fellowship deadlines

the deadline for nbc’s writers on the verge program is today at 3pm pacific time! if you haven’t submitted yet, better hurry up. i just emailed my application in.

here’s the timeline from their site:

May 26, 2009 – June 30, 2009 (3:00 PM PST deadline) – Submission Period

September 2 – 11, 2009 – Finalists interviews

September 15, 2009 – Participants selected

September 23, 2009 – Program begins

December 4, 2009 – Program ends

the disney abc writing fellowship deadline is tomorrow. i have to finish up my essay tonight and mail it off tomorrow. semi-finalists are contacted in november.

screenwriting contests

my plan this year has been to write tv scripts and submit them to the various fellowships around town. i feel that’s the best way for me to break in because the fellowships are designed to find and develop talent. ideally, the fellows would become staff writers. most of the fellowships are for tv writers, but if you wrote a feature, there is the nicholl fellowship and the sundance screenwriting lab.

as a back up, i did also apply to a couple contests: the scriptapalooza contest and AAA contest. if i place well, i’m hoping i can use that as leverage to get an agent or someone to read it.

but here’s an article about the Fade In contest not giving out the winners the prizes it promised. i applied years ago and had an issue with that contest (where i feel my script was never read or even entered into their system, yet my check my cashed) and will NEVER submit to them again.

unfortunately, contests like this exists, so buyer beware. you can find reviews of this and other contests at moviebyes.com.

not all contests are bad. i’ve had great experiences with the slamdance screenwriting competition and the dc shorts screenwriting contest.

i feel if you’re going to enter a contest, stick to the bigger ones and ones that give feedback on your script. at least that way, you know someone actually read it.

bear animation

one of my animation mentor classmates forwarded this video. it is amazing and hilarious, and also a little sad. make sure the volume is up.

you can read about his experience learning animation here.

animation mentor:111 walk with personality

well i figured out how to add some heels to the ballie character, but that meant i had to throw out the blocking from last week and start from scratch. i looked at reference video of runway model walks to try to get the right hip movement.

i bought the new 13″ macbook pro which has an nvidia graphics card, so it’ll be able to run maya and render everything properly.

there’s only one week left in the first term! i started off not knowing how to animate anything in maya, and now i can animate a walk cycle. but i’ve learned a lot more than just how to push buttons in maya. animation mentor does a great job of teaching the fundamentals of animation that apply to anything, whether it’s maya or flash or traditional.

i’m looking forward to term 2 – psychology of body mechanics.

animation mentor:111 balance

we had to do a pose with stu showing balance.

here are my sketches.

and here is the final.

i chose to go with stu throwing a muay thai roundhouse kick to the head. a proper muay thai kick doesn’t arc up at the moment of impact, because you can damage your foot or shin on the target’s elbow. instead, you throw your leg up, and the shin makes impact on the way down, cutting into the target.

animation mentor 110: walk with personality

this week we have to do a walk cycle with personality. i decided to do a runway model walk.

even though we start with a side view, the finished animation will be delivered in a 3/4 view. from this side view, you can’t really see the hips swaying and so it just looks like a regular walk. i want to add high heels to sell the runway model look i’m going for.

animation mentor:110 exhausted

the assignment was to pose stu showing exhaustion. i started with these sketches.

i picked pose 1, and then decided to push it more by making him leaning over to the side. i ended up with this:

instead of using reference photos, i just got into this pose myself to figure out where my weight was, how my legs bent, etc.

animation mentor:109 concern (revision)

based on my mentor’s feedback, i made stu reclining more. i wasn’t sure what to do with his legs, but i settled on this pose with his ankles crossed.

animation mentor:109 walk cycle

we had to animate our basic walk cycle from last week. here’s the finished animation:

everything came out grey because the video card on my white plastic macbook sucks. i think the new aluminum ones might be able to handle it, but i should probably just upgrade to a macbook pro.

this next week’s homework is to do the keyframes for a walk with personality.

animation mentor:109 concern

our pose for stu this week is of concern. here are my sketches:

and here is my finished pose:

my mentor’s feedback was to exaggerate the pose more and make him sink lower in his chair, which i think will help.