Blake Johnson and Professor Kelly Loosli, Theatre & Media Arts
The traditionally animated student short film The Lion and the Mouse has been in production for several years here at BYU. Within a year after it started in 2001 it was set aside due to the rapid advancement of the computer graphic or CG animation world.
Though The Lion and the Mouse was set aside, over the years there has been students who have worked on the project, advancing it at a gradual rate. Determined to finish the project we began full production again in fall 2005.
Extreme amounts of progress were made by end of year 2006. We did not meet our deadline to have the project finished by year end yet we have made substantial amounts of progress. Through out the duration of 2006 we did indeed encounter hardships however; the project has brought much good.
Initially our goal was to meet the Student Emmy deadline January 15th 2007. Due to the demands of our new semester and other group projects we did not fully complete the film. Nevertheless the project has made such great strides and has impacted the program immeasurable.
The ORCA grant that I received was a large benefit in furthering the production. The majority of the funds were used for supplies and group morale. To tackle such a project it has taken a large amount of students and countless hours spent.
A large collaboration of effort and talent was given to advance this film. The impact of collaboration is valuable for us as students. We were able to use the project to seek out upcoming determined and talented students and to further strengthen the students who are currently in the animation program. Student’s pulled together in many ways to reach our production goals. Many sleepless nights and early mornings were given to reach our goals. Even one weekend we had the whole program pulling all nighters, pizza runs, and sleep shifts to get the film done. Brent Adams and Kelly Lossli commented that they have not seen such a response and collaboration of effort in the program since our first 3D animated film Lemmings.
As director and producer on the film I have had valuable leadership and challenging opportunities to gain experience and grow. My relationships with the faculty have strengthened and I have gained a deeper understanding of the production needs of a film.
We encountered other difficulties as we reached for our goal. The day we were to send our film to the Student Emmys our computer crashed and we lost a decent amount of work. Discouraged yet determined we sent what we had anyways. Though our film was not complete we were a finalist in the Emmys but did not take a winning position. The film is still under production and we are getting ever so close to the final film.
We are determined to finish this film this year and will be submitting it to the Student Emmy’s and Student Academy Awards next year along with other film festivals through out the world.