Rough Title Teaser

Here is a segment from the (very rough!) recent leica for my film, Pickled. It's the end of the title sequence. I love watching the blood drip...

Follow me on Twitter

I tend to throw up small updates on twitter more often than I get entire thoughtful posts together for my blog these days. I'm Art_Candy on twitter.

my studio

Here's what my studio looks like. I just opened up the box that had my scanner/printer in it today. I was excited about that... that scanner has a lot of work to do. You can see my myriad of sunglasses peppered throughout the bookshelf there. A print by Steve sits atop the shelf. The Reflex paper is my animation paper. And there is little Sophie, my orchid.

Scan! Print! It took me forever to decide on a scanner and then actually be able to FIND it...

Here (below) is my light table. It was nightmarish to find a small and affordable one, get it Australia and find some way to light it. That is because finding a light table in Australia is not easy. (Finding ANY animation supplies or even large pads of newsprint has completely illuded me.) To ship my own would have cost a lot of money. (I already had to pay the extra fee to bring my animation punch on the airplane.) A month ago or so I bought a voltage step down transformer to enable me to plug in the light that came with this light box and that was trash. It wouldn't even accept a plug. I am still waiting to hear back from paypal/ebay on a dispute over that due to the negligence of the shipper. I finally just went to a hardware store and bought a small light to fit under the "glass" but it was WAY too bright and hot at 60 watts. I took it back and for twice as much money was able to get a lovely 8 watt light that is just perfect. I need to leave a lip of the desk open for the cord to come out though. And the cord it came with is wrapped up and taped to the back since it gets in the way constantly.

Off to do some layouts!!!

Some rough storyboard sketches

Here are a couple of my favorite storyboard drawings. The ones on the current title image are storyboard sketches as well.

make a list and check it twice

Often I like to make lists of things to do and it's not a bad idea to keep track of progress either. I've planned my budget very carefully so I can buy all the things I need to make my film. Most of these things I already have... in Canada. It costs more than it's worth to ship items over. Many items I need are simply not to be found here in Oz! Before I got here I looked online to see if any artstores would sell lightboxes, animation paper or pegs. None seemed to and now that I'm here it holds true. The only animation thing I've seen for sale in an artstore thus far is Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair. I know there are animation studios here that do hand drawn animation and Disney had a studio here for a time so beats me as to where they got their supplies. Shipping stuff over is pricey. I ended up purchasing my own paper punch (!!!) as it was cheaper than shipping over punched paper. Insanity. A paper punch took a fair chunk of change to get and I had to pay extra at the airport to get it here. (The box it was in actually got opened up by airport staff and searched unbeknownst to be until arriving in Sydney. Then when I got to Syndey it was sniffed by dogs looking for drugs.) I think it looked questionable when x-rayed. It's not everyday that people are taking animation paper punches with them on airplanes to other countries.

As for electronics, the plugs and voltage are different in Australia. So my trusty Canadian scanner would be useless here, (unless I was lucky that it *could* accept an Australian voltage and then I would have to get a power converter. Those aren't cheap either.) So again, it's just not worth it to bring electronics over. The only electronic devices I brought with me were a small lightbox that could fit in my suitcase and my milk frother since it runs on batteries. I brought a small lightbox since my own full sized one would be another $200 to bring as extra carry on. Buying a small one and stuffing it in my suitcase saved me a bit of money.

I am doing my best to be frugal and economic while filmmaking. I think I'm doing well as far as watching my budget. It's a wonderful surprise when things turn out to be cheaper than I believe they would be and then there is more wiggle room in the budget.

DONE:

-wrote/recorded music with Larra

-worked out a budget

-rough storyboards

-rough leica

-some life drawing and gesture drawing

-rough colour script

-planned the layout and look/contents of the environments

-bought a lightbox, desk lamp, animation paper punch, ruler, triangle, utility knife, glue, cutting mat

-researched grants (very few are applicable if any, especially since I am out of Canada)

TO DO:

-MORE life drawing and gesture drawing!

-finished concept art

-finalise storyboards/leica

-practise drawing characters

-buy a scanner, paper, moniter, power converter or light source, bone folder, paint, brushes, wooden stretch board (for painting), pencils

-finish reading Life Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton and Animated Performance by Nancy Beiman

-go to the zoo to draw

-build paper sets of film locations

-paint the sets and backdrops

-photograph the sets

-apply for grants

-animate my film!!!

-post production (clean up, scanning, compositing, colour, make DVDs etc.)

-apply for grants (very few are applicable if any, especially since I am out of Canada)

*ps., Blogger says I put this post up on 25 December when really... it's 8:51pm for my on 26 December. So no, I am not blogging over Christmas day... Blogger is weird.

new office in Sydney

Working away on some storyboards... This is from my new office in Sydney, Australia. I arrived here November 24. Since then I've settled into my new home and done some good wandering. As for my film, I've been drawing, boarding, putting together concept work, creating a colour script. Often when I have pages of work and reference material, I like to see everything relevant to what I'm currently working on at once. That leads me to tearing pages out of my sketchbook so I can see all the previous pages and not have to continuously flip pages.

Get in bed with your characters

Met with my character designer (Deanna Marsiglese!) this past week to talk about bringing Birdie, Cash and Babette to life visually. (I actually only gave them names recently so I wouldn't have to keep saying 'the woman', 'the man', 'the other woman' etc. It was getting confusing.) We ended up chatting until the cafe closed and we got kicked out! I love my characters but I feel like I'm still discovering who they are. With Larra, she helped me clarify the story lyrically and Deanna will get into the characters heads to bring them about visually. I was always told by my teachers and other writers that you need to know your characters... really know them. What do they eat for breakfast and the colour of their toothbrush, as many details as you can gather. For the short format film, I'm not sure if I want to get to know them that well. I think for Pickled it's fine to not have that many details on the characters. I made it clear to the other artists I'm working with that it's a collaboration. I'm eager for them to have a point of view and bring that to the table.

I don't feel comfortable getting too serious about storyboards just yet, I want to have finished music with lyrics first. I think the designs Deanna sends my way will be a huge inspiration. I feel like all the artists on this project (including me) and the work they do is going to inform me enough of who the characters are when I need that information for animation. The story didn't require intense personal knowledge of my characters.

Anyway... Deanna was trying to get information out of me on the character's personalities. One thing she asked about is Cash and Birdie's marriage and how that works... How can two people be together and not have a sex life? I guess I didn't think about it too much since the idea of Birdie even wanting to have sex doesn't seem like it would happen... I imagine her to be robotic and conservative, she 'fits in because it's what you do' and is a little brainwashed by the whole era she lives in. She is sheltered, uncreative and proud. Sex is probably something she doesn't think about a lot. I don't even imagine that she says much to Cash. They live in a sort of understood existence. She's like a caged bird. She isn't caged by her husband, but by her own expectations and beliefs. I think if Birdie was a little more healthy minded, life with Cash would be pretty good. If you have mature characters in your story, considering their sex life makes a lot of sense. (As far as letting that knowledge help inform you who your characters are.) Now it seems strange not to consider it.

I also learned the difference between character design and concept art. Concept art comes first, it is basically an artist at play with very little visual cues as a starting point. The artist figures out a look and a direction to move visually. The character designer will take that concept work and build on it. Often in a studio it means strictly adhering to an established style and making turnarounds and new designs. I've asked Deanna to do both concept art and design. I understand the difference between them, but didn't realise that they were often so segregated. For a short film it seems pretty appropriate to ask an artist to do concept and design. It seems fairly freeing as one or a group of artists could bring a character to life from concept to finished look instead of having to adhere to an established style or hand your work off to be finished up and walk away.

I'm so excited to see what Deanna comes up with!

Genre of my film / Tips on Working with Musicians for Film

It's a gothic twist-ending love story.

Met with my songwriter today!!! It went amazing. Can't wait to hear what she comes up with.

Here are some tips from my brother Dan (a composer and DJ) on collaborating with musicians for film:

1.) Even though it is the musicians job to write what you ask for, you can't expect the musician to create anything outside the limits of their abilities. If you're working with a jazz musician, then she'll probably only be best at writing jazz.

2.) The musician may also be limited with instruments. If you want real instruments, like piano or guitar, then it can get expensive and difficult to record them all. If you're okay with synthesized instruments, then it will be easier to add a fuller (yet faker) ensemble of instruments.

3.) When talking to the musician, be careful when using words like "beat", "rhythm" "melody" etc. A lot of musical terms can have different meanings depending on the context, and it could make the musician confused. Try using non-musical words to describe what you want, like "cheerful" "nervous" "fast-paced" "panicked" etc.

4.) Always keep in touch to see how things are going. Musicians are flaky sometimes, so they might forget about the deadline if you don't stay in touch often through email or phone.

5) Most importantly, a film-musician is just like an actor. They take a lot of pride in their work, and can get sensitive when it comes to criticism and comprimise. So if you lay out your expectations as clearly as possibly from the very beginning, and don't change your expectations throughout the project it will go smoother. If you don't give the musician a clear precise outline of the music you want from the beginning, the musician will not be pleased when you say that you want them to do something different than what they started.

I get to start making an animated short film! (Post Previously titled "Music and Design")

It looks like I am going to have some time to make this story idea of mine into a film at last! My husband has been hired by an animation company in Australia so I'm going to finish up my contract at Elliott Animation and then we're going to both head out there to live for a year or so. We're waiting on our visa's right now. My current work contract goes until late November and I'll move in early December. When I move there I plan to focus on creating storyboards and a leica (animatic) as well as backgrounds for this short film. I can do freelance or find a part time job on the side if I like. Until then, when I'm not packing up every belonging I own, I will be prepping my film. I've gotten ahold of a Toronto jazz singer songwriter and I'm meeting up with her in a couple of weeks. Her name is Larra Skye and she's fabulous. And really professional. And very nice. I have some rough lyrics right now and I need a musician to collaborate with to craft that into music. I also contacted an artist about doing some character designs. When I thought about who in the world I would want to work with more than anyone on my film I thought of Deanna Marsigliese. I asked if she would work with me and was thrilled that she said yes! Deanna was in the year ahead of me at Sheridan and I've always admired her beautiful work.

Here's an image by Deanna:

Vespa by Deanna Marsigliese

While looking for some musical inspiration I searched for some images of jazz and here are my 3 favourites:

logo at All that Jazz and More's website, a jazz band for hire

a music inspired painting by: Nancy Peacock

Jazz Face by Ryanselow

Film on Hold

Well, it's been a hell of a long time since I posted anything here... I still like this film idea but it is certainly on hold for now. Not sure if or when I'll get back to it. There is a lot of other stuff on my plate these days. I'm still doing lots of animation, but an independent short film is just not at the top of my to do list these days. Please visit my art blog to see my adventures outside of this film: http://art-candy.blogspot.com/.

Film Length and Great Links

I've been finding so much great art and inspirational stuff recently, especially after discovering FFFFOUND! a "web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!"

I've been thinking a lot about Pickled (my short film) recently. I've got some fairly solid ideas on character designs and the pacing/what is to be included in the story. I'm pretty frustrated because I know it's long... Maybe 5 mins, something like that, and that is a lot of work... I don't mind work but I do want to have a finished polished film and I know there is still so much to discover about filmmaking and animation for me. Is it best to go for a big project and maybe do a lot of struggling and learning, or something smaller and learn the ropes but manage to feel ok about the project to the end? I have a hard time writing 1-2 minute ideas, I find it pretty tricky to come up with ideas that I like that are so short.

I've been pretty mad busy recently. Still really getting a hang of Total Drama the Musical, I'm doing a music video for my brother Dan and in a couple of weeks I'm moving. So there has been a lot of packing and cleaning and furniture shopping. I want my new sofa!! The one we have now Steve found in the basement of the apartment we shared during college.

I actually have got out to life drawing three times in the past month, I wish I could go more often but with the two freelance projects and moving, it will have to wait. I packed up the 'ol scanner (my baby) so scanning images isn't even possible right now.

Some great links:

T. Hee Design Instructions
from: http://the-plausible-impossible.blogspot.com
The Plausible Impossible blog

Pixar animator shares: Video: Al Hirschfeld Drawing
from: http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com
Mike Lynch Cartoons

The Daily Figure

Kitsune Noir - Design Blog

Polite Winter

Sculptures by Erwin Wurm
from: Think or Thwim Blog