I can't believe I'm quoting the Smashing Pumpkins, but it's true that "the world is a vampire." No matter where you turn, someone is gonna try to suck you dry. Everything costs something. Don't even get me started on institutions of thievery like Sallie Mae. And Uber. And credit card companies. But this isn't just about money. Everybody wants a piece of you AND your money. And your time. And your skills. And a bite of your food. And bum a ride. And bum your last cigarette. And bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. WITH INTEREST!
It's one thing to be giving to others. It's another to be bled. It's inescapable!
There's a law of equal exchange in nature. Karma, ying & yang and all of that. You give and you take. You can't just take. You spend money to make money. You pay your dues before you get where you want to be in your chosen profession. Your parents raise you and take care of you. Then you take care of them when they get old. Balance. It runs the universe. Ya know?
Maybe I'm an idealist, but I like to believe that what you get from something should be in exact proportion to what you put into it. Right? I don't know. All this complaining is stressing me out. Can I bum a smoke?
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This film cost less than $30 to make. I like listing these final budgets because one of the many reasons I'm doing these films is to prove that you can make an animated short film for less the cost of one film festival submission. Film festivals...yet another racket. You don't need to beg strangers on crowd sourcing sites either. Anyway...
The star of this film is my own mouth. I put on some lipstick and imprinted the mouth movements onto the back of 3 x 5 index cards. I did a few sets of these. Some clean. Some with smears. And another set of random mouth positions.
Then I shot them one by one. I could have scanned them in but the camera produced better quality images.
For the cigarette bit, I made a little stage in the kitchen using some black paper. The thick kind you use for pastels. I took a pin button that was laying around the house and used it to keep the cigarette suspended.
I shot this once in stop motion and once in straight video. I ended up using the regular video in the film. Here's the raw result:
I went into making this film with no outline and no storyboards. I set out to make a film that sort of made itself while I was animating. It took a good amount of doing it, then walking away. Then doing more, then walking away. The process of making "Gimme!" was the closest I've come to the process of making fine art. In painting and sculpting, especially abstract work, you kinda have to do it while you feel it and you can't force it. Time away from it is just as important as time in front of it. Gotta walk away. I worked on this film over the course of a few months but total working time was roughly 5 or 6 days.
Thanks for reading!
