Idea
My project will be a 3D animated television series pilot accompanied by a pitch deck to be presented for consideration by major entertainment studios.
Background
Being an adaptation of a feature film titled Resistor I wrote this summer, many of the same elements will cross over into this series. When I began working on Resistor, I knew that in order for me to film a feature, the story would have to be meaningful enough to me that I would be able to endure the process for roughly a year (I finished it in early June). For this reason, I made this film as personal to me as possible. I started by asking myself, “what is the story that only I can tell, and why do I feel that it needs to be told now?” What followed was essentially a story closely modeled after my own life experiences. Without getting too detailed, I used to have a very different life, and a very shallow idea of what made it meaningful and worth living at all. I used to sit at home for years doing nothing but play video games, and it was utterly depressing.
One day, it really dawned on me, that if I was ever going to have a family and a career like I always wanted to, and live a fulfilling life, I needed to make every change in the book. I started working out and taking my life seriously, realizing that I had a passion for animation and storytelling, and went forward to making that a reality. Now that I’m in a significantly better position in life, I wanted to tell that story, the one hardly anyone knows but the one most apparent in my journey. I had become my own hero, and I felt that if people saw a movie (something easily digestible) and actually thought about its protagonist and related to his redemption over technological temptation and abandonment of love and family, that maybe they too would turn off the phone/laptop/console and make their lives happen too. Good films effortlessly disguise their true meaning and value under entertainment, and that was what I had aimed to accomplish.
I think now is the absolute best time to tell this story, because there are far too many people in this world going through the motions, and never really living at all. I want people to know that there is so much more out there for them, and making this film is my way of telling them. When I was writing, I used to think of a hypothetical person reaching out to me and telling me that my story got them through their own struggles, and in the many moments I felt fatigued and sleep deprived during the screenwriting process, that was more than enough to wake me back up. That is what inspires me: that others could be inspired and live the life they’ve always wanted to.
One of the other reasons I’m doing this film is that I’m sick and tired of movies and shows being made for profit and to boost stock prices, regurgitating the same basic plot over and over again. I want to make movies that make people think and question and learn and rise above their struggles. I’ve never been interested in doing this for millions of dollars. This idea is different than most other media out there because it actually has a soul to it. I’ve poured my own life experiences into it, and even if it’s absolute garbage, it’ll still have the advantage of being something real, unlike the 6th 7th and 8th Disney live action remake.
Best of all, this is a show I’d actually watch, and so if nothing else I’m making it for that purpose. I love the cyberpunk genre, and grew up on movies like Blade Runner (edited G4 versions that is) and from all of the hype that Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten, most sci-fi fans will be hungry for more cyberpunk set stories in the following months, and studios will be hungry for content. I wrote this story from the personal side first, but the “high tech low life” creed of cyberpunk fit so nicely I ran with it. I’ve always been a huge fan of the idea of a washed up detective searching for meaning in a world he no longer understands, and cyberpunk is such an applicable genre for that concept. Taking a genre I have a passion for and telling my personal life story of redemption through it is amazing. It’s everything I got into filmmaking for. In my opinion, combining all of these elements together is a true recipe for success.
Process
I’ve stated a few times in previous posts how this will all come together, so I’ll just summarize here as to not prolongate my post…
- Pre-Production
- Script (Final Draft 11)
- Look Development (Katana, Unreal Engine)
- Storyboard (Toon Boom Storyboard Pro)
- Production
- Model (Maya, 3DS Max)
- Animate (Maya, Motionbuilder, iPi Mocap Studio)
- What I call “Assembly”/putting it all together (Unreal Engine)
- Render (V-Ray)
- Post-Production
- VFX (Houdini)
- Compositing (Nuke)
- Music Composition (Finale – compose and write an actual score, Logic Pro – produce it)
- Editing/ADR (DaVinci Resolve)
From there I’ll develop the pitch deck (will already have most pieces completed during the writing stage as most pitch decks don’t come with pilots).
Style: Realistic (See my last post https://www.immtcnj.com/thesis_fall_20/2020/09/30/patten-revised-concept/ for more insight)
Thank you for taking the time to read about my upcoming thesis project. For more of my work, check out http://pattenanimation.com.