Storytime with Nigel: The Final Chapter

...or will there be 'A New Beginning?' Time will tell.

This is an update on my independent animated short film, Storytime with Nigel, the story of a baby elephant who meets a cranky monkey. I officially started working on it in May 2002, still within my first year of marriage, 27-years-old, no kids, and working at VanArts in full-time admissions and part-time teaching. I would work all day, come home, and animate little bits of it almost every night, on the dining room table of our one-bedroom apartment. When we moved into our larger place in 2003, a separate studio room was set up and production at the light-table moved forward full-force in evenings and weekends, almost consistently for several years following.

...but sometime around 2009, the film came to a stand-still and has been that way ever since. A few reasons for this:

1) More work!

When I started the film, VanArts was still a tiny animation school and that was all they taught. All day long I was surrounded by animators, which gave me the enthusiasm to come home and keep plugging away. Over time, the school has grown exponentially into a media arts center with all kinds of art forms an addition to animation, so my job there has needed to expand in focus as well. In 2005 I was offered the chance to write a book, so the film was put on hold for 6 months while I wrote The Art of Stop-Motion Animation. Afterwards the film started picking up again, until I began: teaching animation courses online, animating on short films for Bigfott Studios, and writing a second book. When one needs to choose paid work and golden opportunities like these over a daunting personal film project, guess which side wins?

2) Kids!

I remember running into a friend of mine years ago at an animation screening who had just started a family, and we began talking about my film. He told me to finish the film before I had kids, or else it wouldn't get finished. He was right. Although truthfully, when Ariel was just a baby the film was still in relatively steady production. But once Ariel could walk and we added Xander to the mix, that's a different story. Much harder to find the time, but it's been a good trade-off.

3) Change!

One thing that has changed is the technology, which has expanded into 16:9 standard screen size, HD capability and different software & expectations than what was available a decade ago. But more poignant, as a result of passing times & trends, ups & downs, and the first two points mentioned above, I've changed as a person. I'm in a different phase of my life. I've grown as an artist. I've improved (slightly) as an animator. I look at the film now, and although there are still parts I am very proud of, there are also parts I cringe at. Do I have the heart and the energy to go over it again? I'm not sure. Overall, I still believe in the film and what it says, but at the end of the day, it's just too big.

For these reasons and more, I don't see myself being able to finish Storytime with Nigel by my own power. A big part of me would still like to see it finished, obviously. It is completely hand-crafted, using stop-motion and hand-drawn full animation, with no digital shortcuts planned or envisioned. This is an art form I love, believe in with all my heart, and want to make my mark in. It is also narrated by the legendary Academy-Award winning filmmaker Bob Godfrey, who turned 90 this year, and his willingness back in 2002 to lend his voice to my puny little film is an extreme privilege I do not take lightly. Having created a tribute to Bob earlier this year for the Animazing Spotlight festival, I have a new appreciation for his legacy. I have also had several well-respected animation professionals view the story reel and kindly give me encouragement for continuing onwards with it. A good handful of animation students have helped on their own precious time with in-betweening, scanning, and digital ink & paint, and I cannot begin to express my gratitude and appreciation for all their hard work. I apologize in advance to everyone involved, and please rest assured that your support has not been in vain, as your willingness to help me out is worth gold to me. I also apologize to anyone who may be disappointed in me for not actively seeing this through.

For these reasons, it breaks my heart to see this film as a behemoth mountain I'm reluctant to keep climbing. The animation itself is nearly complete, and I have a few scenes which are already colored in, however I am not 100% sure how to go about putting all the frames together. The other major steps which remain are completing/revising the animation, creating backgrounds, lots more digital inking, compositing, camera moves, and most importantly, a musical score. On my own schedule, my own dollar, and my own time, I don't see this happening.

The only way that Storytime with Nigel will reach screens the way it was intended, as I see it, would be for another individual, school or studio to invest time, money and a deadline to complete it. The projects I have been successful at completing had these elements in place, and this film is now at that point for me as well. I could see myself overseeing the production from afar as the originator and director, but in order for the fire to be re-kindled in me, it will take complete commitment from an outside party who believes in it, and wants to do it right. I'd be over the moon if this was possible. It may be un-realistic, but I'm willing to be surprised and leave it all up to a power higher than myself. If this is meant to be, somebody e-mail me and let's talk. If not, I need to move forward as I have other projects brewing and new stories I have to tell. I can only trust they will be worth telling and that closing this project will allow something else to be born. (Hopefully something shorter or simpler)

So with a heavy heart...after years and years of hard work and stacks of paper collecting dust in the studio, I've agonized over this and put it off for months, but I'm finally going for broke, closing the chapter, and posting the latest version of the entire film online. Maybe someday the vision will be more complete, but for now... here is my film, Storytime with Nigel. It is part of my portfolio, history and body of work. Working on it has allowed me to keep my animation skills moving and fresh so that I could do a better job at the other projects that I've been blessed enough to work on.

STORYTIME WITH NIGEL

Written, Animated & Directed by Ken Priebe.

Special thanks to the following people who got me to this point, provided advice/encouragement and helped out in various ways with the production:

Wade Berridge, Jerry Benninger, Colin Johnson, Bill Matthews, Bonita Versh, Birgitta Pollanen, Marcos Gonzalez, Ryan McColluch, Justin Rasch, David Nethery, Students & Staff of VanArts

Animation Assistants/Inbetweeners
Rick Curts, Kassandra Fry, See Hang, Chris Houghton, Jodie Hudson, Jennifer Isaak, Agata Matuszak, Carlos Miranda, Steve Stanchfield, Stephen Pearce

Scanning/Coloring
Steven Gehl, Katrina Gregorious, Peter Roy, Michael Sali, Todd Wheeler

Voices
Nigel - Bob Godfrey
Baby Elephant - Jessica Esau
Big City Toad - Ken Priebe
Cranky Monkey - Charles Phillips
Kids - Ken & Janet Priebe

Take a look back at the production process documented at http://storytimewithnigel.blogspot.com/ and http://madkap.diaryland.com/older.html

The latest update is that I've re-written the entire film as a poem, which will be included in my book Gnomes of the Cheese Forest and Other Poems. Visit my blog for the book here. >>