How to make a short film in a month

I've done it 8 times now so I think I can help with this subject. I've done one in 24 hours...I don't recomend it. If you're an animator or storyboard artist or layout artist or you just want a short film for whatever reason, I got you. In this fast paced world you kind of need one fast and it doesn't have to be complicated. Here are my steps from trial and error over the years that I have.

1. Get a little team together!

   It doesn't have to be a big team, it could even just be you and a friend. 2 people definitely makes a team. You can do this alone, but I don't recomend it personally. If you know someone who can do storyboards and you can do animation, there ya go!

2. GEt it figured out!

   The first week is essential to knowing what you wanna do. If you already had an idea, great! You may need to short it down, though. I've had plenty of ideas that we had to shorten in order to get the film done in time. The film itself only needs to be 30 seconds to a minute so keep that in mind. SO the first week you at least need a script and character designs done!

3. It's go time!

   Now that you have your team, your script and characters down, it's time for the storyboard. Storyboards really do not need to be complicated. If you've ever seen storyboards of the most famous movies, its all stick figures. You just need to figure out the composition of the shots and what the characters are doing in that scene. Don't waste time on making the storyboards fancy. If you are a storyboard artist and want something for your portfolio, I'd say work on making them look pretty after the animatic is done and while the animators are doing their thing. You need to have the storyboard and animatic done in the second week, so if you can do it fast and pretty, then do it. Other wise just focus on the fundamentals. For sound, I recomend just music you can find that's royalty free or if you know someone who makes music, awesome! You don't need to worry about voice acting unless you're crazy like me.

4. ANimation mY FavOrite!

   Here's the fun part, at least for me. Rough animation week! Assign your team with shots and yourself some shots. If its just you START GO NOW!! I would even recomend if it's just you animating or one person, plan the animation to be short and simple. Also start animating as soon as the animatic comes in. Usually in my teams, we have at least threee animators including me. And we each got 2 to 5 shots to work on depending on the film. Some films we did our own shots all alone, and others we broke down who are the keyframers and who are the inbetweeners. Either one is fine but if you want your own shot to have and to hold, let your team know. COMMUNICATIONS IS KEY! Let your team know where you are at, at all times. Well not really, but send an update anytime you work on it. It's really scary as a director when your team doesn't even show the work in progress. Consider your teams feelings and own stresses, put them at ease knowing that you're at least working on it.

5. CRunCH TImE

   This is usually when all the rough animation is done and it's time to clean up the shots and color. If you're lucky, you have a clean up artist on your team, if not good luck. Cleaning is BRUTAL. You want every frame to look good, I know but you also want the animation to work. Sometimes I'll be cleaning and my frames look really good but I play it back and the animation is HORRIBLE. In my own experience, make it look clean, not pretty unless it's a keyframe. Keyframes are meant to be the main star and inbetweeners are the extras. They are all needed in the end to put on a show. To be honest, I'd rather have a shot that's not as clean, but the animations really good, than a shot that just looks pretty but has no real motion to it. If you can achieve both in less than one week, you're super human. Oh yeah did I mention clean up needs be done early? Becasue the editor, whoever it is, needs time to edit. At least a couple days.

There ya go! These are the steps I use when I want to make something in a month. It's always succesfull, considering I had no idea how to make a short film at all before joining Studio X at my college. All this information was years of me and my classmates trying to figure it out and make everything less stressful. I just hope this helps other aspiring animators/artists.