When I say my goal is to direct an animated feature, I’m NOT messing around! And fortunately for me, there has hardly ever been a time when the public was more hungry for original animated content!
As I share my 2021 New Years’ resolution here. I hope you’ll share yours with me down in the comments!
My Goal: Direct an original animated film in the capacity of director, with a producer experienced in financing independent films as my main collaborator.
And since I’ve come to realize that the more experience I have developing feature-length content, the better, I’ve decided to pull out all of the stops and put out 7 feature pitches in addition to the 3 I typically display on my website.
New Pitch #1:
As I’ve done with some of my former animation pitches, Misfit Supers, Vanishing Ink & Cirque De Solitude, the first of these 7 new pitches is formatted as an illustrated novel. Unlike the other books, however, the illustrations are in full, glorious color!
I have a couple of publishers considering adding this book to their lineup and I anticipate that with a bit of rewriting, it will be ready to publish soon. Depending on how negotiations go, however, I may still consider self-publishing as I did with the other books, just as my friend Isaac Stewart did with his new book, even though he has a robust network through his employer and New York Times bestseller, Brandon Sanderson.
I can’t wait to share more about this project with you soon!
New Pitch #2: (This might be the one!)
Seeing that my short film Layers has been a great tool in attracting potential producers with chats about a feature-length version, I have begun to realize that books may not be my best strategy to get a feature financed and off the ground.
In August 2020, I saved up enough in my animation freelance business to write the opening song to this Animated Musical Fantasy Pitch and then storyboard rough drawing to create an animatic for the first 5 minutes of my film. Music composer Michael Bahnmiller was an excellent collaborator when it came to creating a demo version of the instruments and a create an excellent surrounding score. Megan Heaps, Myself, and Aimee Geddes were the vocalists.
The animated and accompanying video pitch, which I revised at least 5 times, did so well with private screenings for potential producers that I actually may have a producer who wants to put money into animating a high-quality teaser trailer (which I’ve already planned out in animatic form), and help me get the financing to produce this lush animated musical!
This may be my lucky break, but why stop there?
New Pitches #3, #4, #5, #6, #7:
After challenging myself over a couple of months to come up with more than 50 film ideas, I narrowed the list down to the 11 ideas and had peers privately vote on their favorites to narrow the list down to 5.
These pitches will be different in that they won’t be as developed as my former project. They will each include a poster design (featuring unique character designs and styles) and an essay about the film I want to make, as my animation Idol Hayao Miyazaki does when proposing his films. This may sound easy, but each essay will include a comprehensive story summary along with my unique vision for each film.
As I recently learned pitching along with 8 others to Sergio Pablos at the recent CTNX Pitch Perfect Bootcamp, creating a concise and compelling pitch for a film is extremely challenging. And being an animator who is passionate about storytelling, developing 5 at once is shaping up to be the perfect challenge for this point in my career. I’m currently reviewing every screenwriting book, recall every lesson I’ve learned, and studying great stories, such as Aesop’s fables, deeply.
Conclusion
So when will I be able to share this new content publicly?
Well that depends on how my freelance goes and how the chats with this potential producer goes. But from past experiences, I can tell you I will be learning and growing from whatever collaborations come my way.
When can I share them privately? Well, I could share them anytime with the right person, as long as that person is an experienced producer or executive who believes in my work and wants to collaborate.
And while I wish directing an animated feature as my full-time job, I have to say I have been having a blast collaborating with independent directors like James Bourne on his short The Abandoned Block (samples below), directors Bryan Lefler and Travis Deming in their work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (sample below), and many others. Each collaborator has inspired me with their unique vision and talents.
Oh, and I can’t forget the great lessons I’ve learned from the many guests I’ve interviewed on The Directing Animation Livecast. You’re all so inspiring to me and I can’t wait to create work that will inspire you in return!