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!