Film Project 1: Fin

I’ve an idea for a project.  This is just something I am throwing out there.  It’s a good project, a fun project.

It’s the end of the movie.  Final image is still swimming on your retina, maybe you are thinking of a character or two.  Music plays on the soundtrack, and the credits roll.  If you are like me, you stick around to gape at the amount of animators who worked post on the film and wonder how you get that job.

Sometimes I realize that there is no reason for the whole movie.  The impact can be condensed to the last few seconds of the movie and the transition to the credits.  Think of “Reservoir Dogs”.  If all you saw was the last shot of Keitel holding Tim Roth’s Mr. Orange, the offscreen gunshots, and the cueing up of Nilsson’s “Coconut”, what would you think had happened before.

Project “Fin” is this:  Final shots of the movie, credits, with a soundtrack.

It’s that simple.  I guess you can skip the soundtrack if you would like.  For me that’s where this project begins.  I hear a song and it evokes a scene for me.  Who cares if there is no context.  It’s probably best you have no idea what the rest of the movie is about.  And if you aren’t going to use a soundtrack, it’s because the lack of one makes a better impact.

It can be animated (full or limited) or live action.  No storyboards, although there is a fine line between limited animation and an animatic.  Credits should be a little more than arial or helvetica fading in/out on a background.

This is an opportunity for filmmakers to meet motion artists and vice versa.  Or just work on your visual and composition skills.  It’s all storytelling.  Read some Scott McCloud, buy a comic book, jump on the team and come on in for the big win.  Inside every filmmaker there is an storyteller trying to get out. It’s a hardball world, son. We’ve gotta keep our heads until this remake craze blows over.