The Scarf is online!!

I'm back from Annecy, where my graduate film The Scarf played in the official selection of graduation films! Met an abundance of insanely-talented artists and drank in hours of seriously inspirational films, (I'll have some sketches and whatnot up in a few days).

In the meantime I'm very pleased to present said graduate film, The Scarf:


(Or see it directly on Vimeo here).

The Scarf (the breakfast scene)

An excerpt from my graduation film The Scarf, which will be playing at Annecy 2011.

a very brief overview of set construction

(initial concept to final shot).

A Post on Props

Initial prop concepts and designs for my film. These included a miniature rubik's cube; a somewhat contentious piece to figure out in terms of sizing and functionality. I created a small one that featured a functional top layer (two very tiny magnets inserted between the top layer and the rest of the cube that allowed some swivel). For all purposes though of a close-up, I had to make a much larger one in order to get the framing and lighting (and capability of movement) that I wanted. More on that later.


A variety of props. As a note, the freezer was a lot of fun to make as I aimed to endow it with features of the typical family freezer - around here at any rate; freezer burn, rotten bananas (these are for baking purposes and every time we clean out our freezer we find about 10 of them), and vegetables stored in milk bags.


As a solution to the rubik's cube problem I created two larger ones (a little bit bigger than actual size) out of three pieces of styrofoam each. The first version turned only horizontally, and the second one, turning only vertically, was made to match up visually with where the first one ended so that I could replace it halfway through and create the illusion that it was a fully functional cube. The fingers were made of clay and alternately pinned to the cube or propped up with one of those helping-hand mechanisms. The cubes themselves had a piece of brass stock inserted into the bottom, and could be slid onto another one held in the gripstand.


Overall I think the transition worked pretty seamlessly, as can be seen in the final shot:

why are you here, Grandma?

Looking back at all these, I've realized none of them actually ended up in the final film, and LeRoy (the little guy) had to get cut out. The story took a different turn somewhere along the way, but that's not to say it didn't end up in a decent destination.





I think I'd like to make a film about brothers.

(an early story beat from The Scarf, more to come..)

School is finished, the film is done.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and its process of creation was incredibly enjoyable, on so many levels. One aspect I found particularly impactful was showing it to others (largely when it was still in the story-reel stage) and learning how many of them were able to relate to the subject matter. 'The Scarf' (my film) explores the ways in which a young boy's relationship with his grandmother is affected by Alzheimer's disease, and one thing I've really valued is the amount of conversation and discussion that's often followed as a result.







My film is a quiet one.
It goes in quietly, and it goes out quietly,
but from what I gather it's not forgotten.

finito!!

Our first deadline (for marks) in regards to our films was today; I forewent a little sleep and got things all finished off with the exception of a finessed version of music.

It feels good.

where the sidewalk ends

One of the scenes I'm finishing up with in terms of animating progress. I used tie-downs for my puppets (save one where you don't see his feet) and I figured this was a good shot to illustrate that. Since I wanted smaller (i.e. non-clown-looking) feet for my puppets, I forewent practicality to a certain degree and embedded small nuts into the bottom of my puppets' feet. For shots where you'd see their feet, I drilled matching holes in my set for a bolt (with another nut to secure it tightly) to go up through the deck and into the bottom of the puppets' feet, thus securing them to the set.

The more practical route is using strong magnets in the feet, but that makes them kind of clunky, aesthetically, since you need magnets powerful and therefore large enough to keep the puppet in place. As a result you don't have to drill all kinds of holes in your set, refill them with clay when they're not in use, or plan out your foot positions so tightly. Still, I don't regret going the tie-down route, since it's got a stronger aesthetic appeal, I only had a few shots featuring visible feet, and I could often cheat walking movements with the puppets mounted on a magnetized platform in shots where they weren't showing anyways.


A view of the underside of Leonard's feet (amidst all that clay gunk you can make out a nut; in the foreground is one of the bolts poking through, and the small dip in the sidewalk behind it is the clay used to hide the holes when they're not in use).


Tie-downs in action. And my rock garden. (I've been helping myself to rocks from outside the cafeteria for weighing the deck down - so far no one's missed 'em yet).


Aaaand, a still from the scene.

a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands..

(yes, please).

The Significance of Lighting

As seen here: on the left you have your overhead, flourescent-y ceiling lights, at right, individial studio lights and gels which help create an intentional atmosphere.
This is one of the more recent shots I've done; I'd say I'm roughly half-way (give or take) through animating.

Since starting out I've learned that sometimes saying/animating something simply works better than saying something elaborately, that most things take longer than expected, and that white shirts are NOT the animator's friend.

All in all in all, it's going well.



p.s. many thanks to Aldines Zapparoli for her awesome lighting help.

One Week Later... (& studio shooting set-up)

Aside from looking somewhat undead, it's not doing too badly.

And a sample of my studio set-up:


This was from the first shot I did, (second shot in the film). I've got my back-set (grandma's room), her bed, and the foreground hall-way pieces hot-glue-gunned down to my animating 'deck', the suitcase butyl-ed (think sticky-tack that's actually sticky) to the bed, and the puppets screwed onto little wooden platforms with magnets on the bottoms, which are then held onto the set via magnet wands underneath (stronger magnets on short, thick wooden dowel - you can see Leonard's poking out there under the deck by the hallway pieces). My puppets are tie-downs, meaning they've got nuts inserted into the bottoms of their feet so I can secure them into place with a bolt going through the set floor. In shots where you don't see their feet though, that's a bit of an unneccessary nuisance to contend with, hence the wood contraption (compliments of Chris Walsh).
The black foil and foamcore you see on/above the set pieces help direct some of the light in the shot to frame it in a way that directs the eye to the middle of the composition, where all the action takes place (you can sort of see that on the screen there). The bluish back-piece there being held up by the grip-stand is the sky, acrylic mixed with dish-soap (it thickens it up nicely so I can slather it on in a painterly type of style) on plexi-glass.


The lighting set-up I have going here (also compliments of Chris) I can't comment on a whole lot; I don't know much of the technical jargon for light names and wattage and the like, but basically those two big ones there (foreground light at the far right, and the next one to its left, further back) are bouncing light off the low, white ceiling to create a soft look that fits the mood of the scene. It's a bright and hopeful morning, and the orange filter on the first light adds some nice warmth to it.

Little Lessons in Safety (Or, Things I Already Know)

Well, this was a bit of a step up from a paper-cut:



Whilst attempting to adjust a grip-stand (sort of like a tripod, except they hold on to things) in the studio this afternoon I was concentrating on loosening a tight lever and, in a stroke of pure genius, forgot to hold on to the top part of the stand which then crashed down rather promptly on and pinched one of my fingers. It`s swollen and blue, and a bit cold from ice/frozen chicken, and I probably won`t be animating any more of this weekend, but it could have been worse.
Stop-motion animation, needless to say, comes with a whole new terrain of safety issues.

'cause you've been so good this year...

.. here's a little treat.

Sets and Such

I'm afraid this post is neither particularly 'soon' (as was promised in the previous post), nor does it contain photographic evidence of finished puppets, and for that I am truly sorry. They're coming. - (the pictures, I mean. The puppets themselves, sans facial features and Grandma's slippers, are done).

Currrently I'm working on said facial features - I'm making their mouths and eyebrows from sewing thread shaped into place with no-fray (fray-check, whichever you like) that dries clear and will then be stuck on the puppets with .. something yet-to-be-determined. (The slightest bit of gluestick? That might leave gunky residue, or a build-up to such. Vaseline? If it doesn't end up looking too shiny, I might go this route). I made a quick test head though, so I'll be trying said options out. As for eyeballs, I'll be testing paper ones tomorrow, and if that doesn't fly, probably thin pieces of clay.

I'm also pleased to announce that my sets, with the exception of painted 'sky' backgrounds (views from windows) were finished as of Tuesday. I was hoping to get them all done the day before, but a day off is fine, and they were finished within a little over a week anyways.



(A little peek at the process. I start by referring to my storyboards, using cardboard stand-ins for set sizes so I know how much of the actual building-materials I'll need. Once I'm satisfied with the framing and have worked out the basic logistics/blocking, I move on to the wonders of gator-board (foam sandwiched between cardboard = very sturdy) and acrylic paint, followed by 'furniture', set details and whatnot painted with goauche - I think I spelled that correctly - on watercolour paper).



It looks like a meagre amount for 10 or so sets, but in some cases I used both sides of the set boards, and there were varied amounts of work required for each one. I had a little trouble determining colours, since I'm trying to keep the atmosphere 'warm' throughout the film and I like pastels, but I also made my characters' costumes rather pastel-y too, hence it took some time making sure they don't blend in too much. Lighting will help out with that too I think.

Anyways, I'm going to get some sleep: I've been doing a profound amount of misplacing things/ knocking stuff over lately, and it's getting kinda annoying.