10 things I've learned in making a short film: # 3

3) Goals Goals Goals.

Leo off and running with the goal to fly

Without deadlines you will make the film forever. First you should have an overriding goal. an ubergoal, the emotional goal. It should answer the question "Why am I doing this?"

Secondly a completion goal, "In five years I will have the film done to show at Annecy!" Truthfully working on the side, after hours this will double or triple. If this were the Apollo Moon Goal it would be "By the end of this decade we will put a man on the moon and bring him home again." So what date, event, arbitrary or not are you shooting for? Write it down. The first step to achieving any goal is to write it down.

Now you need to breakdown the completion goal into the major events. For the moon mission this would be; learn how to send men to the moon, Gemini program, build the LEM, etc. For animation it could be learn to animate but assuming you know that it would be make a storyreel by a certain date, design characters, begin animation, etc.

This is all still pretty overwhelming so each of the major events, ie Gemini or storyreel, are broken down into very doable little goals leading you to " little victories." During Gemini they had a checklist of things to do to prepare the astronauts and NASA to know they could get to the moon and back. Spacewalk - check. Rendevous and dock with another capsule - Check. Test out the Luner Module (LEM) - Check. By doing this your little victories will build your confidence and momentum not to mention keeping you fired up to get through the long lonley slog of making the thing.

tomorrow:

4) 5 minutes a day
I hit upon this idea when I was really down about getting the film done.