First Week of 2011

This week we had our first meeting for production on The Districts. It was an excellent opportunity to get the ball rolling and get a solid start on all of the work that needs to be accomplished by the end of the semester. As Jennifer, our producer, has stated before, we began the meeting by covering all that was left over from last semester and all that needs to be accomplished this semester. Also, it was explained what role each person would play in this project. Jennifer is continuing on as Producer/Production Manager and Geng is joining her in those duties. It is established that Taylor will focus mainly on modeling, animation, and other post-production techniques such as lighting and special effects. There are other people working on the project who will be mentioned in a separate blog.

Collectively we decided on a time to meet. We will be gathering every Wednesday at 5:30pm, and I am looking into exact locations that will suite our needs. I am very enthusiastic about this semester, and I am proud to have such a strong team. Right now everyone has something to focus on, and I plan to make sure that everyone has something to do every week. The most important thing is that we all put our best into this project.

My To Do List

• Right now one of the most important things to do is continue recruiting. Our project is a bit ambitious and we have a solid schedule for completion, but the more talented people we have working on this project the more we can achieve. Right now we are looking for more modelers and animators. I have contacted a talented modeler, Darrin Giggy, I used to work with on GameZombie TV to see if he might be interested in joining the project. I am currently awaiting his reply. I also plan on contacting Austin Lord, another talented modeler/animator, tomorrow to see if he would be interested. Our team still needs to recruit for other positions, but my focus right now is on modelers while Jennifer and Geng will focus on other roles.
• Over winter break, I recruited a talented Composer who is going to write the musical score for The Districts. He is very smart and has a good grasp on what sort of music fits different mediums and genres. Later this week I will be giving him notes on specific tunes I want for this film. He will in turn present me with samples that we will refine into the final score.
• Concept art is reaching towards the final stages. While character art, vehicle designs, and random items (such as cameras and weapons) are virtually completed, a little more work needs to be done back ground art. One of my artists, Dillon, will be focusing on that area while another artist, Ryan Campbell, will be focusing on coloring key work that has already been done. I will be meeting with both of them this week to discuss the specific notes on each part.
• As for additional work I have done, this week was full of emails and a little extra planning. I am learning more about wordpress to see if I can use it to form our main webpage, and I worked on a few more storyboards to add to the already large pile of them. I imagine that once we get a few weeks in, I will be solely focused on modeling along side Taylor. Together we will sit down and pick apart the scenes we feel would be best suited for a trailer and model the components of those scenes first in order to save time for this semester. I realize this may be a bit backwards, but to make sure we have our deliverable completed on time (a 1-3 minute trailer by the beginning of May) and to ensure that this trailer is of high enough quality, we feel it best to work on those elements first and then come back to the full individual scenes. Once Taylor has finished reviewing all of the material already completed for the film, we will sit down together and iron out a more specific plan.

Responses

• Jennifer – I would be glad to join you with your Wednesday morning meeting with Steve Khranke. I trust that you can handle everything yourself. I simply feel it would be easier to go over them together than to discuss the details later.I love where your head is at with the contracts. We need to make sure we quickly mobilize getting all of them signed as soon as Steve gives the thumbs up. That will be one of the first things we can cover for this week’s meeting. Let me know how things progress with recruiting more members and getting a hold of Bob as they unfold. Keep up the great work!
• Taylor – I read your post at http://www.taylorbryant.info/ and I was wondering how far along you are with reviewing everything. I will be following you up on this matter with an e-mail.

“Don’t ask for it; go win it on your own. Do that and you’ll succeed.”