Dan Grigsby - BA Animation 2009/2010

I think an update for this week has been needed. Lets just say these past seven days have been pretty tough. Some major decisions have been made regarding the story of Splay - and hopefully for the better.

I was brought on board to help Phil develop the story since Alec was now heavily involved with creating the animatic for Polished Off. It's a strange turn of events, as I had no intention of contributing at the storytelling stage this year, but here I am. I'm honoured the team have been willing to let me help them with both films on this scale and I know I have learned so much from doing it.

The simple, yet striking graphic style and the personality of the characters in Splay had me hooked since the initial pitch all those weeks ago. The story was still in development back then, with no fitting conclusion. Splay had become epic in terms of scale and work load, and ultimately, the story just wasn't working - Phil was adding more and more shots to justify everything and make it more understandable for the audience. Dan then stepped in and literally kicked some sense into Phil to go back to Splay's humble beginnings when it was only about interaction and simplicity. It was a bit of a shock to me, as so much time has already been put into the storyboards and the animatic, but immediately I felt some of the pressure ease.

From that point on, Phil and I spent a good number of days in the old BA room, wracking our brains on where to take the story. We tried using elements from the old story and work some of that into the new simple format. Phil explained that originally he wanted to incorporate a lighting system where everything would be lit by spotlights, that moved accordingly with the characters. These would hang from the sky and have their own character in some respect. I really liked this idea - it conjured up so many images in my mind of theatrical lighting on a stage: exaggerated shadows, conveying emotions such as isolation, loneliness etc. We both agreed that we should go with this, since it would really add mood and be visually striking. Dan wasn't particularly sold with the idea, but everyone else liked it.

The use of the spotlights would also allow us artistic license, since we could really experiment with the lighting and not be pinned down by real world lighting. This encouraged us to move on with the story but again were we faced with the problems with making everything too complicated for a 2-3 minute short film. We re-introduced the other Boid characters, and decided to remain with the interaction between Splay and Squ, but finding a suitable ending was again the problem. So we spoke with the legendary Mr.Dalli.

During one lunchtime, Dalli discussed with us our most recent story ideas. Like Dan Edgley, he wasn't a fan of the spotlights but thought there were many elements that worked. To overcome the complexity of the ending, he recommended we simplified the story even more. As if it was fate, we were sitting near a group of school children who had visited the college. We observed their behaviour, and Dalli suggested we focus on Splay as a child amongst others his own age - not fitting in and desperately wanting to be one of the pack.

After our meeting, we had a long discussion with Dan and Alec. They had kindly spent their time to help us with Splay - at times the conversation was quite heated as so many ideas were being thrown up in the air, but they agreed Dalli's advice was the right direction to go in.

The setting had changed to a playground in the middle of nowhere - one simple environment, and now with colour re-introduced. If I am completely honest I despised the idea; the meaning and depth with the characters seemed to be stripped away, and overall, the mood seemed more lighter and prettier. I have nothing against that, but to me Splay didn't fit into that category. I warmed a little more to the idea later in the day, as we began jotting down notes and thumbnailing some shots.

Dalli came to see where we were at, at the end of the day. He liked the new idea we had come up with but after thinking about it realised it didn't knock the emotional punch of the original story. We agreed with him, but stressed that we wanted to make a film that was plausible to make in the remaining months of the course. He felt that opting for the simpler idea would be the easier way out and that we should be determined to get it done the best we can. The playground concept was a nice idea, but that's all it was.

It's taken a while for everyone in the team to be entirely convinced, but I agree with Dalli, we would deeply regret stripping Splay of everything it is. With an ending which is still in development, we're now returning to the more complex story. Phil will now concentrate on creating a new animatic, and I will provide as much help as I can. I have faith we can do this, as long as we knuckle down and just get on with it.