I turned in Don’t Fear the Sitter a few weeks ago, finishing off the last step toward getting my Master of Fine Arts degree in animation. I was working really hard the last few months to get it done, leaving my fiancée lonely and bored as I worked into the night perfecting all the little details. We were both very happy when the deadline came, I turned in my finished product, and I could finally relax.
It screened at the UCLA film school’s end-of-year show. I think it was fairly well-received, but some people had a different reaction to part of it than I had expected. I’m not going to say what exactly, because I don’t really want to give out spoilers.
Actually, though, it’s not quite done. There are still a few more details that I want to work out as a final polishing step. There are some things that I’d like to do but I might decide not to, as well. At some point you just have to call it done.
I’m aiming to get this thing into festivals, though. I want to make it really good. That’s been my goal pretty much since I graduated the film from being my second-year film to being my thesis. I wanted to make something that would make people at festivals take notice. Something, dare I dream, that would get me into Annecy (the most important festival in the animation world). If I really stick to that goal then there are a number of things left to do – the biggest being set dressing.
I’ve always been pretty bad at making a background look lived in. At the moment the house in which the story takes place looks kinda sparse – like a model home that no one actually lives in.
I want to get it done so I can move on to the next project, whatever that may be. I have a big list of possibilities. I have time now to do all those things I wanted to do over the last seven years but never did because my film was hanging over me. For the time being, it probably won’t be animation, though I reserve the right to do something animation-related: a web comic, develop a TV pitch, write a script or storyboard, etc.
Just some thoughts.