mumble mumble

I thought I would be twiddling my thumbs while Tim and Simon got on with the sound but actually the lip sync will keep me busy. The lip sync in Sawney Beane was random and misleading in parts, partly because I'm not a patient person but also because I was in the final stages of pregnancy and I was struggling to sit still and concentrate. Anyway, this time I'm going to give it a pop, there's a good page on it in Paul Well's Fundamentals of Animation, and I've got a couple of days, so how hard can it be?

The other awardees

The deadline is 5pm on 30th March. I wonder if we will be the only Hackney and Tower Hamlets Film Fund production team skidding in to the Brady Arts Centre at 4.55pm? I think there are 6 or 7 films in production and I'm really looking forward to seeing them all in April. I've enjoyed a regular cup of tea with one of the other awardees: Suzi Ewing, who has finished her film 'Hinterland', judging by her previous films, I'm sure it will be really splendid. At the early stages of my production I was also really pleased to have a drink with Phil Dale and his producer Liz Chan. Phil is best known as an animator but he and Liz have been making 'Tree' (or maybe the name has changed) in live action. I have really enjoyed reading Phil's blog about the ups and downs of his production process. (http://www.tree.gb.com/)

Scrap the last post

I'm going back in.
Mark has finished a second assembly and identified a few areas where improvements could be made to the sense of the story by swapping the order of events. I think there are three shots in all, that's two more mondays then I'll stop.

Back away from the rostrum

I think I had my last day animating this week. There are a few shots that I would like to do again if I could but it's time to stop now. My tile is quite scratched and my brushes are now looking as if they have done 15 minutes worth of wrestling with that shellac ink.
We have also moved onto the sound, so I really have to stop so that there is something concrete for Tim and Simon to work on. I'm really pleased that Simon Dye is going to help out with the sound design, Simon is also DeXter Bentley and I am a fan of his show on Resonance FM which is called Hello Goodbye (12pm on Saturdays). Tim Olden has been working on the music already, he is also very busy with Nina and Karen's new film Living with the Tudors. You can read about Tim on their website: http://www.somewhere.org.uk/Tim. He is quite brilliant in many ways.
The last few shots and Edward's Voice Record went to Orkney in the post and it arrived within 24 hours! Mark is going to do another assembly as soon as he can.

The Fantastic Mr Fox

The voice record went well. It's always hard to tell until it's chopped up in the timeline against the picture. It was the fastest one yet with only around half an hour to record all four characters. I was really fortunate to have been able to ask Edward Fox to do it, and he needed hardly any pointers, which was lucky because a) I was too nervous and b) my microphone wasn't active.
I didn't get a photo because his chair was a bit low in the booth.

First Assembly

Mark has sent the edit down by Royal Mail on a miniDv tape. I have got an ftp site but not all parties are able to use it without complications, so it lies empty at the moment. Mark is really good. I liked the first assembly very much and so did Shelly, she chuckled alot, (I gave her a portugese cake before she saw it). It's a different film to the one I thought I was making at the beginning and it's come out very funny in parts, largely due to the addition of a swarm of buzzing flies attendant at the Old Man's autopsy. The film is around 6"30' without the titles, Mark has taken off a whole minute. I note that I thought it would be 3"0' at the beginning of the production. What a pro!

Next is the voice record, then just a little bit more animation..there are a few shots that could be better before everything goes back in the post to Burray for another pass.

Yikes

Is it true that however long you have to make a film, it would always be a scrabble at the end? Things are speeding up here to my great alarm. Mark Jenkins (see previous post) has broken away from his reflections on the beaches of Burray. What a pal he is. He has set up his avid and the first swipe at the edit is on it's way down via the Royal Mail. I'm going to review it tommorrow with the help of my animator friend Shelly Wain and finalise the voice script for the voice record on 9th Feb.
I have a wonderful actor to record on friday, I just hope I don't goof up my part in the proceedings. Kathrein is swanning off to Berlin for the film festival but is skillfully paving the way for the voice record before she goes. I'm still animating on Mondays. Shortly someone is going to have to do the kind thing and snap my squirrel hair brushes in half and lock the bathroom door.