Music

I got a wonderful offer off my friend Fluff who makes beautiful sounds for various theatres, to do some music for my film. Obviously said yes. He got another swanky musician, Patrycja who is pro at the violin to get involved and I spent the morning at his going though what sort of music I wanted. I didn't need to say much- they watched what I had edited so far and just got the feel for it straight away. This was great news for me as I'm not very good at explaining music. Fluff had done some piano pieces and Patrycja worked out some violins parts to go with them. They made a few versions and altered them to my suggestions. I am so pleased, I think the music has made my film a lot stronger.

They composed the music for The Mermaid and for Pip.

Playing the Water Phone
for The Mermaid.

Filming The Monkey

Filming the monkey was quite stressful. I think it was because it was near the end of my booth allowance and I felt a bit of pressure to get out on time. But anyway, I painted my hands black so they didn't glare in the lights- I am so pale! I think they definitely add extra creepy quality, they are so surreal. I got a friend to help film- to check the monkey was in shot and to cut filming so I could get the hat in and out of the shot.
Once I had several takes I took them into Premiere and started to splice and glue the footage. I had some bits of inspiration in my head: Georges Melies' films, old film ingerneral with thte slightly dodgey editing, skips in the footage- it was a way for me to be able to get way with the fact that some of the footage didn't flow perfectly. You have to run with mistakes sometimes. Next I took the edit into Adobe After Effects to add a film flicker and grain etc. I'd seen a music video by Smashing Pumpkins 'Tonight Tonight" and really like the vignette effect and wanted to do something similar.

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight

Georges Melies- The Vanishing Lady 1896

A still from one of the takes.

Animating Pip

I didn't feel too worried about animating Pip as I knew it would be a similar process to how the animation in my second year collaborative film was done. To make the branches grow, I would have to cut them back and then reverse the footage. Simple.

Hahahahahahaa. "Simple"- Famous Last Words.

Well, making the branches grow was a doddle, but as usual I was a bit under prepared not having a story board or any of the actions broken down so that how Pip herself was animated was clear to me. Instead I just made it up as I went along, it has worked but I know it could have been better. Because I was shooting in reverse I wasn't able to do any retakes. If I'd been more prepared I 'd have made plenty more replacement heads as backups and had a plan on paper to direct me.

As it is though, I am pleased with the result in the time I did it in.

Snip snip!
I used nail scissors to trim mm's off the twigs.

Using onion skinning to get the replacement head in the right place.

"Oh my 'ead!"

New head...

Last head, nice hair do.

"What the hell am I doing!?"