Collaboration Project

So, as planned, headed off to Sheringham on Friday with Matt Flowerday with the objective to film some great time lapse of the sun rising over a Norfolk seaside town (the opening scene of 'The Foxes Tail') and also to get some photos too. Well, that WAS the plan. We stayed at a friends so we could get up early and achieve what I'd set out to do, but unfortunatly after a rude awakening from the alarm at 5.30a.m. we discovered it to be tipping it down with rain, more-or-less stopping play completly. So that plan went literally down the drain and I was pissed off. This weather nighmare was always a possibility; I had pre-planned this eventuality by naivly packing bin bags for coverage of the equipment should it rain, but along with the heavy wind and the rain it would have seen laptop and cameras obliterated. So, this plan was postponed. Yesterday was much more productive- after alot of experimentation with th capture settings in the back garden,me and my girlfriend went on a sunset time-lapse expedition which proved far more productive. We set up at Keswick Church (see above), just outside of Norwich and shot some time-lapse from a few angles, the last set up proving the most successful capturing an amazing colour filled sun set behind the church. For the 3 something minutes of footage we got it was well worth the couple of hours hanging around in the freezing cold and getting spooked by the creepy atmosphere of this isolated church. Saw a huge rat too which decided to lurk about which added to it all- I'm glad I had a companion! I aim (hopefull) to combine the time-lapse with animate sequences in the same frames, we'll see how that works out... Right, on with my 'reseach portfolio'.

FDMX Wired Wednesdays

What a fantastic resource this is - went along this morning to the Film Archive at the County Hall to see presentations from 3 people within the animation industry. All from different areas yet provided valuable insight into the inner workings of the industry. The first to speak was the creator of the anmated series 'Stressed Eric', Karl Gorham, very informative and useful, giving very handy tips for anyone contemplating a career wthin animation. Basically in a nutshell - it's be persisent, be patient, be original and most importantly, be yourself. Up next was Keith Tut, director from Redfox Productions who are responsible for the now global 'Pablo The Little Red Fox' animated series. Again, very handy advice concerning getting a 'bible' together covering all aspects of a particular idea, an insight into the time span from the inital idea for a project through to the completion and broadcasting (his new series 'Wolfgang' has so far been 6 years in planning..) His main piece of advice was to construct something that is timeless, that's to say in 20 years you can return to the work and not totally hate it! Also that childrens animation is far less of a financial gamble due to the fact that there will always be a rotating audience to cater for as opposed to a very discerning adult audience. He listed a selecion a funding sources too : Screen east, Channel 4, Nesta, European Media Fund, The Film Council and Pact.co.uk. Kris Martin from locally based Studio Soup was last and for me seemed I could relate to him more than the previous 2. He works in a different area altogether - Studio Soup is a sevice based company, they have very tiny deadlines that require instant results to strict briefs from clients. He showed examples for companies such as MTV and Hummer-also interesting to add that under his contract with Studio Soup he can also Freelance; I think it's such a bonus to have that added freedom within employment. Their company seems to cater for all aspects of animation for all fields and all devices; his advice being that Motion graphics is the steady form of work wheras 2d animation basically sounds like you'd be lucky to get a job in the U.K.! Interesting to note that the software mostly used by their company is Lightwave (never tried it) and After Effects (plus Photoshop). A very inspiring and informative morning, I'd highly recommend the Wired Wednesdays.

Collaboration Project

Getting a move on now - decided with Tom's advice to complete the opening scenes of the short story as opposed to previous plans. Had a meeting yesterday with photographer Matthew Flowerday to basically arrange a trip to the coast this weekend -arranging what hardware (plus software I don't yet own) to take and discuss locations and whatnot (Matthew is an ex-resident of Sheringham so he has a good idea for locations). Ideally I'm looking for an aerial location (amongst others) and he seems to know just the spot. So, Friday night we're heading to Sheringham, waiting for the sun to rise and shoot some timelapse footage and also some still images. Will be using both dv-camera and digital stills camera or the time lapse sequences. Hope the weather is on our side!

Stuttgart, Baden Wuettenburg, Germany

Been spending a long-ish weekend visiting in Stuttgart (South Germany) An impressive and huge city with lots to do and see. Saw Queens of the Stoneage on Saturday night and Sunday was filled with sightseeing and photo-taking. A long overdue visit to the Staatsgalerie was fulfilled today in the city centre (www.staatsgalerie.de) A massive art gallery with a very impressive permanent collection (also an exhibition from Stan Douglas 'Past Imperfect' - but didn't have time for that..next time hopefully) A great number of works by Paul Klee, Ferdinand Hoddler, Claude Monet, Fernand Leger, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc (the fanastic 'Small Blue Horses' inparticular) and 'sculptures' from previously unknown-to-me artist Oskar Schlemmer entitled 'Triadisches Ballett' (Triadic Ballet) The work consists of many different geometrically designed ballet costumes that were premiered in the ballet performance in Stuttgart on 30 september 1922 (with music by Paul Hindermith) This ballet became the most widely performaed avant-garde artistic dance which helped spread the ethos of the Bauhaus when it toured. (Schlemmer was at the Bauhaus during 1921-1929) The costumes really caught my eye, they would make fantastic character designs for animation (I'm quite positive these designs have been an inspiration for others!) However, it's quite a mission to find a good image of these costumes-unfortunatly the one above was the best example that I could find! They are full of vivd, bright colours and very visually stunning -you'll have to take my word for it! Back to jolly old Norwich in a couple of hours.

Self Negotiated Project
Research galore for the pre-production of 'A Very Old Man With Enourmous Wings' (for the full short story go here...http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/garciamarquezoldman.html ) has been going on, the background and setting of the story inparticular and discoveries that this story has been adapted before. Once on film in 1988 directed by Fernando Birri (www.rottentomatoes.com) and also in an episode of The Simpsons 'Lisa the sceptic' which shares the elements of the plot that an angel appears (in this instance it's dead) and it is put on display for paying visitors.
Here is a summary of the plot of this short story..
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a short story that begins with a Mexican couple finding a very old man in their courtyard during a stormy afternoon. They watch in astonishment the enormous wings attached to the body of the old man as he struggles to get up from the mud. The couple attempt to communicate with the old man but is unable because he speaks in a different language. Their neighbor comes over and lets them know that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child. Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop overnight. Early next morning Father Gonzaga along with the rest of the community tests the angel to see whether or not the old man really is an angel. Elisenda, tired of having the community at her house, decides to charge an entrance fee to see the angel. The family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money collected. The crowd soon loses interest in the angel for another freak who has arrived to the community. The new town attraction is a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young and was transformed into a tarantula, and now tells her misfortunes to the audience. Meanwhile, no longer trapped in the chicken coop, the angel is free to roam around the house until one day his wings are strong again and flies away into the horizon.
On the practical side I intend to construct a puppet of the main character and have been looking at wing structures to map out how to build said puppet.

12 hours recording

I spent a very long Sunday recording bass tracks and singing(?) for 3 bands, Goober Patrol, Vanilla Pod an a hybrid of 2 bands called The Goober City Rockers. Was quite a mission to record an 11 piece band in very limited time, but we did it! We all bashed it out at Purple Rain Studios, in Trowse. A great albeit freezing building, it's a recording studio in the vicarage next to the church. Bizarre that upon arriving at the studio in the morning the Sunday service was leaving this church. The idea behind the day is to get a few bands to all record on the same day to all go on a compilation cd that's a tribute to 2 friends who have recently passed away. A nice idea and it's got all the friends together. Will be a good diverse cd once it's mixed and mastered. I also spent the rest of the day filming other bands and bits and pieces as apparently there's a plan to make a video for one of the collaborative tracks, with all members involved and some big group choreographed dance moves to boot, super!

Collaboration Project

So, it's going quite well really after alot of initial worrying and feelings of panic - I have had a few pointers/suggestions from friend and PHD Film Studies boffin concerning the look and feel of the story, some ideas of how to link the dream sequences together. I have had another meeting with the authour to obtain a brief synopsis of the short story (see end of this post) and we also chatted more concerning the opening sequence. Yesterday I had a very informative tutorial with Tom Simmons and he was very helpful with all matters time lapse and where to look at the good examples and whatnot as I am incorporating some elements of time lapse in this short. He aslo suggested that instead of getting the bear bones completed for this as in all the storyboards etc, it may be better to get just one whole scene animated and finished as an example. From this I am now collaborating with work mate and ex-NSAD photographer, Matthew Flowerday to go out to the East coast early on a hopefully bleak and grimy morning to get some nice photos and see how we can get on with the good old time lapse.

Synopsis

The Foxes Tail is an exploration of the fox in nature and folklore; it passes through real life anecdotes and dreams, traditional folk customs and the beliefs of various cultures but particularly Celtic and Christian culture, finishing with a retelling of a traditional Irish folktale. The piece explores notions of nature and the archetypal myth of the Pagan Horned God in differing aspects; both the hunter and the hunted and the notion of the universal generative force as expressed in the form of the Green Man, a symbol which counterpoints everything in the story, underpinning it. The piece also explores Christian subversion of Pagan traditions and the attempts which have been made down the centuries to demonise nature and re-classify Pagan nature deities into the devils of Christian lore.

The piece also seeks to explore notions of time and reality drawing attention to how much more real and fulfilling dreams and fantasy can seem when compared to the blandness of modern life, drawing attention on the way to the paradox inherent in this statement. Dreams are a personal mythology and mythology itself is but the collective dream of humanity; the idea of the piece was to explore this thought using the nebulous qualities of Fox both in reality and myth as a metaphor.

Aurora festival Takashi Ishida

Just returned from Cinema City after seeing the amazing works of Takashi Ishida. Fantastic abstract drawn animation which works perfectly with the soundtrack, very geometric in style. Interesting to know that sometimes the soundtrack preceeds his animation and that his drawings and paintings aren't pre-designed he purely follows his inspiration at the time. The long rolls of animation were great, apparently they run up to 8 metres in length! Was amazing to see his films on a big screen, far more effective on a larger scale than on a monitor I'd say. Going to look into the works of German abstract artist Hans Richter as this is similar in style as was brought up in the questions section at the end of the screening of the films. A very pleasant afteroons viewing.

My You Tube channel

Check out my You Tube channel to see some old animation, a few questionable music videos and in my favourites you'll see some of the animation and whatnot I am drawn to...

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=arthurlager

Anyone with MySpace check out my profile too at..

http://www.myspace.com/tomgoober

cheers!

First of many....

Finally I have overcome the 'fear of the blog' and jumped right in! Apologies in advance if these blogs end up as ramblings to nowhere with not a single point to be seen, but bear with me. Currently I'm undergoing a juggling act of getting work done for my MA and working a couple of days a week in a photography studio so I can finance my studies, plus it seems 2 of the 3 bands I play in have now decided it's time again to record and gig alot. So, there's never dull or for that matter a spare moment! Also combined I shall try to get to as many screening at the Aurora animation festival kicking off today in jolly old Norwich. Right, now to back track...
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT-
Time seems to be flying by with this one, finlly after a couple of false starts I'm up and running (so to speak) I am colaborating with ex-N.S.A.D. creative writing student Paul Knight. He has written a short stoy entiteled 'The Foxes Tail' a charming story packed full of dream filled anecdotes. We had an extended meeting to chat about this project. My initial aims for the outcomes of this project is to have a storyboard finalised, a style determined, character development and a soundtrack plan. Also if all this comes together I'd like to produce an animatic too (with soundtrack). The meeting went well, lots of brain storming to be had. I gained lots of background information around the story, when and where it was written, what the inspiration was and how he would envisage this if it were to be adapted into a short film. The story was written in Lowestoft, inspired by the sight of a lone fox sat upon a rubbish pile outside a bikers club house cluttered with old motorcycle bits and pieces early on a bleak November morning. We both had similar ideas stylistically, a mix of live action and different styles of animation, nothing too over the top, minimalstic and suggestive. We decided the film would be narrated (perhaps by the authour) Given the historic references I suggested medieval woodcut style imagery for the animation (in past years I have experimented with lino print animaton) which we both agreed may be appropriate. His original vision for the foxes in the story are to be whimsical fairy like creatures, ever pesent yet hardly seen, a reference was made to the end sequence of 'Watership Down' where El-ahrairah comes for Hazel at the end of his life, something similar stylistically where they then float off into the distance. We discussed that somehow insomnia should be portrayed throughout, maybe through the soundtrack - which we initially think should be quite abstract. metallic, clicky yet somehow soothing (?) Through further chat we concluded that there should be no actual representation of night or day within the film, instead sticking to a twilight grey, bleak atmosphere in which color comes during dream sequences. Following our discussion my next move is to piece together a rough story board, produce some illustrations this week and then see what he thinks and discuss further. I intend to get to a bleak area of the East coast to film the ealy morning in the next few days, get into the character design and storyboarding. Pictures to follow as and when I work out how to attach them on a blog! Also should anyone want to have a read of 'The Foxes Tail' please get in touch.
SELF INITIATED PROJECT
It's all go really... I plan for the rest of this term and next term to adapt the short story 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is one of many stories from 'Leaf Storm' (winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1982) Following on from my undergraduate research/project on Fairy Tales, my inital thoughts were to adapt this magical realist short story as I think it woill lend itself well to combining diverse animation styles - I think this genre's juxtaposition of banal tone and 'fantastic' imagery would be interesting to utilise in relation to contrasting use of sound and image. Eventually for my final MA project I aim to have this short adaptation completed. I intend to cover all the character design, storyboard, get the puppets made, see if I can blue screen the puppets with the aim to create the scenes in a 3d animation program (which is not decided yet) or perhaps use After Effects for the background..or..build small sets..don't know yet. I will be collaborating with 2 friends, Tim Snelson who will help with the adaption of the narrative (I am expecting big things given he's a bloody brainy film studies P.H.D. student) also Simon Sandall is going to help with the compostion of the sound track (plus other musician friends I can rope in) Again, images to follow in subsequent posts. Right, better get into the reading material in preparation for the core-unit on Thursday....where's the bloody dictionary?