C'EST LA VIE: CHRIS J. MELNYCHUK

hello there! the frame-a-thon fundraiser film is up online right now here: http://vimeo.com/30877717

my section is somewhere in the middle. the whole thing is really amazing though and has a lovely flow to it and each section kind of channeled the same air and made it really cohesive as a whole. chris' story is an incredibly touching one, and hopefully you all find it as inspiring as I did. 19 animators worked on this together over the course of about a month and it premiered at the Glenbow Museum on opening night of their animation exhibition, Watch Me Move.

there is still an opportunity to donate money to help fund a scholarship for independent animators in Chris' honour:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Chris-J-Melnychuk-Memorial-Scholarship

If you have the means, please consider donating! Thanks!!

PETER & THE SPACE BETWEEN - NOW ONLINE

I totally forgot to mention that Peter & the Space Between is now online here.

It's a part of the CartoonBrew Student Fest, and I was lucky enough to one of the people chosen to show! It's been a wonderful experience, and, as part of the showcase, have had my film screened in Los Angeles, as well as New York.

I'm going to catch up with messages once I figure my way around Vimeo, and I apologize for being such a pooface. I've been on vacation trying to relax before the next project. I'll put some concept art up for my nex project over the course of November, so come back to check it out!

Lovingly yours,

Sitji

CHRIS MELNYCHUK MEMORIAL PROJECT

I was intending to update this earlier, but I just came back from Disneyland and I've been pretty pooped. This past week has been crazy because I've been on a roadtrip along the west coast of the States with my friend, Kim.

While she was driving, I was working on a project for Quickdraw Animation Society. They're fundraising for the Chris J. Melnychuk Memorial Scholarship, which supports emerging animators with their projects. The project itself is to help complete a part of Chris' last film - documenting his struggles with tongue cancer.

I was lucky enough to work on my section with Kristen Campbell, and though it was difficult finding time/wi-fi to communicate with one another, I think the project turned out pretty good. Here are some images from it:

It was pretty stressful to be on vacation and still working on this, but it all worked out! It premieres at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary on October 15 for the "Watch Me Move" launch party.

If you'd like to donate to the scholarship, please click here! Thank you!

END OF QUICKTRACK

My short film, Bloom, just finished rendering (well, finished rendering 12 hours ago). Today was my last day at the program, and I feel as if this is one of the experiences in my life that in 20 years time, I will recall upon it with fond memories. Having just graduated from school and to experience such an amazing residency program... to be paid to make whatever film I wanted and to have it projected at an outdoor venue as part of a larger festival... I honestly couldn't ask for more.

The bonus parts were working with such great people! The mentor, Richard Reeves, was a great inspiration and kept our spirits high. He brought fruit every week and that was just so nice. The producer, Michael Welchman, made sure we were on track and bought snacks for us every week. Food is my kryptonite so obviously I'm starry-eyed whenever they walk into the studio with food for us. Both of them proved to be essential in my own production: helping me set up and tear down sets/rigs, buying materials, and doing whatever else that was necessary to help us make these films! The participants Lydia, Martin and Mohammed were a pleasure to work with and I wish them luck in their future endeavours. I don't care to ramble too long but I'd be remiss to mention the wonderful working environment created by the rest of the Quickdraw staff (KT, Caitlind, Erin, Evangelos, Jenny)! All your positive attitudes and daily doses optimism made the 3 month long production much easier to handle. I'm going to miss you all terribly, but I'll be back in November, so ... I'll be back.

I truly appreciated this experience, and on a more self-involved aside, I felt I grew immensely both as an film maker and as a person.

If any of you have the opportunity to apply for the QuickTrack Residency Program, please do it! It is honestly one of the most wonderful things offered to new film makers (and the cash don't hurt none). The website for the society is:

http://quickdrawanimation.ca/

...and the blog that's been set up for the program I'm in can be found here:

http://quicktrack.wordpress.com/

Now that the ramblings all over, here are some stills from my new short film/installation:

It will be premiering / screening at the Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary during GIRAF, Calgary's animation festival in the first week of November. If you are in the area at that time, please come! I hear there will be free hot chocolate :)

DOODLEZ

Here are some Harry Potter portraits I doodled for now.. Hope you like it!

Mr. Draco Malfoy

Mr. Ron Weasley

Ms. Luna Lovegood

3 MONTHS AGO

I've been away from this blog for a few months now, but I haven't been lazing about! I was accepted in an artist-residency program in Calgary with Quickdraw Animation Society. The likes of Malcolm Sutherland and Chad VanGaalen have gone through here (name dropping!). The program that I'm a part of is new though, and what we're being commissioned to do is create short animations that will be projected on buildings during GIRAF, Calgary's animation festival.

The project I decided to do is called Bloom, and you can take a look-see at some things we've been doing at the blog:

http://quicktrack.wordpress.com/

I'll be posting little images here after next week, if you'll stick around! It's neat, I swear!

JUNE MARATHON

What with school ending and everything, some friends and I have decided to do a June Art Marathon! This means that we will all fully finish an illustration, animation test, animation asset, film exercise etc for every day in June.

I'll post up my part of the marathon here, but everything will be compiled at http://thisisartattack.tumblr.com

Hope ya'll enjoy!

EXTERNAL SHOW RECAP

I don't really have any photos to show (cause I don't have.. a camera) but anyway, the show went really smoothly! We were pretty prepared that day and it seemed organized. Catering was great and we had a lot of people on hand to help out! We really came together as a group!

The show also served as a platform for the President's Media Award, and I was lucky enough to get the prize for animation! Thank you to Ron Burnett, and the media jury for this wonderful prize! :)

Speaking of prizes, some friends of mine also go the Traveller's Prize, to help aid them in their trip to Toronto, for the film festival. Carrie-Anne Mombourquette (Basic Space), Ippiksaut Friesen (The Dimming), and Waleed Rabia (Yearning) all received this prize, and congratulations to Ippik for winning BEST OF ANIMATION AT THE FESTIVAL! AHH!! That is so exciting! Her film is great, by the way, and if you ever get a chance to see The Dimming, please do!

Congratulations to all the graduating students of Emily Carr, class of 2011! We should all be very proud of ourselves!

As for this blog, I'm going to keep it up! I've got several films I'm interested in doing, so I'll maintain similar progress blogs for those as well.

EXTERNAL SHOW

Hi guys! Sorry for the long intermission between posts, but the film is done, and the Internal show went really well! It's still up at Emily Carr for two more days if anyone is interested, and you can pick up my business card!

We're also having an External Show this Saturday at VanCity theatres. The doors are at 11, award ceremony at 12, and the first program begins at 12:30.

I'm in the first program from 12:30-2, so check it out if you don't have anything to do this May long weekend!

Here is the facebook link for those of you incline:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195723680468808

Please come if you have a chance! Lots of good food!

FINALIZED POSTER

Here it is! It's really similar to the sketched version, but it's been cleaned up, and details have been put in (you can only really see them when it's been printed out and you're close to it).

Trailer!

Here is the trailer to my film!
Sound design by Raphael Choi

Come to the screening on May 7th at Emily Carr!

POSTER IDEAS

Here are some poster ideas I've been working on last night:

I've gotten the most feedback on this one, so I the finalized version may be an iteration of this design. The colours would relate more to the character since this looks like a poster from a completely different film.

STATUS UPDATE

Hey hey hey.

So for the past 3 weeks, I've been at school for upwards of 10+ each day, working non stop. I usually forgo meals, and settle with handfuls of cereal and the occasional cup of coffee. This is a horrible habit and has probably shortened my life span considerably.

That being said, I'm proud to say I'm approximately 70% finished my film. Up next: poster designs / press kit and a trailer. I'll be uploading poster ideas in the next couple days, and I'd love your opinions!

Hope you're all doing well!

AUDITORY SPARKLE

This is a bit unrelated to my film, but I just wanted to share! You could say this relates to my workflow or something (but that would be wildly unnecessary).

There are three songs that I will always listen to whenever I'm feeling down or unmotivated:

1.) Empire Ants - Gorillaz (ft. Little Dragon)



This is seriously the best song I've heard in forever. It builds to an amazing crescendo and just makes you want to get up and dance (or.. work on a film or something). I don't know if it has the same effect on other people, but I know that whenever I hear this song, I don't feel completely hopeless.

2.) Twice - Little Dragon



I first fell in love with the shadow puppet theatre, but then I realized the song was wonderful. I hate saying things are evocative but it embodies it. I guess you could say it emotes really effectively, as vague as that statement is.

And my current favourite,

3.) Chinatown - Destroyer



I don't know what it is about this song, but everytime I'm trying to get to bed, this gets stuck in my head. It works less as a lullaby than a need that insistently claws at me that can only be satiated when I listen to it a few times.

The sad (good?) thing is that even if I gorge myself on any of these songs, they don't seem to wear me out.

Anywho, I just wrote this post to share some music. I hope I don't ramble on too much.

Bye for now!

1 MORE MONTH

So if you haven't guessed, the title of my blog coincides with the due date of my film (when I need picture and sound locked). There are a few weeks of leeway before the Internal Grad Show on the 7th of May but ideally, I'd want some time to work on more production content, posters, updated business cards, websites and other things for a press kit.

It's getting really stressful! Of course you're all probably on the same boat - working for hours on end, neglecting food and sleep. I think what I've learned from this is that having this deadline looming ahead is cause for a lot of anxiety, but at the same time, you produce your best work too.

You kind of realize all the things you're capable of. Your film kind of becomes a culmination of all things you love and a strong realization of your own aesthetic. That, I think, is one of the most important things to come from this experience - you take the entire year to really explore and understand these things.


If there was one piece of advice I could give, it's this. Going through the production line is really tumultuous and something one of my instructors, Martin Rose, made really explicit is the fact that the creative process is a difficult one.

Because of this, you have to learn to be more forgiving of yourself. Things don't always work out, and even if your film isn't everything you wanted it to be, it won't be your last!

I hope this wasn't too preachy - I just noticed a lot of us were getting really stressed out about the film. The trials and tribulations, amirite?

STAY ON COURSE Y'ALL!

PREVIEW IMAGES

Hi guys! Here are some more preview images of my grad film. These are going to be in the Grad Catelogue (..hopefully. I think I misunderstood the deadline but I'm sure this isn't something that can't be fixed with a plate of cookies or some other treat-like food-object). I'm also going to try and post more content-based things with more writing. I think it's important to have these posts to organize my process, and not just use it as a dumping ground for pictures from my film.

Good luck, friends! The next two weeks will be hard and we're all going to be curt and rude, so let's just avoid each other :D Just joking!

But seriously.

updated leica reel 030211

http://vimeo.com/20577894

doomsday is approaching. i can feel it in my knees. password is on moodle.

the rock

a little concept drawing for the rock. it's based on a 3D model (that will probably be changed, because there are too many facets) and textured separately as an image sequence. hopefully it works out!

leica 02122011

http://vimeo.com/19877266

Here's an updated leica reel for feb. 12, 2011

the password is on moodle!

NEW COLOURS

A slight stylistic change to Peter, considering the immense changes to my script and storyboard. I'm super excited about it now - I can see it being finished!

PETER IS SAD

I just took a break from my script to doodlepoodle a little something. I should have a leica reel uploaded tonight.

PETER & THE SPACE BETWEEN

I think I should take the time to restate my motivation for making this film, because although I've linked to my Why Paper presentation, that was for another film idea I had at the beginning of September. Those are still ideas I want to work with, but the focus has changed.

Working Title: PETER & THE SPACE BETWEEN
Director: Sitji Chou
Composer: Raphael Choi
Method/technique: Hand-drawn animation (digital)
Materials: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects
Format: High-definition video: HDTV 1080p
Sound: 48.00 khz, 16-bit/Stereo
Length of Piece: 4 minutes
Proposed Production Period: January 1, 2011 to April 30, 2011

CHARACTER MODEL

Just a few sketches of Peter to get a sense of how his body lumps together.

CHARACTER BIO

This will probably be a bit dry, but in case you're interested :)

Name: Peter

Age: 30

Gender: Male

Childhood: He had a banal childhood. His parents were professors and since his parents believed they were best for their child's education, he was home-schooled. During this time, he was able to develop mentally, drawing from his parents' physics and philosophy books. Since he was exposed to these things so early in his life, he's been obsessed with them and uses them to determine his actions. However, because he was home-schooled, he didn't have a lot of opportunities to meet kids his age, and to develop socially. This has stunted his social relationships, but though he is aware of it, he doesn't know exactly how to change.

Family, friends: His parents are deceased, and they passed on everything to him. However, this leaves him vulnerable since he has no other real connections, and therefore, has no one to speak to for support. He does have one person that he would consider his friend – the woman who serves him coffee at the place around the corner. She made the mistake of giving him her number because she noticed he seemed distressed and needed someone to talk to. He calls quite often, usually about the same thing – voids, empty space, existential thought.

CONCEPT IMAGES

I should also mention that the style of my animation refers back to my final project of second year. It was an omnibus project with our class, and we were each given a beginning shape, and ending shape. We were in charge of creating all the content inbetween those points, and this is what I came up with!

PRODUCTION CONTENT

production schedule
production budget
leica reel 12162010
why paper essay
why paper presentation

INSPIRATIONS:
1.) theodore ushev's lipsett diaries (2010)
2.) jérémy clapin's skhizein (2008)
3.) masaaki yuasa's mind game (2004)
4.) koji yamamura's a country doctor (2007)


1.) 2.)
3.) 4.)

DEMO REEL & BUSINESS CARD

Here's my current business card design, but I still need to do some little tweaks (especially now that I have a blog, ho ho ho). I used cotton balls, pompoms, string, coloured paper, and did some final editing in photoshop.

I think the biggest problem is legibility, so my next one will definitely be better about that...



All animation elements : Sitji Chou

Software : Adobe Photoshop CS4, AfterEffects CS4, Premiere CS4

Music : Oh, Paris! - Dent May

This demo reel is just a compilation of most of the work I've done in the past 2 years in school. I approached it more as a motion graphics demo reel, than a purely skilled based one. I think they're more fun to watch :D

Hi!

Welcome to my blog! It'll be used primarily to keep track of the production on my grad film but it'll have a lot of other goodies too, so stay tuned!