From Sketch to Screen

"The Untouchables"(2024)

This is the opening shot from the Mud Fighting scene in "Gorilla Run", a short film I wrote and directed. This set had a crew of seven people, and a cast of six people. We were shooting during winter so I didn't want to have people outside for any longer than they had to be so I couldn't afford to waste time.

The scene required enough extras to fill the frame, a mud pit, inflatable boxing gloves, and a lot of green St. Paddy's Day clothing. All of which we acquired through the internet or pizza. We even secured a tent where the cast and extras can eat and heat up in-between takes. The opening shot had the most moving parts so it was given extra attention, shown above.

The blocking and everything worked just as we wanted and we only had to do a three separate takes, with one being for safety.

These storyboards and accompanying (frame rate reduced) GIFs are from "The Untouchables", a documentary produced by ENGNRM in New York. (https://engnrm.com/) (Sizzle Reel) My role within their production was to recreate events that took place in the 90s accompanied with narration for context. For each scene I tried to emulate visual tropes from the sports documentaries I've scene.

Showing all the different sides to the Coach Hoff, who played many important roles in the lives of his fencers, was important for the people at ENGNRM. So when discussing what the animated segments might include, we decided on a wide spread that would show Hoff as a man who knew when to celebrate, when to be stern, and when to motivate. (According to the Documentary and my one meeting with the man.)

There are some boards on here that didn't make it to the final cut, which was a late decision on my part. After I finished animating all the running and push up loops, I realized I could just have the fencers already doing push ups on the ground. Not only that I thought it worked really well with the slow zoom out to convey the passage of time.

This is a scratch/animatic that I made while conceptualizing the skeleton scene in "I'm a Bird". The beginning was made made in procreate, and everything else was drawn on notecards. All of which was imported into Adobe Premiere and synced with the audio.

I eventually scrapped this ending as well. Electing instead to add in the "Early Bird". Expanding on the phrases being expressed literally in the film.