The Burning Tree - Update
I realised we haven't posted an update on where the series is currently at, so here it goes!
While developments have been slow they have also been steady. Early this year we presented our series to a small group of eager friends in order to practice the pitch process and receive feedback on our concept so far. The world-building element requires careful thought and exploration as well as occasional feedback sessions to check that elements are making sense. Off the back of that presentation, we have developed our ideas and story detailing further.
We recently engaged a highly experienced storyboard artist, Stéphane Portal, to storyboard a key scene in our series, the first meeting between Unegen and Ghazan. We wanted to go through the initial rough process of transferring our written ideas and concept art into a series of frames. We weren't sure what to expect going through this process, but it seems like one of the most valuable experiences we have had so far. The storyboard revealed a few key issues with our work:
i. The character designs for Unegen and Ghazan (protagonist and antagonist) are underdeveloped.
Unegen, our hero, will have the most screen time of any character in the series and therefore requires significant amounts of concept work. Without Unegen's true nature and personality expressed in the drawn form, we can't progress to the next phase of the project - the teaser. The story lives and dies by him. Fortunately, we are already underway on this phase with plenty of amazing work being developed by concept artist, Elle Nguyen. Our hero character is really coming alive! The same goes for our antagonist Ghazan, his designs require further work and development.
ii. Our visual treatment isn't fully defined.
Apart from storytelling, world-building and character development, there is also a significant amount of work to do on the visual treatment for the series. While there are specific elements that we have defined, the initial storyboarding process revealed that the overall identity or personality of the series isn't there yet. When building a fantasy world it's easy to get bogged down in the logic of the story and set aside the as-important 'tone' or 'rhythm'. Thankfully it's one of the most enjoyable parts of the process for me personally. We are granted a licence to view, read and explore interesting work and adapt that into our story.
Once these extremely important phases of the project are complete, we'll be moving on to storyboarding our teaser. This phase will entail animating three minutes of the project, becoming a platform to launch and pitch the series to prospective investors. It's also a chance to start building hype and a potential fan base for the project. We are both itching to tuck right in.