Like you said

Like you said is the result of my first attempt at making a short film using a new Web app called xtranormal. You write a story, pick a background and characters, decide on a few expressions, pauses, gestures and camera angles… and after many trials and errors, you get a short animated movie!

xtranormal is a company founded in 2006 by Richard Szalwinski, formerly of Discreet Logic and Softimage. It is headquartered in Montreal. The only thing I don’t like much is their tagline: « If you can type, you can make movies. » As a screenwriter, I cringed when I read that. Oh well. I’ll admit it’s catchy.

Creating this one minute sketch was quite a bit of work, but I had a great time doing it. Then again, I was at the Machinima Filmfestival in New York recently and when I think of the huge amount of work that went into these short films, I realize that the few hours I spent putting this scene together tonight do not compare.

Even if the options and the final result are limited right now, I’m amazed at the potential of the tool. Who knows? I’m thinking Like you said might be the first of a series that could be called « Blork and Tini ». It would be about a bilingual couple who’s a little too passionate about food and technology. We’ll see… Here’s the synopsis for this episode:

A bilingual couple from Montreal argues over who’s got the worst social networking addiction.

Let me know what you think!

By Martine

Screenwriter / scénariste-conceptrice

17 comments

  1. That’s great! The repartee is fun and the length is good. Nice job, Martine! :)

  2. Est ce vraiment de la fiction?
    Désolé Martine!
    Je voulais te taquiner.

  3. « What did you say about my ass? » LOL!!!

    (T’en fais pas pour leur « tagline » : il suffit maintenant d’avoir un seul doigt pour devenir photographe…)

    C’est ton temps que je veux dépenser, mais… ouiiiii, j’en veux toute une sériiiiie! :-)

  4. Hmmm…the male character seems awfully familiar ;). Right down to the air quotes. Love it!

  5. @jill : Thanks for the feedback!
    @célyne : seul mon coiffeur le sait.
    @vieux bandit : I knew you could relate. ;-)
    @the milliner: Ha ha! You know him too well. He’s the one of suggested adding « air quotes »!

  6. C’est pas très flexible pour l’allure des personnages et il n’y a malheureusement pas de chat. :-(

  7. Trouvé ça rigolo aussi, et intrigant dans les possibilités. Pas de doute qu’une série serait bienvenue.
    (en vous souhaitant que le « chat » puisset vous rejoindre un jour !).

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