Ghost Sandwich
This blog updates weekly or otherwise, starting from 1/21/2024.
Weeks 1-2
1/21/2024: My flight from California to New York was delayed, so I got no sleep for one night and jet lag held me back last week. However, I've recovered and am working on Scene 7.
Hours worked: 2.5
Hours accrued total: 32.5
Weeks 3-4
02/04/2024: I've put together the updated animatic with two animated scenes - staying on track for my two-scene goal each week.
Hours worked: 8.5
Hours accrued total: 42
Week 5
02/11/2024: NEW SCENES
...and an updated spreadsheet for how much progress I've made.
Hours worked: 0
Hours accrued total: 42
Week 6
02/18/2024:
02/24/2024: I'd rather not re-upload the same animatic with only one updated shot, so here this is.
I did work on two shots this week.
Hours worked: 5.5
Hours accrued total: 47.5
Weeks 7-8
03/04/2024:
Hours worked: 2
Hours accrued total: 49.5
Spring Break
03/18/2024: Yes, I worked during spring break. But I also baked cookies, did some spring cleaning, and walked around the campus in broad daylight. It was nice. So I spent about as much time taking breaks as I did work.Picture lock reached and composer emailed.(This video is compressed. The uncompressed version is at this link on Google Drive.)
Hours worked: 20.5
Hours accrued total: 70
Weeks 9-10
03/31/2024: For some reason, Carrd.co won't let me add a new link, so I moved the old one slightly. I'm coloring the film in.
Hours worked: 4
Hours accrued total: 74
Weeks 11-12
04/10/2024: Pulling really hard for all the color work to be done and my colorists have been a huge help. All that's left to do is color in the shorter scenes / the longest one and fix the backgrounds. Plus shading.I REALLY thought this would be due right after I came back from a film festival, but nope, it's the Friday of that week, which gives me a little more wiggle room to finish this up. April 26th. (Right? I've double-checked a zillion times by now and am juggling three other projects.)
04/11/2024: FINISHED ALL THE COLORS AND SHADING!!!!! Now the very last thing left to do is the backgrounds. After I return from Hollywood I'M COMING FOR YOU.Hours worked: 15 + colorists
Hours accrued total: 89
SUCCESS
04/25/2024: I completed the film!
Hours accrued total: ~93
This blog updates weekly or otherwise, starting from 8/28/2023.
Week 1
I arrived at college and was exhausted after move-in, plus the jet lag adjustment from PST to EST. But that's when I made this site! I don't imagine I'll change the other pages, though I will say they're likely to remain unchanged as a record of what I already had from last spring.
Week 2
9/5/2023: ...working on the storyboard panels! Hopefully I get a few done before class, but I'm still recovering from last week. It's been a very long August.9/6/2023: I did these in maybe a hour, to be honest. I want to track the amount of time it takes me to make anything as well as the difficulty of the task - a few issues held me up but I'm hoping to be more on track this weekend.
This is about half of the story beats I had planned, and they're more like thumbnails than storyboards, but they approximate what I have in mind for the film so far.I've also put the production schedule below, which is a WIP rather than the final, so this will be changed after some feedback.
Week 3
9/10/2023: Work on the first version of the animatic started! I'm about 30 seconds in after a hour, so I think I have a good chance of getting in 2 minutes before class if I keep at it tomorrow. I've deviated from the initial storyboards, at least for the scene where Eye gets off the bus and has her phone broken.
9/11/2023: Got two minutes within 2 hours! I feel I'm about halfway through.9/13: 3:20 minutes!!!!!
I'm starting a record of how many hours I've worked per week, as of now. This excludes any work I did last spring, but is still worth acknowledging I wouldn't have made this much progress without that preparation (8-16 hours?)Hours worked: 4
Total hours accrued: 5
Week 4
...I didn't do anything this week due to extenuating circumstances. On the bright side, I got my COVID booster! It was absolute agony for 48 hours but I'm healthy :)
Week 5
9/29/2023: Worked on the production schedule, set up a shot list, and currently adding to my animatic!
Hours worked: 3
Hours accrued total: 8
Week 6
10/02/2023: Edited more of the animatic!! Though I'm aiming to change up the first initial scene and the second-to-last scene before the credits.Have a cute collection of Eyes, to figure out her design better.
10/07/2023: I VERY MUCH HOPE THIS ANIMATIC IS THE LAST ONE I MAKE. I very much want to start working on the backgrounds and some scenes. Somehow I still have 16 shots.
Hours worked: 4
Hours accrued total: 12
Week 7
10/10/2023: Reworked the color scripts, but I'm unsure about these colors. They're a little too UPA-like for my tastes and I'd like to change the linework colors later.
Hours worked: 1
Hours accrued total: 13
Week 8
10/18/2023: Started work on backgrounds! I've figured out a simple style and so I should be able to finish these quickly. 1/14 backgrounds completed.
Week 9
10/22/2023: Tackling the hardest backgrounds first! ...this scene will have 4-5 characters in it plus ghosts, so don't think Eye is all alone here.10/24/2023: FULL STEAM AHEAD
Hours worked: 5
Hours accrued total: 18
Week 10
10/30/2023: ANIMATIONNNN (not vertical slice yet)
Hours worked: 4
Hours accrued total: 22
Week 11
11/06/2023: Vertical slice completed! ...yes I completely redrew everything and have now shifted programs from TVPaint to CSP because my tablet apparently makes wobbly lines and Lazy Nezumi only works in CSP.
I've also changed the lines to be thinner and added a ghost and shading.
Hours worked: 4
Hours accrued total: 26
Week 12
11/20/2023: I've been working on this REALLY long scene in slices, so hopefully this takes out about a quarter of the film when it's done. I'm struggling a bit with the timing.
Hours worked: 4
Hours accrued total: 30
Week 13
12/03/2023: finals are setting in like ice in my blood vessels and i have not done anything but piece together this animatic. i will do plenty more work next semester
Half these backgrounds don't show up yet, but I'm still glad I made progress on them before and I am confident I can make the rest for the film in time. Philosophy of simplicity is still serving me well!
AND BEFORE I FORGET I have this nice spreadsheet of how much I've done!
Hours worked: 0
Hours accrued total: 30
Logline
In a Haunted world dependent on ghosts, Eye, a Dead person without one, struggles to order a sandwich.
Synopsis
In a Haunted world dependent on ghosts, Eye, a Dead person, struggles to order a sandwich. After getting the wrong order at a cafe, an alarm sounds and everyone else leaves but her. When she is threatened by the fire inside, she runs out without the sandwich and has to find another place for food. Eventually Eye walks into a different establishment and is surprised to see signing staff there. She finally gets the right order.
Worldbuilding Context
Ghosts represent sounds and hearing. People without ghosts - the Dead (Deaf) - cannot perceive ghosts and thusly can’t understand the Haunted (Hearing) if they only use ghosts to communicate with the Dead. This is a visual metaphor in a world largely dependent on ghosts. Ghosts are entirely normal but simply don’t exist to the Dead. Objects can have ghosts as well - if they are electric devices, they have a different appearance than people or instruments’ ghosts.Eye, the main character, is Dead and does not have a ghost.
Treatment
One evening, Eye is riding a bus on the way to a cafe. The driver announces the next stop through speakers - which is conveyed as a ghost. Eye has her phone ready to translate the speech into text and she gets off at this stop… but she bumps into someone as she’s typing her order for the cafe and drops the phone! It shatters. Eye picks it up and taps on the screen to no avail. Resigned to a broken phone, she looks gloomy as she enters a cafe and looks up at the menu… and the line which only has two people in front of her. She gets excited when she sees one move their hands, only to realize it’s simply an over-gesturing Haunted.It doesn’t take long until she’s at the front, but the cashier immediately speaks to her through their ghost, and Eye cannot perceive the ghost at all, gesturing that she is Dead, and then she tries to point out the sandwich she wants. The cashier freezes like a deer in headlights and immediately takes the next Haunted’s order instead. Eye gets huffy and asks for a pen and paper, to which a manager happily gives her. She writes the order down and waits for her order.She waits and waits and waits as she sees multiple other people’s orders being called out and taken off the counter. One remains. Eye wonders if it’s hers. She appears upset when another person’s order after her is called out and she finally gets up to get the remaining bag.…it’s the wrong order.Eye sits back down and resigns herself to eating it when all of a sudden a HUGE ghost sweeps over the room from a fire alarm! Everyone else’s ghosts react, prompting the Haunted to get up… but only Eye remains, unrattled by the huge ghost screeching in front of her face.The smoke rises from the kitchen. The Dead abandons her untouched food and finally runs out of there.Outside on the sidewalks sit Haunted musicians, playing their instruments. Eye happens to glance at them and the musicians smile at her and their ghosts insistently sing their music at the Dead. She’s made uncomfortable by the persistent eye contact and has to wave them away, feeling bad she can’t pay them compliments.She’s still hungry and sighs. Then… in the distance… she spots two people moving their hands. Eye blinks and moves closer. Could it be-? Yes! Other Dead! She follows them inside a restaurant and is ecstatic to see the staff signing inside. Finally, people who can understand her! People she can understand!At long last, the Dead gets her sandwich and eats it.
Story Beats
1) Eye riding a bus which next stop is a cafe. It announces that through speakers (ghost).2) Her phone translates the speech into text for her and Eye steps off the bus, typing the order she wants - but she drops the phone and it shatters! :(3) She enters a restaurant and tries to order a sandwich. The cashier freezes up, tries to speak to Eye - who doesn’t have a ghost - and then ignores her to take another haunted customer’s order.4) After finally ordering through pen and paper instead of gesturing to the menu, she gets her order. It’s the wrong order.5) Eye sighs and is about to eat the sandwich, but a ghostly fire alarm goes off - which Eye cannot sense. Everyone’s ghosts react prompting them to leave the room, and Eye follows only after she sees smoke.6) When she leaves the shop, she has to walk past musicians who play obsessively at her, unaware that Eye doesn’t have a ghost to sense their music with. The woman completely ignores them, feeling bad, and looks around for anywhere to get a sandwich.7) Eye sees two signing people (fellow Dead?!) enter a different restaurant and follows them. She is pleasantly surprised to see signing staff in the restaurant, and FINALLY gets the right order, enjoying a sandwich in the end.
Characters
Signing test
About
A senior thesis film by Lymon Thorn, a deaf nonbinary animator.The idea of ghosts representing sounds first came to me while I was playing the concertina. The vibrations inside the instrument felt nothing like the way sounds were oftentimes visualized in movies - and then, I imagined that as a ghost. It occurred to me that all sound is essentially nonexistent to me, and that everyone else is haunted by them. Sound is a ghost. Hearies occasionally wish they could be free of it, but worship it all the same… so I’m using this metaphor to show how, essentially, this society never factored in the existence of people like me. And in forgetting that we exist, they reject us. For what? Something that never existed to us. How silly.I know sounds are real. But not to me. And people can’t simply use their sounds to talk to me when I do not believe in sounds and cannot perceive them. This is a slice straight out of my own life and I face many of these same struggles on a daily basis. It would be so nice to show this in such a visual way, without using spoken language, to an audience.