It's one of those warehouses that you always see during your commute---you're never sure what exactly is going on in there.

Doing some more sketches before animation begins 1-2-11.

Walking away and returning to the animatic after a week has helped a lot; it put a lot of story points that I was concerned about, into perspective. The pace was leaping from mountain top to mountain top, which isnt really healthy for a 5 minute story.

At one point in the plot, there was a double cross. In keeping with the conventions of the heist genre, that's what is expected. I decided to cut it because the story was overcrowded. In doing that, some things need retooling (an understatement!) but hopefully it'll feel like 1 story and not 2.

So I'll be doing more revisions before the year's end. Can't wait to start animating!

Plotting an action setpiece in Maya with simple shapes. If it works, it should play like a 16 year old's Four-Loko fueled version of a car crash.

Tech.

"Pinhead" screening at NewFilmmakers this Winter.

Pinhead is screening at the NewFilmmakers Winter screening series in NYC February 23, 2011. It'll be playing 6 PM along with several animated shorts. More information here(click past January).

Big gun

Halfway done with my first pass at the animatic...

Make a hole

For those who care, Benny is a midget.

Another screenshot from the animatic. Rough drawings. Don't judge me.

Fire!

I swear to you that this is a comedy.

Chicken scratchy

Coffee & Sketches

L to R: Lenny, Denny & Benny

.

I'm not into architecture.

I've modeled crude sets in Maya before (most recently for Pinhead, which took place in an office).

This time, there are going to be four locations, all of which will be challenging. However this is the most fun part of making a short film for me, because I can place multiple cameras around and explore. As a teacher at college imparted to me, (one of the cool teachers, not the douchebag teachers) "geography and clarity are the most important parts of storytelling."

Below is a rough overview of the engineer's apartment.

Interesting read.

How to train an animator, by Walt Disney.

Animatic Shot 004

The Shortcut, Animatic shot 004 from Matt D. Lee on Vimeo.

For those who are curious..."The Shortcut" is a dark comedy about three dysfunctional engineers that search for the American dream in the wrong way.

I think that's vague enough...

I want "The Shortcut" be as funny and as my last film "Pinhead", but also have it go to some darker places. If you've seen the end of "Pinhead", you'll know that the ending was a little dark, which is what I was always concerned about while writing/animating/directing it, but the audience really went for it. So I want to see if I can push things a little further this time out...

Animatic, shot 002.

The Shortcut, Animatic, shot 002 from Matt D. Lee on Vimeo.

Gun show

Close-to-final version of the gun.

---

The character of Denny holding one of his high tech laser guns.

---

I built a crude model of the gun in Maya to get a better idea of how it'll truly look.

It's supposed to operate/work like an oversized handcrank camera.

The shoulder brace isn't added to the model yet, so it looks pretty weird.

Gun

The Gun. It's about the size of an HD film camera (HD film cameras that you'd find on a film set, not the small ones you'd find at J&R).