Family Britannia

WORKSPACE TOUR:

Quick tour of my workspace both at home and in my office where I collaborate with colleagues and freelancers who work for and with Aniboxx. The first half of the video shows my personal space and the second half not ony shows off the coworkspace that Aniboxx is based at, but also snippets of my collaboration with Videographer, Jason Ferguson and Actor Alessandro Babalola to help me make my latest reference video to my trailer.

PROJECT UPDATE:

This was so much fun and I learnt so much about my character and the world of Family Britannia, by shooting this with the lads. Ive learnt so much about comedic rythm, timing, expression and also what works and what doesnt work, narrative, wise. Ive some tweaks to make but the energy in the reference was exactly what I wanted. I showed Tyree the fu version of the trailer so far and he said he likes he passion of the latest video, but the simplicity in the first animatic I posted last week. Now I have to find a middle ground between the both.

Hope you like. I cant wait to actually finish this trailer and show you guys the final thing! Onwards and upwards from here. JJ

This is my second draft of my animated trailer. My show is supposed to be a dramedy, therefore, it needs to be funny to some extent. One of my STL mentors, Tyree said, its best to perform all the characters to not only see if it's funny, but to accentuate all proposed humour. You never really know if its going to be funny unless you see it and test it on audiences. So I got to work and played all my characters. This isn't just to see if people will laugh, but it's also reference for the animation process. I want all movement and mannerisms to be believable.

Edward is pitching for investment here, so think "Silicon Valley" in terms of the tone I'm goin for.

I'm making myself super vulnerable here, as I'm not an actor, have zero experience at comedy and am still getting to know my main protagonist, so I am quite surprised when getting such positive feedback. I have since, shot a 3rd performance based video this week, at my office space, with a professional actor and videographer, which is a step up from this clip in terms of story, humour, acting and environment reference. I've even since improved the blockchain scenes. In this version I've posted, the blockchain scenes are a little bland and don't serve the story well... but hey, prototyping is about SPEED. I'm actually quite surprised how much effort I've placed into the preproduction process. I feel both the Show Family Britannia and my trailer will benefit greatly from this.

OTHER REASONS REAL LIFE PERFORMANCE IS USEFUL:

My other STL mentor, Kevin has been so helpful in helping me understand how to utilise technology, such as Adobe Character Animator, Unreal Engine and other applications that I could literally run these performances through and use to generate A.I based simulated animations of my movements. It can and will save me a heck of a lot of time during the animation process. Kevins technological insights and consultancy will transform an animation company like Aniboxx. My mind RACES when Kevin shows me whats possible. His mentorship is invaluable to say the very least!

Even when I studied 3D animation at University, our lecturers provided us with actors who we could book in and we could film for reference. These performance videos I've done lately have helped me return to this place and remember the importance of physical reference. Something I haven't really utlised a lot over the last 10 years of my animation career. I'm so happy I did this.

Here is a link to the full video of just me, performing without the illustrated animatic: https://tinyurl.com/2p99w3yf

Watching recordings of myself in my bedroom is quite jarring, but let me know what you think of the animatic. Hopefully, I can implement any relevant feedback before we get into the thick of the production.

LOL. I laugh, looking at myself, thinking this may be how I spend the rest of my life.... and I LOVE IT!!

I probably went a little too far on the illustrations with this animatic, however, I've set the scene of my characters environment, motivations and onsequences of failure. Doing the voiceovers as a placeholder for the real voiceover artists to come and do their thing has also taught me a lot. This is now an old version and I have already moved onto a newer version of this which serves the character, plot and humour a lot better. I've had the chance to think more about the philosophical viewpoint of my topic matter as well. Looking forward to presenting this version to my mentors. 

Tyler The Creator just released an Album with Louise Vuitton, Scoring Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton Fashion Show, and it makes me want to CRY! I love the amount of eclectic creativity poured into this instrumental. This is the type of progression I pray for on my own musical journey. It may take me a while, but I' determined enough to get there. So unpredictable in his direction. 2nd to none with his element of surprise. This in the most inspiring music I've heard this year. I cant wait for the next season of his Cartoon Series, The Jellies too! GO TYLER!

Alongside my animatic, I have all mood boards clearly mapped out for each background and also for 3D Edward. This week is about now placing these backgrounds into an animatic, so everyone can see what the trailer is supposed to look like, as a first prototype. Also getting started on modeling 3D Edward for the blockchain scenes. It's a must that this voiceover/soundtrack I've recently recorded is cut down to 3 minutes. Was fun doing all those voices myself :)

I researched 17 trailers over the last week and studied the heck out of them. Been working really hard on my animatic this last week as a result. I did my first draft of voiceovers for timing purposes. I got the timing of my trailer to 4 minutes. Now I need to get it down to 3 minutes.

This was super fun to do, as it really placed me inside the mindset of my characters for the first time.

Now I need to finish the rough storyboard for the visuals. Looking forward to finishing off this 2nd draft of my animatic and onboarding my voiceover artists for the next draft.

My goals for this week are a lot clearer after getting this first draft of my animatic out the way.

Following the pivot of my projects' direction, I'm now super focused on creating an animatic and solid concept art, which will allow me to direct my team a lot faster. Deciding on what's going to be said and seen in the trailer and also what the music is going to sound like (music is also super important)! I've also realized that the "show don't tell" principle can help me save a lot of time when it comes to voiceovers and animation for this trailer. Super excited to have come this far. Looking forward to sharing plenty of visuals with you soon :)

Plans have now changed from producing a cold opening to creating a trailer for the entire first season of the show. Mainly to conjure up more excitement of the Family Britannia story arc and showcase more of Edwards world. After a few logline exercises, I've revisited the reasons I'm telling this story, realising that the lens through which Edward views business and family, allows me some true conviction when it comes to expressing my outlook of these worlds. I learnt so much doing that. Extra Moodboarding has also got me to the point where I'm clearer on how the backgrounds and environment will be constructed. I'd like the general aesthetic of the cartoon, to be my own interpretation of the Gumbal aesthetic (I'm such a Cartoon Network fanboy, I know) so I cant wait to realise this challenge through concept art and some animation tests. My goals for this week are a lot clearer now. 

I dont mean to sound over the top, but this is quite possbly the most exciting experience in my life so far. Im really enjoying and growing through it :)

For the first two weeks, I've mainly been in and out of zoom meetings with my co-writers Brian and Alex. This video shows a brief journey of how the screenwriting is going to date and what changes I'm making to. My next step is to finalise a screenplay for my cold open animation and time it, so its under 3 minutes. Looking forward to showing you the progress on this. Till next time :) 

After an amazingly informative talk with Kevin this morning, I have some new goals when it comes to working in Unreal Engine.

Kevin reminded me how powerful unreal is, so I have some exciting new production techniques to implement.

But more urgently, I'd like to ensure that I have the moodboards for the visual style I want in Family britannia, completely finished and nailed this week. If I can complete the moodboards and animatic for my cold open done, we will be off to the races for sure! Looking forward to it :)

Hey guys, hope your'e well. Thought I'd continue my diary entry's by uploading my updated pitch bible. The annoying thing is, its 27MB (which is too big to upload) so for speed, I'm just going to give you the dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rb5npq23gedffy/UPDATED_FAMILY_BRITANNIA_PITCH_BIBLE_Jide_Johnson_25th_Jan.pdf?dl=0  

Since my kickoff call with the mentors and the THU hangout last friday, this document has been updated in the following ways.

1. The audience for the show (target broadcasters) is now crystal clear.

2. Edwards backstory is now more clearly spelled out.

3. Therefore his core wounds and motivations are more apparent.

4. How the rest of the family tie in to his tech startup has also been spelled out.

This is a work in porgress people, so feel free to rip it to shreds again and throw any critique at me you may wish. I'm here to learn and grow. Thanks :)

The last weeks has been super exciting and today I am pitching my story to the GURUs

Spent the last week writing and rewriting the screenplay, with the some advice from my screen consultant Brian, and some extra ideas from our "Ideas Man" Alex. Finally finished a draft I'm happy to show, but will be developing it from this point onwards.

Attached is the first page of my teaser. Hope it leaves you wondering whats to come next. 

Wish me luck in my pitch guys!

JJ