Making Of - Fast Food Fly

Welcome back. Today’s blog is about taking a look behind the scenes of the short “Fast Food Fly”. Let’s get started.

A Look Back

Why did I want to make the film?

This was a story I had wanted to make for a while. When making a short I try to be mindful of the parameters that include what my audience wants and what works for the platforms. Also, I had wanted to update the aesthetics of the storytime shorts to be a bit more colorful, so I didn’t want to worry about that, and making a story that was more complicated.

When was the film made?

September of this year. Usually shorts take a bit longer before production is finished, but this was after I had spent some time in the summer refining the process.

Was there anything new when making this film?

Yes! This film featured a few new things about it. Firstly, the aesthetics. Since their inception, Storytime shorts have been black and white. The new color look is an attempt to boost the performance of the shorts (people love color). However I also wanted to retain the spirit of manga that inspired the shorts in the first place. Along with the focus of color on the shorts themselves I also updated the after effects templates and the process for coloring and finishing the shots.

The second new addition was the format. Usually these shorts contain me as the narrator, going over the story from start to finish. While that’s a good method for making shorts longer, the key for performance for short-form video online was to… be short (who’d have thought?). I’ve been wanting to change the format for a while to be more dynamic, but I never really had the chance until this short. So what is the exact change? Well the short has me narrating less, but also is “in media res” (in the middle of things). This allowed me to get straight to the fun parts of the story without adding too much time and grabbing attention immediately.

The next was the directing style. I tried to keep the shots more on the simple side, using straight ahead shots and side shots and limited the amount of backgrounds. This isn’t due to laziness (I swear), but to optimize the production as the new coloring style would add time. In a way you can think of it as re-balancing the scales.

The last change was the focus on animation. I wanted storytime shorts to evolve a bit and to move away from more stationary images into something more dynamic. While they aren’t as animated as the “Moment Of My Time” and “Giggle Gang” shorts, they are more animated than they used to be. I think this makes for a more enjoyable and entertaining story.

What were some hurdles when making the film?

The biggest hurdle was making the new look, and also streamlining that process for making backgrounds. I still haven’t nailed it down for it to be consistent and there are a ton of problems replicating it.

What would I have done differently if I had to remake the film?

I would have liked for the acting to be a bit more dynamic. Not necessarily smoother, but more fun key poses. I think this is something I will get better at with time.

Am I happy with the way the film came out?

While I think there is more I could have done to bring out the films potential, I do think I tried my best at the time of making it. It’s the start of a whole new generation of Storytime shorts so I’m giving myself some time to grow into it.

How The Sausage Is Made

Pre-Production Art & Screenshots

Finalized Production Art

~ Fin ~

That’s about it for this blog. I hope you learned a little something. This short was a bit risky to make due to all of the new stuff I had changed. I’m not sure what the final impact of it will be, but I do think it forced me take a risk so that I can better exercise my creative freedom.

-Until next time-

🪰

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Animation Short - Coal