Outcast Hero: The Making Of An Independent Animated Feature
Gemma Bright is a very talented independent animator who has been working on the feature Outcast Hero since 2006. She has very generously agreed to share her experiences working on the project with our readers!
OUTCAST HERO : MY EXPERIENCES
By Gemma Bright
What
if I were to tell you I was working on an animated movie?
“Cool,”
you might say. “It's a big undertaking, but a rewarding one.”
Now
what if I were to tell you I am working on an animated movie by
myself?
There
have been many reasons for me making this decision – some of them
within my control and some of them not – all of which have
contributed to the ongoing tale that is “Outcast Hero”
The
events of “Outcast Hero” mostly play out on the earth-like planet
Tagen, home to a number of species, one of which are the chimerites.
It tells a story of a genetically gifted chimerite named Muxlowe
Daemyn who – after using his abilities to save Tagen from a
energy-eating creature dubbed “Oxcerbus” – promptly becomes
universally popular. With all this attention having gone straight to
his head, Muxlowe is caught off guard when he wakes up one morning to
discover he has inexplicably become human, a feared species with the
reputation for having created the Oxcerbus in the first place. Cast
far from his home, Muxlowe and companions Adrian, Vira and Marlon now
have several mysteries to solve – how was such a transformation
possible, who did it, and why?
Illness
can end up determining what happens in your life to an extent. In my
case, a chronic metabolic condition forced me to give up a full time
job in 2004 and work part time from home. The unpredictability of the
symptoms restrict my independence, and often make it very difficult
to think or function well. A situation like this could easily become
all-consuming if one obsessed over it, but I've been determined to
channel my attention into more productive things. One of my outlets
has been storytelling with a view to animation.
Outcast
Hero emerged after a dawning realisation that one didn't need the
backing of major studios in order to create something. In a time
before crowdfunding websites, this was still quite a novel thought.
The thought arose after coming across a project on Newgrounds during
the same year in which I quit my job. It was an animated feature film
called “Minushi”, and the most surprising thing about it was it
was being worked on by one person. Inspired, I sketched pages of
concepts for what would later become Outcast Hero. The aspect of how
long it might take me to do a movie alone didn't feel like an issue.
The fact I could get the ball rolling by myself was really freeing
and motivating. July 2006 saw Outcast Hero's production get into full
swing.
I
used the same production techniques that major animation studios did,
which I had learned the basics of from watching animated film
documentaries. After the concept art, I worked out the base structure
of the plot, which was followed by the earliest draft of the movie's
script. Then came the storyboarding and animatic stages – the first
version of the movie merged these two stages together by drawing the
storyboard onto 9x9cm pieces of paper and scanning those into the
computer for composition. Later versions have used thumbnail sized
storyboards and the animatic is being upgraded to a digital format.
In
mid 2010, the first version of the animatic was completed and watched
by a few people who relayed critique back to me. This cycle of small
scale test screening and feedback has been repeated over time, in
order to further improve the movie's contents. Since then I have
focused on the animatic's second version, discounting a year long
break I took in order to make “Outcast Hope” - a prequel short to
Outcast Hero which also served as a test bed for me taking a piece of
work to a finished state.
For
the past eight and a half years I have been crafting the world of
Outcast Hero – its environments, characters and the stories that
drive them – without a budget to dedicate to the movie's
production. Friends have generously dedicated their time and skills
to voice some of the cast and develop various ideas.
Crowdfunding
has been suggested to me in order to get more people on board and
thus speed up production of the movie. I have debated the idea, but
you need to have a substantial audience in order for a crowdfunding
campaign to be feasible, and running a campaign is extremely
stressful. You have the pressure of fulfilling everything you promise
your backers – rewards and actual project work – in a set amount
of time. The second of those things is quite influential to me, as my
state of health requires keeping external stress levels down where
possible.
In
summary - I've learned to work realistically within my own
boundaries, without sacrificing the pursuit of my creative ideas. I'm
not sure how long it will take to complete the movie, or how I'm
going to overcome those future production obstacles, yet I feel
surprisingly chill with regards to these things. Outcast Hero is a
project which I - and those which follow the movie's production - are
savouring the journey of, as well as the prospect of a finished
outcome. This gradual pace, unshadowed by the expectations of others,
allows the story to develop organically and I feel is creating a more
solid end product as a result.
Working
solo on an animated feature is not for the faint of heart. It takes
longer and requires much patience and dedication, but I've always
seen it as the more favoured choice over not working on the feature
at all. For me, creating Outcast Hero has been a fascinating
experience. I have learned so much about movie directing, animation
and cinematography, and continue to discover new things every day.
