A lot of my film needs good music, and even if it's for the student viewing and not the film festival, I'm glad to have it.
I've been writing to Electric Six about using their song, "DANGER! High Voltage" for my film. I needed rights from both XL Recording and ATV/Sony London to use it for the student viewing. After much wait, ATV/Sony London finally responded with good news.
Now that this song is nailed to best introduce the worry dolls, I'm hoping to get another song to help close the film with the worry dolls.
My producer said she knows a friend who knows the Scissor Sisters. They are like an updated version of the Bee Gees and I think, are kooky enough for the Worry Dolls to sing their hit song, "Take Your Momma Out" when busking.
Here are both songs to get an idea of the music I'm going for in this film:
The sick and twisted music video of Danger! High Voltage:
And the funky Take Your Momma Out by the Scissor Sisters
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Making the Clay Animation Sets
I got the idea for my set through my sketchbook. Since I can't print out color photos I've been filling them in with thick markers and I've appreciated the look of my book ever since. So when I knew I wanted my set to be simple like the Paddington bear set, I wanted to add another element so it wasn't copying it entirely. I'm adding a slapdash of color for excitement and since I can't move the camera, I'm going to have the set move towards the bull as if the bull was running. I've made hundreds of small patches of burnt grass to pass the bull like the intro to The Rescuers Down Under with the flowers. Here's the example I'm talking about:
Hope to be filming Tuesday!
Hope to be filming Tuesday!
Friday, 14 May 2010
Rough Edit Done
And I couldn't be more pleased with it.
It was worrying me at first the look of the whole movie. The warm tones that I wanted throughout the film with the red didn't come together until I started working with the color correction program, Magic Bullet. It's incredible and in a matter of clicks, the whole film looks more professional. The saturation is warm without looking to ridiculous and so I'm excited to see the final outcome.
I've found that some of my transitions (my original idea was every scene would have a match point) worked a lot better when I took the sound from the last shot and connected it to the next one. The best example of this is in the final shot when the sister pushes the cart out of the frame and the next scene where she's pushing her brother in the same cart.
Still having problems exporting my flash film at the moment. It slows down too much so on Monday I hope to get help with that. Ian showed me how to make my cartoon in HD and for the hand drawn stuff, Mike Marchlewski helped with putting my 4:3 image into 16:9 without losing the quality.
Slowly but surely I'm getting there. Next week is all about the stop motion.....
It was worrying me at first the look of the whole movie. The warm tones that I wanted throughout the film with the red didn't come together until I started working with the color correction program, Magic Bullet. It's incredible and in a matter of clicks, the whole film looks more professional. The saturation is warm without looking to ridiculous and so I'm excited to see the final outcome.
I've found that some of my transitions (my original idea was every scene would have a match point) worked a lot better when I took the sound from the last shot and connected it to the next one. The best example of this is in the final shot when the sister pushes the cart out of the frame and the next scene where she's pushing her brother in the same cart.
Still having problems exporting my flash film at the moment. It slows down too much so on Monday I hope to get help with that. Ian showed me how to make my cartoon in HD and for the hand drawn stuff, Mike Marchlewski helped with putting my 4:3 image into 16:9 without losing the quality.
Slowly but surely I'm getting there. Next week is all about the stop motion.....
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Flash Done
Doing Boils took another day but it was worth it. It looks a lot better then some slapdash piece of animation. Next week is the stop motion and editing. Hope stop motion goes well!
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Shooting!
A Great day of filming and now I'm aware I'm more then 3/4 of the way done! All I really have to do is finish some boils for flash and then animate the stop motion scene and I'm done. This week I'm in London for the day and then when I get back I'll finish my set. Then on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I hope to film my stop motion stuff and finish the flash stuff, leaving me two weeks to edit.
I don't think I'll need that much editing though, it looks amazing. Couldn't be happier with the actors or some of the shots we went with. The jib, which I thought would be our biggest issue, turned out to be relatively easy. Also my flatmate Iwan let us use his super dandy microphone for the voice over work. The store manager forgot about us in the morning so we were 20 minutes behind yet we still managed to finish my film an hour and a half earlier then expected.
Here are some still from the day.
I don't think I'll need that much editing though, it looks amazing. Couldn't be happier with the actors or some of the shots we went with. The jib, which I thought would be our biggest issue, turned out to be relatively easy. Also my flatmate Iwan let us use his super dandy microphone for the voice over work. The store manager forgot about us in the morning so we were 20 minutes behind yet we still managed to finish my film an hour and a half earlier then expected.
Here are some still from the day.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Adding Boils
My flatmate Iwan always uses a technique for his animation which make the lines move constantly so it has a hand drawn feel to it. This technique has been called adding a "boil". First you have to draw your character then add two more layers of retracing it. The lines never are exact but it is another step in staying away from making it look like flash. To me, most of the work is done in trying to make your piece look like it wasn't done in flash.
Most of my inspiration for my film has been through Rainbow Club's "Smokey the Monkey". You'll see that it has the boil effect throughout the entire thing.
Most of my inspiration for my film has been through Rainbow Club's "Smokey the Monkey". You'll see that it has the boil effect throughout the entire thing.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Rehearsals
Rehearsals went amazingly well. It works out that Jasmine was able to show up early and so we got right to rehearsing. Jasmine nailed her lines immediately and so it took only 45 minutes to get it done. The actor is just the character in the way that he day dreams and is just a natural. I just needed today to see how everything going to flow and the actors got along great too.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
One Scene Done!
Have all my layouts done and the silhouette scene done! Flash is so easy!
Theo with Tupperware in Dressing Room
Posh Men Sniffing Tupperware
Theo with Tupperware in Dressing Room
Posh Men Sniffing Tupperware
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Using Flash
Arranging a meeting this week with the two actors to get them to rehearse. I feel it'd also be a nice chance for the two of them to get to know each other. Got my work done early so I went to Bournemouth to stay with Josie. Amazingly, there was a fabric store near her house so I got the red curtains for the changing room for less then five pounds.
Started messing around with flash and I am now addicted. After doing so much hand drawn stuff I see why it is so popular. It's very easy once you get the hang out it and the biggest relief is it saves you having to redraw everything, even stuff that isn't going to move.
Just did some drawings of the posh men who open Tupperware filled with burps. A cross hatch look gives it a lot more quality to it then simple cartoon. Will try to get all the flash done next week while preparing to film!
Theo on Bags of Money
Started messing around with flash and I am now addicted. After doing so much hand drawn stuff I see why it is so popular. It's very easy once you get the hang out it and the biggest relief is it saves you having to redraw everything, even stuff that isn't going to move.
Just did some drawings of the posh men who open Tupperware filled with burps. A cross hatch look gives it a lot more quality to it then simple cartoon. Will try to get all the flash done next week while preparing to film!
Theo on Bags of Money
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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
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
Monday, 26 April 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 19 April 2010
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..
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..
Thursday, 8 April 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Animatic
I've been working diligently on finishing my animatic for our pitches we had to present last Thursday. It definitely gave me an idea of how music helped keep the story going, which I hadn't even considered. Also it easily showed me ways to cut down a lot of the dialogue. I especially liked how some of the cross fades are going to look when switching from animation to the live action stuff at the beginning, middle, and end. I really look forward to the cross dissolve from the old, wooden look of the bull fighting gate to the dressing room. Since it's just an animatic, I used myself and my flatmate Sophie as the voices until the actors are hired.
Oh. I've also gone with the title of the film, One Leg At A Time.
Oh. I've also gone with the title of the film, One Leg At A Time.
Style for Hand Drawn
Been working all week trying to make an animatic and start getting designs for the clay animated section of my film if I want feedback on how to improve. The clay animation will be the biggest risk and will take the most time. I have the central style for how I will do my hand drawn stuff. I want to have the colorful splatter backgrounds that I saw a lot in Ren and Stimpy.
I want the background to be so colorful and detailed so that when the characters are simple black and white drawings like Don Hertzfeldt's work, they are more noticeable. I will do the opposite process for flash, by having simple backgrounds and colorful characters. This way it has a mixed style so everyone can have something they like. Or possibly hate.
Don Hertzfeldt's "Billy's Balloon"
I will be hand drawing the entire section of 2d animation over my Spring Break, so since internet is scarce I want to stay as far away from computers for this process. Instead of loading each image into After Effects to recolor it, I want to draw the simple characters on paper, then cut each frame out and animate it in front of the colorful background. The process of cutting each character could take just as long as After Effects, I would just prefer to have as little work on the computer because I know how much time will go into attempting flash.
I want the background to be so colorful and detailed so that when the characters are simple black and white drawings like Don Hertzfeldt's work, they are more noticeable. I will do the opposite process for flash, by having simple backgrounds and colorful characters. This way it has a mixed style so everyone can have something they like. Or possibly hate.
Don Hertzfeldt's "Billy's Balloon"
I will be hand drawing the entire section of 2d animation over my Spring Break, so since internet is scarce I want to stay as far away from computers for this process. Instead of loading each image into After Effects to recolor it, I want to draw the simple characters on paper, then cut each frame out and animate it in front of the colorful background. The process of cutting each character could take just as long as After Effects, I would just prefer to have as little work on the computer because I know how much time will go into attempting flash.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Jose Line Test
Did my first practice animation of the 2-d hand drawn stuff for one of the scenes. In the scene Jose is pounding on the glass of a family photo album so this was a way to practice it.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Flash Story for Jose
One of the three different animations that the film goes into is the life path where Jose makes millions by selling aged burped tupperware to rich men. It's done in flash and I attempted the final outcome of Jose with his money in flash. Definitely will add more depth and layers so it doesn't look so cartoonish.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Hello Me.
Finally got going on my Blogspot after having it for quite some time. Thought it'd be a great way to organize the incredible amount of work I have and can see my development along the way. I'm working on a trousers/life film about a boy shopping for clothes but ultimately he ends up trying on different lifestyles instead. It's going to be live action up until he tries new life styles then it goes into different animations. I've made more work for myself because I want to get the most out of animation and take what I learn into my final year.
Thinking of ways to save myself time on animating and Mary helped me immensely today by showing me this Marmite ad with Paddington bear. It will save me building sets for my stop motion stuff and still keep it looking pretty cool.
Here's the commercial:
Here's how they made it:
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