The 4/17 Recap & Class Reflection

The festival was pretty spectacular. Actually, the staff who made this Visions 5 festival as successful as it was are all spectacular, because when people stick together and work hard... other people get blown away. Not literally, but compared to Visions 4 (the spectacular predecessor) the turnout was terrifically splendid; I'm not trying to write everything that pops in my head... Ned Flanders...
Meeting the filmmakers prior to the event was interesting, and really opened my eyes, specifically interpreting personalities with their submissions. I basically tried to read a certain auteur's relationship with their work and others who were attending the festival. Frogboy, The Sound of Where, Beast, these films we viewed together on our computers before passing judgement became gladiators of the theatre, on that day in April, on the 17th. The highlight of my day at the festival was the radiance of the Visions bumper, which received an unexpected amount of praise from both staff and filmmakers alike. Oh, and Caroline Roberts delivered probably the most inspiring presentation I've had the pleasure to witness for the past three years. Our very own Bahr slayed that second conference block, and Ceiling Finger is still haunting my dreams.. 

Heroes and Villains united.

The class was not what I had originally perceived it to be. While I was able to perform my regular duties as a staff member, you were also required to (emphasizing on this) actively share your thoughts on literally everything in class. I understand why this was more important, something that was valued more than anything else because without discussion, progress would be far from nigh. Regrettably not an ideal environment for introversion, but I'm thankful for involving myself in this type of experience. I never thought I could master my fear publicly speaking (this is a half lie) whenever I was required to showcase art-related content. Over the course of the semester, I became wary of the importance of my role; even after three weeks of agonizing pain that still lingers, I pushed myself to continue working on portraits for the staff members. My role was that of exposure, and I was given the privilege of creative freedom at my fingertips, the 'world' in my grasp. In the end, my hard work paid off. Funny how I was the first of my kind... Lead Animator. I just hope that, I'll never be that introverted weirdo that never speaks because of his 'hyper' social anxiety in any class environment ever again. 



To my successor as Lead Animator,

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a mentor for people like you. If you give up your current role now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will support you!!

Good luck mystery person, I have a lot of faith in you!! Wishing Visions 6 all the best!!

blog post 4/11/15

On my computer. Working hard to keep promoting the festival. After Effects. Installing 'xscale' font for clearer purpose; usage being creative accessibility to wider audience(s). Starts with regular black solid background and creates a text layer. This text layer uses the 'xscale' font, and then duplicates it several times. 3D boxes checked, complying layers parented to the adjustment layer for security purposes; wouldn't want the composition to collapse because of some error made on the editor's part.

Just a few of the several thousand steps it took to make exmachina.

4/3/15 Update

Two more weeks 'til the grand finale. The last bumper was decent, and hopefully the next two will be just as good. First, I plan on working with the upcoming bake sale promo (new approach), and changing the concept of the it's vanilla state. Then, I will finish the green 'atomic' bumper so that people will be drawn into the festival like mosquitos. Just kidding. I'm content over the success of the headshots too; most of them were a bit aggravating because the images were small. Still though, gradually being accustomed to making the headshots helped with the overall process. Not that they need to know, but I'm also really proud of my group last week for kicking major ass with brand new content. Two more weeks to go.