Meeting with Dan

Today we met with Dan Dalli for the first time to introduce him to our film. We went through the original animatics and concepts and then discussed with him the issues we had faced, resulting in the change in direction and style. We then showed him the work we had completed with Aijdins character.

After viewing our work, whilst Dan felt we had completed the new work to a high standard, he reenforced what we had all been feeling that we had lost the essence of the original story. He felt that the character was too scary for the film, and that the loss of the female diviated too much from the poem fromm which the piece was originally inspired by. Something we had all felt. We had been trying to make the best of the situation, but if Im honest, watching the original animatics, I felt quite emotional, as it reminded me of how much of the original concept we had had to scrifice.

Dan first asked if one of us could have decided to remodel the characters, but i pointed out that I was probably the strongest modeler of the remaining group, and as I was directing, animating, and doing a percentage of the compositing and editing, that I simply did not have the time to do so, and he accepted this as a valid point.

Dan suggested that instead of creating a stereotypical animated film that we produce more of a moving image piece, as time was of the essence, but also due to the fact that he knew that we all enjoyed animating, but our true passion was in the areas of composting and editing.

We all agreed that this was a good idea, and decided to split the piece into three parts, giving us a chance to work individually, whilst coming together regulary for me to direct the film, and also for us all to share ideas about how the film progressed. He suggested we go speak to Mike to make sure that this was ok and that we would still meet all the course requirements.