After persistently asking the festival director for several years, he finally agreed to let me make a signal film for the Ottawa International Animation Festival. I wrote, directed, and designed the piece, as well as making the soundtrack. I was helped out by a whole bunch of friendly volunteer animators: Fran Krause, Max Porter, Sean McBride, Mike Overbeck, Aaron Zisman, Linda Beck, Erin Kilkenny, Julia Sarcone-Roach, Chris Siemasko and Andy Kennedy.
If you’ve ever seen a bunch of screenings at a festival, you’ve probably noticed how boring a signal film can become through repetition. …so I desided to go with nine overlapping stories. Here are the storyboards that I used to plan the film:
Working with several remote animators, I needed to make sure that everyone received the materials that they would need to complete their scenes – here are a few of the character model sheets:
I also drew up a few examples of Ottawa (some of the animators hadn’t been there before!
