Sarasota Film Festival: Presentations & final thoughts

Presenting to Tom via Skype was an over all interesting experience. To be honest, I was a bit nervous to pitch my idea. I wasn't nervous because of Tom, though, but the fact the whole class was there and two professors were watching. I felt as if I was being horribly judged, as opposed to maybe having a one-on-one with the client with no one else there. However, even if I ran into a few technological hiccups, I feel as if the presentation went very smooth. The use of my animatic (or "boardomatic" as Kevin would say) really seemed to quickly drive home the points I needed to make. It also seemed to give the client a clear understanding of what I wanted. He didn't seem to have a whole lot of questions for me, but I was able to answer any he did have, as well as clear up anything my storyboards couldn't translate already.

I'm extremely honored that my animation idea was one of the 6 chosen to animate. I feel as if so many people had wonderful ideas, I can't begin to imagine how they were able to narrow down to a final 6.

I didn't particularly follow all the guidelines that were required in this project. I got a little bit behind at one point so I was playing catch up by the time we got to storyboarding. I think we had to create two different storyboards to our audio: one that represents what the person is saying in a literal way and one that is more abstract. I only did one storyboard and ended up working from there so I wouldn't be too far behind from everyone else. But also after discussing some ideas with other people, it felt like the one I ended up going with was the better idea anyway.

This project taught me a lot of things, almost too many to even list. I think the most important thing I have learned would be knowing how to talk to people. Going through the interviewing process as well as talking with the client were major key elements in helping me learn this. Communication with your client is extremely important from beginning to end of the project. You need to have a clear understanding of what the client wants, needs, and is looking for. You get this information by sitting down with your client and talking through the project until you feel as if you have a good idea in your head in what direction you want to go and how you will get there. By the time you pitch, you need to relate your ideas clearly and effectively to the client. It was really important in this case because Tom had to relate our ideas to his staff, so he needed to understand our ideas well enough to translate them to other people. The best way to relate your ideas is visually, not only verbally, so having very clear storyboards helped everyone. I found the animatic useful because he could see exactly what I wanted to do along with the audio.