The Sands of Time Workshop

Okay, I admit, it’s been a while. To say it has been a busy past few weeks here in the Land of Enchantment would be an understatement. I have been planning, coordinating and juggling several different projects and I am starting to see some positive outcomes from all the hard work put in.

On Saturday, April 26th, from 9am to 1pm, I helped to co-host a workshop for the Sands of Time production. The first of several we will be doing to fulfill the stipulations of the New Visions Award we have received. This workshop focused on a “soup to nuts” approach of animating a short series for purposes of pitching to a network.

Brad Stoddard, the director, Aaron Barreras, the Art Director, Catherine Fridey, the Screen Writer, Ty Beh, Assistant Director/Producer, Paul Ziomek, Character Design and Storyboards, Tim Nenninger and Jamie Haqqani, Voice Over talent and three of the interns, Kevin Baker, Ryan Salway and Michael Wieclaw were all in attendance to deliver short lectures on what their role is on this production.

Brad delivered a beautiful PowerPoint presentation that walked the students through the job of a director on an animated production. He used a lot of examples of the artwork created and answered questions about wrangling all the talent on this production.

Brad and Ty also photographed and filmed the workshop for documentation of the process to send to the NM film office. There were about 24 high school students present and several parents and instructors were also in attendance.

All of the participants took great strides in keeping their sections short, sweet and to the point. No one spoke for more than 20 minutes at a stretch and we had frequent speaker changes to keep the energy and momentum fast paced and engaging for an audience whose attention span is often challenged in a lecture type environment.

Tim and Jamie, the two men who did several of the voices on The Sands of Time production spoke about doing voice overs for animation, several of the students wanted to know how to get into this particular part of the industry. Tim and Jamie spoke from a film and Tv actors point of view and suggested that students get some acting lessons or try out for casting calls for experience. We pointed them to the NM film website for casting calls and classes.

We also suggested that they practice doing dramatic readings with various voice interpretations in front of a mirror or camera. They could select a simple storybook and do all the characters in the story. It would be good practice and they could critique themselves.

Aaron Barreras spoke for the longest period of time about what the job of an art director is and he used lots of artwork and examples from the production to illustrate his points. He also worked out a demonstration with Michael Wieclaw on how the motion capture process works and how it will be used on this production.

Paul Ziomek did a wonderful presentation on the similarity of comic book art and storyboarding. He offered fun examples and explained why you would do some things in one that wouldn’t work in the other.

We ended the workshop with Paul Ziomek leading the students in a storyboarding exercise that was well received. The student offered suggestions for how to set up scenes and how to advance the plot. Everyone, it seemed, had an idea and eagerly participated.

After the workshop and during the two breaks for snacks and restroom visits, the teens present would swarm the members of the production to ask pointed, one on one questions. I heard from several of them that they were having fun and learning a lot. They also seemed to appreciate the format.

From personal experience teaching teen summer camp at the Art Center for the past several years, I can say that this group was very engaged and energetic. When asked for their opinions and suggestions they were very forth coming with their answers.

I was pleased to hear that among the teens there was as solid mix of style preferences ranging from 2D and 3D to stop mo and puppet animation. One gentleman said his favorite animations were done by the famous and historically significant female animator, Lotte Reiniger. You gotta love a guy who loves the classics!

About half the students who started the workshop said they were interested in animation and the other half said it just sounded like a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. By the end of the workshop I believe everyone in attendance was interested in animation.