10 years ago:

My animation premiered at Bath Film Festival. 📽️
How did it feel? 🤩 What did I learn? 🫨

It had been 4 years in the making... for 4 minutes of film.

'Missing Dad' opened for the feature length 'Pelo Malo' in Nov 2014.

This moment before was one of the most terrifying and exciting moments.

Until now, the short had only been seen by a small group of family and friends. No one in this audience knows me, so all reactions will be genuine.

Curtains open. Film plays. 🎭

Will they laugh in all the right places? 😂 Will they feel sad for the little red square, Jake? 🥹 Will they yawn? 🥱

The reaction

It's... a mixture. 🧐

Firstly, that feeling of hearing someone you don't know laugh *with* something you've spent years making is the most heartwarming feeling. 🤗

But... there's times where the audience doesn't react how I expected. They don't react to some jokes, 😶 cough over important parts, 🤧 or get restless when the narrative slows down. 🫥

Seeing this 👆 in-person stayed with me when I analyse video retention now.

What I learned

You can't control how your audience reacts to your film, video or content, especially if they're seeing it in a group. 👥

Unless you're designing the environment (like we did at Stagestruck), you can't control where they consume it in either. 🤳

But, you can learn from what worked ✅ and what didn't. ❌

(This is a big reason why I moved to 2D animation - tests can take days/weeks instead of years.) 📆

So what did I take away from the Bath Film Festival 2014? 🤔

1️⃣ Put your work out there. 💥
2️⃣ Feel. 🥹
3️⃣ Learn. 🧐
4️⃣ Repeat. 🔁

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