Archive for year 2009
Previs First Pass Complete
0December 30, 2009
Christmas was ace and I got some lovely gifts including some short films, texture maps, and chutney. I’ve also had some misfortune as my Mac Book Pro has died. Co-incedentaly it happened as I was rendering the completed first pass of the previs edit. I’ve spent some time trying to fix it but now it just shows a death screen at startup. I’ll be sending it off to the apple workshop in the new year and hopefully it wont be expensive… although it seems to be a hardware issue so it will probably be extortionate. Anyway… I’ve brought my old PC back to life and fixed all kinds of problems, installed new bits of software, battled through continual crashes and finally have the previs edit I began exporting about a week ago.
The idea is that Biff takes a look at the previs and begins work of the music. Normally deadlines and budgets aren’t very forgiving when it comes to experimentation and play but seeing as there are no deadlines and no pennies in the pot we have as long as we like to try new methods and different ideas. One thing I have always been keen to do is work continually throughout a production with a musician and be able to pass visuals and sounds back and forth to achieve something that isn’t led by one or the other. Most often music is led by imagery, as typically the soundtrack to a film comes later in the production or imagery is led by the music as in music videos. Having worked with both of these structures there are very particular benifits with each and I know from experience and other peoples experience that it can be very difficult to integrate music and video in such a way as they feed off each other in their production.
Our sense of hearing more so than sight has the ability to tap into our emotions and feelings. My personal desire to tell stories without words and commonly with characters that have little in the way of expression can make it very difficult visually to communicate emotion. It is music and sound that I look towards to help portray the feelings and moods of the character. Without an idea of how much is possible with the music it is easy to over exagerate the movements of characters until they become very thespian like once the music is adde, so in order to inform movements of subtle ideosyncracies it is very beneficial to start experimenting with sounds and music as early as possible.
I have a lot to say about this subject but I am terrible at putting thoughts into words… The next pass in terms of the edit will be a musically informed one… The structure and the rhythm of the film will hopefully begin to take shape and allow the pictures and the music to harmonise with each other.
Coming Together
0December 17, 2009
Okay… Thing are getting better.
I’ve fleshed out most of the film using previs stills. I can almost see the whole thing together now. It’s starting to take shape. I’ve been watching loads of short films recently to kind of keep me going. I’m off work as well so I’ve been getting loads done. Here’s a section of the previs movie.
The Struggle
2December 16, 2009
I’m struggling. At the moment I seem to be in a constant battle. I’m losing.
I spend a lot of my time here… Sat here… Staring at these 2304000 pixels. I never normally think about how I am percieved by the world. I know I’m not changing the world sat here. I’m just doing what I do. I know that when I finish this film it will never be seen by masses of people. I know that it’s not going to be accessible to the majority, and not particularly pallettable to popular culture. It will never reach a thousand views and this blog will never achieve more than a few accidental hits every now and then. I never normally worry about that. Perhaps being surrounded by a culture of memes is changing my view of my work, perhaps I’ll feel disapointment when I finish my film and somebody I don’t know leaves a comment of apathy. I keep reminding myself that it’s not about creating pop, it’s not like I’ll get pay per click or royalties. It’s not about creating something that everyone will enjoy, but then isn’t that just something crap people say. I don’t want to make something that no-one enjoys but if that’s the outcome then I guess that it doesn’t really matter so long as I enjoy the process… But it seems such a struggle at the moment. This is supposed to be what I love. I should be relishing every moment. Maybe that’s it… The struggle… The climb to the peak. It’s not the view from the top, it’s the struggle to the top that draws the climber to the mountain, to overcome the obstacle, to challenge your ability, without the struggle the reward is empty. It’s not quite the same, animating and mountain climbing. I sit here with a cup of coffee, prepared with comfy chair and wireless mouse. I guess the challenge is still there. Several minutes of infinate possibilities, billions of decisions wrestling with colours and shapes. For the impact I have on this world I may as well write my name on a leaf, watch it fall to the ground and forget as it rots. I take consolation from my meagre wisdom. I know it will pass. But for now… I’m struggling.
Mood Track
0December 15, 2009
I find myself in a disjointed workflow between storyboard, previs, animatic and story. I’ve created an audio mood track to help me follow what’s actually happening. A strange menagerie of sounds and music that somehow create a brainstorm of my thoughts as I try to time out this mess. It’s kind of working but everything is such a mess at the moment… I’m trying to make sense of a completely nonsensical situation.
Storybord Animatic
0December 13, 2009
This project has been going on for so long and is so disjointed that the storyboard exists in many different styles and levels of detail. Some parts are on paper, some parts drawn in photoshop, some colour, some white on black, some around 4 frames a second, some 1 frame per 5 seconds. Here’s a selection:
And a video of a slightly more detailed section of the storyboard animatic… Almost an animation itself.
To Rework Or Not To Rework
1November 21, 2009
I’m having troubles with my mind of contradictions at the moment. I decided a while ago that I wouldn’t be using the piece of music that was the original inspiration for the idea, a piece of music by Philip Glass titled ‘Cue 2B( Piano)’. I came to this decision after storyboarding and timing it out as an animatic, everything felt very rushed and wouldn’t really make much sense if squeezed into a mere minute. Now though… I’ve created a new animatic and re-timed it to flow naturally, doubling its original length but it doesn’t feel quite right… It has lost something. It doesn’t really make much sense, and now I’m wondering if it ever did. I guess it was quite an ephemeral idea when I drafted it out a while back but now I feel closer to it and I don’t want it to just be a visual piece, or maybe I do? I want it to be a dance with light and a siege of colour… but is that what it was always going to be? Surely an idea extracted in raw form is very rich and telling even if it doesn’t necessarily make much sense. Sometimes when an idea seems to fight its way out it comes out all jagged and tail first… but is this the best way to present an idea, covered in soil and dripping with afterbirth? Or should an idea be cut and polished and set in silver bezel… Does reworking it purify it’s truth or deny it of it’s original honesty? I guess this idea spans many subjects, art, music, film etc… Kandinski Vs Chuck Close? Hmmm… So anyway, I’m not sure whether to rework the script into something little more meaningful or whether the meaning I feel is lacking is already captured within. I guess it’s one of those contradictions of ideas that will just kind of go one way or the other. I think I will. I’m not sure.
“We would that words
become shooting stars,
like gods,
that they would rise up from the dead page
into living forms of light and dark,
into fountains of colour.”
William Shakespeare
Musicbox Environment Ideas
1
in Twinklebox
Just some quick environmental concepts for the music box project… Nothing special here… Just some initial ideas.
Letterlopes
1October 17, 2009
Once upon a week in 2006 I thought of perhaps my very best invention yet… The Letterlope! It’s basically a letter but written on the envelope it is posted in… At the time I thought it might change the world… I had stars in my eyes… I honestly thought a world of glory awaited… I was very wrong.
I decided to write one letterlope a day for one week and post them to my good friends at Macklin Street in Derby. I put a good few minutes into making each one something quite special as they were to probably go down in the history books as the pioneers of their kind… The very first of the letterlope era. What I did not foresee was that they would never indeed see the light of day, they would never be carefully unfolded and wishful eyes would never indeed glance upon their wonder. Yes, they did indeed arrive at the house untainted by the postal service and yes they did reach the hand of the inquisitive resident… but never were they opened. Instead they were stored away as a treat for a day that never arrived and still they remain in the shadows.
But alas… I have discovered the original scans I made of each of these wonderful creations and have uploaded them for the world to see in all of their fantastic glory… Relish at their magic… Bask in their wonder.
There are even a few references to Luniere short film projects in there.
