The Life of a Freelance Artist

Artists have to make money. I wish I could just create whatever I wanted and not worry about finances, but I'm not there yet. Most of us are either working at a company earning a salary, or we're out hustling on our own, booking gigs, selling our art and earning a living that way. Right now, I'm doing the latter.

One of the things that's been most surprising to me since starting my business is how my perception of money has changed. I worked in an office for seven years. I earned steady income for that entire period, and I was never out of work. During those years, I didn't really think about money very often. As long as I had a job, everything was magically alright.

But now I think about money every day. It's what keeps this adventure going. So, I hustle, research, and strategize all the time. And when I sign contracts for paid work, it's a feeling like no other. Diving into the unknown can be terrifying, but completely invigorating. I choose to perceive this path as a series of opportunities to make my life the way I want it. And because of that, I feel very good just about every day.

It's important to note that I make every effort to keep my creative time free and clear of stress. It's hard to create when stressed. And if I can't create, I can't live. So, stress mitigation is kinda important. Luckily, I learned a great deal about stress management over the last seven years, and I'm still working to be better at it.

So, would I recommend this path to other artists? Well, it depends on what kind of person you are. It takes a lot of work, time, care, responsibility and discipline. That's just fine with me, because I relish that stuff. It does mean that every move I make matters, but that's why it's so great too. I get to be making the moves, not someone else.

If you're on the fence, think about it like this: you need to satisfy the priorities in your life that are specific to you. For me, this is what I want. I want control, responsibility, and opportunities for insane growth. It suits me, so I'm absolutely happier than I've ever been. But everyone has different intrinsic or situational needs. And they must satisfy them or risk being unhappy. And remember, good will always be the enemy of great (more on that here).

The best piece of advice I have is this: Listen to yourself. We're always subconsciously telling ourselves what we want in life. But do we have the courage to objectively listen, no matter what it says? It may not be easy to accept what we want. I wish I loved building rockets, but I don't so I won't be trying to work for NASA. And years ago, members of my family were upset with me that I didn't pursue a career as a dancer. They said I was throwing away my talent. But here's the deal: I didn't love it. If I had done it, I would have been throwing away my life, not my talent. So, I didn't do it.

I know that fear is the biggest de-motivator. Believe me, I've had my fair share of it. And it was because of fear that I resisted starting my own business. But when I remembered that the days of my life were falling away, like grains of sand, I knew I had to do it immediately. And I knew that I could fail, but I could fail just as easily not doing what I loved. In fact, we're more likely to fail at things that we don't love. And besides that, we can get a string of bad luck, no matter what we're doing. So, I implore you...do what you love.

It's worth it.

And now, for the dumbest yet in my super dumb series of dancing cube videos that I force myself to make quickly. They are not masterpieces, but they make me laugh while I'm making them, so that's something.

Your pal,

Bailey

Drawing Dogs

This past week I was busy with storyboarding and creating style frames for a secondary project. I find that storyboarding takes a lot of mental effort. Probably because I'm trying to concept, stage, edit, and keep continuity all at once. There will definitely be some behind the scenes stuff in January, but here are some dogs:

These dogs are in it to win it. You'll see more of them in January.

There was no progress on my original short film (Hunted) this week. I'm still figuring out exactly how to balance it with the rest of my work. I also don't want it to take years, so I may need to devote larger chunks of time to it.

Next week I'll be releasing another tiny (short short) as part of my ongoing effort to practice rigging, animation, and choreography. I'm also doing these to force myself to release content at least once every two weeks. It will be goofy and musical!

As for the future, I've begun to think about doing something even more ambitious: a project where I release art every day for two weeks. I'm calling it a Fortnight of Frames. I hope to do it next spring.

Lastly, I began work on my fourth edited short. This will probably be released in February (only because I'm working on it simultaneously with everything else). You can find the first 3 HERE. In case it isn't clear, here are the release schedules for my current projects:

• 1 tiny animation - every 2 weeks
• 1 medium sized project - every 2 months
• 1 short film (Forma Pictures) - every 1-2 years
• 1 short film (part of a team) - every 1-2 years
• ongoing client work - every 1-4 months (varies)

Bailey

CTN & Cubes

What a week! So much happened. I attended the CTN Expo, and had a splendid time. I saw cool art, enjoyed panels, learned, and became inspired. But most importantly, I met a lot of wonderful creatives. Honestly, I was delighted to enjoy the company of such genuinely good people. Overall I left feeling that the community is pretty great. Happy to be part of it! And, naturally, I have something to share. The second installment in my ridiculous Cube Dancing series...

Aaaand last week the composer for Hunted sent me the first draft of the score. We'll be working on adapting it to the story and vice versa. Yay! Music!

Bailey

The Action Movie

It's that time of week again. Last week I promised you an edited short. My work here was just editing. Music and movie clips are property of their respective owners. Crank the music up, and I hope you enjoy!

Originally intended to be about twice the length, this work languished on my hard drive for some time. A couple weeks ago I decided to tighten it up and share it.

In other news, today and tomorrow I am attending 2014's CTN Expo. Gonna see and talk to artists and animators, look at cool art, and learn! I couldn't be more excited. In preparation, I decided it was time to get some business cards in order. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. Heavy paper weight, silky smooth, and bright blue. And if you're going and you see a guy wearing a Forma Pictures t-shirt, that's me!

Bailey

A Plethora of Projects

Progress on Hunted will be slowing down a bit. The truth is that Forma Pictures has been involved in a slew of projects. As of this writing, I'm working on 3 short film projects (and a couple smaller ones)! Some are original IPs like Hunted, and the rest are being made with or for others. So far, this blog has focused on Hunted, but I'd like to open it up to the other projects as well. At least the ones that aren't confidential.

Showing the other projects will be a more honest representation of the growth of Forma Pictures anyway. Client work remains a core part of its business model. I've got a lot of irons in the fire, and bets on more than one direction. I'm exploring where financial success lies, while still staying true to my core passions of working with great people and creating genuine, music-driven stories. See Good to Great to learn more about the 3 circles (money, passion, best at). I want this blog to peel back the curtain not just on Hunted, but also on the growth of a business.

Never fear, however, because Hunted isn't going away. I'll always be working on it. It's my favorite "kid", and I'll see to it that it becomes a high-functioning adult. Here's a poster concept I recently did:

UPCOMING CONTENT

• Next week I'll be releasing a new edited short. Remember Movie Magic? Well, get ready for more!
• Also, be sure to check out my new series of short shorts (aka "tinies"): "Dancing Cubes." These are goofy, 5-15 second, musical animations. The first one is below. More are on the way!

TWITTER

If weekly updates aren't enough for you, be sure to follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/bkalesti

I actually spend a portion of time each week carefully collecting and posting good content from the web that I feel is worth sharing. I promise I'll never tweet what I had for dinner, because who gives a ****. My twitter presence is just about the craft and the community. It's where I mention new stuff I'm doing that may not reach the blog.

Bailey

Animatic Clip

As promised, I'm sharing a clip of the animatic. The score isn't in yet, so it's rather quiet. The art is obviously non-existent and the animations are point-A to point-B type of stuff. Everything is stand-in for the real art that will come later. But hey, movies are always bad in the beginning. My goal here is to shed light on the gritty details of this process. See last week's update for a more in-depth analysis of what goes into making an animatic.

In this segment, Chloe encounters something unexpected, and she's appropriately cautious...

Bailey

The Making of an Animatic

No art to show this week, so I’m showing a little behind the scenes. Personally, I love looking under the hood of a project, so I hope this is interesting to someone.

My main task right now is creating the animatic. During this process I’m addressing three important aspects that are shaping the movie:

• Staging
• Cinematography
• Editing

The initial boards I made were loose and I focused on finding a visual language. After creating the third batch of thumbnail sketches, I spent a day placing them into a non-linear editor.
 

The third batch.

I feel that the staging process is like solving a puzzle. I look to the script and determine all the actions that need to happen to move the story along. The hard part is adapting the ideas into a space, where action happens. Working from an overhead perspective, I literally just scribble ideas for camera angles, player movement, and interactions throughout the scene. When I’m building it, I’m thinking about technical limitations (based on visual direction), composition, eye-tracing, and 2D screen-space rules.

The cinematography has been fun for me. I’ve been getting coverage of each scene, which has helped the editing process. And I’ve been working on shot composition, which is an art form unto itself. Naturally, I feel like a complete novice. Creating a still with coherent composition is hard enough, and then adding the element of time makes it all the harder. As Joseph Mascelli says in The Five C’s of Cinematography (which I highly recommended), “Good motion picture scenes are the result of thoughtful compositions and significant movements, of players and/or camera. Unsatisfactory scenes are the results of thoughtless compositions and meaningless player or camera movements, which distract rather than aid in the story-telling.”

Editing affects the shots too. Sometimes I don’t feel I can cut to a certain angle in the given time, which makes me reevaluate my camera choices. And because this is a music-driven story, everything needs to work harmoniously with the score. So, Hunted is really a series of music-supporting sequences that move the story and emotion along a pre-defined arc. And for even the simplest scenes to work, composition, staging, music, editing, and design must cooperate. That’s really the beauty of film. It’s the convergence of so many art forms…each one potentially elevating the art to higher and higher levels.
 

A very early timeline.

Hunted is a simple film, but I know it will continue to push me to my limits. This is why whenever I watch a particularly well made movie, I can’t help by sit in awe. Good movies are hard to make. I can’t say if my film will be good, but I’ll pour everything I’ve got into it.

I’ll post a clip of the animatic next week (November 7th)!

Bailey

Animatic Underway

After creating hundreds of storyboard sketches this week, I began working on the animatic. I'm feeling good about the scenes, and the time has come to create a robust, moving storyboard. Here are some stills from a few of the scenes:

All very simple, but so important. I'm having fun getting coverage of the scenes, and then editing them together. Some shots have been drawn by hand over and over again, and it's good to finally see them in 3D space. I'm learning what works and what doesn't. Overall, this film challenges me in ways that make me very happy. I've continued to read about cinematography and editing as I try to get better at this stuff. I love film!

Bailey

Breakthrough

We all know that it's difficult to translate the vague ideas in our heads into something real. To help with this, I tried an exercise.

Over the last few weeks I amassed a lot of reference photos and inspiration. This week I chose thirteen of my favorites. Then I wrote down the reasons I liked each one. Finally, I compiled these qualitative assessments into a spreadsheet and tried to find patterns. Some interesting things developed from this. For one, I learned that I'm attracted to art that uses lighting to tell stories. I listed lighting as the primary reason why I liked eight out of the thirteen. I also learned that I apparently have a fascination with silhouettes.

This helped me because it distilled my pool of thoughts into something more tangible. The physical act of writing things down is a wonderful human tool that allows us to see multiple things at once and detect patterns. It forced me to recognize what I liked and didn't like too. I have a tendency to doubt my conviction while I search for "the perfect idea."

The aesthetic I see will serve the story of Hunted. It's been tricky finding an approach that will work for each scene in the film. Some shots will be more difficult, but I'm eager to put my ideas and passion to the test.

Here is the first environment test. This is just the beginning!

If you have any comments, critiques, or an interest in working together, don't be shy!

info@formapictures.com

Bailey

Busy Week

What a week! I did some rigging and concepting. But, unfortunately, a decent chunk of my time this past week was spent moving, so the film underwent less progress than usual.

Playing with tones and brush strokes.

The biggest challenge I'm facing right now is how I'm going to animate the characters. The visual direction is highly dependent on what character animations I can pull off. The vision is clear, but the execution is still a bit fuzzy. Nevertheless, I have a feeling I'll crack this puzzle by next Friday.

Until then!

Bailey

Painting Trees

This was a week of painting trees. And mountains. And more trees. And while I'm not "ready" to show people anything yet, I've got to show something! If I held off showing art until I was ready, I would just put it straight in the film because it would be done. The direction will change, grow, and be better.

A simple layout of a scene from Act I.

When I wasn't taking care of other projects and the business, I was collecting reference, exploring approaches to painting, and teaching myself basic character animation. I also started creating block-outs of the gas station and the cliff. Mostly just playing with where the camera should be and begging for some happy accidents. That said, I'm planning on most things being 2D.

If you're an artist out there who would like to learn more about this animated film, message me: info@formapictures.com. I'm looking for concept artists (character and environment) at the moment, but the project will eventually need 2D/3D animators and maybe a technical artist. I really believe in this project and I'm working hard to make it something genuinely good.

The composer is already creating the score, and now it's time to get some excellent artists on board!

Bailey

New Storyboard

This was a week of visual development and storyboarding. I had boarded the film previously, but it needed a whole new set of images based on significant changes to the story. I also needed to give Isaac, the composer, something more concrete to work from.

I still need to stage this film, but I'm waiting until after the music gets a first pass. Isaac and I had a great first meeting this week, and I'm very excited to start getting music into this thing!

And as far as visual development goes, I began concepting a scene from the film. However, there's no way I'm ready to show any of that yet! But rest assured, I'll show look development progress in due time. For now, I'll leave you with a few simple boards from the updated story.

Bailey

The Great Search for Music

Happy Friday everybody. Time for an update.

This week mostly had to do with finding music. If you know me, you know that my projects revolve around music. It’s why I’ve been searching for weeks. In total, I listened to a couple thousand songs (I counted the first thousand, then gave up), talked with musicians, agents, and put up ads for composers. I’m happy to say that I’ve found somebody to write an original score! Check him out here. Welcome to the project, Isaac! He’s a great musician and I’m confident he’ll pull off something awesome.

As promised, here’s a summary of the script so far:

Hunted is a dramatic short film. Set in the mountains, we follow the protagonist, Chloe. In the aftermath of losing her family, she must make the difficult decision between survival and vengeance. Her path is one of conviction and what it means to seek resolution in a chaotic world.

Fun fact: I spent some of my youth in the mountains you see in the image above (photo taken by me last week). So, the setting for this film is no accident.

Bailey