Lucas Martell's Pigeon Impossible is exactly the kind of film that made me start AnimWatch. Here is a beautiful film under construction, and it is so fun to watch it develop. Every screen capture, every test animation, every glimpse behind the curtain is one more jolt of excitement.

Lucas has been keeping us all up on his progress in the AnimWatch Forum. As he rounds the corner on the last bits of production, we felt the time was right to put up this profile. So, for those of you looking for just a bit more info on Lucas and his film, here it is.

There will be more when the film is done.

"Pigeon Impossible" is what I like to call my self-taught course in how not to make an animated film. The project started as a simple test animation that was really just an excuse to learn the technical side of 3D. However, I quickly discovered that all of that technical stuff is pretty useless if you don't have a good story. Fortunately I've got some amazing filmmaker friends who really helped beat the basic principles of storytelling into my brain.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT the PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE WEBSITE

After working on the project for about 2 years, I had finally gotten the main characters ready to go and the story to a workable point. I did mention that I had no idea what I was doing right? Anyways, after about 2 years with not a single shot finished, I realized that I needed a boost. So, I enlisted the help of friends and ramped up production to try and get the film moving forward. That was pretty interesting because I suddenly found myself either teaching 3D to people who had little experience, or giving direction to people that had far more experience than I did. It really made me get my stuff together and taught me a lot in the process. I can't even imagine where I'd be stuck at if everyone hadn't agreed to help out.

"After about 2 years [working alone] with not a single shot finished, I realized that I needed a boost. So, I enlisted the help of friends..."        --Lucas Martell

As of September 2007, animation is 75% complete and everything should be finished in the next few months. We also just found out that the project received a $5000 grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund which will help a lot when we record the music and do the final output. I can't wait to see the whole thing come together and to watch it for the very first time with a full audience. I'm sure I'll be a bit depressed that over 3 years of my life has been crammed into a mere 5 minutes of film, but all the lessons I've picked up along the way have been more than worth it.

       -- Lucas Martell, SEP 2007