Developping digital short films (with CD-ROM)

From idea-generation to production planning, this is THE book digital filmmakers and animators need!

• Offers step-by-step advice for anyone who has a desire to tell a story, think one up and execute it visually.
• Expands the use of existing desktop technology for cinematography, editing, sound and production styles.
• The author is both a practitioner and an educator.

The film market is shifting toward traditional desktop technology to create productions...digitally. Unlike traditional film production, though, digital films require producers to employ a different pre-production process. Devloping Digital Short Films explores how unique character and set designs, bluescreen ideas, special effects, and simple 2D character animation techniques can be used as narrative devices for telling stories. Part One focuses on generating visual ideas that are ideal for digital production and creating a short film script. Part Two focuses on the visual pre-production of a short film and the issues that go through a filmmakers mind as they struggle with how best to present their stories, this includes topics like 101 camera shots, frame composition, developing a visual look and feel, color maps, and creating storyboards and animatics. Part Three explores the different production environments of DV, 2D and 3D, and how they shape the telling of stories based upon the technological strengths of each style. The CD-ROM includes sample scripts, screenwriting software, color map templates, storyboard templates and examples of short films and camera shots. Also on the CD are DV clips to experiment with for Part 2 exercises, and sound files and animation clips to illustrate ideas presented. A web site with links to example films, which are not on the CD, and new films that come out after the book is published will also be available. Sherri Sheridan is the Creative Director at Minds Eye Media in San Francisco. She creates animations and digital films using 2D and 3D software. Current projects include creating a series of digital short films, working on a digital feature film and writing a new book. Before starting Minds Eye Media in 1994, Sherri helped develop Shockwave technology at Macromedia and made the first Shockwave movies on the web. Sherri teaches animation and narrative conceptual design classes at The Academy of Art College in San Francisco and speaks at industry conferences throughout the year. Co-authored Maya 2 Character Animation, 0-7357-0866-5, New Riders, 09/99(OOP).

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