windowboxes

Well, I guess it went OK — I am surely not cut out to be in front of the camera.

But I think of it this way — if I were living in a jungle somewhere, where there were tigers to run from, the fight or flight reaction in my central nervous system would be getting a regular workout, as it’s meant to.  But, living in the city, my fight or flight has chosen to respond to a) public speaking situations, b) being in front of a camera, and c) needles at the doctor’s office.  That’s it.  These three things turn me into a brainless mound of shaky jello.  I don’t avoid them, as I would a wild tiger, because I hope to one day get overcome this automatic reaction…  as non life-threatening as these situations are…

So I survived, and the interviewer and cameraperson from CTV were great — Angie and Steve.  They made the experience go as well as it possibly could, under the circumstances.  Angie was so sweet, and had done impressive amounts of research, and Steve got me to press the “capture” button and pretend to shoot frames of animation for their b-roll footage… as well as powdering my shiny nose.  Irene was there too, sitting behind the scenes, reminding me of some things to talk about.

I have a feeling I will owe big apologies to Erin one day if she sees this on air… I’m not entirely sure what I said, but I may have implied that she helped with the original proposal, when in fact she had merely offered a couple of suggestions.  She made it clear at the beginning that this film was my interpretation of her poem, and that she wanted to distance her involvement from it as much as possible, in terms of it being a narrated version of her poem… it’s really quite separate.  So hopefully I didn’t imply anything different… I have a feeling I may have used the word “collaborate” when talking about the proposal, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, this will be made 100% clear in the written credits of the film, and hopefully the folks at Bravo will leave that rambly part out…?

It’s probably not a big deal, and I may be worrying too much about it.  I don’t think I said anything wrong.  But I sure have a new respect for anyone who has to be interviewed on camera regularly.  It’s tough.

Um, anyway, thank you Angie and Steve; I hope you can find a coherent 2 minutes in there somewhere.

Filed by stephanie dudley at 12:06 pm under Uncategorized
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I forgot to mention some great news — I was awarded a FAP grant from the NFB…  an award for new filmmakers.  I am super thrilled to be working with the NFB, if only for now to have help with the costs of post production.  Perhaps one day I’ll be making a short film with them.  I already have ideas

Annnnd I am going to be interviewed Monday by CTV, for their show Bravo!FACT Presents.  I am extremely camera shy, so I am trying very hard not to freak out about it.  I’m sure it’ll go well!  (…psyching myself up.)

Filed by stephanie dudley at 12:09 pm under Uncategorized
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Stop motion sometimes makes us do funny things, like put $25 worth of overly coloured hair gel down the drain, through a strainer, to strain out the clear plastic beads and fimo carrots.

Love also sometimes makes us do funny things, like asking at the drug store for some clear hair gel, and testing some different kinds out with the clerk to make sure they’re clear because they’re in coloured bottles.  Having to explain, vaguely and with embarrassment, that it’s for an “art project…”  Then presenting 3 bottles, or over 1 Litre of hair gel, at the cash counter and bringing it home for one’s sweetie.  (I’m glad I didn’t need 1L of KY jelly for this project, though he probably would have bought that, too…)

Filed by stephanie dudley at 5:15 pm under Uncategorized
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I worked on a project for a friend recently that got my back in the studio building stuff again, which felt great.  I spent about a week and a half from start to finish, designing, building, and animating these titles.  At first I wanted to do them as 2d graphics in After Effects, but I’m really glad Sean pushed for the photographic / sculptural vignette solution instead.  It was much more fun to do them this way!

The film is called Lost for Words, and it’s a short for Bravo!FACT.  As is my Little Theatres project, only Sean’s is live action, and took much less time to complete!  So now it’s done, and he’s got a site and trailer happening.  Way to go, Sean!

At the link below, you’ll see the final sequences, complete with final audio.  Sean took the files to a colour correction studio, Alter Ego, for final colour, and this changed the images quite dramatically.  The film itself was mostly shot in a forest, and that footage had been treated with cool colours.  I was surprised to see the final treatment of the chapter titles… I had imagined them as being very warm images.  But it’s a good surprise… this treatment works perfectly with the film.  As you can see, they also brought up the contrast in the wooden type, to make the text more legible.

Here are the shots side by side:  the original, un-colour-treated image on the top, and the final treated image on the bottom.  What a difference in mood!

Chapter two (above, right) was lit using a small softbox, built by moi, using the technique described in this post.  I was very happy with the results!  The softbox is only lighting the small inset frame holding the plants.  The softbox opening was designed to fit right into the top of that box, so it’s quite small…  Otherwise these were lit by Brendan Steacy and Sean Wainsteim.

And here’s the animation.  Simple animation, but just enough to add some life, and provide a reason for some fun sound FX

Lost for Words Chapter Titles

And, the same, but on youtube (which has less quality.  Better to watch the link above.)

(I really am back on the film.  I’ve shot one scene, and am planning the next.  Updates on these soon!  Hurray!)

Filed by stephanie dudley at 12:46 pm under Uncategorized
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