"The Big Picture" Animated Film
Animated trailers and audio soundtracks packaged into a promotional DVD and website for a video project called ‘The Big Picture Film’. Illustrations by Kevin Fitzpatrick. Video editing and production by Christopher Commons. Musical and Audio Compositions by Christopher Matthews.
Trailer #1
Trailer #2
About the Film
2005 Senior Capstone Multimedia Project
(Indiana University - New Media Major)
This Capstone Project started as a requirement for me to graduate college. It also began as an idea for a movie, something to mesh traditional art and digital art, and something totally different.
I started thinking of concepts for The Big Picture in December of 2004, when I found out I was going to go back to finish school after a brief time off. My first inspirational illustration (below) shows what kind of ideas were forming early on in the project.
In January 2005, I started to develop the basic storyline and concepts of the project. I concentrated on how I took notes for movie ideas, developing a sense of storyboarding and dived into creating a character. The character, if there was to be one, would barely be seen.
I began to create storyboards and concept posters which were important deciding factors for how big a project I was getting into. I drew the movie into five parts to visualize the scope of the project.
In February 2005, a couple of friends installed a camera rig in my closet, from there I started recording myself drawing. The drawing table I had setup was a glass table with lamps shining up from underneath. The glass would get really hot, and would actually hurt to draw on... lesson learned.
March 2005 was committed to drawing and creating the trailer video, along with solidifying the plot and the overall storyline.
April 2005 I finally started to see this project come together, as my friend and mentor Chris Commons began editing the raw videos. It took a second to figure out the best way to edit the film, as well as if we were going to add narration in the movie clips or musical soundtracks.
The initial big idea of this project (an animated film concept called The Big Picture) had progressed into a much smaller first phase of the entire film. I was graciously talked down from the big idea, to a much more compact project which I could finish in two months without being overwhelmed.
The best thing that happened to the project was focusing on the important matter at hand, graduating college. Get the project done so on April 29th, 2005 I could present the capstone project and walk out with my Bachelor's diploma.
The website, musical score, DVD packaging and official trailer poster were the final pieces of the project. I passed the Capstone Project requirement and graduated in May 2005.
