Extended Practices: Reviewing the Animatic

I decided it would be best for me to take Anabeth's advice and look at cutting down my story. The scenes I was considering removing were the ones where the younger sister is flying the kite very close to her/barely off the ground, and the older sister gestures to her to let out more string. Although this was a nice interaction between the two characters, I don't think it is all that necessary that I keep it. The story is still able to show character development through the re-assuring/consoling hug and running away together at the end of the story. This cut would also mean I wouldn't have to lose any of the scenes I have already animated, which is a bonus.

Cut Attempt One

Cut Animatic and Edited Sound

The reason why I was reluctant to cutting out scenes before - besides from the fact that I thought the story was fine as it was - was because I had already made my music collaborators change the score once before. I didn't want to inconvenience them wherever possible, and the idea of reviewing the story was conjured at the same time as receiving my final score. However, I definitely think I made the right decision trimming the story. This amount of work seems much more achievable; I may even be able to finish in time for deadline, depending on how long colouring the remaining scenes takes me!

Once I had removed and re-positioned the scenes in my film, I wanted to make sure that the music would still line up with key elements in the story. I wanted to make sure that the music would get more dramatic as the kite was being successfully flown, and that it would drop in tempo as the kite crashed again. As there was a chunk of around 15 seconds removed from the track, this meant that the music no longer flowed very well, and experimenting with audio transitions in Premiere didn't seem to do the track much justice (Cut Attempt One). As I was hoping for a quick solution, I got in contact with Michael, a student I know from Leeds College of Music. I asked him whether this edit would be possible, and he was happy to help me out. The edited track is seamless and still works well alongside the animation, so I'm really pleased and ready to get back to animating.