pics to blog about!

Meet Steve and Donald. Donald is our mentor as well as our old tutor from college. He is a genius and has many hidden talents. We got him down again for the weekend to help us figure out some lighting effects. He also brought a few bits and bobs which will come in handy later.



Steve (standing next to me) is our wonderful animator. I don't know what Si and I would do with out him. He is very modest and has no idea how good he is. He is always keen to improve and he has no problem with re shooting the most time consuming shots. He is an absolute joy to work with and by the time he leaves here his head will be so HUGE he'll need a trolley to wheel it to London... only cuz I can stop complimenting him on his talents...he is very modest though!

Me and Donald doing something....I have a feeling we were staring into a bright light...i recall anyway

Donald is playing with something only he knows the name of....it moves in all kinds of ways and will hopefully give is some wicked camera pans...this thing is heavy and needs to stay in a box as its that old:)

Si is the darkeness playing with a vase
erm I mean lighting effects...

4mations interview

Check out this great 4mations interview with directors Simon Cartwright and Jessica Cope. Co-producer Peter Kershaw and myself popped over last Friday. All very exciting - after months gearing up, we entering animation production proper this week. Hurrah!

Let the filming commence!

I dont have time to say anything!! Theres not time for anything...Im late, Im late! I have eyeslids to deliver. 

No time...and heres why...

    
  
   

 

Fine summers BBQ

It's been an intense few weeks as we move into production, so yesterday we made the most of the great Summer weather for a barbecue at my house.

From left to right: The two long suffering partners - Jess' boyfriend Topher and Simon's girlfriend Cas; Simon, who's trying to describe the exceedingly good chargrilled taste of my stuffed tomatoes. Reaching for a drink to toast Simon's fine words is Kevin, who's been helping us out as a production assistant.

Even a barbecue can't stop Jess animating. Here she is with with her friend Donna (left), drawing a flipbook with one of my pads!

My friends Mark, Emma and Helen, with co-producer Peter Kershaw and his wife Mary on the right. Helen is saying, "All these famous people in the same garden. Do you think my pink t-shirt will help me stand out?!"

Alex Holland - Director of Photography

Alex sitting in our set

A very talented photographer Alex Holland has agreed to work as our DOP on the astronomers Sun and came to visit the set last week. He spent a good few hours working out what lens's we will need to achieve the shots we have planned in our animatic. This is no easy task! In theory our shots work but it is a totally different kettle of fish trying to get the camera to do what we want it to do. Luckily Alex is pretty good with his camera and I'm sure with his expertise we will achieve exactly what we are looking for with this film.  

Alex took a few pics of Henry with his beast of a camera, thought I'd pop em on the blog cuz they look ACE!

Don't worry, these are not Henry's eyes, just experimenting with bead sizes. 

Here Si is directing Al - For the record, Si is NOT posing...

Story reel mark 2 gets Green light!

Yippee! After months of hard work of story development, "The Astronomers Sun" has been given the green light and will be moving into production. It is only through the blood sweat and tears of story development that you can really feel the accomplishment of approval and it's been a real pleasure to work with Simon and Jess to help craft their story. A debt of gratitude must go to our editor Dave Long, who's brought pathos and rhythm and to the story reel whilst working to intense deadlines. There are of course small changes to be made, with the main emphasis on getting the running length down. Peter and I have been planning the next couple of week’s ramp up into production with Simon and Jess and had a sneak peek at the work in progress. There’s plenty to do – but that’s what we like!

Jess NEVER wants to make another wig again!

This has been one of the hardest things I have had to do on this film. 

Henry's hair.....

Luckily I had just found a new hairdresser called Jo who could cut me hair just the way I had it done in Edinburgh and she asked if I would be her hair model...OF COURSE I replied:) I told her all about the film and she was kind enough to give me some extension to use for Henry's hair. This stuff doesn't come cheap and it was 100% human hair so I was pretty grateful!! She also offered me her help and any hairdressing tools I might need. 

It started out well but then took a turn for the worst. 

Let me show you...

Here I am poking Henry's head with a home made rooting fork thingy. I just used a needle and chopped off half of the loop and glued it into something I found. 

Pushing single hairs into the front part of Henry's hair line was an insane task...i had to do this for all 6 heads.... :*( 

I was seriously contemplating giving Henry long hair and making him look like the guy from crash test dummies...alas I knew Si wouldn't like that at all!!

Here's where it all started going wrong...His back removable wig bit is a separate piece to the front as I wanted to save time. I tried to poke the hair in the way a humans hair would grow....this was a mistake!! It would have worked if I hadn't made his hair so thick...it was REALLY thick and extended off of his head like a crash helmet. I took a break and slept on it. 

Next day I look at Henry's hair and called my hair dresser to see if she could give me a few tips.

He was looking like Goku from Dragon Ball Z...this wasn't really what i was going for!

I did discover the night before if you dip the unruly hair into boiling hot water and then into ice cold water you can style it much more easily. it kind of shocks the hair into doing what you want it to do. Probably best you only do this with real hair. 

Here he is with his hair all wet and ready to be cut at the hair dressers.

Hehe, I was just messing about...but I could see something was very wrong... well obviously. 

Took them into the hairdresser, lots of people stared as I carried 6 heads on sticks in a box from my car to the Salon. Jo did not expect that they would be so small and she feared that what ever she did she might ruin them...this seems to be becoming a pattern. So, she gave me a razor, some more hair a few tips and sent me on my way, but not before telling me how much Henry's screaming head looked like her ex husband.

I pondered for a bit and then started again. I decided to make his hair really fine this time and then paint each layer I poked in with black silicone sealant. This worked better. I'm almost there, I think... who knows!

 

Mark and Anna and other things...

My last post was probably the cheesiest thing I have ever written. I think I was so happy that things were going right. So this post is going to be mainly pictures...Si, that Cat in a bucket is the best thing I have seen in ages...my dad would say "Hey Jessie, that would make a great animation" all the damn time, that man never stops trying to come with ideas for me...hehe.

Anyway back to the progress we have made.  

Anna measuring Marks wood...hehe

Anna is an incredible artist and a dab hand at the old airbrush. I got her along to help me out and although she doesn't think she did well she did. She let me know I was doing a good job and gave me a few pointers. She did as much as she could but the idea of airbrushing with chemicals and silicone is just a totally different process to airbrushing with acrylics. She was so scared of destroying what I had already done. I know that if she had taken the airbrush she would have done an amazing job but she encouraged me instead which turned out to be the best help she could have given me. She then turned her attention to the masses of wood that needed to be measured and cut. I could have kissed them both!!!

Sparks getting excited with the electric saw - We had to keep a close eye on him. 

Mark LOVES the camera, he's only pretending to saw, Anna actually did it all! No I'm kidding, it was a team effort and both Anna and Sparks helped out so much whilst I was messing about with an airbrush they did all the hard work - we are truly grateful. They worked into the night and in the dark. Bats and bugs were flying at them and miggies (im sorry I have no idea how you british people spell that word) were biting their heads. Marks hand was vibrating and shaking afterwards...I know what he's thinking to that comment.

Heres a hand.

The pocket watch - this is an important prop, you will have to wait for the film to see why. Its made out of a tiny watch and some sheet metal I bashed into shape suing two teaspoons. My dad felt the need to call up to my room to ask if i was in any kind of trouble.  I think he thought I had fallen over and couldn't get up again or something. My parent are having to get used to a lot of strange sounds, smells (chemicals for those of you who were wondering) parcels and phone calls. 

Two of Henry's heads after I learned how to use an airbrush. 

Me learning - if you ever wanna do this give you self more than a week! Im a little bit concerned with how its all gonna look under the lights. We shall have to wait and see.

The observatory roof. My dad did all the CAD drawings for it and got a shop fitter to make it. It looks pretty awesome. 

The Scariest thing I ever found in the woods....

Need I say more.

Here's what the body looked like after the latex had dried. Although this method has many properties which we wanted, the process was too complex and unpredictable so as Jess has now posted we have switched to using silicone and things are moving a LOT faster now.

Assorted Images of Post Production

Before I was relegated to storyboarding Jess and I were actually able to work together in constructing the set and making the characters, here are some pictures of us working in the studio.

The armature has to be sprayed before the mould is filled to avoid it rusting. We spent most of a day driving around trying to find the right stuff!







The mould is painted with liquid latex to form the skin of the puppet.








Jess pouring some chemicals, note the appropriate safety apparrel.







The foam latex expanding out of the mould. It looks like we crushed Gromit!!








Lucky the latex isn't low calorie or she'd have eaten it all!








Si.