Actress Found!

Finally!
I heard back from Max Creed's girlfriend and she said she can't do it, so I went into a made scramble for the day. Finally I remembered that there was a good actress used for my friend Mike Marchlewski's film that I worked on who is perfect. I emailed her today and got an immediate response that she can do it! What a load of stress off my back, especially during this week and writing my visual culture paper. I had just rewritten my script for the final draft so I gave it to her. Plus, she lives near the Motel clothing store! So easily done. Last minute props and I'm good to film. I just pray Max 2 checked out the camera equipment.


Jasmine Smart

Booked to film at Motel

Went into Motel again to give them more details on what I am doing. So I have the clothing store to myself from 9:30 to noon on May 9th. From there we'll film the stuff in the alleyway. I STILL NEED AN ACTRESS.
This week I have to work on my visual culture paper while building the rodeo clown and set for the clay animation scene.
Well, going to mke a third draft of my script then give my character to Mel.

Progress on Live Action Segment

Definitely see the end in sight, or at least I see a schedule now leading to the end.
The parents for my child actor had some great questions about the content and how maybe the character sounded to old in the voice overs parts. They were deciding what to do so it gave me a chance to reflect on the character more and explain how the voiceovers about his life in the future do connect with the child. Basically, in movies like Annie Hall and Amelie they talk about their childhood and how it formed them to who they are as people today. I wanted to reverse that for my character where the kid reflects on how his childhood could effect his future. The parents agreed and I felt clearer about the point of the film.
After that I started doing some discount shopping for the clothes that Jose would wear. I found a massive white beanie which I'm trying to dye red and I found the neon trousers! I couldn't believe it. I went to H&M and they were 15 pounds but I saw that if I kept the tag and receipt, I could return them for my money back within 28 days. So basically, free trousers for the film! I'm thinking that I might ask the pool I go swimming at in Bedminster could let me borrow one of their red changing room curtains and then that would be sorted. Now I just need my actress to confirm (although she's very busy!) then I'm pretty much ready to film on May 8th as my cinemaphotographer is going to check out a jib.

1 Actor Down

I feel so much more relieved.
After going to work at St. Michael on the Mount I finally finalized my child actor for the live action footage. I printed out a script, release form, and personal letter to his parents to ask for permission. By chance, I ran into his parents and could talk to them in person about what to expect. It all quickly fell together so with two weeks left I just need my actress, who I feel will say yes.
The most useful part of the day was the release form! This book is so useful:



They have storyboard layouts, budget sheets, and release forms for you to easily fill out. I was probably able to save an hour with it. Tonight I will keep animating the 2-d stuff and now that my flatmate Iwan is back, I can look at what makes for a good flash movie.
Slowly getting there.

Update (Hand Drawn, Live Action, Clay Animation)

Ugh...
Two weeks, 85 frames, sixteen characters, and 8 pencils later I am finally done with the family photo scene of my animations. All I have to do for hand drawn work is finish the shopping cart scene and that's it. I've decided to put the whole animation in a family photo album with the red "Ren and Stimpy" background behind it because the thought of cutting each character out of my animation and putting it on a kooky background would be impossible.
Check one off.

I've gotten a lot of progress on my clay animation character today. I bought the latex to make the "muscle" for his body and George is going to bring in leather for the outfit. I'm either going to send my naked character to a fashion designer to add the clothes, or make the outfit myself with latex-dipped scrim to make it like cloth.
I've also finish the hands for the character. They are pretty massive but I feel it is necessary for the matador cape. Finally, I got the tinfoil-tape cape and now I just have to wrap it in cloth and paint it.

As for live action stuff. Max's girlfriend is still ont he fence for filming on May 9th. Hopefully she can do it or it changes a lot of things. Also Max is going to check out a jib for me and the camera equipment, also the sound equipment. He's definitely saved me on that. Since he's done so much I wanted him to be my cinemaphotographer, so hopefully I'm making baby steps to the end goal.
Okay.... done for the day..

Locations for Live Action

The last random amount of work I've done is get my locations for my live action shoot. I'm a little worried I won't be able to check out a jib because I haven't had a lesson at UWE on them, but I hope there is still time to schedule a lesson. The locations are for when the brother and sister walk into frame and talk, and then the clothing store they try trousers on for. I got SO lucky with the location for the clothing store. Thanks to my angel known as Becka Maskell I have been able to get a film-friendly store called Motel, which was used for a couple episodes of Skins. I just need a red cloth for the dressing room and figure out some of the angles for the room as it is quite small.


It's going to crane down from the wire by the light to the characters then have a tracking shot for the rest of the scene.


The exterior of the clothing store.


Interior of the clothing store.


Interior of the changing room.

Clay Armature

The reason I'll need to make a strict schedule is because I have done all my work in kind of a scattered "do a little bit in every category" style for the last couple of weeks and now that one animation is almost done, I can focus on finishing the other three parts of the film in some sort of order.
I've pretty much made my armature for the clay character. I had a class with my teacher Mary on how to make more stable armatures which is probably the best knowledge I'll get out of this semester. Joe Collins gave me some small wire which was a life saver and the fashion designer I did a music video for in the first year, Mel Lunn, will hopefully make the matador outfit. The tie ins on the bottoms are one of the most useful parts of the character. By using a product called "polymorph" I can boil water until it make the white beads into a putty, then when it hardens it's unmovable. Before it settles, I put screw in the bottom of the feet so that I can control the feet to a metal-mesh table with holes in it. The muscle is made of latex with memory foam. Yes, memory foam, the mattresses that you can put a glass of wine on and as much bouncing as you please, will not knock it over. I've finished the head but I need to finish the body so the last thing I need is more latex, which I hope to buy next week.

Animating 2D

Oh God...
After my Easter holiday I've just been working hours and hours on redrawing my characters. I've stupidly made it more complex as I've continued the work but I if I take the next two days to be completely free for animation, I feel I can get it done. That's only the drawings!!! From there, I need to retrace every image in black ink and then cut out each image. I've made an example of the look of the final 2d animation. I've done more of a water color of red on a sheet of animation paper and will place it behind each drawing I've made. I think after this I'll set a more strict schedule to meet all my deadlines.