I’ve taken a bit of time to go through all the work done to this point and start to
evaluate where I’m going with the project. I took the storyboard and swapped out
the drawn panels with some renderings from the set. This has given me a much better
sense of what the flow of the scenes will be. I’ve found several areas where there is
some bad continuity; primarily towards the end when the electricity flows between
the machines. I’ve added in some new shots to see how they work and the changes
made make a big improvement. I’ve taken a second look at the opening shot inside
the castle and decided to scrap the pan down from the rafters. It’s a really neat
looking shot but it doesn’t fit with the shot of Fritz at the window. Why would
the horizon line jump up so high? It does show the entire lab, but is it necessary?
I’ve thought about building a table with a bunch of test tubes and bunson burners
and stuff and pan past this as Fritz walks through the scene. I’ll try building this next week.

I’ve also gone in and begun fine tuning the timing a bit. Right now, it’s running at
1 min. 35 seconds. I haven’t done any sound work and I think that will influence
the timing a bit. I want to put some music to it but I can’t seem to find anything
that quite fits. Some pieces work well for the beginning but then the ending is all
wrong. The film needs to be spooky/scary and then build in intensity as the machines
begin to work right up to the punch line. However, I want to have a bit of a lull
when Igor runs up to the roof.

I met someone about 5 years ago that writes music for film and cartoons. I’ve kept
his card just in case something like this came up. I may give him a call some time next
week.