20081124

Research and Pachyderms

The closest social unit is the "family," a group of a dozen or so related females and their offspring. Certain families have a strong preference for each other's company. The families so affiliated are a "bond group." Families and bond groups are often expanded by the visits of adult males, but on the whole males live rather separately from the families, in bachelor herds and independently.

-
Katy Payne, Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants.

One of the greatest lessons I took from my storyboarding class with John Canemaker: Research, Research, Research. Going into a scene, know as much as possible about set and setting as you can and the visual details will fall into place. Many filmmakers write/create from what they know. I would imagine the Kevin Smiths of the world often don't often dive into a subject with much depth because they live it. They write stories that come from the shit they talk with their mates and the porn they watch every night. Or afternoon as the case may be. And bravo, that stuff's amusing.

I've never been this type of filmmaker, though. I work from a palette of whatever I can imagine and this dictates the types of stories I want to tell. And while some would scoff at it, I've been suffering from a veritable onslaught of too many viable ideas and no way to do anything with them. 3 Shorts, 5 feature loglines, and an amazing series written by Patrick Udomsak that deserves a bigger fanbase. The latter of which has grown into a fortress of data and development rivaling the mythos of the LOTR. Well, our planet is younger than Middle-Earth but let's not get into it.

In any case, I'm moving forward as of today. Should end up between 7-12 minutes but I'm aiming for less to keep production time down. Still, the priority will be quality and if it wants to be longer, I'll let it breathe. For the first time, I'm not even writing a script. Straight to simple thumbs and boards, and into pencil and media as quickly as I can get there. I'll deal with sound and post when those ships sail. For now, though, filling out this outline that my sister and I worked through, and lots of research on African elephants.

The more I learn, the more I love these animals.

3 comments:

ADM said...

You can update more frequently than THIS.

Udo Umami said...

I vant to cuddle ze elephant.

Jackhalfaprayer said...

heheh

they are adorable but remember they weigh about as much as a pile of boxcars and hold the title of largest land animal.

ADM, I had a sinus infection last week, y0! I was down but not out. Didn't feel like posting.