5 jobs - 3 Failed Shots - and 2 Documentarys

Hey Guys!

TONS A happenin!!

Ive been at an all time HIGH on Bizzy! I officially have 5 jobs not counting my film!!

Tooooooooooooo Much!....... But I have to say....it is paying off our bills nice and fast and it should only last a couple more weeks.

Heres some of the stuff I ve been doing in the stop mo world. I tell you guys what....I have nothing but props for michael granberry over at Mythic Journeys.....he has grown tremendously on that project and is really delivering some high level Professional quality shots....He also is basically thinking on his feet constantly. In That job he has to figure every problem out that can possibly happen while delivering at a HIGH level of quality.

Thats a HUGE responsobility.....and hes getting the job done.

Every thursday night I go over there at 10:30 at night and find my self with a whole new shot with whole new problems to solve....its pretty intimidateing sometimes. I have been pretty pleased with the work Ive created so far.....although most of the shots Ive done arnt super complicated.

Ive animated a ROCK Spirit....crazy puppet unlike anything Ive ever animated before.{Opened my mind to what a puppet can be} I also animated a gargoyl perched in a tree...and then Ive animated a king walking unlike any character Ive ever animated before. He slid and I faked his height with a platform that raised and fell by screws. Crazy stuff....and expanding my stop my experiance with every step. most of the other jobs Im on I cant share with you guys....but Im really enjoying it. I'm animateing A Badd ass robot with the mind of a child!! really cool character....and the movement looks GREAT....really fun and inspireing to watch.

My main job has been really stressfull ......while finishing up a title at my HighImpact games company.....they have me starting an entire new animation team while leading it for another startup company. This is a FULL TIME JOB!!! on top of my full time job....its insane and I cant wait for it to end.

The other freelance jobs have been animal based....and mainly aquatic...so ...busy is the word.

I am also soooooooooo close to finishing my film. I am going to be cutting some jobs in the next couple of weeks so things will speed up again.....We have had a couple of Pickup VO sessions at my workplace to get some added dialog for the film.....this is really changing the feel of the last sequence and adding to the message I want to get across.Its excellent.

as for the film..........Its REALLY coming together guys!!! I am gaining confidence every day...I think I might have something special in the end.

heres a round of my latest fails......uuuuugggggh

at least I can post some video....

Fail one was too fast and too pushed on the arm poses.

Fail two was going great then my puppets legs broke....DAMMMIT!

Fail Three....I was tired....and the moves were un even and well.....it just wasnt good enough

oh yeah....we have a documentary crew coming to the house from MOLI.COM.....to do a segment on me shel and our film....pretty exciteing ...Ill post more soon.

justin

Nickys Latest Creation!

Hey Guys,

Heres Nickys{My son} latest 3d sculpt.....and Dads favorite.....THORN

He in a ....whirlwind..... of inspiration took one of his drawings and slammed out this sculpt.
I awoke in the morning with the proud artist holding over my head a 90% finished sculpt.
AWESOME!!!......he painted and cooked it this last weekend and Dads gona contact someone to mold it for us.

just thought a proud dad would share.

justin

COMPOSER!!

Shel here:

Time to introduce the exciting new collaborator on our film, the fabulous composer ROBERT LITTON.

We met Robert through our online animation buddy Ryan McCulloch, cuz as we all know, the online stop mo community COMES THROUGH!!.

We got super excited when we went to Robert's site (http://www.robertlitton.com/) and heard some of his stuff--actually Justin listened to ALL of his stuff, which is alot of listening! Don't let Robert's boyish grin fool you, not only is he incredibly talented, he's seriously experienced and PROLIFIC. Justin was especially excited by Robert's many orchestral works.

Even though we met Robert through our online friend that we thought lived in Australia (actually Ryan lives in Florida).....it turns out Robert lives just about 10 minutes away from us in LA. So the day after we started asking around for composer tips we found ourselve sitting at our favorite local Pho Noodle shop with the composer of our dreams.

Robert is instantly likalbe, and his integrity is obvious. At lunch, Justin mentioned he was thinking about violin and we told Robert about the film (but he'd already read pretty much the whole blog since we'd called him the day before so he was pretty up to date anyway).... mainly we talked processs and grinned and nodded and laughed alot....we liked that he doesn't use synthisizers, strickly hand played real live breathing musicians. We decided to meet again at our place in a few weeks when we'd have more complete rough cuts to show him and we left the lunch feeling thrilled.

what Justin was imagining......



A few weeks later and we were finally ready to show him what we have (thankfully he was still excited about the project after seeing the edits).....so we're all sitting at the computer, Justin behind me, Robert beside...and Robert busts out that he's been thinking about the main instrument to represent Gerald the Dog, and he knows Justin was thinking violin, but he's excited about HARMONICA....as well as guitar, bass and piano.....

what Justin was not imagining.....



Okay, so.....I have to say I LOVE HARMONICA cuz my grandpa played one and I love my grandpa. And, more to the point I suppose, I think it suits our dog and his story well..... But I KNOW my man, so i didn't have to be looking at Justin to feel his excitement leak out like a punctured beach ball behind me.....here Robert was talking back porch band, while Justin had spent years dreaming big orchestral strings and horns....I could feel Justin behind me p-r-y-i-n-g himself open to consider the shift. This prying due to the fact that Justin already has so much respect for Robert.....a less respected composer might have been dismissed at that point.

Robert wisely brought examples of music for us to listen to. It was cool to feel Justin behind me slowly puffing back up over the course of the discussion that followed, we talked about Harmonicas (how emotional they can sound), what Justin liked about violin (makes him feel stuff), piano (how it also has strings and makes people feel stuff), what didn't fit about orchestra (too high falootin' for our character and his situation); Cool Hand Luke and other prison movies with harmonica, what we didn't want the score to sound like (certain parts of the Muppet Movie or other "train travely" harmonica music); what the music's roll is in the film, how the characters have their own instruments and/or musical melodies......it was fun to hear Justin (who remembers every score from every movie he has seen) and Robert (who has obviously studied the scores) reference movie after movie to describe what they were meaning. Robert was very patient and confident and by the end Justin was wide open again and in fact curious and excited about Harmonica, Piano, Guitar and Bass.

So that's our deal, we'll get the final edits to Robert in a couple months and he'll in the mean time play with some sounds (on his back porch presumably)......

And we're all puffed up again and cruizin fast into the end of this project....

yay!

ORIGINS? and Visualizeing - The Movie in my head

Hey guys,

Ive been asked a bunch of times where the inspiration for the story came from.....

my answer will go perfectly with somthing I have been wanting to write about for a while - {Visualization.}

I have done this thing for years where and when I can find a moment

-In Traffic -

-Moments before I fall asleep-
-In the shower-I use these times to watch my movies/storys.....I literally start at the opening and watch the film imagining what is going to happen and how its going to look. Supriseingly most of the time my imagination matches the images I output {60% or so}. I do this from the very begining of the film untill the end.

I usually do this before every individual shot as well.....along with acting scenes out and running my ideas past shel.

This in fact is how most of my films in the past have been born - In traffic while listening to music. Music is incredibly inspirational for my storys - I listen to scores from films mainly.................... I often work to these and often just brainstorm naturally from the moods the scores put me in.

{Geralds Last Day was born a bit differently } It was in traffic with shel just talking over 2 years ago. Its inspiration came from people I know......and a family full of completely different animals.......... We have always told our kids that they are all unique animals and shouldnt expect to be the same as each other.......... or others around them.

BE YOURSELF!!

Im not really a "Message" kinda guy but it came naturally in this case.

any who...to answer the questions of the Origin of the story . There it is.

{as for the FILM}.....its going strong -{no reshoots so far} I will be for the next 4 weeks finishing the little girl sequence and tapping the Edwardo shots.....for the big finish.

We also had a really cool meeting with our composer tonight....which was SUPER exciteing!!

well have a seperate post on that soon.

jriggity