The state of the film at the moment and other rantarific things!

After the last post I thought I would have a try at posting an audio... post. Basically anything I can do when i'm sat waiting for a lecture or on my lunch break that doesn't involve writing is a good thing for me at the moment especially after my dissertation. I have been a bit lax with my posts because of the work that needs to be done and will probably be for a while... Basically i'm trying it this way so that I can record what i'm thinking when I think it and then post it up when I have the chance so that I don't forget by the time it comes to writing it.

So here it is... My first audio post. I do warn you I tend to rant when I talk!

I was going to post some production photos here, but have decided that for this post i will leave it and put some up in the next one. Hope the audio file didn't bore you too much and was a little more informative about the film than my previous posts.

A stream of thought

Over the last couple of months i have been forced to re-evaluate the film, from its original concept to the most recent edit of the animatic. Originally, as i have mentioned before, there was to be three characters in the film and in the last 3 weeks i have been forced to remove one of the characters due to time restraints, scheduling, and other such influences. I don't feel that this hinders the film as a narrative, but it has forced me to think of it from a different perspective. This was something that, looking back on it, was inevitable and as much as fought against it to try and keep my vision of the film as pure and true to the original idea as possible i have been left with no choice. There is a strong posisbilty that by the time the hand in date for the final cut comes around the film will not be completed in its entirety, but a week or two off . As far as the finished film is concerned it will not effect it as i will use those two weeks after the 6th May to make sure it is complete but it does mean that as far as the handin is concerned it won't be a complete film. This was something that stressed me out for a while, but after a conversation today with my Tutor i don't feel bad about it. I realise that although the course is, to me, an important stepping stone or rather a symbol of achievement for me it has no bearing on my career. I realise that the completion of the film for the Degree show and the possibility of entering it into festivals is far more important. Needless to say i am going to continue posting up here as much as possible and fight to get this done as soon as possible, but not rush it.

No pictures this post, just a stream of thought!

Filming, dissertation, and hard graft!

So the filming has eventually started and Richard Blades (the second animator) has been working on some shots. Below is a still from the first shot that Rich has finished and below that is the video itself. I havn't uploaded any sound with the video on purpose.

(above: Xigaligalig talking to Thomas)

(above: The first animated 7 seconds of the film)

With all the work that has gone on in sculpting the characters i thought i would post a series of pictures showing the progress of the demon mask that Xigaligalig has. The following pictures will hopefully give you some idea of how i went about producing this beatiful looking mask.

(above: The demonic mask with the intended sculpt marked out)

(above: The bulked out face before blending)

(above: All three heads on the model after blending)

(above: the demon mask after it has been airbrushed and damage added)

(above: me playing with Xigaligalig in the set under the intended lighting)

With all the work that has needed to be done on the film and all its props i have neglected my dissertation and now that the filming has started and Rich has been making some headway with the film i have had time to crack on with it. The deadline is this Friday (20th March) and it may be tight but it'll be done. So for now i'm going to go and get on with it and i hope that this has been a nice visual treat for you. There may be no posts until after the hand in though!

continuing website issues

If you have visited the website in the last few days you may have noticed that my old hosting provider has closed down its facilities. I have moved across to a new provider, but the move has proven to be problematic in the sense that i can not get the database to work. My sites prior to the move were all database driven right down to the navigation bars and as such they do not work at all. I have re-directed my .com to this blog for the time being and once the .co.uk tags have transfered to my new provider (which could take up to two months.. joy) it will be re-directed to this blog aswell. So all the content of my sites is basically unavailable until after my film is finished.

I'm a bit annoyed with myself over this because i spent 3 hours trying to sort it out to no avail, and in that time i could have been finishing off the mouths for Thomas. A distraction i didn't need basically!

Back to the film. It looks like i'm going to be the best part of a week behind on filming due to the little bits and pieces that need to be finished. This film has been a mamouth task and a stressful ride, but hopefully it will be something to be proud of when finished. We have the first cut deadline coming up soon which will be interesting. For the time being though i think i'm going to stop writing and get a decent nights sleep as i am running on empty... and not making a whole lot of sense in this blog. Anyhow... until my next post which should be in a few days time!

An introduction to the voice actors

For the film there are three characters. The first is the Protagonist (a man called Thomas Williams), the second character is the Antagonist (a demon named Xigaligalig), and the third is the cat belonging to Thomas the shop keeper (called Elza). Two of the three characters have speaking parts and as such i need to have voices that suit them. With this in mind i have chosen the voice talents of John William Bryan for the character of Thomas Williams, and Devin John Peter Lawton for the voice of Xigaligalig.

Xigaligalig (Devin John Peter Lawton)

Devin studied theatre before moving to the University of Wales, Newport to study Fine Art. He has the perfect voice for the character and deals well under direction. He also has a great skill when it comes to audio production. As well as being the voice for the Antagonist of the film he has been spending a lot of time cleaning up the audio and continues to be involved with the film from and audio based position.

Thomas Williams (John William Bryan)

John William Bryan has a long standing history in Amature theatre. He has been in countless productions as an actor, director and producer. Thomas needed to have a more mature voice than that of Xigaligalig and Johns voice is, in my mind, the perfect voice for the job. The nature of my relationship with John (being my father) meant that i knew his ability from personal experience. If it wasn't for his talent in acting i wouldn't have approached him to take on the role of Thomas.

Delays, compromises, and deadlines

Technically, this monday i am supposed to be starting filming. There are a number of things that need to be finished and though i would have liked to be ready to start the filming it looks like it's going to be Wednesday 4th that i will actually be starting. Setbacks are one of those things that happen and as annoying as they are you have to just get on with it. I had originally planned to post images of the current progress Monday just gone, but today will have to do.

(above: Me varnishing the floorboards.)

The final stages of getting the set ready to be transported to the studio went by without a hitch. The floorboards that Lorna had cut out for the shop and back room look amazing now they're painted.

(above: Lorna painting the set walls)

I had left it late in choosing the right colour for the walls of the set. After a few hours i eventually came upon a colour that i thought would give a nice warm feel to the shop without being over the top and take the lighting change when the Demon enters the scene.

(above: Devin editing the audio in Adobe Audition)

Not only is Devin the voice for the antagonist (a demon named Xigaligalig) but his audio skills have been put to use in cleaning up the sound for the film. On friday just gone we spent six hours solid recording and editing sound, and this Sunday will see a similar slog, but hopefully not quite as stressful as the last session.

(above: Ed sculpting alchemists jars)

One of the people i am lucky to have onboard at short notice is a talented ceramasist called Edward Austin. I have known him for a long time now and after a conversation one day he offered to help with a vast amount of crockery based props for the film to take a lot of preasure off me. The props he has made were originally sculpted in sculpting clay, then two part moulds were made using silicon so that multiple items could be cast. At ptresent he is spending his spare time cleaning and painting up these items which should all be ready by Wednesday 4th.

(above: The set in the studio)

The set is now up in the studio and i have been doing some lighting tests that i will hopefully continue doing later on today. I had originally wanted to light the set entirely with the bulbs inside the set to get a more real feel to the film, but the problems that causes has meant that i am now going to be using abient lighting aswell.

(above: Thomas hair and glasses that he wears on a sculpy cast of the original sculpt)

Thomas (the protagonist of the film) has been a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the puppet. The time it takes to make all the seperate components is one thing that i have miscalculated though i am now on top of it. the only things left to do are to finish off a couple of the mouth shapes and paint the head and replacement mouths. This is all something that will be relativley quick to do and will hopefully be completed by the end of this evening.

(below: Thomas with his silicon hands and neck, hair, eyebrows, glasses, and one of the replacement mouths. He's looking a bit chilly here as he's waiting for his shirt to arrive!)

I'm still awaiting the costume for the demon whic should be arriving tomorrow The only thing left for the demon is to finish sculpting the masks, which is a simple process, and cast his hands. I've already tested the armature which works fine. The only concern that i have with the puppet is that due to the floating nature of the puppet it may have a bit too much bounce in it which could become annoying during filming. If i have enough time i may well make a less springy support armature.

(above: The alleyway outside the shop)

Up until Wednesday the 4th, and maybe even the Friday, it's going to be pretty full on with filming and finishing off the little bits and pieces that need to be done. As always i remain optomistic.

Crew and cast update

Below you can see an edited list of the current crew that have been working on the project or are still working on the project as it moves forward to completion.

John-Lynton Bryan: Director, Puppet Fabrication, Prop Fabrication, Costume Fabrication, Set Fabrication, Final Phase Character Concepts, Animatic, Storyboards, Set Designs, Script, Lead Animator Lorna Bailey: Producer, Set and prop fabrication Joel Calvert: First phase character concepts, and prop fabrication James Cox: Second phase character concept designs Emily Ivens: Prop (furniture) farication Edward Austin: Prop Fabrication Matthew Harris, Megan Hoggins, Natalie Gibbs: mask decoration (props) Olivia Morris: Costume fabrication Cherry Bryan: Costume fabrication Aimee Hibberd: CG effects and compositing (to be confirmed) Niel Smithson: Signwrite/graphics Daniel Izzit: Graphics (prop posters) John William Bryan: Voice of Thomas Williams Devin John Peter Lawton: Voice of the Demon (xigaligalig), Audio clean up an sequencing, Music composition (to be confirmed) Matthew Ryder, Daniel: Music composition (to be confirmed) (to be confirmed): Assistant Animator (to be confirmed): Assistant Animator

Count down to filming. One week to go!

It's crunch time with the pre-production at the moment with one week left to go until i start filming. Time has seemed to have flown by and and there i still so much left to do. The set is almost finished with only a few things here and there left to do, but there is still a lot of work to do with the puppets. Thomas is almost complete and i shall be casting the silicon hands later on today. Due to time restraints i had decided to opt for replacement mouths which attach to the head via a magnet and they will be finished by sunday evening with test animations done aswell which i will post up on here on monday. The clothes for Thomas that have been made by Olivia will be ready to pick up on Monday too so by Tuesday i will have everything done as far as the protagonist of the story is concerned. The demon still has quite a bit left to do and by monday we will see how much is left to do next week. elza (the cat) is something of a worry at the moment. The polyurethene foam that i had bought to make the body has been proving to be a bit of a difficult process as if the measurements are out slightly you end up getting a very dense foam or something exceedingly squidgy. I've bought a set of scales which are very accurate though so hopefully i can run off another test of the foam tomorrow to get the right consistency that i will need to be able to animate the character. I decided that the ball and socket armature for Elza was far too fiddly to do without the right equipment and as the welding facilities in the workshop at Uni have been taken away from us i cna't really fix the components properley. With this in mind i have opted for a wire armature for her puppet and this will also mean that i can produce multiple bodies so that if the wire breaks in the one i still have another i can quickly switch over to without having to mess around fixing the ball joints and casting a new body.

Do i think i will be on target with all the props, and puppets ready to start filming on Monday 2nd March!? Well i hope so! There is the slight possibility that i won't be which will mean that i will end up with less time to film than i wanted, but this is one of those things that happens. Plans you make, no matter how much you allow for problems, never go 100% as you would like. I think one of my problems with the film has been that it is a very ambitious project and even though i have had help from other people at times there has still been more work than we can deal with. I remain optomistic as always though!

The current crew that have been working on this project are the following:

Lorna Bailey: Set fabrication, and props

Joel Calvert: Original character concepts, and prop fabrication

Emily Ivens: Prop (furniture) farication

Olivia: Costume fabrication

Cherry Bryan: costume fabrication

James Cox: second phase character concept designs

Aimee Hibberd: CG effects and compositing (to be confirmed)

Matthew Harris, Megan Hoggins, Natalie Gibbs: mask decoration (props)
Niel: Signwrite/graphics

John William Bryan: Voice of Thomas Williams

Devin John Peter Lawton: Voice of the Demon (xigaligalig)

Daniel: Music composition (to be confirmed)

Edward Austin: Prop Fabrication

John-Lynton Bryan: Puppet Fabrication, Prop Fabrication, Costume Fabrication, Set Fabrication, Final Phase Character Concepts, Animatic, Storyboards, Set Designs, Script, Lead Animator, Director

(to be confirmed): Assistant Animator

(to be confirmed): Assistant Animator


The roles listed above are accurate at the time i write this post but as always anything can change at the last minute.

Prior to studying at the University of Wales, Newport i worked as a Graphic Designer and one thing i have found frustrating during my time on the course is that whenever you work with others you can never gaurantee that everyone will do what they were supposed to do right through to the end. I guess it is the nature of university life but i can't wait to get out into a more proffesional environment. The whole experience so far has been surreal but fun. I think that UWN is a good place to do animation especially the way it is structured. Part of me is going to miss the place too, but anyway. I digress from the topic of this blog.

Right, there are lots of images i would like to post in this blog, but as i am writing this i am not at my own computer and as such can-not get the images. I will create anothe rpost on Monday which will have production images for you to look at.

"New" temporary blog

I have had this blog for quite some time and have decided that its content has become redundant so all entries have been deleted. However, my blog on my main website has been having issues and the posts i've tried to put up there have been completley messed up. With this in mind i am now using this blog to update the information about my current project until the time that i get time to rectify the problem on my site. Basically come back to visit this blog in the next week to see whats been happening!