Brad Kinley:

I loved the idea of a western, as I had just watched The Quick and the Dead recently and I thought there were a lot of really interesting little moments in the film that could easily build up into a 30-second short. Gene Hackman's epic entrance into the town bar and the reaction of the bartender were the spark that started a brainstorming session with a couple friends.

I also found that once I had the two characters defined, the rest of the story and tension came pretty naturally, so I worked hard to pin down the look and background of each character very early on.

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Brad Kinley:

I learned just how difficult it is to build and maintain tension during a longer sequence. A lot of things have to come together (camera, pacing, posing, eye contact, etc.) in order to do it successfully, and more often than not, it doesn't always work during your first pass.

I also learned not to underestimate a seemingly "simple" shot, as they usually require the most clarity and sincerity to work well. Shots I had mentally labeled as "simple" during planning ended up becoming widow-makers, and only with my peer's and mentor's critiques was I able to get through them.

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Brad Kinley:

My film pre-proproduction mentor Elliot Bour suggested we come back to our early planning material at every stage in the film's production, to make sure we hadn't watered down or drifted away from the original intent. This was extremely useful, and a big reason why I spent so much time on my animatic, as it became a touchstone for the project. My film production mentor, Sean Sexton, worked with me every week on the many different aspects of polish. This was polish that I never would have seen myself, and it really strengthened the believability of the characters in the film.

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Brad Kinley:

I spent a lot of time talking with friends and peers on how the film should play out, and I tried to revise the text pitch whenever a stronger idea, gag or timing was suggested. Once I had a text pitch that I was comfortable with, I acted out the entire film with similar camera angles and uploaded it for my mentor, who had some great suggestions. I spent a long time on my animatic, incorporating my friends' and mentors' critiques at least once a day.

My draftmanship is poor, but I did as many thumbnails and notes as I could manage to make sure the ideas were clear in my head before starting layout. I also shot a bunch of video reference that no one ever saw, but it was a very important part of the process.

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Brad Kinley:

These thumbnails are a pretty good representation of the type of thing I would sketch out before blocking in a scene. I would usually do some more exploratory thumbs on random scraps, so this page is the single most cohesive example of my planning.

I did two story pitches, and this is the second version – a much more involved one. I wanted to be crystal clear with my mentor about what I had in mind in terms of shots, acting and pacing so I could get his feedback as quickly as possible. It was very helpful to get out of my chair and "shoot" some of the film, as I very quickly found out what worked and what didn't.

The animatic was a lot of fun, and although the drawings are pretty crude, it gets the point across. I made sure to include as many of the camera movements, music and sound effects as I could, as they influence pacing and were very easy to change at this point in the project.

My layout pass makes me cringe. I always have the hardest time doing my initial blocking pass, and I spent an additional two weeks between Class 5 and 6 continuing to work on layout. I'm very glad I did so.

The rough passes involved me going back in, strengthening poses and trying to move ahead with the shots I was pretty happy with (for example, the slow motion walk in shot 3). Still, a lot of the film was in a pretty weak state at this point. I ended doing a PR (public review for students and mentors at Animation Mentor) every day for the next 11 weeks to get it to the "final" state you see below, and I owe my mentors and peers a great deal.

This is the final render of my film. I completed it over Christmas break after Class 6 ended. I'm fairly happy with the end result, although I do plan on going back and making some final fixes once I have a little distance from it.

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Brad Kinley:

The biggest obstacles to finishing my film were my inexperience, a 40-second film, two characters, and the amount of time I had to complete it. I also had no dialogue to lean on, and there was a gradual rising of tension that was difficult to pace correctly. I worked around most of these by breaking the film into small, interesting chunks, spending 40 hours a week on my film (outside of my full-time job), working through breaks and posting what I had completed for daily critiques.

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Brad Kinley:

The culture of critiquing, and responding to critique was the single most helpful aspect of the school. I learned a tremendous amount not only from the mentors, but from my peers as well. The process of critiquing others work also helped me develop my 'animation' eye, which was invaluable.

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Brad Kinley:

Keep it short and simple. The shorter it is, the more time you'll have to polish and refine your animation while you still have the benefit of a mentor critiquing your work. Stay humble, post your work, and try to get out in the community and give back to the people that are helping you, even when things are busy. It can be inspiring to see such amazing work being done by your classmates.