So okay, things are picking up again. I’ve been working out a new ending which I think is going to solve a lot of the main problems I have had with the story. It’s requiring some character revisions and story tweaks to make it all work. If I keep on the course I am plotting now I hope to have the story issues roughed out by next week. It’ll take some time after that to go through and put everything on model again.
Not a whole lot going in on this project lately. I’ve been busy. Mike S. has been busy. Nisa (until just recently) has been busy. I have managed to work in some crises of faith and general self-doubt, combined with some moderate efforts to punch up the old animatic some more, but no real groundbreaking leaps forward lately.
I have finally come to grips with the fact that the ending isn’t right and I need to find a way to stick the landing. It’ll probably entail some major rewriting and restructuring the story once I figure out what I want to do. I’ll (eventully) keep you posted.
Ahhhh Summer. Those heady days where the sun seems to beckon you outside, down a path, into a boat, off on voyages to relax. It wreaks havoc on a carefully planned animation schedule. I try to rationalize it by calling it “seeking inspiration” and “doing research.” I mean, it’s not like I’m not *thinking* about Rover. But it’s hard to justify these terms in the long run.
So what research have been doing, and what inspiration have I sought? Well, I got to see Wall-E, Pixar’s lovely tiny shy robot movie. To be honest, I was fairly anxious about seeing this film. Clearly there is a lot of cross over with my beloved property: a tiny, shy robot, exploring a strange world… the early trailers really had my mind buzzing. Friends were emailing me, wondering if I was feeling violated. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I went to see the film. I mean, it’s freaking Pixar, the best animation studio in the world right now. I love these guys.
Thankfully the two stories go in very different directions. Of course, there are some themes that cross over, but other than that, the two films are not that similar. Sure, the characters of Rover and Wall-E have similarities, but none that bother me that much. In fact, I enjoyed the film very much, and I am glad to see Pixar taking these kinds of creative chances. It’s an unusual feature film from an American company, and I am glad it has enjoyed commercial success.
Other than watching movies, I am continuing to work with Mike Sinterniklaas on sound design and language development. The ideas we have discussed regarding the role of language in the film have influenced the characters to the point that I am reboarding many sequences and slightly reworking my story. So story refinement goes on as well. I’ll try to post more frequent updates on our progress.
When it rains it pours. I am proud to announce that Nisa Contreras has also joined Team Rover as Extremely Executive Producer. She has been another longtime colleague and friend so I am extremely excited that she has agreed to come on board. Things are moving folks! Behind the thin veil of this blog, things are moving!
I hope that within a the month I can start posting some cool development stuff. I’m itching to get things moving forward again and put up some work in progress. Getting Mike and Nisa on board is huge and I am super jazzed to get things moving again.
Golly it has been a while since I have posted! Which is not to say that there is nothing going on. In fact, a lot has been happening behind the scenes. The extremely talented Michael Sinterniklaas has come on board to help develop the language and audio elements of the film. Many of you may know him as the voice of Dean Venture in the Venture Bros. or as Leonardo on TMNT. He also does voices for many other projects as well as handle sound engineering for a number more. I’ve been collaborating with him on projects since my early days as an animator, so I am excited that he will be contributing his formidable talents to this film.
This a very important part of the development of the film, actually. I have an animatic well fleshed out and in pretty good shape, but, by and large, it doesn’t take into account the language of the characters. This wasn’t such a big deal in the comic version of the story, since it doesn’t have any language, but it plays a much larger part in the animated version. Michael has already presented me with some great ideas and I am excited to be working with him again.
I hope to have some other announcements soon. And once we get into animation this blog will become a lot more interesting. Stay tuned.
Not a whole lot to report about, except that I have been showing preliminary versions of the animatic to some people and getting some really great feedback. Some suggestions have resulted in some fairly radical story restructuring and a few new things. But I am confident that I’m near a “final” version, at least for this stage of the game. I haven’t involved a sound designer to help me define the voices and language of the characters, and I expect once this starts I will want to modify and add action.
Thanks to everyone who has given me comments so far. You know who you are.
Here’s a couple pix from the animatic. Any of these may not be included in the final piece, of course.
Miguel Martinez-Joffre, an excellent director and colleague of mine, gently reminded me that he also contributed his talents to the original animatic I produced for Rover. I am embarrassed I had to be reminded of this. I am extremely grateful for the work he donated to this project.
He is putting the finishing touches on a very funny film of his own. It’s called “Tickle Me Silly” and I can’t wait until it’s finished. Check out his development blog!
I need a sound designer. Someone who has experience synthesizing sounds. It would also be great if they have an interest in language and the way it works. This person will be helping me craft the unique voice of Rover, as well as the other characters. Please contact me with references and samples of work at mforan@monkeysuit.com.
Did I say I was close to finishing that animatic? I guess I did. Well, I was wrong. So geez Nisa, off my back about it already! Geez!
These two pages pretty much complete the story told in the film. In the comics it keeps going as they move into a swamp and meet Fub. But the film doesn’t go that far.
As an ending, it’s a little too mellow, and I am considering how to rework it into something a little more conclusive. Not sure where to go with it just yet.
