musical woes

I have the up-most respect for musical composers... and musicians. This stuff is hard. Especially when you have no experience whatsoever, and I don't count the one time I played clarinet in the 7th grade. It may not be the greatest thing ever, but it has to be done.

animatic drei!

Float from Katie Patno on Vimeo.

Hahaha, ok, so the guys newspaper says "the Blunt Dealer,"which was my attempt at humor by parodying Cleveland's newspaper "the Plain Dealer." I thought it was innocent and cute, just coming up with another name for "Plain." I picked "blunt" as in "straight forward," and "to the point." Of course, my old roommate had to point out that in fact "the Blunt Dealer" is not exactly as innocent as I had originally thought, and I will admit it took me a good 5 minutes to understand what she meant by that... So yeah, the name has been changed.

Everyday I work on this, so it keeps changing and growing. Can't wait to finish my film!

Animatic dos!

Float animatic from Katie Patno on Vimeo.

Procrastination award goes to...me!

Here is my long-awaited detailed animatic of Float. My faceless characters will soon have faces, my buildings will have their details finished, and all animation will be completed by the end of the quarter. Also, I am going to change the last shot. Instead of walking away in the direction he is going, he will be walking in the direction of the bus because he's still going to work. Man's still got to make a living, right?

Shout out to my loyal follower Katie B. Sorry this took so long to get up. I will add more, I promise this time. :)

Welcome!

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by to take a look at my blog! This was made to promote my short film Float which I will complete my senior year. I'll go into detail of what my film is about so just sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Story Synopsis

“Float” is about a man who is anxiously waiting to get to work at a bus stop when suddenly, he is lifted off the ground by no will of his own and floats up to the sky. The more he tries desperately to keep himself earthbound, the more he floats, higher and higher. Its not until he finally lets his fears go and starts to enjoy himself that he finally learns how to safely get back to the ground.

Story Outline

The story is about an overworked and tired man named Johnny, who is standing at a bus stop waiting impatiently for the bus to arrive. Briefcase in hand, he is sleepy-eyed and weary but also anxious to get to work. He decides to close his eyes for just a moment, but when he opens them again, he realizes to his confusion that he is hovering slightly off the ground!

The others at the bus stop notice this strange event but try to ignore him, except for a little boy with a yellow balloon who finds it all fascinating. Johnny then begins to float upward higher in the air, not before dropping his briefcase at the boys feet making him let go of his balloon. As Johnny ascends, he tries everything he can to remain on the ground. He floats in between two buildings connected by clotheslines and he grabs a hold to some old woman’s underwear. Unfortunately for Johnny, the unsympathetic woman knocks him on the head with her cane through the window and he makes his way up again floating higher and higher. Johnny passes by a large skyscraper and tries to get the two window washers attention but they only notice for a moment and continue on with their work.

Johnny is now high above the city still terrified about the whole ordeal. It is not until he looks down at the city and sees the beauty of the world below that he begins to actually enjoy what’s happening. Now with his worries out the window, he stops floating up and smiles. The yellow balloon from the boy at the bus stop catches up to him and Johnny takes it in his hand. Johnny is now able to control his flight, and after a few graceful moves through the air he slowly and safely lands on the ground back at the bus stop.

Handing the balloon back to the boy, the bus finally comes. As everyone gets on, Johnny stays behind- watching the bus leave with the boy smiling at him with his balloon through the back window. With a new spring to his step, Johnny picks up his briefcase and walks away with a new and carefree outlook on life.

Treatment

For this film, I intend to draw and animate my characters using Flash and create the city landscape and backgrounds in Illustrator. I also hope to add watercolor and ink to my backgrounds so my characters can standout more in contrast from the colorful city.

The use of vivid and expressive colors will give this film an overall uplifting feeling and mood. I will animate my characters using the puppet style technique, which will give the overall aesthetic a smooth and clean feel.

I’ve decided to use Flash because I like the flat but expressive style Flash has to offer and I feel that I can express the characters emotions and body language with more success this way.