TLDR: I'm creating a high quality animated short film (around 5 minutes long) for 2016, and I am looking for like minded souls: animators, character designers, background artists, and to a lesser extent, composers and voice actors to help. Ideally I'm looking for a few good people to collaborate with, and there is a possibility of payment depending on input.
Hey gang,
My name's Sam and I've been dicking around with animation for around 10 years, and turning freelance for the last 12-18 months. During this time I've done paid commissions, done some work experience at a fairly high calibre animation studio in my home city, and gone to a few animation events. I didn't go to university, and I'd consider myself self-taught, animation is a constantly evolving field, so even graduates have to stay on top new developments in animation to stay relevant.
Anyway, my long term goal has been to get a full time job in an animation studio, and a good way to demonstrate competence, creativity and commitment is to create a short film, similar to what a lot of animation students would produce in their final year. And that's where (hopefully) you come in...
One thing I've noticed from watching short films at animation events is that even when you watch a relatively short animated film of not much more than 2-3 minutes in length, when the credits roll up you'll see a list of contributing animators, background artists, and other artists, and sometimes you'll see anything from 10-30 names of people who've contributed in some way to the short film.
This made me realise that although I'd like to create this project on my own, maybe I can't, and maybe it would be impossible to get it to the standard I want in the time-scale I want if I am just working on my own. Also, I'm probably going to miss out on some valuable feedback, and cross-pollination of ideas that I might get with a team of like minded animators.
So I am looking for talented animators, who have an interest in creating something of quality, something that will do the loop on the international short film circuit, like the LIAF, MIF, Sundance, EIFF, AFI, PFF (all the indie animation short film festivals from around the world). Something that will ultimately function as your CV or application to a major animator studio, and by extension a well paying job. Ideally I'm looking for animators above the foundation level, but underneath the pro level, so that you will really get the most out of this experience. I want this project to be a collaborative effort, so if you had an idea for changing the story, the character designs, or any other input, I want you to feel free to say so.
I'll go into much more detail about the short film with successful applicants, but the general gist is that it's going to be centred around Roman times, with a group of men watching gladiators fight in the Arena, there will be some action elements, but mainly it will be driven by dialogue and fairly constrained character animation, although this will make more sense when you read the script.
I'm well aware of how frustrating it is to hear people offering animation work, 'for the exposure' or 'for the publicity', so with that in mind I'm willing to talk about payment with anyone who'd like to be on board. Although I would say, if you're only interested in the short film for the money than I don't think that will be enough, I would hope that your key motivator would gravitate more towards making something lasting, original, and using the short film as a springboard into a well paid animating position. When it's finished this will be something you can use in applications for studios for the next 3-5 years, plus you get the experience of working with and collaborating alongside other animators.
The plan moving forward would be this : -
I would act as director and lead animator, and establish individually what each animator would be able to contribute in terms of time and skills. ie, background artist - 2 wide shot colour backgrounds in photoshop per month, or inbetween animator - 50 frames a week, etc. This will depend a lot of the individuals and their skill levels.
There would be a structured Gantt chart drawn up detailing what each person would be doing, and then a group chat where we can share ideas, critique, and generally communicate collectively about what we are doing.
At the moment there's me, a 3rd year animation student, and a composer experienced with successful shorts as part of the team.
We would go through the stages of, character design review, story review, storyboard, animatic, then full scene production (this would take the bulk of the time), special effects, refinements / edits, and then polishing off the whole thing at the end
Then the film would be sent to the animation festivals mentioned above, with a view to doing a short 6 - 12 month tour globally before we release online on free services ie, youtube, vimeo, facebook and newgrounds. (this is fairly standard practise for successful short films).
Any money raised through this would be split equally between contributors. Everyone who worked on the film would have free reign to use the movie for self-publication after the festival circuit has been done, also if you wanted to use any snippets for your personal show-reels that's fine too.
So there you go!
I've got a lot more to say about the project, but I'd rather not put all the details out in public just yet. If you are interested in collaborating than feel free to drop you details below, please include some examples of your recent work and a little about yourself and what your goals are for animating in 2016. I look forward to hearing fron you all :)
Muchas gracias,
Respectfully,
Sam
