Objects At Rest

explorations in audio and moving imagery

Category: Music

Atlanta Film Festival Wrap-Up

Animation News

The Animation Extravaganza took place Thursday night and I would estimate that about 300 people attended both shows. My film, Man Drawing a Reclining Woman, was the first to be shown which surprised me since I thought the line-up would be different. It is a different experience to see your film in a room with hundreds of other people and all I could see was the flaws in my work. But, I think I have learned some things from the whole experience that I hope to apply in my future projects.

Here is the blurb about my film from Creative Loafing’s article on the film festival’s animation venue.

“‘Man Drawing a Reclining Woman’ provides the story behind the Albrecht Durer woodcut of the same name, and implies that great art outlives both the artist and the subject.” By Curt Holman, Published 06.14.2006, Creative Loafing”

It is both an honor and a humbling experience to be in the same billing with other works of higher quality and clarity of craft. Some of my favorites were the 2D animations Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot, Juxtaposer, and Chickenheads / Fluidtoons. Brett W. Thompson, the creator of Chickenheads, is a local artist and his flash animations seem a bit like Bruce Bickford in terms of organic transformation of objects. I told him he was the Bruce Bickford of Flash animation.

Stop motion was represented as well with the films Dragon, Loom, and Ichthys. Dragon was a nice mix of stopmotion and 2-D animation. Ichthys was a technical marvel with lush cinematography. The story of the Ichthys is obscure enough to warrant multiple viewings to fully realize what is going on. It appears to be some commentary on life, death, and Christianity. Loom is a technical marvel that you should try to view if possible. Loom has some of most precise stop motion animation I’ve seen with excellent rendition of body language in the characters. The story in Loom communicates a singular idea regarding death in a powerful but intimate way with a creative implementation of symbolic elements running throughout the work.

Another stop motion animation titled The Wraith of Cobble Hill won the festivals animation award but was screened on Wednesday. I wonder why it wasn’t in the Animation Extravaganza? I was able to catch it on Wednesday but think it would have been a nice addition to the animation venue. Adam Parish King, the creator of “Wraith” hails from Knoxville Tennessee which is not far from here and his film is being shown in festivals and seems to be winning awards.

I was fortunate to have some discussions with Scott Kravitz, the creator of Loom, and other festival attendees that saw my film to get their thoughts about my work. I have decided to spend some time to forge an objective or vision statement to help clarify what I am attempting to do with my films. I have several ideas in my mind but have been unable to articulate them in a clear and cohesive manner. It seems that some people like the film but don’t know what it means, others just don’t like it, and a couple of people did like it and provided unsolicited statements that reflect what I was trying to do. I have drafted some notes since talking with people about the film and will probably revisit this topic later. In the meantime, if you are reading this and have seen the film, I welcome any thoughts you may have regarding what the film means to you, its strengths, its weaknesses, or any areas that are confusing.

Other Film Festival News

I saw Psychopathia Sexualis Friday night. It was made locally and had a form and presentation reminiscent of Peter Greenaway. The music was created by a local composer named Paul Mercer who did a fantastic job of providing an atmospheric score with hints of Arvo Part. I am really considering approaching him about music for my project. The film is going to be available on DVD from Kino.

On Saturday night I attended the closing night ceremony which screened the little Death, awards were handed out, and free beer and food was provided afterwords. The little Death was very well done and had that independent film “feel” with great looking compositions, excellent performances, and a story that kept your attention. I wish the venue where it was showing had better acoustics and a projection system that didn’t blow out the whites which affected the overall experience. I chatted with the DP and he assured me that if you watched it on a DVD that it would look different and better that what was projected that night.

Final Thoughts

The festival was fun and I had pleasant conversations with various people in the animation and film making community. I’ve attended the festival before but it was a different experience having a film selected. I’ve submitted my film to a handful of other festivals and will wait to see if it has any more life in the festival circuit or if it’s ready for online or DVD distribution. In a way I am ready to put it to bed and focus on the current and future projects.

2006-06-18
Durer Project: Behind the Scenes

Here is some more production information about the Durer project which is complete and being submitted to various film festivals.

The armatures and puppets are made out of bass wood, wooden beads, and threaded rods. The smallest bolts I could find are used to clamp the wood plates around the wooden beads that make up the character’s joints. It’s very similar to a metal armature but instead of aluminum or brass it is made out of wood. It works pretty well but the puppets have to be handled carefully and if you apply too much tension at the joints the wood plates start to crack. The masks and clothes are made out of craft foam sheets and hot glue. I also used acrylic paint to add shading and color.

I don’t recall having a written script or storyboard sketches for the Durer project but at least I found these sketches of set design ideas.

For the stage and set construction I used a metal shelving unit on wheels and a sheet of MDF board with pre-drilled peg holes for the floor. I made the covering for the floor and the walls out of matt board. The table and props are made out of basswood and matt board. Finally, I used hot glue to join everything and acrylic paint for color, shading, and texture.

2006-06-04
Vitruvius: Set Development Update
The main set for the Vitruvius project was constructed between April and May 2006. The following is a general description of the process and some photographs.

Materials used:
- Pink insulation board for making set mock-ups, the background hills and buildings
- Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty to cover the insulation that make up the background hills
- Acrylic modeling paste for smoothing out areas that were too textured from the water putty
- Balsa and pine wood for constructing the temple ruins
- Epoxy putty (called Quick Wood at Home Depot) for detailing and smoothing some parts of the set pieces
- Shades of green and brown acrylic paint
- Poly-fil and spray adhesive for making foliage and wire covered in liquid latex for tree trunks (see previous post)
The stage is made out of pine and mounted to a metal shelving unit on wheels. I used insulation board and hot glue to mock up some architectural ruins and explored composition by using the camera viewfinder to check for positioning. For the initial test of the stage and materials I used pink insulation foam and water putty to make a sculpted background.

I found the materials and stage to be adequate and proceeded to work out the final design. I sketched rough visuals of set pieces that I would need and compositional arrangements for the overall set design.

The foreground architectural pieces were made from balsa and pine wood and carved with a Dremel. I chose wood for the foreground elements because it affords some strength and stability during the animation. I also think that wood is easer to modify and repair in case I need to drill, carve or glue things during filming.

Insulation board covered in water putty was used to build up the vertical dimensions of the stage floor, especially to either side of the central area. The idea is to break up the ground from being a totally flat plane which should help the foreground visually blend into the background. The background is made of 3 planes of insulation board covered in water putty. The buildings are also made of insulation board covered in a plaster-of-paris fabric wrap. Everything is smoothed over with acrylic modeling paste and then painted.

For the trees and foliage I used poly-fill and wire coated with liquid latex (see previous post). Once all the set pieces were constructed, textured, and painted, I secured everything with wood glue, hot glue, or screws.

Photos of set development.
2006-05-27
“Man Drawing…” to Premier at the Atlanta Film Festival
It is official. My short film “Man Drawing a Reclining Woman” will premier at the Atlanta Film Festival on June 15, 2006. It is part of the Animation Extravaganza which screens a group of selected shorts in a 2 hour venue.

I’m looking forward to seeing “Ichthys”, “Dragon”, “Loom” and “The Wraith of Cobble Hill”.

Links:
2006-05-20
Vitruvius: Set Development and Trees

I needed some trees for the set have more detail set so I got some poly-fil and something called “cluster stuff” which looks like very tiny cotton balls. I’m using a flat green interior latex paint for coloring the ground and foliage.

I’m waiting for the paint to dry and will then attempt to put it into place with my tree trunks. For the trunks I got some wire and twisted two strands into a Y shape. I then took the two Y shapes and twisted the bottoms together for a basic tree. I could keep going through a few more iterations to get a more detailed tree but I think this will suffice for my current needs.

2006-04-30