5/28/2008

Creativitinesisation

As I wind down another shooting week, working between 8:30am and 12:00am for 4 or 5 days straight, and the editing reaches that stage of...

Click;

Cut;

Scroll;

Cut;

Ripple Delete;

Repeat.

Creativity reaches an all time low, nay, a more appropriate synonym which imbues the idea of uncaring tiredness that I can't think of because I don't care and I'm tired. It's nice to come out into the webisphere and find really cool inspiring stuff like this. Well, it's inspiring to someone like me who really enjoys creating stuff for people with my child-like mentality, namely children. Kath Bee's blog is linked over in my sidebar at the bottom.

So what do people think... on the weeks we're not Cut; Delete; Repeat; should we do some sort of film clip for one of KBs songs? You know, fer the fun've it!

I would have come up with some sort of drawn concept but you know... I don't care and I'm tired... YEAH, right, that's not me at all


fun with Dragons and a mechanical pencil

PS. No news on the camera yet... *sigh*

UPDATE: DSR needs, wait forrit, new heads and blocking unit... ka-ching! *sigh*

5/22/2008

It should be remembered...

...that one doesn't always need a camera to make films.




I haven't actually watched Whirligig for a couple of years now. I see it in a very different light than I did when I first made it. Although it's a shame it's not at higher resolution for you viewers... I know, shhhh... who ever heard of a filmmaker wanting their audience to see their film in the best possible way. Deep down I secretly love the design I did on this film and I'd love everyone who sees it to see it as I designed it. It's designed for the big screen. To me it was so lovely on the big screen... my opinion only. Typical Director! :)

Anyway, I can say I'm a lot more forgiving of the film now. When I first released it I was all too critical of every frame I felt had something out of place or was animated badly. It's nice to be able to look at it with a more relaxed mind set.

I'm also fairly shocked at how bare the sound track is... I guess that's what happens when you're not using music and don't have a professional sound mixer. I quite like it :) I also like the fact I have this back up in the big wide world webernet. I should fix more of my broken film links.

Anyway, who needs a camera!

eeep, me!

5/20/2008

A tale of woe

Here, first click this* to add some type of atmospherics to the story.


DSR sat in the simple comfortable lounge room, the earth tones of the couch and coffee table played easefully against the craze of coloured book spines that rose above him on the deep wooden shelves around three of the walls. The fourth wall, glass, allowed warm sunbeams to pick at the dust motes in shafts giving the room the enduring sense it must be the last warm day of Autumn. But the room gave no comfort to DSR. DSR knew something was wrong. He knew it deep inside. Where the dark unseen things slither to-and-fro. Where past shows of light can be left stored, unstirred in the gloaming and sometimes even forgotten about.

DSR hadn't forgotten about the light yet but he'd also known something was wrong for some time. It just wasn't the type of thing he could tell people about. Something so intrinsic to ones being often remains hidden, should remain hidden even to oneself. As internally unquestioned as the behaviour of the madman howling under the bright orb of the moon.

But DSR knew there'd been little changes in behaviour. He lived to work, that was his way, but of late his professional demeanour had slipped. Not only in that his usually graceful body seemed to have lost something of it's youthful glow but now, tattered at the edges, his once remarkable vision, celebrated as being able to see what others could not, to capture the essence of something well before his rivals had tuned into the action, carried disturbing jumps in reality. Each tic would cause the left most side of his vision to befuddle slightly and loose a small high pitched oscillating squeal causing a moments deafness before the sounds of the world jumped back into audible focus.

Of course, none of this could be seen during the course of DSR's work. No-one around him clued into the slightest difference from his usual impressive style. But despite his outwardly regular behaviour DSR also knew that all his work was reviewed; and as he sat there in his comfortable surrounds, somewhere close by, someone would be pouring through that days work and was bound to discover a raft of hidden anomalies.

Then the phone calls would start. Probably had already started. There would be a slight frustration in the voices of Professionals from both sides of the negotiations; but that would change, the tone would become increasingly serious when they realised that this was something quite out of the ordinary. Soon they would only be asking one question, what to do with DSR? Money was a factor in DSRs line of work. He knew it and so did they. They were unlikely to abandon him until they recognised his rehabilitation would cost more money than he could bring in. Then would come the dreaded 'upgrade'. Which was fine for them. They would adjust and continue. Find a new, maybe even better way. But DSR? He would be gone. There was certainly no retirement in this line of work. After everything he'd seen he would have to be disposed of, without ceremony, without regret.

So despite his internal decrepitude which called into question everything DSR had stood for, DSR sat, unthinkingly soaked in his last rays of lights, and waited for the phone to ring to tell him it was all over.


Possibly, the last placement of DSR**



I hate it when expensive equipment fails... my poor, poor DSR-PD150P. I really can't afford a new camera. It's going to cost me at least half of my contract earnings just to cover equipment rental. Grrr. I hope DSR can be fixed... and soon!


*Music by the ever awesome Ticharu otherwise known as Plum Flower Embroided-boy or something like that.

**Modified without permission from the Fraggles voice of wisdom; Marjory the Trash Heap.

5/16/2008

Update on the Possum

I've been editing a lot lately. Luckily I get to do it all from my lounge room. That means that as a file exports I get to hang with Mooncar and Possum.

We've been working with Possum to get him finger-tame and comfortable with being moved between perches. Well, last night we decided he'd made more than enough progress to try him outside the cage. Now, as with his forefathers, he's been in a cage all his life and didn't really like the idea of going anywhere near those big wide open spaces. So after 2 hours of trying to move him to the cage door and having him fly back to a 'safe' perch or even just leaving the cage open and waiting for him to emerge. I finally decided that I'd coerce him into the experience, ie. when he happily jumped onto my finger I just curled my hand around him and before he knew it he was out in the big wide world.

He blinked a couple of times and flew off on a mad dash around the house. Although we were of course a little scared for him, precision flying for a cage bird is not a strong suit at the best of times, he screamed around the corners of the lounge room, projectile pooping as he went, he softly bounced off a few walls, and then with all the grace of an elephant on ice skates 'landed' on the fig tree next to our couch. No worse for wear.



After happily jumping back onto our fingers and repeating the mad escapade (that's escapade not elephant ice-capade), which included one brilliant antic of trying to land on a bookshelf, somewhat missing and disappearing down the back only to emerge at the bottom with a look on his face of 'meant to do that', He calmed down and started just hanging out with us. Well, mainly the fig tree but also us. As can be evidenced by this shot of him posing on Mooncars shoulder.



He's always much better on the first night he tries something so we expect there will be a lot more fuss and pooping tonight when we try and put him back in the cage but, hey, at least he's out and about now.

5/13/2008

I dont normally do these types of posts

because it's not my work but everyone in the entire world really should see this brilliant piece of animation.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Just crazy! This dude 'BLU' deserves some type of award, wait, I'm sure he'll get it.

Anyway, Hope everyone is cool. Chat to you soon.

5/08/2008

Remember you're an artist!

I didn't really have a post. I've been busy, busy, busy. I get about one day off a fortnight at the moment. Which should change starting this week. I need to remember that resting is good. I was going to do an easy post and grab another one of the mysteriously acquired photo's off the camera. But then I realised the camera is FULL of really cool photo's that I took. So even though I'm playing with videography most days, and spending too much time in front of the edit suite or burning sack loads of DVD's; I should remember that I DO have a couple of 'artistic' bones in my ol' body. So, here's how you sculpt a miniature head and cast it for use in a film from scratch... ... ... yeah, OK, the short version.







Oh yeah, that last photo... another one of the mysteriously acquired photo's.

5/01/2008

CHIRRUP!

We have a new friend
We liked him so much we bought him a new three storey mansion
It's only a small three storey mansion


So small in fact
it can only fit one small Possum.
But not any ordinary possum



It's POSSUM the Budgie
It's POSSUM the chattiest Budgie on the Block (I don't shut up!)
It's POSSUM the acrobatic 'hang upside down from the swing' and chat to you Budgie



Possum says, "Hey Everyone! I like this new mansion of mine
but I'll like it more when I'm finger tame and can fly outside my mansion.
And then hopefully I'll learn to say my name in English.

Because at the moment I call myself,
'CHIRRUP, Chi'ip, Tsup, Chirrup, Tsup, Chi Chu, Chirrup, Tsup, Soooowoowwoo Chirrup'
and that's just way to long a name to say at parties.



And now for this random picture I didn't take on my camera... "Duck Drinking Fish Soup?"