Final Shot DONE!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO

Its 5:02am on Thursday morning and I have to be up at a fair hour as we are visiting our musical man Pete tomorrow. I can't get to sleep just yet as I am buzzing from finally finishing the last 3 shots.  My head is throbbing my neck has seized up and is struggling to hold the weight of my throbbing head and my back feels like its been trampled on by a heard of hippo...a heard? I don't care though as i have finally finished these last AWFULLY hard shots. I wish my partner was here to share my happiness but alas he is asleep in his bed as he has not been very well today. This will surely cheer him up. Both Si and I have been counting the days down until New Moon hits the cinema screen but sadly we have been WAY too busy to take a break to go and see it...so maybe tomorrow we can treat our selves :) Team Jacob!

Anyway...

Tomorrow (erm I mean later today) I will slap up a few stills to tantalise your taste buds:) 

For now im off to get some sleep!

Notes from a small shed...

Let me be frank (I'm actually called Steve but it's just an expression). When I first read the script to The Astronomer's Sun I was thinking, “This is great...but how the hell are they going to do it?” A massive telescope, a mysterious moving orrery, a looming comet and a clockwork bear were just some of the unknowns in the equation, and let's not even start on the climactic finale of the film. It seemed to me that collectively this was more than just a little challenge to overcome. It wasn't really a medium sized one either. It was a great big humongous whopper. Perhaps I'm exaggerating a little, but faced with an entire animatic of unfilmed shots is one of the more daunting parts of the film making process, especially when it's an elaborate stop-motion. However, what I'd naively forgotten to consider was something that would make that process work; The resolve of the directors. Jess Cope and Si Cartwright just happen to be two of the most driven, dedicated and passionate people you could ever imagine working with and carry with them an almost bloody-minded attitude towards what is humanly achievable. For me then, turning up at the beginning of the shoot back in July was a relatively simple task. All I had to do was get up in the morning, go through the day's shot with them, and animate, animate, animate (and sometimes help set up lights). The rest was taken care of. And when I say 'the rest', I really do mean 'the rest'. Cooking, cleaning, washing, beer drinking. I barely had to lift a finger outside the potting shed/studio. “This is great,”, I thought, “It's like being a child again but with the added benefit of doing something to increase my career prospects!”. “And with more beer!”. It was all a nice form of payment.

I remember arriving at the Cartwright residence on a warm Summer's afternoon (actually it could've been grey and drizzly but my memory has possibly romanticised the occasion) and I was brimming with excitement at the task ahead. I'd spent most of the three hour train journey from Edinburgh trying to come up with puns on the title of the film to impress my new directors and lighten the mood a little. I decided that The Astronomer's Bum was probably the closest I would get to a certified joke, but didn't consider it witty enough to share with anyone. A good decision, I decided as I stepped off the train, as Si's quick witted and high-brow sense of humour in particular would've been disapproving. Three months later it suddenly occurred to me that what I really needed was a good Astronomer's Pun.

The studio itself exists in a small converted potting shed up a narrow set of steps in the back garden of Si's family home (also known as 'The Chalet'). One night, whilst animating a particularly complicated sequence of blinks, I heard a strange scratching noise at the potting shed door. I froze. “Badger?” I thought. “Squirrel?”. “Dog?”. “Small woodland creature of unknown origin?” and finally, yet inevitably, “Yorkshire Ripper?”. The door handle started to turn slowly. I looked at my vintage 90's Casio wristwatch to check the time, just in case I needed to recall it for the police at a later date. IT WASN'T ON MY WRIST. Then I realised that was probably because I don't own a wristwatch. The door started to open. Preparing myself for the worst, I grabbed the nearest sharp instrument, which just so happened to be a pair of tweezers and thought that if I was going to get attacked, I could at least have a pretty good go at plucking the attacker's eyebrows out, which would make them more identifiable in a police line-up and leave excellent DNA evidence. A shadowy figure was standing there. It was so dark I couldn't even tell if they had eyebrows. “Hello Stevie” a voice boomed out from the gloom. It was a familiar voice. A voice I'd heard more than once recently. It was Si. “Dinner's ready.” He said, and he wasn't lying either. Dinner was ready. I surreptitiously placed the tweezers back in the drawer and went downstairs for another great meal with the family.

That was just one exciting episode from my time in the shed. Animating is truly a glamorous and exhilarating lifestyle. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.

I think the real beauty of this film though is in the fact that we didn't really know what we were doing a lot of the time. Every new setup provided new unforeseen challenges, and sometimes (well, more often than not in my case) we had to attempt things a few times before we got it right. The perseverance and audacity of those involved (not to mention the patience and overwhelming hospitality of the Cartwright family) has, in my humble opinion, paid off. The film is looking great and I'm really excited to see what Jess and Si have done with the rest of it since I left. Something which has come out of a sheer passion for the art form no doubt. And to be frank with you, no one can argue with that...

Here's a few pictures I took with my phone...

Henry on the phone to his agent. "I didn't sign up for this..."

Henry after hearing that he has to do yet another reshoot.

Si wearing a really expensive part of the set on his head for the sake of art.

And here's a clip of the first shot I animated - Teddy tugging on Henry's leg:

BAF award!

Well here's a shout out to some up and coming animation talent! My co-producer Peter told me I should let you all know that a film I supervised has won Best Film Produced by Young Animators at the Bradford Animation Festival 2009! Wooo! So this post is dedicated to the animation talent of the future! “Immersion, Emergence”, was made by year 8 pupils at Titus Salt School, Bradford and inspired by a trip to Bradford’s Civic art gallery, Cartwright Hall. Produced as part of the Anim8ed Stories educational outreach programme which I am currently delivering for the National Media Museum, supported by DCMS. The film is terrific example of young peoples filmmaking and the school have won a copy of ToonBoom Studio along with their award.

For more information, check out my blog!

Guest DOP visit

We were honoured to have a special guest at the studio on Wednesday. Director of Photography Alistair Mckenzie, who brings 20 years experience in live action cinematography, including Duchy Parade Films 35mm cinema short, “Wilfred”. He loves animation and even turned down a DOP job at Cosgrove Hall! He kindly offered to spend a day looking at the film’s most complex lighting set-ups with Simon and Jess.

Alister’s says, “We talked a lot about the ways that I approach a live action set and how I split lighting the background with the foreground subject. These rules can easily be translated into lighting a miniature. We also talked about how the lighting of a scene is governed by the light that we have least control of ... in my case that is the ambient light of a location, in their specific case it is governed by the light of the LEDs which have a limited maximum brightness. We also looked at when having a light source in shot (The Orrary) it is also essential to have supplementary lights to mimic the effect of the light on the rest of the set.

They certainly have taken on an ambitious storyboard for their first film, but the results so far look great and I can't wait to see the finished film.”

Further information about the art of cinematography from Alistair Mckenzie can be found on the Duchy Parade Film’s website here.

BA BA BA BA BA IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAYYYYYYY

Thats right, no longer shall September 11th be remembered solely as Victor Wooten's Birthday, it's also Jess's!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!!

She got up at 5.30am to animate an impossible shot, what a star.

And by the way, it took me hours to find a useable image as she hates having her photo taken as you can see....

Some assorted photos

I just took all the photos from my phone and decided to put some up for you to see. They're not great quality but they'll do.


Here's the desk Ally made with dozens of handmade notes surrounding it.








Each little note was written out, then stained in coffee and then crumpled and torn. I tried doing scribbles but they didn't look right so ended up righting real notes. If you look closely there might be one to you......





What could this contraption possibly be? You'll have to watch the film and figure it out, but I was pretty pleased with it! A good morning's work right there and some cannibalised A level art.






This is the floor for the set. I was a bit of a mission getting it built but once I'd finished putting it together Jess and I painted this first layer of white and then put a dark wash over it. We had intended to do all sorts of floor tiles and paving etc but it we were running behind and nobody will no the difference unless we tell them.....ah shit....




On one of our many trips down to the hardware store to buy Gorilla tape and batteries, Jess spotted this handsome little critter.








A bad day....or night, you can't tell in the studio.











Things get worse.












Steve may now be gone, but his spirit lives on in the studio.







This blurry photo is to give you some idea of why this film is taking so long to make. This is a single set up. We have tiny reflectors on wires so we can see the eyes. Burning hot lights all around, bits of string holding poles out of shot and amongst all this you have to reach the character to animate. As a matter of fact Jess is animating this very shot RIGHT now, on her birthday! and it's not going well :(






Here's another terribly precarious set up. Oh yeah.....we're pretty professional....






I could really do with getting a proper camera one of these day. My birthday's coming up if anyone's interested.

Working with our composer

The music for our film is being written and performed by a good friend of ours, Peter Wright.


Here he is with the sunshine of my life. A Gretsch Syncromatic G400 with an added Kent Armstrong floating pickup for all you guitar fans out there.



I've known Pete for seven years. Right from the first time I met him he amazed me with his playing and he has continued to do so ever since. He plays in the band Vessels, check them out:

http://vesselsband.com/

Pete has been such a joy to work with (so far). He never waits for me to call him and is incredibly focussed on getting the job done.

We had to get an updated animatic sent off sooner than expected so Pete cancelled all his lessons for the day and came round for a night and day and worked like a man posessed.

Here we with him working through the score.



Here's me showing Pete how to play guitar.......HA!








Pete and Jess going through the animatic






Pete's mini portable keyboard.





Pete playing along with the animatic. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, that guitar really does have a scalloped fretboard. My brother bought it from Durham market, which funnily enough is where I found Pete.



Pete'll be back next week to progress the score but you can catch up with Pete and his adventures at http://www.megaboon.co.uk/

A glance at production

Here's a few images to give you a peek behind scenes at us hard at work.




Here's Steve getting the Henry puppet ready for a shot. In this shot not only did he have to animate both Henry and Teddy,but he also had to animate a moving light over head. He did an absolutely phenomenal job on this shot! It's actually made people gasp when they see it!


Jess and I posing and pretending to do work while Steve did everything.




Here's Steve and I having some fun on the studio steps while Jess set the camera up. The tin foil on the windows is to stop light getting in by the way, not because it's a Meth lab or anything....




Awwww, aren't we a good team!

A sneak peak!

We've been working flat out the past month or so and had too many ups and downs to get into. Hopefully though it's all worth it as we're making good progress and crossing off shots day after day!

Now that we have a good deal of footage we thought it apt to show some images to tantalise and tease.....





Here's Henry and Teddy Fixing a broken mirror














Henry at the telescope checking his old pocket watch








The Teddy spots something approaching overhead







Is it a bird......






Henry puts the Teddy into an old chest to protect him from what's about to happen....







Teddy's view of Henry from inside the chest.





More to come very soon. If you're good we might even put a clip up for you!

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?!"