SUCCESS!

The digital stuff looks GREAT! Better than I could've hoped for. It has the exact style I wanted without the hassle of actually cutting things out myself with glue and yarn and stuff. I can move forward sooner than I thought already, constructing the digital sets for the actors.

Moving Forward

I think I want to start on a dramatic/comedic narrative (whatever it ends up being) about sailors on a ship, that will use my new knowledge of motion to create a very stylized effect. Like I said at the beginning of the year, it will be Michel Gondry-esque using papery looking animation but with real people mixed in. It will be based on a script (a short story actually) that I already wrote. Today I am going to do a bunch of tests with motion to try and get the look I want and decide if it can be computer generated or if I need to go out and actually start chopping up construction paper. The tests should be done either today or next class and after that I will start creating the sets either digitally or physically depending on what I decide from the tests. I will do that for a week and then begin filming hopefully on the 15th. I already have music for it because Ben Mead (you remember him right!?) already actually composed music based on the story. I have got some costumes already and have cast one person who is on board to do it. Hopefully I'll have a finished product sometime in mid January.

Election Day!

I haven't blogged in a while, but I HAVE BEEN BUSY WORKING!

I have been working on my segment for the video announcements, the Student Spotlight on Nishanth. I love where its going and have been using a lot of what I learned in motion on text objects to create a sweet effect. I have been working on this segment, filming and editing, for about three periods now. It's pretty involved, but it's worth it. I have also begun work on some segments for cross country.

10/15

Today I wrote the interview questions for the lunch lady interview for vid announcements with Tyler and I started on some stuff for the cross country vid using motion.

10/13

So, I ran into a wall today with Motion, not one preventing me from making something but just something technical and dumb that furthers my belief that simple, handmade special effects are the way to go versus finnicky and fragile computer generated stuff that motion does.

I'm not writing off motion, I'll certainly come back to it, I just think this wall has brought me back to main focus which was achieving that Michel Gondry aesthetic. I got a little distracted but now I'm back.

I am going to begin filming for a film adaptation of a short story I wrote a while back that Ben Mead (who you know from last year) already composed music for. I will be using construction paper and glue and scissors more than the keyboard during filming, but I think that I can make everything look smoother LATER using motion maybe. I will see. Until then, I need to figure out:

A) who will play by characters
B) when and how I will make my sets and effects
c) when I need to begin

I will start planning this period and move forward in class next period. I will bring construction paper to work with.

10/8

Currently I am making a project which was formally a vid for homecoming but now is just a fun artsy video to demonstrate that I've learned the basics of particle emitters and replicators in Motion along with basic commands.

I have filmed one football game, but have not captured it yet, and am scheduled to film an XC meet later this month.

I am working on a student spotlight on my own for the announcements as well as a piece on the lunch ladies and custodians with Zack Brown and Tyler Denneson.

Oct 2

Today I continued on my homecoming vid, and due to some technical difficulties I had to backtrack a bit, but I got it figured out and completed a major section of the vid successfully. Motion is my friend now.

What I did today

I made HUGE progress with Motion and am well on my way to finish my goal of making a homecoming ad for my candidacy for king. It's going great.

9/24

Today I delved into motion and made a short animation of unicorns flying out a man's mouth.

What I've been doing for the last three periods...

So these last three periods I have:

1)Completed my commercial and finalized it
2)Created a short film using iStopMotion
3)Begun a new short iStopMotion film
4)Filmed the football game

I am trying to acquaint myself with iStopMotion by doing these projects and I feel like I'm getting a feel for it.

Goals And Things I'd Like to Learn

This year I'm interested in creating a short film that blends stop motion with real live footage to create a sort of look I did last year in my music video. I'd like to try to create special effects using the computer as little as possible, using construction paper and glue and things like that versus digitally generated effects. I would use the computer to manipulate these though, which I think would be best achieved by utilizing and learning iStopMotion. I've got a lot of ideas for effects I'd like to do including thought bubbles made from paper that crinkle out, spiders crawling up someone made from pipe cleaners and egg cartons, things like that. I really admire a director named Michel Gondry who has this sort of style, and I'd like to try and attempt things that he might do in my own films. I've found this website to give me a brief overview of iStopMotion and I hope to become as familiar with it by the end of this semester as I am with FinalCut. Hopefully this will culminate in a 15 minute or more film which I hope to submit to a film festival competition.

9/8/08

Today in Vid Pro I:

Signed up for outside filming on Sept 12th for the football game and Oct 28th for non-quals for Cross Country.

I also wrote my script for my commercial.