Animate Clay

Back in October Animate Clay, a website for stop motion enthusiasts and professionals, wrote a short piece about our animated short "The Collector". Follow the link below to see what they had to say. http://www.animateclay.com/index.php/news/371-welcome-to-swynshire-the-collector

15-02-2012 New projects and updates for the beginging of 2012

Ok, so it's quite a way into the new year so far but we have been busy over at Approaching Storm Films. One of the projects that has been in the pipeline for the last couple of years is moving forward and we will be releasing more details closer to the time. We have finished most of the auditions for the project and only have one more to go, tomorrow. We're all getting pretty excited about it and our website monkey is working hard to get the site ready to share with you all some time in April.

In other news, we had mentioned in our previous post that the animated short "The Collector" was going to be getting a final audio once over and be re-released this year. However, we had a very stressful day a couple of weeks ago where the hard drive on our editing suit that was holding the final edit of The Collector died on us spectacularly. We have tried to retrieve the data but alas it is irretrievable. Fortunately all the raw files and most of the composited files are still in tact so we are able to re-cobble it together, but our current project is taking precedence over this so it will have to wait until later in the year. The audio artist that had offered to do it will still be tackling the task though and we are still looking forward to giving you all a more clear cut version of the film later in 2012.

13-12-2011 Audio rehash

We have recently been contacted by mixing artist who has offered to clean up the audio for The Collector. Jeb Hawkins will be undertaking this task in January 2012. Jeb Has worked on many audio projects so if you're interested go and check out his website over at jebhawkins.co.uk. Once the audio has been cleaned up we will be uploading the new version so stay posted in the new year for updates.

04-12-2011 Swynshire, projects and appeal

By now you should have all had a chance to watch The Collector, and if not you can always go and watch it by clicking here or visiting our YouTube Channel.

The next installment from the Swynshire stories is in pre-production along with a couple of other short films and though we still have some materials left over from past projects we are loking for your support in getting them underway. If you have watched The Collector and you enjoyed it, all we ask is for you to consider making a donation to us so that we can make the next episode from Swynshire (entitled "Wraith") and our other projects a reality. You can either donate via the website, or by clicking the donate button below.

It is only through your support that we can continue to bring our projects free to the web for everyone to see.


above: Thomas next to Howrith, the most recent cast member for Swynshire.

13-11-2011 The Collector is now online

On Friday 11th of November 2011 we released The Collector online via our YouTube channel and the Approaching Storm Films website so if you haven't already seen it go and check it out. We always welcome feedback so if you have something to say go to the contact page and use our feedback form to let us know what you think.

In other news we are waiting for the footage for Aegis to come back from being digitised before we can make the final tweaks and send it out on the festival circuit. It was originally shot on Super 8 for the Straight 8 competition in 2010 and since then we have been busy with other projects such as The Collector. As soon as we have the files back and a finished edit we will update you with festivals where you can go and see it.

12-10-2011 "The collector" Footage in hands

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. John has picked the hard drive with the missing footage up from the compositor today and we are now in possesion of this beautiful thing:



No this isn't an ad for Seagate hard drives, though they are very reliable, this beautiful thing contains the footage. We will be reviewing it soon and if everything is 100% ok then we will be steaming on with the final edit of the film tomorrow.

More updates to follow...

12-10-2011 "The Collector" Final composits

Just a little update regarding the final composits. As mentioned in the previous post john is picking them up today, and we have had confirmation that there will be a preview by the middle of next week so stay tuned and check back for more updates!

11-10-2011 "The Collector" Compositing done!

As the title says the final compositing of the special effects and complex rig removals is complete. Tomorrow John will be picking the files up from the compositor and the final push will begin to get The Collector finished and online by the end of the month. As long as there are no problems it'll be available for all to watch at http://www.approachingstormfilms.com.

The Collector - update - Wednesday 5th october 2011

The Collector has been a long time coming with a lot of pitfalls and obstacles in the way. We are hoping that the worst obstructions are out of the way now and final compositing should be completed by the middle of next week. We are aware that there are many times that this has been said, but we have assurances that this will be the case. Once we have the final HD files in our hands we will be putting together the final edit of the film, and once it is all complete we will be looking to upload it to the Approaching Storm Films website for all to see in it's entirity.

For those of you who have been waiting a long time for this to be complete we can only appologise for it's delay, but it has been something out of our control. We can assure you though that we are just as excited about the prospect of having this project come to a close.

Aegis - Info update - by John-Lynton

Aegis has been on the shelf since it's debut at the Soho Short Film Festival back in 2010 while Hannah finished her degree and both of us have been focusing on our careers. The project was a great success and considering it was all created in two weeks it's something we are both proud of. We are still in the process of getting Aegis converted across from super 8 to digital and once this is done we wilhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifl be sending it to other festivals but once it has done it's circuit we will be looking for other ways of making it available for people to see.

For the time being, if you're interested on finding out more about Aegis you can visit the Facbook page here, and by the end of October 2011 you should be able to view more information on the Approaching Storm Films website.

Completion and new news

We're aware that it has been a long time since our last post, wow April in fact, but as with everything in life things never turn out how you plan. The Collector is a project that has not taken president over paid work unfortunately as it was a University project that needed completion. Since then a lot has happened and we now look forward to it hopefully being completed by the end of January 2011. This is a rough deadline as with this project it has been abundantly clear that obstacles always get in the way. We are looking forward to having two talented people by the names of Kath Kelleher and Jeb Hawkins who will be finishing off the audio for the short, and the final effects are waiting to be picked up. Once the edit has been finished Kath and Jeb can work their magic and it will all be finished.

In other news, The Collector is now going to have a second instalment produced in 2011. The story has already been outlined and a crew of talented animators and model makers are biting at the bit to get it moving forward after seeing the unfinished version of the first short. The new short will see Thomas Williams once again pitting his wits against a demonic adversary but in a way that you will not have thought possible. We aim to explore the character of Thomas more and give you an insight into the county of Swynshire that he lives in, and we'll keep you posted as to when deadlines have been set as well as the progress of the production.
As The Collector is a privately funded sort film we will be looking for donations to help us produce the second short. The second short, let’s call it ‘Harping Around’ for now, will not be going to festivals afterwards but will be hosted on the website for all to see once it is completed. We will update the site with the ability for you to donate to Harping Around if you so wish to and we hope to have more frequent updates as we go into the New Year so keep checking back for more information, or RSS this blog.

For now that’s it. Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Delayed completion date

The original completion date had been set to the end of March 2010, then after this it had been set to April 18th 2010. Though we are hoping that we can still hit this target date there have been technical difficulties that may result in it being put back a couple of weeks. this has been unavoidable and we are working as hard as we can to get the film completed.

Thanks for your patience!

John Lynton
(Director/Producer)

State of the film

The film is coming towards the end now. The last bits of compositing are being done and then all thats left is the cleaning up of the sound and a few minor CG effects to be added. If you've been following the progress of the collector on other blogs you may be wondering why there is another one up and running. It's simple... There is now the new website "thecollector-animatedshort.com" which is now up and running. Though the old posts on the production blog are still up and running we though it best to seperate the two from this point forward. In a nutshell if there is any news about the film this is the blog to come to first.

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