Sound Re-design

This is what I've ended up going for for the sound re-design project - just up until the bit where it changes drawing style, not the whole thing. I was a bit unsure about it to start with, but the more I've thought about it the more I reckon to the possibilities. I quite like the fact that it's a music video, because it means I don't have to fight against a proper sound track that's already there.

'Curare' by Bulgari


Obviously there's that pulsating beat to contend with, but I think it'll be interesting to play about with certain sounds building up, repeating and coming in and out with each burst of light. Initial thoughts involve radio static. And you can't get much more exciting than that for an initial thought...

Marvin

I've had this idea for ages, since I saw footage of dust devils on Mars like this on The Sky At Night a few years ago.


I don't know if it's any good or if it makes sense to anybody else, or whether it needs lots of development etc, but I kinda like how it is in my head. It's simple, but probably a bit obscure for anyone to get what it's about - I mean, does anyone actually watch The Sky At Night? Or does it matter?

Anyway, here's the script I wrote ages ago. I'm working on a re-write to get a bit more of a story in there, but let me know what you think...I'm thinking about taking this on for the second part of the Narrative module, using similar techniques to The Lyre Of Orpheus thing I did, but with more traditionally animated bits.

Blu

Just had to draw your attention to this bloke's stuff, it's awesome. Here's his blog, and this is one of his films. Check them all out though - it was impossible to choose just one.


fantoche from blu on Vimeo.

I love how he manages to control the camera moves in those. It looks like he's making another one of these at the moment on a much bigger scale. Can't wait to see it...

Sound Re-design

I don't really have much of an idea about what I want to do for this at the moment. I need to choose a clip of animation and re-design it's soundtrack. There are a couple of films on Vimeo that I'm thinking about using (if their creators will let me of course), but I'm still not sure there's enough about them to get stuck into. Here they are...


Lo Fi from Fayce Booke on Vimeo.


LiGnE from nikodio on Vimeo.

I really like both of them, but the first one's a bit too abstract and the second one doesn't really vary too much visually - I want something that has a bit more grounding in reality as well, so I can do more things with it and change it's context and meaning. I've started a thread on Vimeo's forums to see if anybody's got a film they think might be suitable and they wouldn't mind letting me use.

Edit: no takers on there. Oh well. One bloke did PM me though and pointed me towards this weird film. Not really what I'm after though...

The Lyre Of Orpheus

This is the first project for the Narrative: Forms and Structures elective. I screwed up a couple of bits because I had rehearsed it as a front projection and this ended up being projected from behind, which meant it was all reversed for the audience. Other than that, I think it went pretty well. My decision to use the Nick Cave song restricted me a bit though - I was maybe too tied down to the lyrics and trying to figure out how to represent them all on screen, as opposed to using the song as a framework for my own interpretation. Having said that though, Cave's vocals and the structure of the song do kind of demand your attention and it probably would have ended up a completely confused mess if I hadn't taken their lead...


The Lyre Of Orpheus from Retchy on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed the whole process of this project actually, after much pissing about trying to decide what I was going to do for it. All the preparation was done in about three days, most of which was spent just working out how to tackle each verse of the song. Then I rehearsed it, taped it, and changed the bits that blatantly looked shit. I'll be developing this style, with a different story, for the next project in the module - maybe using cut out animation and incorporating some sort of live element. I think this ohp process would also be really useful for producing quick animatics for other projects. Or maybe not, I dunno.

Other People's Stuff. We had a really cool morning watching everyone else's performances, and we all seemed to approach the storytelling differently, which was interesting. There were a couple that struck me as working particularly successfully - David and his two collaborators used images within images and constructed a kind of dream sequence for Little Red Cap, which was actually relatively complex in terms of narrative structure. I think everyone else went for a fairly straightforward chronological approach, but they still varied enormously in their style and presentation. The other that stood out was the lady (I can't remember anyone's name) who used ash to perform a version of Ashputel (that's Cinderella to you and me). There were some magical moments in her performance, where her drawings seemed to move and animate in front of our eyes, just through the manipulation of the ash she made with her hands.

Even these fairly underdeveloped ideas and presentations were really enjoyable and occasionally moving to watch - there's just something about puppetry that gets to you (or me anyway).

More Ideas Destined To Failure

Stop Motion Triangles. This one won't work. I'm so sure it won't work that I might not actually even bother. This may seem very defeatist, but I'm basing it on what I've learnt from my previous tests, and I had this idea a while ago. It'll be bloody impossible to control the position of the shapes with any acuracy. The next couple of ideas are far more promising. I think. I've thought before though.


Involving Film. This one is a bit more complicated, and it could be awesome. I'm trying to get away from this really graphic style that I've just fallen into out of convenience in the past, and I want to root it in some sort of reality. So I'll have some sort of desk set up where I'll sketch out a shape on a bit of paper, film it, and then project it so that the shape I've drawn is outlining the same shape hanging in front of the projected screen. Then I'll film that as it's happening, straight-on to start with then moving round to reveal the trick. In theory. I might start playing with 16mm at this point too.


Overhead Projector. This idea is kind of just repeating the first test I did before Christmas but with on OHP and a lot more effort involved. It will have to be done using stop motion (although I may film the process at the same time and see what happens if it's speeded up), which is something I dread. Having just done some tests with an OHP for my puppetry project, I now know how easily they can be knocked out of position, especially if I'm having to draw on it.

I have just had a thought about how I could use it in conjunction with more traditional animation though, which could be incredibly cool. I'll do another sketch innabit.

The Lyre Of Orpheus

I've changed my mind, I'm going to use the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth for my performance on Thursday - here are the lyrics. I've listened to it a fair few times before, but never really paid the lyrics too much attention - they're quite dark, as you'd expect really, but also quite funny. And I like dark and funny. The story is also completely laid out for me in the lyrics, so I'd imagine that I would come up with something rather different if I used a less literal song, as I was considering, and had to fit my own interpretation of the story around it. Daniel Johnston was a possibility for a while, cos he's got lots of weird love songs (which is essentially what the Orpheus myth is - a love story) and I was thinking about using a similar drawing style to his artwork as well...


...which has ended up bleeding a little bit into the drawings I've made so far for the current idea. I'm keeping the style simple, mainly so the images will be readable, as they will be on and off the screen fairly rapidly I think. Here's one of them, a bunny bashing his brains out!


I'm forgetting about the sand idea, obviously - far too messy and hard to pull off. Instead I'll be using a mixture of drawings, text, string, cut-outs, ink and my big beardy face on an OHP. I think it will be a bit frantic, trying to fit it all into a live performance, but we'll see how it goes.

More Crap

Oh bollocks, it's all gone shit again. I spent two days preparing all the animations and stuff for this idea, and it still took me about seven hours of fucking about and battling tiredness to get this footage. Which is shit - and these are the best parts. Being stuck in the kitchen at the moment is also really pissing me off - I had to stay up 'til 5.30 on Thursday morning to get this done and there just isn't enough space to move with the camera in there.


More Failed Ideas from Retchy on Vimeo.

This stuff is just too complicated, not to mention completely pointless. So I can make drips of ink stop at the edge of a triangle? Big deal, I already knew that, try thinking of something that might actually look interesting instead of attempting to prove how bloody clever it all is. Not that it is. Clever that is... I'll stop now.

The Perfect Space

I spent about seven hours in this place invigilating the SwanQuake installation when I volunteered for the Aurora animation festival last year. I can't believe I didn't think of this place earlier - it's pretty goddamn perfect. Low ceilinged, already blacked out so I can work during the day, projector bracket (hopefully) still in place, and a wall for projecting onto for feedback stuff. And Kelly from Aurora has already put me in touch with the right people, about an hour after I emailed her!


The downside is that I probably won't have such free and easy access as I did at the warehouse, but I'll just have to make the most of it if I manage to get in there...

Oskar Fischinger - Komposition in Blau (1935)

Saw this the other day for the first time. Just goes to show, it's all been thought of already.