April update (Patreon)

Hello!

Wow! What a month March was. A lot of ups and downs for me. I started the month the lowest I've felt in a long time, and I'm ending it feeling pretty incredible.

Some good news- SAIC awarded me the Lyn Blumenthal scholarship on top of a few grants- which brings the cost of tuition down to a point where I could make it work without going into debt. (Side note- Lyn Blumenthal is a new inspiration of mine- since getting the award I've done some research on her life and am really blown away. Very excited to look more into her films, preservation and interview work and writing)

What this means is that I'll be able to complete The Cone Layer within the next 2 years. I'm very excited. This also means I'm going to be finishing all of season 2 before school starts in September. Episode 4 should be finished in 1-2 weeks, and then episode 5 will be done before the end of April. I'll be taking May to finish writing and boarding the rest of the episodes and then completing the animation for the rest by the end of August.

As of today we've completed 40 minutes of the live action feature. Very exciting- It's been a dream of mine to create something like the thing we're making, sort of a combination of my interests in slow cinema, indie sloppy stuff, experimental video art, and a bunch of other floating influences. I've watched it on a large screen and it feels like it's coming together in a way that's really exciting. We're going to have most of the film done by the end of summer, and then shoot a final scene in Winter. So we will be finished in February 2024.

I'm excited as after this, when I start school in September, I have some plans to use the resources to experiment further with form.. Excited to share when the time comes.. What I'm realizing is that doing these live action projects are actually inspiring me more with my animation, and I'm able to be more productive and intentional with my work as a result as a lot of my different feelings and compulsions are being artistically fulfilled in different ways. Wonderful

Speak soon, Episode 4 is on the way soon, which I think is one of the best shorts I've ever made.

Love

Jonni