So what's the story behind the story?
Well... back in 2000 I was working on some ideas for a new live action short film. I was living in Valencia, CA at the time and there was a lot of scrubby desert area around me. So I started brainstorming simple ideas for films that had few actors and used the desert without being too cliche. That's when I hit upon the idea of a lone WWII, GI in the desert fighting... something. Being a visual effects artist I soon got the idea to have a live action person fighting a computer generated messerschmitt. I began preproduction and making tests. However 9/11 happened shortly before I could begin production and I was unable to continue on the film due to the bottom falling out of my job market.
Now about five years later my brother and I have teamed up with some old friends to take this idea to the next level as a completely computer generated animated film. I'm extremely excited about this because as an animation we will be able to have control over every aspect of the film and really make it awesome!
So where are we now in the production?
The entire short film has been storyboarded by my brother Greg and myself. It has also been edited into a primary cut that looks a little something like this...
Right now the film is clocking in at about 7-min 30-sec before credits... most likely around 8-mins when it is all done . I'm using the existing storyboards to edit the film, which is giving me a rough ballpark idea of the timings. Once the boards are all cut in previs and animation begins.
Here are a few examples of Greg's boards from the film...
