Confession.

I must admit. I am a bit terrified by my first animation piece due at the end of the month. The only guidelines for the piece said, "Make a 1-2 minute film about one of your scars. You may use whatever medium, method or style you wish, and you may interpret "scar" in any way you like. Do not use music or text." Ugh. As stated in an earlier blog, while I have an artistic ability, creativity is not my strong point. I usually focus better with a more solid direction. I thought about this topic since I read about it the first day of class. I had no idea where to take it or where to even begin. So like I usually do when I don't know what to do, I put it at the back of my mind. I let it settle there and sizzle a little bit so that I don't dwell on it, but it's always there in case I come across inspiration. This usually helps calm my nerves, but it also encourages my procrastination. Week after week started to go by and I still couldn't figure out a reasonable idea. I was running out of time and needed something for the day of pitches. So my first step was to analyze the guideline literally. What scars did I have? I thought about it and thought about it and realized, I must have been a very cautious child. Never had a broken bone and while I had scrapes and bruises, they weren't anything long-time. WHAT DO!? Then I remembered this one time I decided it would be super awesome fun to rollerblade in the house. Ah, the good times. Long story short, I ended up scraped and bruised with a permanent scar on my elbow. While this is a story about a scar, I was interested in creating an animation about it at all. So then I thought about interpreting the guideline metaphorically. Everybody has emotional scars, but the problem was I didn't really want to make an animation out of that either. I was stuck in this endless cycle of boring concepts and now was the day of the pitch. Left with no other options, I decided to just stick with the rollerblade story to get through the class. Then I was giving inspiration. I was discussing my problem with a friend when she made a comment that stuck with me, "Scarred for Life". She went on into this crazy story about, well, that's another time, but it did give me an idea. Rather than a physical scar or an emotional scar, what about a psychological scar? This I could work with. I've always reacted deeply against scary movies. I can't and won't watch them. Ever. My friends don't even bother asking me anymore because they know my immediate answer. That's when I decided to make my movie about a kid's first experience watching a scary movie and the impact is has on them in later life. I really enjoyed this idea and when it came time to pitch the idea, my story was different than everybody else and I felt it could relate to a wide audience. Scar Story Idea: Success!

The idea for this animation is done, but the hard part has yet to begin. I just hope I can pull my self together to finish out this animation and the future animations to come. Wish me luck! D:

Scarred For Life

These are the storyboards for my first animation for MART 571. It tells the story of a child's first experience watching scary movies and how their future progresses.










And just in case the slide show decides to be stupid, here is the official link.