Tripods.

Okay, so I spent about 2 hours yesterday researching tripods.

It was SO EXCITING!!!

I originally wanted to find out if there is a tripod head which can securely hold a projector. If it's anything less than completely secure, Livvy's dad might worry about the safety of his projector...
Well, no one really makes projector-specific ones, but there are a few which are designed for laptops, and VCRs(?), apparently. This would be ideal for quick setups and touring where no ceiling mount is available.

Then I uncovered what seems like a secret cult of photographers who love their laptops so much that they can't resist having both a laptop and a camera on one tripod. Most of these systems are some kind of horizontal bar which fits to the tripod head...

The combined weight of a bar like this, the projector and my SLR would be about 6KG. This is actually quite a lot, which I never realised back in German lessons in year 8 when in my ignorance I ordered 20KG of apples in an oral exam.
So it goes without saying that a good tripod would be needed to support a system like this.

Researching my own tripod that I have used since the days of animating plasticine blobs - the one you can see in some of our production images - I have uncovered that not only is it a study tripod capable of supporting such weight, but also that it is over 30 years old! Wow. Apparently, that's a good thing. There's hardly any parts that aren't made of solid gunmetal.

Maybe I should add some tripod accessories to my Christmas list!  

Live-action hands and font test

In our quest for interesting illusions and nice little visuals for our Joiner scenes, we found inspiration in this video for the song Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire. It's obviously not some kind of live performance, but it may be possible for us to achieve something similar if we use a black enough screen...

So, for our latest test we recorded our hands in a green screen setup, and we are quite pleased with the results. The keying worked perfectly, so at least we know we can use a setup as simple as this for our actual production, providing it's only hands that need to be captured:

Luckily I've got enough green paper to cover a whole wall if needed, so plenty of chance to try a bigger setup next time!

After filming our hands, they were used to create an After Effects composition against a completely black background. This image was added to the composition and also put at the beginning of the exported video for size and position reference, as stupid as it looks:

At the same time we wanted to start testing pieces of typographic animation to be sync'd to things that we say. We dug out the lightbox and did a bit of traditional animation to create a speech bubble and the word 'JACK.' These were then captured and Fo' shopped into some tidy little animations which were then added to the After Effects Composition. 

Here's a video showing a couple of the green screen hand recordings, and then a few of the tests on the screen. Notice the reference photo at the beginning of each test, and my terrible timing at saying my name in time with the typography. Also, I disabled the audio track on the green screen recording, because at the time I was listening to Meat Loaf.  

Aside from the tests, we are currently working on the animatic for our project. Expect to see some animatic clips soon!

Jeffrey Lewis

Here's a fantastic low-tech story-telling performance - just shows how you don't need fancy gadgets to tell a good story - just simple, captivating narrative and style.


Jeffrey Lewis & Champion Jim from trashcan on Vimeo.


We however will be using technology, but we don't want to compromise on storytelling.

Research?

We are already aware and inspired by a Cabaret group called '1927' which we will post about at a later date (they deserve their own post) but other than this touring group we don't know many more, so we decided to see if we could find some more.


We've spent a few hours scouring the Internet for Projection based performances. We haven't come up with much; firstly its difficult to know what search terms to use other than a mash up of the words 'projector' 'Animation' 'Theatre' and 'Performance'. We've come across countless examples of 'VJ' style projections and 3D video installation but nothing much along the lines of our project - which is both a good and bad thing. It's exciting that we haven't found anything like what we are working on as it means we are working on something quite original. However we have no one to place ourselves against and work off their mistakes (and triumphs..)

Although.. We did find this...


Projector Cape: Experiment #2 from REGULARMOTION on Vimeo.


But prehaps a little too much person/projector interaction..

Readings.

We want to produce something with story poems, aimed at children. So we trawled the 2nd hand book shops and my attic for poetry books. We did consider writing our own poems.. but that would be a project within itself!

Origins.

In the 2nd Semester of our 2nd year, we worked with Dan Keeble on a project entitled 'Steamwell.' This is due to be entered into the Disney ImagiNations competition in February 2011, before which we still need to produce final materials. When we discovered the competition and first started working out ideas, we shared an excitement of working on a project that is creatively and technically innovative, as oppose to an ordinary film concept.

Having attended animation festivals, screenings and events has shown us what a huge catalogue of media there is - ranging from widely accessible Hollywood-style films to niche art house pieces. We intend to create a project that is widely accessible but is also experimental. At the Encounters Festival and the Stuttgart Animation Festival, we have attended thought-provoking screenings and lectures concerning innovative, interactive and next-gen projects. The projects range from iPhone applications and BBC Big-screens, to interactive experiences and digital theatre/cabaret. The latter are often aimed specifically at niche audiences - young, creatively-minded independent film-lovers. We believe that this audience can be opened up to be more inclusive.

Taking all of this into account, we feel passionate about this type of project - nevertheless, we have never done anything like this before; there will be trial and error, there will be hurdles to overcome but hopefully the end product will be successful!

Plus, Livvy's dad has got a projector. A good one.