Tuesday 20 March 2012

pastel work

I have been making a series of trials again of how the pastel animation will look, and feel that light pastel on darker background will allow me more flexibility when I make the edits. Initially I was working with charcoal and although I liked this I was always a bit dubious about how messy the paper became!! and also not sure how the animation was going to look with the live action.......

somehow the overall look of this is better....and it gives a feel of a 'spotlit' dancer...need to make a couple more sequences of live action now with lighting slightly altered.













Sunday 18 March 2012

swan

I sat down to seriously consider the swan in my film!! I filmed near Newburgh on Lindores loch and tho it was quite far away got some film of swans taking off. The best one I saw live was in Stirling, from behind over the loch, but in reality a swan takes some time to get airborn and I do not want it to be a big part of the film.
So I have another solution.


The swan will still look like this..(another drawing from my series) but the moment the dancer becomes a swan will be slightly different. There will be a flury of ice and feathers and the shot will pull back so that as the feathers fall you see the swan flying. I am working now on animated and filmed versions of feathers!!

Thursday 8 March 2012

richard Layzell

Attended the Richard Layzell class today for members of DAIR. this was a great experience once again and thought provoking in the extreme. I teamed up with two people I did not know before and we chose to look at Dundee's relationship with its coast line. Among the day's discoveries were core samples from 38 metres below the river bed (in preparation for the V&A building work), a ramp which goes straight into the river,  the area at the back of the hotels which look out across the Tay and a small enclosure hidden by trees which is obviously a secret meeting spot!! It is so good to be asked to look at the world from a different viewpoint, something we do not do often enough. It would be good to document how this particular area changes as the V&A progresses. I would like to take this work up again when my masters course is finished.

Time is racing now and there are a lot of people I would have liked to spend more time with. It is a great shame that animation students do not meet more often with fine art students as i feel the cross fertilisation of ideas to be of great benefit. How I would ever have coped full time I have no idea. My decision to be part time has allowed me to enrich my creativity and ideas.

Sunday 4 March 2012

Floor section from choreography

This is the second section of choreogaphy which I am working with. Again Emily dancing.

Filming

This last two weeks have been spent both preparing and executing filming trials for the live action section of my film, Norman's Skates. ( working title at this point) In workshop I have also looked for more ideas on a visualisation of skating and the emotions it stirs in people. I have worked with two groups, and filmed in two venues..three altogether now. The Hannah McLure Centre has provided a black box which is ideal, but I have also been filming in a light space and will try other ideas out.
In the studio I have been trialing a variety of lighting situations....angles....and I am now looking at what can be done with these various clips in edit and after effects. Initially I used two smaller lights and tried lighting from a variety of positions...I have had tutorials again in  after effects and camera technique and operation and have now been working with the EX 1 camera, which has produced amazing quality. I have also had to complete a health and safety session in order to take out lights. Carrying all the equipment was hard work!!
(For the first trials I have been lighting tech, choreographer AND camera operator!! This is not sustainable, however and I am trying to build a team of people around me who can assist in the technical tasks).
I am constantly encouraged by the fantastic response of the dancers I am working with and feeel extremely fortunate to have all this talent around me. Thank you all.