THE LONG AND SISYPHEAN JOURNEY OF BILLY
PRE-PRODUCTION
Disclaimer
This is not a recommended process of manufacturing a film,
while saying that, I do believe there's a lot to learn from it, such as from any experience.
Incarnations
During the second week of the studies, an image of Billy popped into my head,
along with the house he would live in, a ring floating in the sky.
First sketches of Billy.
The character remained, but the ring fell along the way, but not before it swept away two different ideas.
The first idea was that the constanly rotating ring that Billy lives in ,stops, which leads it to fall into the oblivion, where Billy meets a divine entity. I dropped that idea since the character didn't develope through the journey.
Videoboard for the first idea - "Loop"
The second idea included time travel. Billy, frustrated of being alone, draws himself with another person and throws the drawing into space, Because of that time brakes, and because of that Billy from another dimension hunts him, by being determend to kill any other version of him in the universe. I dropped that idea because I couldn't connect it to anything that seemed important to me.
The idea that developed into what the film is today: Billy lives in a dry world, he gathers raisins and enjoys them, until he encounters a girl who leads him to a grape vineyard, where he devours the grapes and begins to lose his sanity - his delusions drive him out of the vineyard. Billy, now traumatised, stays away from the vineyard, sadder then he was before.
Stealing and getting inspired
After re-watching movies that excited me during my studies, I was caught up on the story-telling method of Christian Larrave's "Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day!" and the simplicity of Andreas Hykade's "Nuggets".
Christian Larrave's "Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day!"
Andreas Hykade's "Nuggets"
First Videoboard - "Raisins"
After getting reviews that there is not enough information to hang on, and overall, being awfully boring, I decided to turn the film into a song, and change Billy's satisfaction from raisins to satisfying basic needs – food, water and sleep.
The next stage was writing the song, which, like the character, the melody and structure of the song just popped up. After countless attempts to compose different verses, accompanied by sketches for each row, I wrapped up the song, and contacted "Daniel Shemer" who composed the first version of the song.
Visual images for different lyrics, that didn't get to the final version
I got to the second version of the Videoboard, and started working on styling and animation.
Early videoboard - "The forbidden fruit"
Billy - different renders
The idea changed all the time, and it was terribly frustrating. Two months before the Dead Line I took a bath (I did baths at the time it helped to get rid of stress) and I decided that the film wouldn't be the film of my life through two months period. That helped me pushing what's currently on the table, while enjoying the process instead of being frustrated with it (I hope it feels like it.)
I've based the film over a lot of short films that interested me and made me happy, and I knew I would like to make films like them. that gave birth, for example, to the madness sequence – basing it on Jason Steele's Fake Biscoff spread commercial .
The "Fucked-Upness" of the film was also influenced and inspired by D.H.M.I.S, Wonder Showzen, David Oreily, Dan Herzfeld, Adventure time and many brilliant others.
Jason Steele's Fake Biscoff spread commercial
Episode from "Don't hug me I'm scared"
"Wonder Showzen" opening sequance
Shot from "Adventure time" Episode "BMO Noire"
Dan Herzfeld's "Rejected"
David Oreilly's "The External World"
As in every film, the process that the character undergoes and develops is a main leading element. I decided that the process that Billy will undergo is from the world of creation to our world. It was also a good excuse for combining techniques, which made the process much more interesting and varied.