The Average Joe Movie - Feature Film Production Diaries/Q&am

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Hey all! I haven't posted here in a while. As some of you already know, I've been working on a feature length animated film called Average Joe's Great Escape based on my web series: The Average Joe Show.



I thought some of you may want to know my progress so I'm starting this thread as sort of a "production diary" where I'll post all updates along with production stills, artwork, etc. I'll be happy to answer any questions you throw at me.

We have a little over an hour fully animated. That's the most we've ever done for one project. We've spent almost two years on this thing (we started developing it in January of 2009) and it's two years well spent!

Working on this movie has been an incredible learning experience. I think we're going to be a lot more prepared for our next feature (I'll be launching right into that after this one is done). It'll be much more solid. But that's for another thread

It's not a perfect movie by any means and I'll be the first to admit that. It's rough around the edges (then again... wasn't Snow White? Wasn't Toy Story?). The animation isn't all amazing but there's some good animation in it too.

So, enough of that... what's the movie about?

Joe, from the Average Joe Show, 39, is sent back to school because, to his wife's surprise, he never graduated high school or learned to read.



It turns out that this particular school is a new boarding school run by the evil Principal Terence Howard and his demonic coconut creme pie loving boss Mr. Daemon who wants to release hell on earth.



Learning this, Joe, along with his son Jack, his daughter Susie, and the other students in the school, stir up a rebellion and fight back against Principal Howard and his evil teachers.



So that's all for now. Check out this short trailer. It'll give you a taste of what the animation is like.

More posts coming soon! Again, I'll be happy to answer any questions related to the film.

Regards,

James N.

[DarthFurby]

Judging by the trailer, the tone of this movie is very different from the series, less humor, more drama/action. I prefer your action/drama stuff so look forward to seeing the movie. The art keeps getting better too.

[spoooze!]

It's actually mostly in the tone of the series. It's a bit darker and edgier then the series but it's funny rather then dramatic (there are a few dramatic scenes but none of it is really "serious") but on a much bigger scale with more characters and locations.

If you like our more dramatic stuff you'll love our next feature.

[spoooze!]

More Pics!

I'm laying out a really fun sequence (Sequence 22 of 38 ) right now with a really silly character who's really fun to pose out and animate.

Layout is one of the most fun and important parts of the animation process. It's basically the "setup" step. The backgrounds are drawn and the camera/staging is put in place so the animator can just jump right in and animate without worrying about setting up.

It also provides the animators with key poses and very rough timing.

I'll go more into detail about that later. For now, here's some more artwork!

Storyboard art:



(Digital, Sketchbook Pro)



(Digital, Sketchbook Pro)



(Digital, Anime Studio 5)

More Stills:

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Update- October 23

Still animating Sequence 22. Only 16 more sequences to go!

I'm actually animating two things at once now! Got this and a new episode of Mr. Flowerpot's How to Be a Man in the works. Those are fun to do because they're super short haha.

I'm also going to start up on our Halloween special soon which is actually in limbo between being a Halloween special or just a mid-fall short haha. We've put off recording the lines for too long and we don't know if we can get it done in a week or not.

I can't wait to get this movie done.

[spoooze!]

So we've been going through some major revisions to the movie. We've been making some cuts, adding scenes, and just trying to make the whole thing flow better (been getting mixed signals with our test-viewers, most say it felt too slow).

We decided that what we had was way way too long and it drags a lot at parts. So we've been re-working a lot of it.

So, I took the whole last half of the script and cut it down to about half it's original length (48 pages to 25 pages... yeesh). It had a lot of unneeded filler (funny filler but filler none-the less). I've rerecorded the audio and I think it all flows much better now.

So, those are the updates.