<Projects
HIKE (2021)
Writer/Director/Actor/Animator/Editor: Josh Lange
Time on project: August-September 2021
HIKE (2021)
Writer/Director/Actor/Animator/Editor: Josh Lange
Time on project: August-September 2021
Week Four:
A word about the fellowship's feeling of community: what might have been the most remarkable aspect to the whole experience was how connected and supportive the collection of instructors, mentors, and fellows was for one another. We were put into a pressure-cooker with people we'd never met before, and by the end it felt like everyone had my back. Part of
video game animator
had not directly worked with game engines in 11 years
Highest peak
Most fulfilling moment:
Seeing my kids play around with the Metahuman characters and working with them during the voice recordings.
Lessons and advice:
When directing child actors. This video about directing children also helped me a lot.
Enjoy the journey!
Keep the story in the driver's seat
Get as much feedback as you can.
Handling sound effects was my other Vancouver Film School roommate and director of The Devil Show, John Thordarson.
A word about the fellowship's feeling of community: what might have been the most remarkable aspect to the whole experience was how connected and supportive the collection of instructors, mentors, and fellows was for one another. We were put into a pressure-cooker with people we'd never met before, and by the end it felt like everyone had my back. Part of
video game animator
had not directly worked with game engines in 11 years
Highest peak
Most fulfilling moment:
Seeing my kids play around with the Metahuman characters and working with them during the voice recordings.
Lessons and advice:
When directing child actors. This video about directing children also helped me a lot.
Enjoy the journey!
Keep the story in the driver's seat
Get as much feedback as you can.
Handling sound effects was my other Vancouver Film School roommate and director of The Devil Show, John Thordarson.
Biggest Challenges
1) The Clock. In one of our Week One "Coffee Hour" sessions, our instructor Peter Lish remarked to us that "to me, the biggest obstacle you all have is time. I don't think students can fully understand how much of a challenge it is to complete a film in six weeks." Boy was he right. I felt like I was putting in a full 100% of time and energy every day of the fellowship, and it was still a battle to end up with a film I could stand by.
2) Personal Standards. I did not see this as a no-pressure situation where I would be happy with my final film no matter how rough or simple it might be. Instead, I imagined judgment I might receive in the future from visualization colleagues. It feels petty to admit, but I wanted to use this as fuel for me to be ambitious and make the very best thing I could. Thankfully, the support of my family and members of the fellowship helped prevent me from collapsing under that self-imposed pressure.
3) Split Focus. My wife and I had been house-hunting all summer with no luck, and in an example of tough timing, we had put a bid down on a listing during the first week of the Fellowship. To our surprise, the offer turned out to be accepted! Although I was overjoyed and pretty confident that I could handle the fellowship and all the escrow paperwork simultaneously (thank goodness school was in session yet), I nevertheless prepared to step up my game to make sure no mistakes would be made while handling them both.
4) Creative autonomy. Although I have made a lot of personal art in my spare time, the fellowship came at a time when it had been a while since I did this purely for myself, instead of for the purpose of better understanding a subject in a professional project I was working on, like dog anatomy and movement for Cruella. Over my animation and visualization career I have had the privilege to often rely on talented directors and supervisors to determine whether an idea or piece of creative content is good enough to be considered "approved" to proceed with. The drawback to this creative dynamic , however, is that it can somewhat stunt my intuition and confidence when determining if my own work is truly worthy of being deemed "final." I think the good side of having this creative experience is that it is second nature to me to look to others to see when something is "working" or not. If we work in isolation, it is more than likely that what we think of early on as dynamic and exciting may in the end feel cliche or unclear to others. Constantly requiring
5) Workspace. My home office area was fully cramped with boxes and other miscellaneous items as we packed during the Fellowship. Along with this clutter taking up the background of all my behind the scenes footage, this significantly reduced the size of a mocap volume that I could rely on for performance capture.
2) Personal Standards. I did not see this as a no-pressure situation where I would be happy with my final film no matter how rough or simple it might be. Instead, I imagined judgment I might receive in the future from visualization colleagues. It feels petty to admit, but I wanted to use this as fuel for me to be ambitious and make the very best thing I could. Thankfully, the support of my family and members of the fellowship helped prevent me from collapsing under that self-imposed pressure.
3) Split Focus. My wife and I had been house-hunting all summer with no luck, and in an example of tough timing, we had put a bid down on a listing during the first week of the Fellowship. To our surprise, the offer turned out to be accepted! Although I was overjoyed and pretty confident that I could handle the fellowship and all the escrow paperwork simultaneously (thank goodness school was in session yet), I nevertheless prepared to step up my game to make sure no mistakes would be made while handling them both.
4) Creative autonomy. Although I have made a lot of personal art in my spare time, the fellowship came at a time when it had been a while since I did this purely for myself, instead of for the purpose of better understanding a subject in a professional project I was working on, like dog anatomy and movement for Cruella. Over my animation and visualization career I have had the privilege to often rely on talented directors and supervisors to determine whether an idea or piece of creative content is good enough to be considered "approved" to proceed with. The drawback to this creative dynamic , however, is that it can somewhat stunt my intuition and confidence when determining if my own work is truly worthy of being deemed "final." I think the good side of having this creative experience is that it is second nature to me to look to others to see when something is "working" or not. If we work in isolation, it is more than likely that what we think of early on as dynamic and exciting may in the end feel cliche or unclear to others. Constantly requiring
5) Workspace. My home office area was fully cramped with boxes and other miscellaneous items as we packed during the Fellowship. Along with this clutter taking up the background of all my behind the scenes footage, this significantly reduced the size of a mocap volume that I could rely on for performance capture.
