Thursday, July 27, 2006

The smallest bird in the british isles came by.

Production was delayed today by a fledgling jenny wren, who flew in through the window and settled happily in the kitchen. I managed to persuade it to fly out but it made came straight back in. It was about the size of a ping pong ball but with a voice the size of a football, as for the rest of the morning I could hear an imperious cheeping from the window box.
"Let me in so I can do another dropping on your table"

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

squirrels beware


I
must
have
a
new
paintbrush

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Insulex - the animator's friend

I have a maximum of 275 minutes to shoot any one shot before my battery runs out. Removing the battery to recharge it means starting again with framing and exposure. So I am grateful to Nina Pope for my insulex tea pot which has a layer of air inbetween its inner and outer casing. The tea easily stays hot for 275 minutes. Now I just need some self control, to stop me eating all my biscuits in one go.

Friday, July 21, 2006

cock up

I spent the day filming the autopsy scene from above, and lost a morning's work due to the following obvious mistake: Thomas parr is (deceased, aged) naked. I erased his willy because it didnt look floppy enough and forgot to put it back.

God it's hot.
I thought the same thought when I was animating The Witches in a small black box, but I was in Scotland then and this is 400 miles nearer the equator plus Ive got four lights instead of two.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Goalposts.

Even though it's hot, I've managed to get a script I like, and today I spewed out a scrappy storyboard and basic animatic.
Since going to Zagreb for Animafest I decided to start my animation again and try to draw with more economy. Everything I've shot so far is very busy on the eye and brain. So tommorrow I'll make a shotlist and start animating again, with a view to finishing the animation by the end of August.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Script wrestling

There’s no quick way to finish a script is there? My scriptwriting days always involve many cappucinos and nail-biting and long days without going out. Today I happen to know it’s beautiful out there and I need some tinned tomatoes for later, but I must stay in 1635 until I’ve got the order of things. I miss bouncing ideas off Mark Jenkins, the editor with whom I’ve worked with on my other films but he’s very busy and I also think I should be able to wrestle with this on my own.
I'd also like to try and write my script before I finish animating. This would be good professional practice, but counter intuitive. Sometimes you need to see a character moving before you know where they're going to.