I mentioned last time that I was nearly finished with Papercuts Episode 7, with the last remaining components being of the audio variety. Well, today Tim finished and delivered his ninth composition for the series, I plugged it into the edit along with a handful of other freshly-minted audio elements, and Debt of Gravy-tude was finished. And released - you should see it embedded a paragraph or two down from here.
I hope you've been taking note of the music in Papercuts. Like the visuals, every last bit of it has been specially created for the show - no stock footage, stock score, or stock anything around here: I took the decision relatively early on in Production Block A, last spring, that since I was going to so much effort over the project anyway, I may as well go that bit further and record all my own sound effects too. But the point is, Tim's actually been building up quite a broad-based collection of cues over the seven episodes, ranging from a slow, minimal guitar solo in Episode 3, up to rather more complex and breakneck-paced chase theme in Episode 6, via music for a windmill and a flower, for China, and even for outer space. You can convey a lot with hand-drawn visuals (if I say so myself), but sometimes there's just no substitute for having a composer on hand to help with the scene-setting or (as is more common in this series) with the 'punctuation' of a scene. The main point of this post, apart from showcasing Episode 7, is to offer Tim a public thank you for the Papercuts score. So: thank you, Tim.
In case you were wondering, yes, the vlog is still coming. Just taking a while to edit. Keep watching this space!
- The Colclough
Showing posts with label Video Editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Editing. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Saturday, 23 November 2013
The Slate, November 2013
I'm not entirely sure where the phrase 'the slate' came from, but these days it seems to refer to the list of projects which a film studio is either working on now or planning to work on in the near future. I thought this would be a good time to publish my own slate (or M.C.Media's, depending how you look at it) - so here goes...
Current project: Papercuts Production Block C (Episodes 5-7)
I've got a trio of scripts which came together around late summer, comprising the show's first two-parter, written by Tim, and a one-off episode by me. Dialogue recording is complete, and the photography and editing stages are well underway for all three instalments. The production block also includes some additional material: a short prologue to Episode 5, and a vlog showing the filmmaking process for Papercuts, specifically following the progression of work on a single new set which needed to be built for Block C.
The prologue was originally going to be the opening scene of Episode 5, but I felt that it wasn't necessary for the story and was slowing the episode down; initially I was going to tell Tim to just delete it, but then I decided I actually liked it in itself despite it not really being needed for the overall story, so I thought I'd go ahead and film it anyway, and release it separately as a prologue (inspired by the 'prequels' which Doctor Who has been doing for the last 2 or 3 years), under the pretext that it's a marketing thing. It's finished, as of this morning, and you can see it here:
The production vlog will probably be the next thing I release, followed by Episode 5 itself.
Beyond the release of Episode 7, I don't really have any fixed plans for Papercuts; I'm open to doing more episodes in 2014 or later, but it all depends on getting scripts ready.
The next few projects: Fifteen-Minute Fortresses, Inanimate HD and The Murkum Show Series 2
This part is subject to change, but here's what I'm currently thinking in terms of my next work beyond Papercuts 7:
First up, you may or may not remember a little video I did earlier this year, titled The Fifteen-Minute Fortress? Well, I might do a couple more of those. Revise the parameters of the exercise, but still keep it broadly similar in spirit. Watch this space.
Meanwhile, thinking even further back, you might recall my five-minute live-action short Inanimate from 2006. This summer, armed with a vastly better camera and a friend who knew how to make said camera behave itself, I staged a remake of the film, now in shiny HD and starring Tim. At some point, I need to knuckle down and edit the thing, and once the edit's complete, I'll take the logical next step and release the film. Inanimate HD is rather more definite than Fifteen-Minute Fortress II, mostly because it's already been filmed, but the editing process could prove to be rather slow.
And finally, the third and probably biggest thing on my near-future-projects slate is a second season of The Murkum Show. The first was a lot of fun to make, and there's a lot of momentum building up for the second: I've already got a good idea of what the set will look like, and got seven episode scripts lined up (fun fact: all four of the people who wrote for Series 1 have already got scripts in the queue for Series 2). It's very unlikely that Murkum Show S2 will see the light of day before next year, what with the work that remains to be done on my current projects, but I'm 98% sure it'll be happening in the first half of 2014.
Other stuff that may or may not happen next year
I've got a few other bits and pieces on the go. These include Improbable (a very odd little cel short, which I released a teaser clip for several months ago), Empire of the Pond (a remake of Fishy Business, a 2003 short whose storyline I thought was alright, but whose animation was so embarrassingly bad that I'm never going to let you see it), and a perhaps-over-ambitious CGI production titled Golden Cube, about a robot who works in a strange, futuristic dolly-mixtures factory. No particular release schedules for any of those yet, but since I'm publishing the slate, it seems only fair to mention that they're on it - albeit down at the bottom.
- The Colclough
Current project: Papercuts Production Block C (Episodes 5-7)
I've got a trio of scripts which came together around late summer, comprising the show's first two-parter, written by Tim, and a one-off episode by me. Dialogue recording is complete, and the photography and editing stages are well underway for all three instalments. The production block also includes some additional material: a short prologue to Episode 5, and a vlog showing the filmmaking process for Papercuts, specifically following the progression of work on a single new set which needed to be built for Block C.
A moment from Papercuts Episode 5... coming soon!
The prologue was originally going to be the opening scene of Episode 5, but I felt that it wasn't necessary for the story and was slowing the episode down; initially I was going to tell Tim to just delete it, but then I decided I actually liked it in itself despite it not really being needed for the overall story, so I thought I'd go ahead and film it anyway, and release it separately as a prologue (inspired by the 'prequels' which Doctor Who has been doing for the last 2 or 3 years), under the pretext that it's a marketing thing. It's finished, as of this morning, and you can see it here:
The production vlog will probably be the next thing I release, followed by Episode 5 itself.
Beyond the release of Episode 7, I don't really have any fixed plans for Papercuts; I'm open to doing more episodes in 2014 or later, but it all depends on getting scripts ready.
The next few projects: Fifteen-Minute Fortresses, Inanimate HD and The Murkum Show Series 2
This part is subject to change, but here's what I'm currently thinking in terms of my next work beyond Papercuts 7:
First up, you may or may not remember a little video I did earlier this year, titled The Fifteen-Minute Fortress? Well, I might do a couple more of those. Revise the parameters of the exercise, but still keep it broadly similar in spirit. Watch this space.
Meanwhile, thinking even further back, you might recall my five-minute live-action short Inanimate from 2006. This summer, armed with a vastly better camera and a friend who knew how to make said camera behave itself, I staged a remake of the film, now in shiny HD and starring Tim. At some point, I need to knuckle down and edit the thing, and once the edit's complete, I'll take the logical next step and release the film. Inanimate HD is rather more definite than Fifteen-Minute Fortress II, mostly because it's already been filmed, but the editing process could prove to be rather slow.
Tim Johnston in the new version of Inanimate
And finally, the third and probably biggest thing on my near-future-projects slate is a second season of The Murkum Show. The first was a lot of fun to make, and there's a lot of momentum building up for the second: I've already got a good idea of what the set will look like, and got seven episode scripts lined up (fun fact: all four of the people who wrote for Series 1 have already got scripts in the queue for Series 2). It's very unlikely that Murkum Show S2 will see the light of day before next year, what with the work that remains to be done on my current projects, but I'm 98% sure it'll be happening in the first half of 2014.
Doctor Murkum in a recent adventure - expect more in early 2014
Other stuff that may or may not happen next year
I've got a few other bits and pieces on the go. These include Improbable (a very odd little cel short, which I released a teaser clip for several months ago), Empire of the Pond (a remake of Fishy Business, a 2003 short whose storyline I thought was alright, but whose animation was so embarrassingly bad that I'm never going to let you see it), and a perhaps-over-ambitious CGI production titled Golden Cube, about a robot who works in a strange, futuristic dolly-mixtures factory. No particular release schedules for any of those yet, but since I'm publishing the slate, it seems only fair to mention that they're on it - albeit down at the bottom.
No, it won't start making any more sense when you see the finished film.
- The Colclough
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Faster than a Speeding Camera Shutter
You know how they say animation is usually a slow process?
In my last post, about two-and-a-half weeks ago, I introduced you to a little project called The Murkum Show. At that point, I had finished Episodes 1 to 3, got Episodes 4 to 6 in pre-production, and written Episode 7, and I had no real idea of how long the series would continue.
Well, in the world of The Murkum Show, it seems that two-and-a-half weeks can be quite a long time. I've now finished Episodes 1 to 9 and got Episodes 10 to 15 either written or mostly-written, with various contributions from Tim, Sarah and Sam - and we'd got ahead of ourselves a bit, and started writing material for Series 2 already, so I've decided that it's time to close script submissions and lock down the episode lineup for Series 1.
I admit that I might have cheated a little by having the episodes be so short, but it's rather gratifying to have a series progressing so fast for once, instead of the snail-esque crawl that my animation work usually moves at.
There's a huge amount of Murk Army back-story which would be very hard to publish due to its rambling nature and the disparate formats it's been written in, but there are certain frequently-revisited elements which have found their way into The Murkum Show - one example being Murkum's hopeless attempts at motivational speeches, like the one in Episode 3 Headlong Dash ("War is... um... war!"); various others will be cropping up in later episodes, and although their in-joke nature might not be apparent to the casual viewer, it's rather satisfying for me (and I think for Tim and Sarah as well) to have them in there.
Here are Episodes 2 to 4. Enjoy - and tune back in next Saturday for Episode 5 I Want the Droids!
- The Colclough
In my last post, about two-and-a-half weeks ago, I introduced you to a little project called The Murkum Show. At that point, I had finished Episodes 1 to 3, got Episodes 4 to 6 in pre-production, and written Episode 7, and I had no real idea of how long the series would continue.
Well, in the world of The Murkum Show, it seems that two-and-a-half weeks can be quite a long time. I've now finished Episodes 1 to 9 and got Episodes 10 to 15 either written or mostly-written, with various contributions from Tim, Sarah and Sam - and we'd got ahead of ourselves a bit, and started writing material for Series 2 already, so I've decided that it's time to close script submissions and lock down the episode lineup for Series 1.
I admit that I might have cheated a little by having the episodes be so short, but it's rather gratifying to have a series progressing so fast for once, instead of the snail-esque crawl that my animation work usually moves at.
There's a huge amount of Murk Army back-story which would be very hard to publish due to its rambling nature and the disparate formats it's been written in, but there are certain frequently-revisited elements which have found their way into The Murkum Show - one example being Murkum's hopeless attempts at motivational speeches, like the one in Episode 3 Headlong Dash ("War is... um... war!"); various others will be cropping up in later episodes, and although their in-joke nature might not be apparent to the casual viewer, it's rather satisfying for me (and I think for Tim and Sarah as well) to have them in there.
Here are Episodes 2 to 4. Enjoy - and tune back in next Saturday for Episode 5 I Want the Droids!
- The Colclough
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Videos from March
I've uploaded a couple of videos this month, and forgotten to put them on here at the time, so this post is a little end-of-month roundup of videos that should have been on here earlier...
Made second but posted first: The Fifteen-Minute Fortress, in which I do some rambly bloggy stuff, intercut with footage of me trying to build a Lego castle thing (of sorts) in 15 minutes flat. Watch below, and judge for yourself whether or not it was any kind of success - and what the answer might be to the question about a sequel which I pose at the end...
Made first (shot in October, in fact, and finished in February) but posted second: X-Battles GT5: Exploding, in which some Lego (wait, thematic connection going on here!) characters have a fight with laser weapons. Produced in conjunction with Tim and Sarah, and all rather fun to make.
- The Colclough
Made second but posted first: The Fifteen-Minute Fortress, in which I do some rambly bloggy stuff, intercut with footage of me trying to build a Lego castle thing (of sorts) in 15 minutes flat. Watch below, and judge for yourself whether or not it was any kind of success - and what the answer might be to the question about a sequel which I pose at the end...
Made first (shot in October, in fact, and finished in February) but posted second: X-Battles GT5: Exploding, in which some Lego (wait, thematic connection going on here!) characters have a fight with laser weapons. Produced in conjunction with Tim and Sarah, and all rather fun to make.
- The Colclough
Thursday, 7 February 2013
About That Letterbox of Yours
You remember in my last post I told the Root Hill types among you to watch your letterboxes for incoming DVDs?
I know for a fact that none of you will have got what you're watching for yet.
I swear it's not for lack of trying. I've printed all the address labels and everything, and I would dearly love to get the things in the post.
But can I get anybody to sell me fifteen DVD-box-size padded postpacks at anything like a sensible price? Yeah, right. Last year I got them in 3-packs from Tesco, which worked out at 33p per envelope. Fair enough. This year, Tesco have been out of stock for weeks (literally, weeks), while the post office only had half the number I needed, and were after £1.39 each for them! Combining that with the amount postage has gone up in the last 12 months, I could almost make a loss just on the post and packaging.
Still got one or two other ideas on where I might be able to try, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet.
So the long and short of it is that you can relax your letterbox-watching vigilance, because the DVDs haven't been posted. I am very, very sorry for the delay.
- The Colclough
I know for a fact that none of you will have got what you're watching for yet.
I swear it's not for lack of trying. I've printed all the address labels and everything, and I would dearly love to get the things in the post.
But can I get anybody to sell me fifteen DVD-box-size padded postpacks at anything like a sensible price? Yeah, right. Last year I got them in 3-packs from Tesco, which worked out at 33p per envelope. Fair enough. This year, Tesco have been out of stock for weeks (literally, weeks), while the post office only had half the number I needed, and were after £1.39 each for them! Combining that with the amount postage has gone up in the last 12 months, I could almost make a loss just on the post and packaging.
Still got one or two other ideas on where I might be able to try, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet.
So the long and short of it is that you can relax your letterbox-watching vigilance, because the DVDs haven't been posted. I am very, very sorry for the delay.
- The Colclough
Saturday, 2 February 2013
Things Achieved: First of February
Morning: got pinched and punched for the first of the month, by one of the accountants. Not sure that really counts as an achievement, but I think it was a first for me, so there you go. Apparently I have to remember to say 'White Rabbit' before she has a chance to attack me on the first of March, to forestall the pinching and punching. As the Americans say, go figure.
Afternoon: unpacked the future out of its little cardboard boxes and put it on the shelves. 'The future' as in the future of household lighting, in case you're wondering. We'd taken delivery of a new range of LED bulbs, and as Kings' employee-most-known-for-being-paranoid-about-the-light-bulb-shelves, it fell to me to help optimise the shelf layout, produce and implant the colour-coded shelf edging strips (they're really nice edging strips, if I say so myself; I should have taken a photo), and put all of the relevant information into the till database. I also made a promotional page for the shop's website as well, which you can see here.
They're rather expensive (prices starting at £9.99 for one bulb), but with the up-to-25-year lifespan and the 80% energy saving, they will more than pay for themselves. The lifespan and the efficiency are the same advantages touted for those ugly compact-fluorescent bulbs over the last few years; but the LEDs have more: they turn on instantly - you don't have to wait for ages between throwing the switch and getting some light - and the bulbs actually look decent, unlike the hideous convoluted bulkiness of a CFL. I'm rather looking forward to the day the CFL becomes extinct and LED bulbs take over the world.
Evening: finished making the DVD copies of Root Hill on Camera 2012. Really. Pictures to prove it:
Now I just need to put the blighters in the post. Watch your letterboxes.
- The Colclough
Afternoon: unpacked the future out of its little cardboard boxes and put it on the shelves. 'The future' as in the future of household lighting, in case you're wondering. We'd taken delivery of a new range of LED bulbs, and as Kings' employee-most-known-for-being-paranoid-about-the-light-bulb-shelves, it fell to me to help optimise the shelf layout, produce and implant the colour-coded shelf edging strips (they're really nice edging strips, if I say so myself; I should have taken a photo), and put all of the relevant information into the till database. I also made a promotional page for the shop's website as well, which you can see here.
They're rather expensive (prices starting at £9.99 for one bulb), but with the up-to-25-year lifespan and the 80% energy saving, they will more than pay for themselves. The lifespan and the efficiency are the same advantages touted for those ugly compact-fluorescent bulbs over the last few years; but the LEDs have more: they turn on instantly - you don't have to wait for ages between throwing the switch and getting some light - and the bulbs actually look decent, unlike the hideous convoluted bulkiness of a CFL. I'm rather looking forward to the day the CFL becomes extinct and LED bulbs take over the world.
Evening: finished making the DVD copies of Root Hill on Camera 2012. Really. Pictures to prove it:
The stack of finished DVDs
Preview of the main menu
Now I just need to put the blighters in the post. Watch your letterboxes.
- The Colclough
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
It Also Animates!
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was given a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet as a Christmas present, and I showed off my first piece of serious Bamboo-based artwork. Today I decided to move ahead with another semi-related project which I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks: an experimental animation using the Bamboo, the GIMP and Sony Vegas. I started drawing the test scene this morning, and finished animating it around mid-afternoon, and it came out looking like this:
As rumoured in the aforementioned previous post, the clip features Elbows Dude, a heavily-stylised character who had featured in just one previous work, a one-off comic strip from 2006 which was called The Short Adventure of Elbows Dude and was about Elbows Dude flexing his elbows a lot and generally being in a comic strip. That's him in the picture above - no, he's the green one, silly; the purple ones are dead cows. And to satisfy the historically-curious among you, here's his debut outing:
Fun fact: I've never published that thing before, perhaps because I thought nobody would get it.
I've got a few other Elbows Dude-related story ideas drifting around, which have been festering in my head since about 2010, and now (along with today's segment) have semi-congealed into something approaching a plot, albeit a really surreal one. Hence the clip I've just made will - hopefully - go on to serve as the opening of a larger production.
Now, I could be all mean and make you wait for the whole film to come out, but I'm not feeling mean today. So rather than keep you all on tenterhooks waiting to find out what the animation actually looks like, I decided to use the existing segment as a teaser trailer for the film. Alright, hush the clamour already - here's your video:
Confused? Yeah. Me too. I have no idea why it's raining cows in there.
Just you wait until you see the rest...
- The Colclough
As rumoured in the aforementioned previous post, the clip features Elbows Dude, a heavily-stylised character who had featured in just one previous work, a one-off comic strip from 2006 which was called The Short Adventure of Elbows Dude and was about Elbows Dude flexing his elbows a lot and generally being in a comic strip. That's him in the picture above - no, he's the green one, silly; the purple ones are dead cows. And to satisfy the historically-curious among you, here's his debut outing:
Fun fact: I've never published that thing before, perhaps because I thought nobody would get it.
I've got a few other Elbows Dude-related story ideas drifting around, which have been festering in my head since about 2010, and now (along with today's segment) have semi-congealed into something approaching a plot, albeit a really surreal one. Hence the clip I've just made will - hopefully - go on to serve as the opening of a larger production.
Now, I could be all mean and make you wait for the whole film to come out, but I'm not feeling mean today. So rather than keep you all on tenterhooks waiting to find out what the animation actually looks like, I decided to use the existing segment as a teaser trailer for the film. Alright, hush the clamour already - here's your video:
Confused? Yeah. Me too. I have no idea why it's raining cows in there.
Just you wait until you see the rest...
- The Colclough
Friday, 25 January 2013
Trailerish
Having mentioned in my last post that I've finished video editing for Root Hill on Camera 2012, it occurred to me that I should stick the trailer on ye blog, for completeness' sake if nothing else.
Not much else to say here right now, only the trailer. And if you didn't like it, then just be grateful you didn't see the first draft. It was pretty terrible.
Normal blogging service will resume whenever it resumes.
- The Colclough
Not much else to say here right now, only the trailer. And if you didn't like it, then just be grateful you didn't see the first draft. It was pretty terrible.
Normal blogging service will resume whenever it resumes.
- The Colclough
Thursday, 24 January 2013
What the Wacom Can Do
After a minor case of unsubtle hinting, I was given a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet for Christmas. I hadn't really used graphics tablets much before, and my last attempt (borrowing Tim's tablet, which is also a Wacom) produced this rather unimpressive bit of scribble:
However, I was pretty sure that my initial failures were just teething trouble. After all, I spent my first two or three weeks in The GIMP being hopelessly confused and (whisper it!) almost missing Photoshop, of all things - before it suddenly clicked one day, and I've been using the program for all sorts of things ever since. I expected a similar thing would happen with the tablet, if I had one of my own and was able to get some practice.
It looks like I expected right. This morning, I finished this (a rather better piece of scribble, if I say so myself):
I almost crashed GIMP during the production process, as the image had so many layers; in the end I fixed the problem by separating the thing out into three different files - one with the initial compositional layers, a second to tidy up the line art, and a third to add the colour. You can see a higher-resolution version of the finished picture on my DeviantArt page, and you might notice it cropping up as my new avatar on DeviantArt and on Steam.
Where next? Well - here's a bit of good news for the Root Hill attendees among you - I'm very nearly finished the Root Hill On Camera 2012 DVD: the video segments are rendered, the disc menus are authored, and the print components have been designed. All that remains is to produce the physical copies and get them in the post. And once that little project (little... haha, right) is off my slate, I'm planning to try and get back to animating something. So many ideas drifting around right now, including Papercuts episodes 5 onwards (waiting on script delivery from a guest writer or two), Arbitrary Stopframe Series 2 (waiting on... um... me getting round to it), The Murkum Show (working title, waiting on me figuring out what it's actually about apart from having lots of Doctor Murkum in it), and the long-planned Fishy Business remake Empire of the Pond (which has recently seen some movement on the test-illustrations front). But more recently, the idea occurred to me that I should try doing a quick-and-dirty (that fatal phrase...) graphics-tablet cel animation featuring my little-known character Elbows Dude in a variety of improbable scrapes, which he solves with his elbow powers. Right now, I honestly don't know which route I'll be going down next, but all five of them have some appeal, so I'll hopefully be picking one and getting down to business before too long. Watch this space!
- The Colclough
A concept sketch for Fort Paradox 115: my first graphics-tablet drawing. Srsly.
However, I was pretty sure that my initial failures were just teething trouble. After all, I spent my first two or three weeks in The GIMP being hopelessly confused and (whisper it!) almost missing Photoshop, of all things - before it suddenly clicked one day, and I've been using the program for all sorts of things ever since. I expected a similar thing would happen with the tablet, if I had one of my own and was able to get some practice.
It looks like I expected right. This morning, I finished this (a rather better piece of scribble, if I say so myself):
Blue in the Firelight, January 2013
I almost crashed GIMP during the production process, as the image had so many layers; in the end I fixed the problem by separating the thing out into three different files - one with the initial compositional layers, a second to tidy up the line art, and a third to add the colour. You can see a higher-resolution version of the finished picture on my DeviantArt page, and you might notice it cropping up as my new avatar on DeviantArt and on Steam.
Where next? Well - here's a bit of good news for the Root Hill attendees among you - I'm very nearly finished the Root Hill On Camera 2012 DVD: the video segments are rendered, the disc menus are authored, and the print components have been designed. All that remains is to produce the physical copies and get them in the post. And once that little project (little... haha, right) is off my slate, I'm planning to try and get back to animating something. So many ideas drifting around right now, including Papercuts episodes 5 onwards (waiting on script delivery from a guest writer or two), Arbitrary Stopframe Series 2 (waiting on... um... me getting round to it), The Murkum Show (working title, waiting on me figuring out what it's actually about apart from having lots of Doctor Murkum in it), and the long-planned Fishy Business remake Empire of the Pond (which has recently seen some movement on the test-illustrations front). But more recently, the idea occurred to me that I should try doing a quick-and-dirty (that fatal phrase...) graphics-tablet cel animation featuring my little-known character Elbows Dude in a variety of improbable scrapes, which he solves with his elbow powers. Right now, I honestly don't know which route I'll be going down next, but all five of them have some appeal, so I'll hopefully be picking one and getting down to business before too long. Watch this space!
- The Colclough
Saturday, 8 December 2012
The Storm Has Subsided
My goodness, that was slow and awkward. Script written in February, voices recorded in June, and it still took until December to complete the fourth episode of Papercuts. I usually count the production time from the voice recording session, which gives Pedroelectric a total of nearly six months, shattering the four-month record set by Episode 2 Germination Without Authorisation back in the summer.
I think the killer factor was the technical complexity - or rather, not so much the technical complexity in itself, but more the fact that the complexity made the task seem more daunting, and put me off from knuckling down and getting on with it. As I wrote in the episode's YouTube description: don't write animation scripts with thunderstorms in them. The rain, thunder and lightning did nothing to ease the convoluted process of bringing this story to the screen. This might have been a good opportunity to point out that unlike the previous three instalments, which I wrote myself, this one was co-scripted by Tim... but then again I don't think I can shift the blame for the thunderstorm, as that was my idea anyway. Tim was the one who suggested that they should be watching TV, and that Pedro should be sent up the aerial to fix it, and that the Captain should try to make some commercial use of Pedro's electrified condition, but I have to hold up my hand and admit that the basic concept of Pedro getting electrified in a thunderstorm was entirely my fault.
The previous three episodes were achieved almost entirely through an honest-to-goodness single-pass cutout process (the passage-of-time ideograms and the space scene in Episode 3 Jalapeno to the Skies were exceptions), with any given frame usually being a single unaltered photo. But this time round, something like half of the film comprises multi-layered material, with the stuff on the TV screen, the rain, the various lightning flashes and electric sparks, and the non-speaking extra in the penultimate scene all being either composited or outright computer-generated after the fact. That probably went a long way towards slowing me down, because it not only requires twice the amount of material to be shot, but requires both plates to be designed with a view to synchronising them in post. It's finnicky enough designing a set to function at the right scale and so on even when it's only for a single-layer shot.
But as I also mentioned in the YouTube description, I think it was worth the effort. Not only am I pleased with the storyline, I also think Pedroelectric has turned out as the most visually interesting episode to date, and perhaps the most aurally interesting as well.
The soundscape includes all sorts of weird and wonderful things this time round: a rainstick, a sheet of cartridge paper (the lounge set, as a matter of fact), white noise artificially generated by Audacity 2, a stapler, a cushion borrowed from our leather sofa being smacked really hard with a metre stick, my grandparents' un-lubricated driveway gate several years ago, the plug of the family vacuum cleaner (you wouldn't believe how hard it was to record the sound of a cable being picked up or put down), me eating Doritos a lot louder than I usually do, and me doing a move which I can only describe as trying to spit as sharply as possible from somewhere underneath my tongue. Also watch out for Millimetre's dialogue - somewhere in this episode is the first occasion where I actually thought about what he's trying to say, and based his screeches off an actual sentence or two. I'd be very interested to hear whether you can figure out where or what any of these items are...
Musically, Pedroelectric retains the main theme as usual, and revisits Pedro's heroic sting from Episode 1 Lemon Juice for the Captain, but also introduces the longest new piece of incidental music to date, titled Windmill and Flower. I don't know if the show the trio are watching on their TV is a documentary about green energy (which is what the script says) or if it's metamorphosed into a really bizarre meta-cartoon within the cartoon, per Itchy & Scratchy. I'll leave it to you to decide which interpretation of Windmill and Flower you prefer.
It seems I never got round to embedding Episodes 2 or 3 on the blog, so I'll do that first, and then wrap up the proceedings for today with the debut of Episode 4:
- The Colclough
I think the killer factor was the technical complexity - or rather, not so much the technical complexity in itself, but more the fact that the complexity made the task seem more daunting, and put me off from knuckling down and getting on with it. As I wrote in the episode's YouTube description: don't write animation scripts with thunderstorms in them. The rain, thunder and lightning did nothing to ease the convoluted process of bringing this story to the screen. This might have been a good opportunity to point out that unlike the previous three instalments, which I wrote myself, this one was co-scripted by Tim... but then again I don't think I can shift the blame for the thunderstorm, as that was my idea anyway. Tim was the one who suggested that they should be watching TV, and that Pedro should be sent up the aerial to fix it, and that the Captain should try to make some commercial use of Pedro's electrified condition, but I have to hold up my hand and admit that the basic concept of Pedro getting electrified in a thunderstorm was entirely my fault.
The previous three episodes were achieved almost entirely through an honest-to-goodness single-pass cutout process (the passage-of-time ideograms and the space scene in Episode 3 Jalapeno to the Skies were exceptions), with any given frame usually being a single unaltered photo. But this time round, something like half of the film comprises multi-layered material, with the stuff on the TV screen, the rain, the various lightning flashes and electric sparks, and the non-speaking extra in the penultimate scene all being either composited or outright computer-generated after the fact. That probably went a long way towards slowing me down, because it not only requires twice the amount of material to be shot, but requires both plates to be designed with a view to synchronising them in post. It's finnicky enough designing a set to function at the right scale and so on even when it's only for a single-layer shot.
But as I also mentioned in the YouTube description, I think it was worth the effort. Not only am I pleased with the storyline, I also think Pedroelectric has turned out as the most visually interesting episode to date, and perhaps the most aurally interesting as well.
The soundscape includes all sorts of weird and wonderful things this time round: a rainstick, a sheet of cartridge paper (the lounge set, as a matter of fact), white noise artificially generated by Audacity 2, a stapler, a cushion borrowed from our leather sofa being smacked really hard with a metre stick, my grandparents' un-lubricated driveway gate several years ago, the plug of the family vacuum cleaner (you wouldn't believe how hard it was to record the sound of a cable being picked up or put down), me eating Doritos a lot louder than I usually do, and me doing a move which I can only describe as trying to spit as sharply as possible from somewhere underneath my tongue. Also watch out for Millimetre's dialogue - somewhere in this episode is the first occasion where I actually thought about what he's trying to say, and based his screeches off an actual sentence or two. I'd be very interested to hear whether you can figure out where or what any of these items are...
Musically, Pedroelectric retains the main theme as usual, and revisits Pedro's heroic sting from Episode 1 Lemon Juice for the Captain, but also introduces the longest new piece of incidental music to date, titled Windmill and Flower. I don't know if the show the trio are watching on their TV is a documentary about green energy (which is what the script says) or if it's metamorphosed into a really bizarre meta-cartoon within the cartoon, per Itchy & Scratchy. I'll leave it to you to decide which interpretation of Windmill and Flower you prefer.
It seems I never got round to embedding Episodes 2 or 3 on the blog, so I'll do that first, and then wrap up the proceedings for today with the debut of Episode 4:
- The Colclough
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Filming Report: Day Four
It's taking longer than I expected.
After four days' filming, I've managed to get through most of the 20-second-long title sequence, about half of Episode 1, and three short scenes for Episode 2. There have been a lot of things taking up time, but the real killer so far has been the 'sets' - I've had to complete the main exterior and dining-room interior backgrounds before I can make any episodes at all, and they've taken forever.
The good news is that those two - which will almost certainly be the largest and most troublesome drawings in the whole project - are now finished, and both have been used for some filming. There's a third major set which I need to complete before I can film the last component for the title sequence, but it hopefully won't be as big as its two predecessors.
Quick breakdown of what happened on which day:
And once I've animated both episodes, then I just need to do some extra sound effects recording, and wait for the music to be delivered.
And then I've got two more scripts lined up for the second production block.
More preview pictures coming when I get round to it.
Y'all had better appreciate this blasted toon when it comes out...
- The Colclough
After four days' filming, I've managed to get through most of the 20-second-long title sequence, about half of Episode 1, and three short scenes for Episode 2. There have been a lot of things taking up time, but the real killer so far has been the 'sets' - I've had to complete the main exterior and dining-room interior backgrounds before I can make any episodes at all, and they've taken forever.
The good news is that those two - which will almost certainly be the largest and most troublesome drawings in the whole project - are now finished, and both have been used for some filming. There's a third major set which I need to complete before I can film the last component for the title sequence, but it hopefully won't be as big as its two predecessors.
Quick breakdown of what happened on which day:
- Parts of the title sequence using blank backgrounds; main title photo; two 'ideogram' elements (a clock and a calendar, used to denote the passage of time instead of captions saying 'ten minutes later' or whatever)
- Scenes on the main exterior set for title sequence and Episode 1
- Ep 1 scene 3 (drystone wall cameo set); Ep 2 scenes 3, 5 and 9 (wait and see!)
- Ep 1 scene 2 (dining room)
And once I've animated both episodes, then I just need to do some extra sound effects recording, and wait for the music to be delivered.
And then I've got two more scripts lined up for the second production block.
More preview pictures coming when I get round to it.
Y'all had better appreciate this blasted toon when it comes out...
- The Colclough
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Preview Time for the Third Time
Root Hill 2011 was my sixth year attending the camp, and my third time as official videographer. As per last year, I documented events with my Sony camera, and edited the footage in Sony Vegas. Yes, there's a bit of a Sony theme going on there, despite the fact that Dad works for arch-rivals Samsung. And as per both of the previous years I videoed (2008 and 2010), I have made a little trailer.
It's a bit different to my last two Root Hill on Camera trailers, this time using a pared-down "less is more" approach. But I think that's a good thing, as it wouldn't do to just keep repeating the same old ideas and let them go stale. Those of you who weren't there will probably be hopelessly confused, but for those who were: I hope you'll enjoy it.
Two things to watch out for in the trailer:
Just a bit of DVD menu authoring and disc burning to go, and then it's on to the post & packaging!
Okay, there wasn't much text in this post. But then again, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and Vegas tells me there are 2376 frames in this video, which - at least in theory - means it's worth approximately 2.4 million words. And I think there should be bonus points awarded for Root-Hill-relatedness, maybe...
Statisticables, again:
- The Colclough
It's a bit different to my last two Root Hill on Camera trailers, this time using a pared-down "less is more" approach. But I think that's a good thing, as it wouldn't do to just keep repeating the same old ideas and let them go stale. Those of you who weren't there will probably be hopelessly confused, but for those who were: I hope you'll enjoy it.
Two things to watch out for in the trailer:
- Josh's reduced afro.
- The Mistake. There's at least one 'error' that I'm aware of, but I decided I liked it so I let it stay. I'll be interested to see if any of you can work out what I'm on about.
Just a bit of DVD menu authoring and disc burning to go, and then it's on to the post & packaging!
Okay, there wasn't much text in this post. But then again, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and Vegas tells me there are 2376 frames in this video, which - at least in theory - means it's worth approximately 2.4 million words. And I think there should be bonus points awarded for Root-Hill-relatedness, maybe...
Statisticables, again:
- First 12 for '12 status: 4 down, 8 to go - still at the back, but closing the gap
- Latest book read: still A Brit Different
- Latest film/TV watched: still Sherlock
- Latest music listened to: Ode to Jim by Phil & Has, as featured in the Root Hill on Camera 2011 trailer
- Latest edible item eaten: still that hot chocolate
- Predominant colour of clothes: same stuff as earlier today
- Programs and web pages currently running: Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Firefox (tabs: MatNav 6.1; Blogspot Dashboard; Blogspot Create Post)
- Webcomics posted today: n/a
- The Colclough
Saturday, 26 November 2011
Not Having That One Come True
I don't usually act on the content of my dreams. I usually disregard them within minutes of waking up, and proceed with my day as if the night's imagined shenanigans had never happened - which, of course, they actually never have (except as an illusion inside my dozy head).
But today, I made an exception to this generally-hard-and-fast rule.
I had a dream last night where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the next Root Hill camp (this might have been brought on by the fact that a booking form for said camp turned up in the post yesterday morning). For reasons nobody bothered to explain, the 'Root Hill' camp wasn't at Root Hill at all, but in some sprawling, very badly designed conference centre. But the main weight on my mind was that, what with it only being the end of November at the moment, this meant the event was taking place some nine months early, and I ended up trying (somewhat awkwardly) to explain to people that I was still working on the camp video from last time. I remember wondering what happened to all that editing time I should have had. All those months...
And then, after briefly catching sight of someone in my peripheral vision who may or may not have been Ellie off Countryfile, I woke up. And having woken up, I thought: no way to I want to let that happen.
So I fired up Sony Vegas after breakfast, and did some more work on the video. I've confronted the huge blob of football footage which I'd been dreading for weeks and I've beaten it into shape (I don't know why, but it always seems to be very easy to just stand there and let the camera roll and roll and roll when there's football going on, but it's never so much fun to watch the stuff back), and I've chosen a couple of little snippets from the concert to feature in the main highlights reel (not too much of it though, as the whole concert is included on the DVD as a separate video track), and I've tidied up most if not all of the odd loose-end clips that were scattered through my raw footage bin. Today has felt like a very definite slice of progress.
Whether or not you (the Root Hill-ers who ordered a DVD off me, that is) get to see the fruits of my labour this side of Christmas is still up in the air, but if you don't, then it'll hopefully not be too far into the new year.
- The Colclough
But today, I made an exception to this generally-hard-and-fast rule.
I had a dream last night where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the next Root Hill camp (this might have been brought on by the fact that a booking form for said camp turned up in the post yesterday morning). For reasons nobody bothered to explain, the 'Root Hill' camp wasn't at Root Hill at all, but in some sprawling, very badly designed conference centre. But the main weight on my mind was that, what with it only being the end of November at the moment, this meant the event was taking place some nine months early, and I ended up trying (somewhat awkwardly) to explain to people that I was still working on the camp video from last time. I remember wondering what happened to all that editing time I should have had. All those months...
And then, after briefly catching sight of someone in my peripheral vision who may or may not have been Ellie off Countryfile, I woke up. And having woken up, I thought: no way to I want to let that happen.
So I fired up Sony Vegas after breakfast, and did some more work on the video. I've confronted the huge blob of football footage which I'd been dreading for weeks and I've beaten it into shape (I don't know why, but it always seems to be very easy to just stand there and let the camera roll and roll and roll when there's football going on, but it's never so much fun to watch the stuff back), and I've chosen a couple of little snippets from the concert to feature in the main highlights reel (not too much of it though, as the whole concert is included on the DVD as a separate video track), and I've tidied up most if not all of the odd loose-end clips that were scattered through my raw footage bin. Today has felt like a very definite slice of progress.
Whether or not you (the Root Hill-ers who ordered a DVD off me, that is) get to see the fruits of my labour this side of Christmas is still up in the air, but if you don't, then it'll hopefully not be too far into the new year.
- The Colclough
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Stuff I Made: September 2011
Been a while since I did one of those several-different-paragraphs-on-unrelated-subjects blogs...
1) Arbitrary Stopframe: I mentioned the other week that I was working on an idea for Episode 11. Here it is.
2) Painting: did a little painting the other day, experimenting with paint surface effects and trying to make it look like running water, but I forgot to photograph it yet. Also did more to the kingfisher - new photo follows.
3) Root Hill on Camera 2011: pretty much finished editing the Concert reel (runtime circa 70 minutes). Might go back in and add some video filters on one little segment, but otherwise I think the Concert's all done and dusted.
4) Writing Megastropulodon: now nearly 2/3 of the way through the third draft for the opening episode. Haven't decided yet whether my next move will be the third draft for Episode 5, or starting work on a first draft for Episode 2.
- The Colclough
1) Arbitrary Stopframe: I mentioned the other week that I was working on an idea for Episode 11. Here it is.
2) Painting: did a little painting the other day, experimenting with paint surface effects and trying to make it look like running water, but I forgot to photograph it yet. Also did more to the kingfisher - new photo follows.
Untitled Kingfisher Painting - now with some paint on the kingfisher!
3) Root Hill on Camera 2011: pretty much finished editing the Concert reel (runtime circa 70 minutes). Might go back in and add some video filters on one little segment, but otherwise I think the Concert's all done and dusted.
4) Writing Megastropulodon: now nearly 2/3 of the way through the third draft for the opening episode. Haven't decided yet whether my next move will be the third draft for Episode 5, or starting work on a first draft for Episode 2.
- The Colclough
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Ready to Burn
More good news for the Root Hill crowd: I've just finished engineering the DVD and designing the packaging. All that remains now is to burn the the data onto the discs, print the paper bits, and assemble the cases.
And of course, do battle with Royal Mail in a gallant effort to get the things into your letterboxes.
For those of you who bothered to order a copy (all 16 of you), here's a couple of sneak-preview pictures of what you can expect to receive soon so long as RM don't mess up and lose all my packages like they did last time I sent DVDs by post. For those who didn't, here's a tantalising glimpse of what you're missing out on this year (mind you, it's not too late to place an order)...
By the time I've got everything in the post, it'll be about 4-and-a-half months since RH 2010, although production time has been closer to 3-and-a-half, as I didn't even start editing until the beginning of October. Which all means I've done the job a lot faster than I did last time (the RH 2008 DVD took me 6 months). And the really nice bit is that I'm pretty sure I've done it better this time round. More / better achievement in less time. That feels good.
If / when your discs arrive, I'd be very interested to hear what you think of them - anything I should have done differently? Any bits that go on too long? Anything you wanted to see more of? (Apart from the Yorkshire Pizza of Death - that was censored for health-and-safety reasons. I didn't want to be running up psychiatrists' bills.)
8]
And finally, my stats...
- The Colclough
And of course, do battle with Royal Mail in a gallant effort to get the things into your letterboxes.
For those of you who bothered to order a copy (all 16 of you), here's a couple of sneak-preview pictures of what you can expect to receive soon so long as RM don't mess up and lose all my packages like they did last time I sent DVDs by post. For those who didn't, here's a tantalising glimpse of what you're missing out on this year (mind you, it's not too late to place an order)...
The front cover of the box...
...and the main menu
By the time I've got everything in the post, it'll be about 4-and-a-half months since RH 2010, although production time has been closer to 3-and-a-half, as I didn't even start editing until the beginning of October. Which all means I've done the job a lot faster than I did last time (the RH 2008 DVD took me 6 months). And the really nice bit is that I'm pretty sure I've done it better this time round. More / better achievement in less time. That feels good.
If / when your discs arrive, I'd be very interested to hear what you think of them - anything I should have done differently? Any bits that go on too long? Anything you wanted to see more of? (Apart from the Yorkshire Pizza of Death - that was censored for health-and-safety reasons. I didn't want to be running up psychiatrists' bills.)
8]
And finally, my stats...
- 11 For 11 status: 3 down, 8 to go - which means I'm currently winning by 1 post. *deranged cackle*
- Latest book read: The Runaway Train (first draft) by Hannah Newcombe
- Latest film/TV watched: Pixar: 25 Magic Moments
- Latest music listened to: The NeverEnding Story OST by Klaus Doldinger & Giorgio Moroder (1984)
- Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: a yellow fruit pastille - preceded by other fruit pastilles!
- Programs and web pages currently running: Word 2007, Outlook 2007, Windows Explorer, Firefox (tabs: MatNav x2, Blogspot Create Post; hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com)
- Webcomics posted today: Cylinder and Miserable #1119
- The Colclough
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Off to a good start...
So, first blog of the new year. Hmm. Popular culture will no doubt regard 2011 as the second year of 'the 2010s', but strictly speaking today is the first day of a new decade - the 202nd Decade AD, specifically. Just thought I'd point that one out, as I'm the sort of geek who knows that sort of thing.
Anyway, pedantry aside - I've challenged Hannah 'LikesSheepBaa' to a race, to see who would be the first to write their first 11 blog posts for 2011. I'm starting to wonder if this was a mistake, as she's published 2 already and I'm still sitting here writing the first one. So, obviously, things are going pretty well!
In my last post, I promised a photo of my painting. In fact, I have now finished two - I started the second one yesterday, and finished it this morning. Its mad-science theme was inspired by the fact that while I've been sloshing my acrylics around, my little sister has been busy making soap things at the far end of the room, and making the air a lot less breathable than usual. Here are the pictures:
Yes, those are project numbers in CSS-esque hexadecimal notation in the bottom-right corners. Just because I can.
Meanwhile back in the computer world, I've been making progress with the long-awaited remastering of Martian Medicine. The third (and the way things are going, probably last) chapter of the Martian Ballet saga has been offline for a couple of years now, following its takedown from YouTube after WMG got stroppy about the fact that I'd borrowed a few seconds of score from The Lord of the Rings. I've now remastered the film in 720p HD in Sony Vegas, using the original 576p raw renders where they still exist, and new 720p raw renders where the old ones were lost. I've also de-hissed the dialogue recordings (the hiss levels on the original version were terrible), replaced a couple of ropy-sounding audio effect clips, and of course ditched the LOTR score in favour of a new one custom-written for Medicine by Tim Johnston. You can probably expect to see the film back online sometime in the next 48 hours, looking and sounding better than it has ever done before.
Watch this space!
Some facts and figures (required as part of the 11 For 11 challenge)...
- The Colclough
Anyway, pedantry aside - I've challenged Hannah 'LikesSheepBaa' to a race, to see who would be the first to write their first 11 blog posts for 2011. I'm starting to wonder if this was a mistake, as she's published 2 already and I'm still sitting here writing the first one. So, obviously, things are going pretty well!
In my last post, I promised a photo of my painting. In fact, I have now finished two - I started the second one yesterday, and finished it this morning. Its mad-science theme was inspired by the fact that while I've been sloshing my acrylics around, my little sister has been busy making soap things at the far end of the room, and making the air a lot less breathable than usual. Here are the pictures:
#001: First Morning
#002: Chemical Archrivals
Yes, those are project numbers in CSS-esque hexadecimal notation in the bottom-right corners. Just because I can.
Meanwhile back in the computer world, I've been making progress with the long-awaited remastering of Martian Medicine. The third (and the way things are going, probably last) chapter of the Martian Ballet saga has been offline for a couple of years now, following its takedown from YouTube after WMG got stroppy about the fact that I'd borrowed a few seconds of score from The Lord of the Rings. I've now remastered the film in 720p HD in Sony Vegas, using the original 576p raw renders where they still exist, and new 720p raw renders where the old ones were lost. I've also de-hissed the dialogue recordings (the hiss levels on the original version were terrible), replaced a couple of ropy-sounding audio effect clips, and of course ditched the LOTR score in favour of a new one custom-written for Medicine by Tim Johnston. You can probably expect to see the film back online sometime in the next 48 hours, looking and sounding better than it has ever done before.
Watch this space!
Some facts and figures (required as part of the 11 For 11 challenge)...
- Latest book read: Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures (still in progress)
- Latest film/TV watched: BBC's New Year live coverage from London (unless you count Martian Medicine?)
- Latest music listened to: Tim's new score for Martian Medicine
- Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: a white chocolate and strawberry muffin after lunch. Currently working on a mug of tea
- Programs and web pages currently running: Microsoft Office Word and Outlook 2007, Sony Vegas Platinum 9, Firefox (tabs: Blogspot Create Post; hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com; a spare tab with MatNav 6 ready to go)
- Webcomics posted today: n/a - I resume posting Cylinder and Miserable and Alien President on Monday the 3rd.
- The Colclough
Monday, 6 December 2010
The Root Hill Trailer
This one's for the RH crowd: here's the preview, at long last...
- The Colclough
- The Colclough
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Writing, Drawing, and Both
This post is basically a collection of little updates on different projects I've got on the go.
Megastropulodon, the TV Series version: I've hit writer's block with the first draft for the closing episode. Written a couple of dozen words in the last fortnight, if that. Getting annoying. It's not that I don't know what I want to happen, it's just that it doesn't want to happen on the page.
The Root Hill video: I re-did the intertitle graphics this morning, as I wasn't happy with the way they'd turned out when I did them the first time a few days ago. New version is much better. Video definitely getting there now.
My surreal semi-untitled story about a failed packet-mix salesman: going well, albeit sporadically. Wrote chapters 7 and 8 on Tuesday, which took the word count into five figures. Chapter 8 ends with one of the most random sentences ever - and it's only 3 words long, so its randomness-per-word ratio is through the roof. I do have a plan for how to start Chapter 9, which will make some sense of that random sentence, and I'm looking forward to penning it. Just haven't got round to it yet. I could email you the book so far if you ask nicely =]
Alien President: most of you probably haven't heard of this one yet. Last time I saw Tim, back in October, I asked the random question (probably influenced by sleep deprivation): "What if George Darlan became the next president of the USA?" Darlan, for those not in the know, is a notorious extraterrestrial inventor and self-proclaimed philanthropist, from Tim's webcomic Brothers in Shells. Tim seemed rather taken with the suggestion, and I've started writing a short webcomic series dealing with this bizarre hypothetical scenario. I've finished 8 episodes so far, with scripts written for quite a few more, and I'm planning to start posting the series online next week.
'The Answers': coming along nicely. Will hopefully be on here by the end of the week.
Um... yeah. I think that just about covers everything!
- The Colclough
Megastropulodon, the TV Series version: I've hit writer's block with the first draft for the closing episode. Written a couple of dozen words in the last fortnight, if that. Getting annoying. It's not that I don't know what I want to happen, it's just that it doesn't want to happen on the page.
The Root Hill video: I re-did the intertitle graphics this morning, as I wasn't happy with the way they'd turned out when I did them the first time a few days ago. New version is much better. Video definitely getting there now.
My surreal semi-untitled story about a failed packet-mix salesman: going well, albeit sporadically. Wrote chapters 7 and 8 on Tuesday, which took the word count into five figures. Chapter 8 ends with one of the most random sentences ever - and it's only 3 words long, so its randomness-per-word ratio is through the roof. I do have a plan for how to start Chapter 9, which will make some sense of that random sentence, and I'm looking forward to penning it. Just haven't got round to it yet. I could email you the book so far if you ask nicely =]
Alien President: most of you probably haven't heard of this one yet. Last time I saw Tim, back in October, I asked the random question (probably influenced by sleep deprivation): "What if George Darlan became the next president of the USA?" Darlan, for those not in the know, is a notorious extraterrestrial inventor and self-proclaimed philanthropist, from Tim's webcomic Brothers in Shells. Tim seemed rather taken with the suggestion, and I've started writing a short webcomic series dealing with this bizarre hypothetical scenario. I've finished 8 episodes so far, with scripts written for quite a few more, and I'm planning to start posting the series online next week.
'The Answers': coming along nicely. Will hopefully be on here by the end of the week.
Um... yeah. I think that just about covers everything!
- The Colclough
Monday, 15 November 2010
Find Chapel, Apply Crowbar, Remove Digger
Really.
My church is inconveniently situated on the wrong end of a dirt track running through common land, and the track is constantly getting potholed. So we've had some contractors in to rearrange the surface of our 'car park', to try and make it less lumpy. We're not allowed to use concrete or anything, but we can at least level out the unintentional scale replicas of the Alps which keep growing outside our front door.
Unless someone steals the digger, that is.
The contractors parked their mini-digger inside the church's front porch overnight, and sometime on Wednesday night, someone smashed the doors in and nicked it. As you do - y'know, stealing large machinery from chapels. Apparently it turned up again somewhere else on the common, probably having run out of diesel, but that doesn't change the fact that our doors are bashed in.
I didn't see the damage until yesterday, and it didn't look as dramatic as I'd expected... until we unscrewed the doors from the emergency framework which is holding them in place. Then one of them fell right off its hinges. So until we can get new doors made and fitted, we're going to have to come in a few minutes early for each service, get in by the back door, and take the front doors down so we've got an emergency escape route at the front of the building.
It's all covered by insurance (I'm told), but it's still going to be a lot of hassle. We'd all love to express a <sarcasm>huge debt of thanks</sarcasm> to whoever decided that it would be a nice idea to pinch some heavy plant from inside a place of worship and take it for a joyride. Clever you.
Well, it's all going to make for a very interesting interpretation of that line about forgiving your enemies, and all that...
But the good news is that the car park is a lot flatter than it used to be, so at least we won't have to traverse so many mini-Himalayas every Sunday.
Okay, rant over.
- The Colclough
PS. totally unrelated paragraph: I've just made the new (widescreen!) 2010 version of the Root Hill Films logo, which will go on the front of the video. One more thing off the checklist 8]
My church is inconveniently situated on the wrong end of a dirt track running through common land, and the track is constantly getting potholed. So we've had some contractors in to rearrange the surface of our 'car park', to try and make it less lumpy. We're not allowed to use concrete or anything, but we can at least level out the unintentional scale replicas of the Alps which keep growing outside our front door.
Unless someone steals the digger, that is.
The contractors parked their mini-digger inside the church's front porch overnight, and sometime on Wednesday night, someone smashed the doors in and nicked it. As you do - y'know, stealing large machinery from chapels. Apparently it turned up again somewhere else on the common, probably having run out of diesel, but that doesn't change the fact that our doors are bashed in.
I didn't see the damage until yesterday, and it didn't look as dramatic as I'd expected... until we unscrewed the doors from the emergency framework which is holding them in place. Then one of them fell right off its hinges. So until we can get new doors made and fitted, we're going to have to come in a few minutes early for each service, get in by the back door, and take the front doors down so we've got an emergency escape route at the front of the building.
It's all covered by insurance (I'm told), but it's still going to be a lot of hassle. We'd all love to express a <sarcasm>huge debt of thanks</sarcasm> to whoever decided that it would be a nice idea to pinch some heavy plant from inside a place of worship and take it for a joyride. Clever you.
Well, it's all going to make for a very interesting interpretation of that line about forgiving your enemies, and all that...
But the good news is that the car park is a lot flatter than it used to be, so at least we won't have to traverse so many mini-Himalayas every Sunday.
Okay, rant over.
- The Colclough
PS. totally unrelated paragraph: I've just made the new (widescreen!) 2010 version of the Root Hill Films logo, which will go on the front of the video. One more thing off the checklist 8]
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Dishonest Pixels
Warning: here follows a minor philosophical rambling on the use of video filters, following on from one paragraph of what I wrote on Tuesday.
The issue is this: sometimes, you point your camera at something, and the footage ends up looking quite different to what the human eye perceives, simply by nature of the camera. If you're seeking a verite presentation, then which is the more 'honest' approach in these situations: to leave the footage as is, and claim the moral high ground on the basis that you've left the footage exactly as the camera recorded it, or on the other hand to apply filters to make the video look more like what the human eye would have seen?
An example from my own work: about four years ago, I was making a little promotional video for the art department at my sixth form college, and I ended up filming inside the darkroom, using my camera's night-vision setting. Of course, if you're in a darkroom, the only light available is a dull red, but the camera's night-vision mode rendered the image in that familiar dodgy shade of green. The problem was easily fixed in post by applying a colour filter to turn the image from black-and-green to black-and-red again, successfully emulating the way the darkroom looks to the human eye, and rendering the camera's presence somewhat more transparent.
More recently, in the aforementioned Root Hill 2010 footage, I've adjusted the colour curves for all my glow-in-the-dark passball footage, so that the players and ball stand out better from the black background, and once again I think the altered media looks closer to what I was seeing on the field.
But can I still make the same claims to authenticity if I've tampered with the footage in post-production?
I don't pretend to have a definitive answer to this question. To be entirely honest, I'm not even sure that it matters that much. It's not as if the darkroom or RH footage will ever be used as evidence in a court of law. But Vegas just crashed (I need a RAM upgrade), and I thought I'd come on here and have a little ramble while I wait for it to start up again and reload my project. If I hadn't told you, you'd probably never have known I'd used any filters anyway.
Quick update on the general status of the RH edit (leaving aside the issues of glowball filter ethics): I've now added all of the Box Hill and Concert bits, and made some more progress on the Crawley bowling section. Which leaves me staring down the wrong end of the Pizza Hut footage. Those of you who were there will know what I mean by that (remember the Yorkshire Pizza of Death?). The rest of you should probably... um... yeah. Let's just say some of the Pizza Hut footage is a bit scary... 8p
- The Colclough
The issue is this: sometimes, you point your camera at something, and the footage ends up looking quite different to what the human eye perceives, simply by nature of the camera. If you're seeking a verite presentation, then which is the more 'honest' approach in these situations: to leave the footage as is, and claim the moral high ground on the basis that you've left the footage exactly as the camera recorded it, or on the other hand to apply filters to make the video look more like what the human eye would have seen?
An example from my own work: about four years ago, I was making a little promotional video for the art department at my sixth form college, and I ended up filming inside the darkroom, using my camera's night-vision setting. Of course, if you're in a darkroom, the only light available is a dull red, but the camera's night-vision mode rendered the image in that familiar dodgy shade of green. The problem was easily fixed in post by applying a colour filter to turn the image from black-and-green to black-and-red again, successfully emulating the way the darkroom looks to the human eye, and rendering the camera's presence somewhat more transparent.
More recently, in the aforementioned Root Hill 2010 footage, I've adjusted the colour curves for all my glow-in-the-dark passball footage, so that the players and ball stand out better from the black background, and once again I think the altered media looks closer to what I was seeing on the field.
But can I still make the same claims to authenticity if I've tampered with the footage in post-production?
I don't pretend to have a definitive answer to this question. To be entirely honest, I'm not even sure that it matters that much. It's not as if the darkroom or RH footage will ever be used as evidence in a court of law. But Vegas just crashed (I need a RAM upgrade), and I thought I'd come on here and have a little ramble while I wait for it to start up again and reload my project. If I hadn't told you, you'd probably never have known I'd used any filters anyway.
Quick update on the general status of the RH edit (leaving aside the issues of glowball filter ethics): I've now added all of the Box Hill and Concert bits, and made some more progress on the Crawley bowling section. Which leaves me staring down the wrong end of the Pizza Hut footage. Those of you who were there will know what I mean by that (remember the Yorkshire Pizza of Death?). The rest of you should probably... um... yeah. Let's just say some of the Pizza Hut footage is a bit scary... 8p
- The Colclough
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