearance. His energy and personality were not likable, instead he came off as annoying.