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!?"

Making Pip

Pip finished, mid animation.

I've made three replacement heads for pip using the press mould and sculpy. I've used fine copper wire for the hair, twigs for branches and black glass headed pins for eyes. I also used a felt tip to add subtle detail of rosy cheeks and lips once the heads had been baked. 

Head no.1
with copper wire.

Head no.2
with wire and twigs.

Head no.3
with twigs

The body is made from sculpy and wire, with a flat back and once its cooked I drilled three holes in the lower body to act as pin downs. 

Checking the proportions. (obviously there will be a neck!)

I wrapped the neck in masking tape when i cooked it
then attached K&S to the neck and head.

Pip's night gown.

I made her night gown from and old under skirt I found in a charity shop. Her bed is a block of neoprene foam that i covered with calico fabric and wire to attach it to the floor from under neath.

Monkey testing

As my original idea for the monkey was for him to be the barker and introduce the acts changed as my project developed I've been trying to work out what he can do instead. I know I wanted him to do a repetitive act, stuck on a loop or a circus trick. 

Playing around with him, I realised he's got quite an inquisitive face so interaction with the camera would be a good start. I like the idea of him being curious and I was performing him to interact with objects to get a feel of what he can do.

The concept behind my film is developing more as I go along and now I feel more definite that it is like an early children's TV programme, spooky little characters that are only on screen for a short while doing something that captures the child's attention. These sorts of programmes are quite repetitive in their nature so I want to take advantage of that and show the darker side of these characters being stuck in an endless cycle.

I thought about an object 'appearing' in his space and him lifting it up to find another object underneath, he looks at the camera, places the bigger object over the smaller and lift it back up to find the smaller object has magically changing into a different one. This action of the monkey revealing different objects would be repeated a few times.

  

                                 

                                

But then I realised that I wasn't sure exactly how to do this in the time I have left. I don't have time to make more stuff as I only have a week left in the booth and still have to animate Pip and film the monkey. I thought I could use photographs of found objects (having a rather large collection of antique toys I'd have plenty to choose from) and I could either pixelate the 2D upright photos or composite them digitally in After Effects. But that's when I had to drop that idea, as my knowledge of After Effects was quite minimal and I didn't want to waste time doing something that I may not be able to get right. 

Another thing I noticed was that he took to hats quite well. I played about with bottle caps and things to act as hats and thought that he could try hats on using the camera as a mirror, so interacting with the audience that way. 

Here's one of the little video tests I did...

Animating The Crows (Gorran and Bran)

Now this is a big test for me... animating to music. Something I have never done before. I didn't have a dope sheet or infact any musical experience. I had to listen to the tune over and over again, act out the movement and just know that it was in 4.4. So I knew that the concertina would go out for 2 beats and in for 2. Beats into seconds was just under. I nearly gave up at one point but seeing them come to life spurred me on.

My parent's friend Paul Spooner, who makes wooden automaton,
made me the paper part of the concertina. I tried and failed.
He's fab.
I made the rest out of foam and wire and painted it up.

Patiently waiting for me to finish their squeezebox.

Ready to go!

The music was performed by my friend Seamus. He did his own version of Frère Jaques on the accordion, a wonderfully dark sultry version. I had to edit it down from 2 minutes to 20 seconds but it worked a treat. It has a slow intro, almost like the tuning of instruments, double bass , this inspired me to have the birds on a turn table. I thought it would great if the lights came up slowly and then once the full tune kicked they would start to rotate round to meet the camera/ audience. 

Luckily for me, there was a turntable already made left over from a previous student.

So I turned the turn table round 1 cm per frame. Shot in twos. Nearly cried once.

Animating the mermaid.

I've been animating the mermaid for the last couple of days. The first day I spent getting to grips with her movement again as I hadn't animated her since last year. I made a new rig for her. One i made lie last years from a lighting arm and thick wire attached to it but it was very wobbly and she bounced too much. I then made another from a block of wood with the wire coming out if the middle so it supported her from underneath. This still wasn't ideal but it did the job.

I haven't enjoyed animating her to be honest. I've struggled with timing and giving her that weightless, floating in water look. At this stage I need to get the others animated too and if I have time, go back and re- animate the mermaid but it is passable for now and with her and the box I'm over the 30 second pass mark.

The first rig I made using the lighting arm. Last year it worked so much better.

The rig I made in the end using a solid base and a branch
style rig.

Playing around with lighting. She looks very effective
when lit from behind- haunting, other worldly.

I shot her from behind a pain of glass as I want her to come up to the
doorway of her tank and didn't want to use too many
digital effects. It meant that I had something
physical for the to press her hand up against.

Me animating.

Set up. 

I used tacky wax to keep her hand in place on the glass during a test but this
left a sticky mess so I had to just use patience
in the end!