So it's been a while, how are you?

Oops, a week really can pass you by quickly, can't it? Well, massive angsting and terror about the pitch last Monday was pacified by the pitch being... not very terrifying.
For a start there were no proffessionals to monitor it, which, although a little dissappointing, was actually a huge relief, though the criticism of my peers if anything means more to me than any one person. Secondly there was no 'pitch' as such; we weren't even allowed to speak at all! Our tutor obligingly interupting us at any moment we even looked as if we were about to open our mouths- a little disconcerting and very different from the previous pitch, so I can't say if I was 100% convinced it was fair to have led our expectations to such levels of anxiety for something we had no control over, but it did mean that we could simply play our animatic and then run for the sanctuary of our seat in the darkness once more. This made the whole process a lot less painful and infinitely faster than the previous pitch session, and having a simple grid scoring system for us to discuss and fill out for each animatic in groups of three was a pretty ingenious system for a diplomatic marking process. Albiet we still haven't seen the results.
Nor are we going to for some time it seems- today's session having been postponed for a week as two of our tutors are ill, which is a shame, but it does mean that I can continue with the walk cycle I was working on over the weekend. I'm currently trying to decide the line style of the film; I'm halfway between my usual clean line style, which I would have to ensure all the lines of which are joined up neatly to colour in digitally, or a looser, scratchy ink style that I also enjoy working in, which would mean colouring in by and but would also mean I could afford to be less accurate and free with my colouring. I may upload examples of both later if I have time... Depending on how the test works out could mean more or less work in the long run, but the look and feel of the film is crucial, as it is such a visual piece of work.
On that basis too I have been thinking of how to reduce the amount of spoken script in the story, as I am quite aware that there is far too much at the moment, and according to most people I have spoken to the story is self-explanatory enough for me to cut out the vast majority of it, the question is how, what and where. Too much and it is as it is now- a little too patronising and the speach actually detracts from the visuals, too little and I risk it becoming too hard to understand and unengaging. If I can book a tutorial session for this Friday with our tutor (who specialises in story structure), then I'm sure she can be of great assistance to me, but until then all I can really do is continue to work on the visuals. If I can map out the script to a master version within the next two weeks it would be ideal though, as I could start in earnest to create the backgrounds and create a real timetable for animation production.
Ah well, the concept work continues... again, I post most of it on the DA account pinstriped-goat.deviantart.com if you want to browse, though I may as well post a few things here now again!