The movie was inspired by a true event where the roach did not survive. After luring it out, I chased it around and eventually used a butcher knife to stop it in it's tracks. Then I flushed it's remains down the toilet.
I started the short almost immediately finishing Way West and tried to get as much done in-between freelance projects as I could. I was actually on track to complete the movie around the early October but, as I suspected when I started the project, in September freelance picked up and the I had to put the movie on hold for a bit.
As I said in an earlier post, sound design was a huge part of this movie. Majority of the sounds were homemade and you can probably guess the ones that weren't. A lot of the time in post production was spent doing the sound design. I had some difficult selecting music for this movie. I pictured the movie without sound at the beginning because I thought the sound effects alone would create some sort of rhythm. I found when I started to do sounds the rhythms I thought would be there weren't so music was used to fill in the gaps. I settled for ragtime music because it matched the mood(in my opinion) and the previous Directionless animation had piano music so why not keep the tradition up?
It's the first voice acting project I've done where I don't say a single word but my voice is throughout the entire movie. It also reveals Jeff's voice even though he still remained a relatively silent character.
This shot was actually edited out of the final movie!
So now the question, what's next? Well for one, the comic strip continues Monday-Fridays. Roach was actually the reason the comic started up again!
As for cartoons while I was working on Roach I did a lot of concept art for various animations. I also did voice recordings for the next Directionless short. My goal is to try to work on two completely different cartoons simultaneously and try to release them BOTH by the end of the year. I also am in the planning stages of an animated music video but I am not sure what the timeframe for it will be. Way West 2 is also in the back of my mind, I may begin storyboarding it soon. It has a much more detailed and intense story than the first one.
The next Directionless short is about running. Voice acting plays a much more prominent role in this one but Jeff will still remain relatively silent.
I am storyboarding a new music video in this style. The goal is to try to finish it by the end of December.
This is the main character of another video I am planning.
Oh and I also will be directing some live action music videos in the very near future. It borders on what I consider freelance because I won't have full creative control(but something very close to it). I know my animation crowd has generally disliked my attempts at live action but maybe I'll be able to change their minds with the upcoming videos!
Even though I don't update this blog as often as I should, remember Directionless the comic runs 5 days a week!
