Week 21

Even Busier Week

Script review with Dotty - Dotty helped me realise how my script and dialogue could improve. In the dialogue, I have been describing the action that was happening. As a result, I was using unnecessary talking of the puppets that could be used for character acting instead. Now I need to arrange another meeting with Ava and ask her to adjust the storyboards if she can fit me in her schedule still. 

On the positive side, Georgia T. has offered to use letterpress for my credits sequence. This is great as it maintains the handmade feel throughout the project. These are all the colours I can choose from as well as many fonts and letter sizes.

I am hoping to test lights and animate shadow-play part of the story while making the puppets and finishing the props for this set. Now the storyboard and new animatic although overall, these changes may save me some sweating in the animating stage, I will need to re-record the audio too. 

LAW - sending off an application for funding for the ZCH live brief. Signs of burn out - missed a meeting for Zero Carbon Headingley by accident. Step back. Inspired by the way Ava deals with meetings. When I have meetings be assertive about the time I am giving the task/project/meeting as I feel like that I have been giving away too much time to the live brief and not enough rest to be fully involved in my final film.

Meeting with G. T., puppets costumes making. Week to make one.

Meeting with C. T. - roles for One Minute For the Planet - mine is a set with bottle- puppet- animation.

Meanwhile, I have offered to help Jenny refine storyboards because her film is about ballet and I have done contemporary Dance GCSE as well as som ballroom, folk and hip hop in the past.

At the end of the week, I have met with my music composer, Matteo. We have been in contact about the theme of the story etc. and today we were going to discuss the storyboards and more specific requirements of the music in this story.

I have prepared myself by looking up some examples that express my ideas:

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=gpnYdXV4uxs&feature=emb_logo String instrument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLH9A80GJLo Sol nad Zlato - Slovak tale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqspkReP3V8 Ambient, expressive, abstract. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jStBiU_FhUI Song of The Sea - Irish folklore music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbYB5Kxy6s Violin, (a big thing in Slovak folklore, as well as Bass, Acordeon,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zook_bGHT3E 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUZh_Cbw6Q&list=PLixP4bvQwp7oFIDyJZJKX-rr9yXIUjXTi Kontrabas, Beautiful sound!!! No tapping though 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2NIDtp-Ls <3 

Additional sound: 

Room Setting - flat, straight forward
Cave - Atmospheric, inspired by the environment During the meeting, I wished I had better vocabulary in the music area as I struggled to express my ideas verbally. Matteo was very professional and helpful and that made it slightly easier for me.

I have also decided on the names of my characters. They share the same protective stone and flower.

Names: Translatable, short, sweet meaning, included in the calendar of first names in Slovakia.

Nina

*** https://najmama.aktuality.sk/kalendar-mien/vyznam-mena/nina/ ***

*** https://calendar.zoznam.sk/meno/Nina ***

*** https://www.mojosud.sk/?charakteristika-krstnych-mien&meno=Nina ***

*** http://kalendar.aktuality.sk/meniny/nina/ ***

Julia

*** http://kalendar.aktuality.sk/meniny/julia/ ***

Li has now completed the final version of the little girl character concept.

Week 20

Another Busy Week.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• 2 hours with my Dad in the recording studio and even more cutting the sound afterwards, all done in Adobe Auditions. All after being briefly re-inducted on how to use the space.
• Finished all the furniture.
• Tests for puppet eyes finally worked.
• Made cute little mini buttons for the character's costumes which Georgia Thorton agreed to make for me as she can use a sawing machine.

Roughed out backgrounds for Animatic using my scans of watercolour paper, this way it felt closest to drawing on a real paper with the luxury of putting it into an animating afterwards.

I have not been feeling all that well and will have to re-schedule my 1-1 meeting. Ava has informed me of Dotty's feedback for her storyboards. It looks like my script will have some revisions. I am glad, if the project can improve then I am definitely up for it.

Started working on a collaborative live brief  'One minute for the planet' with a VisCom student wanting to collab. to implement with stop-motion elements in her work.

Week 19

Busy Week and Weekend

What has happened:

• Jenny and I have cut out and sanded floorboards from balsawood. This went really well apart from figuring out how to best arrange them which took several tries.
• I went down to the Wood Workshop where a member of staff was happy to cut the required shapes for me. I was first thinking Plywood but was advised it may not be as flat as I need it. So 12mm MDF it is instead. 4 walls and the base cost me £5.80, that is much better than I hoped. 
• Tring to hold the wood boards together by magnets did not work to my vision at all. I would have probably been better off using hinges. 

Presentation slides. The project has improved so much since the beginning of January. Li has drawn the little girl character and I have drawn the cat character. 

I have attended a Women Caving Weekend at the YSS hut - this hut is full of wonderful caving related artwork and this one especially hit my eye. The puppet has got a mini LED lights in its helmet as a torch. ( I did not bring my smartphone to this week as I have been trying to stay away from instant messaging, so the photos were taken by Ane Appelt, thank you Ane!)

I also had a chance to closely observe some fossils in daylight as we did a very short and very open cave. 

Script: - all dialogue now drafted by me in Slovak and proofread by my brother not only against any grammar corrections but also suitability for the target audience and suggestions to improve the likeability of the story. Now I have all the dialogue in Slovak, translating into English and most actions ready for Ava to finalise the storyboard.

I have booked the recording studio for Wednesday and will try recording the whole dialogue with my Dad, first of all, to see whether his voice works well for this film.

Ava has given me the final storyboard based on my script. Ava has been really organised and I have to admit, it helped me keep on top of the final touches that the script and the story needed while my mind was already worrying about sets.

Week 18

Time to Think About the Set

While writing actions in the script I have realised how closely the script and the storyboard inform the set design. Decisions e.g. position of the relevant furniture and props within the set had to be made. The puppet size also determines the set and props size. This will also be in scale 1:6, same as the puppets.

The setting in the room definitely has got a bedside lamp. Lights integrated into the set are a new topic for me and so I have purchased a guide on  LED lights on model sets. I have ruled out the light to be mains power supplied as a battery holds for a decent time with LEDs. This will not put more strain on the number of available plugs and cables on the set and allows for the battery pack to be discretely hidden in the furniture. I have contacted Jennifer from Small Scale Lights for some advice on what LEDs and what battery pack is most suitable for my set.
https://www.smallscalelights.co.uk/

Furniture prototypes in 1:6 scale.

Testing the chair to fit an adult human puppet in 1:6 scale.

Wiring the LEDs to the 3V 2xAAA battery pack

Testing with a lampshade made of Polymorph

My vision of the Set 1

Maintaining physical health and learning more about (anxiety-driven) procrastination.

These mini LEDs throw a good sharp shadow of an object such is this prototype chair.

Sculpting the face of the Dad character into a non-drying non-toxic Plastiline

Adding more detail.

Testing moulding polymorph against Plastiline and then polymorph against the moulded piece of polymorph using a mould wax release agent.

Moulding polymorph over the head. 

Originally I wanted to test making the mould from re-meltable PVC rubber to be able to make replacements should anything break. It is reusable and so is polymorph. I do not have a safe place to use the re-meltable PVC rubber at home yet (outside of the food area) and so I tried the polymorph moulding. Polymorph states to be biodegradable in soil. Likely because of the shape of the mould I was not able to take the two apart and the Plastiline head got damaged in the process. Now I wish I have made a silicone mould but I find the technique creates a lot of waste.

It was good to have Jenny's help on the part with polymorph and if she is interested I would like some more assistance with my first set.

Li was back and able to do the last drawing - the little girl. Well, in the script I provided him with, it was a little boy, now that has changed for the character background story to make more sense.

I have also composed a file that I sent to the wood workshop for advice on the base for my set.

PDF of the set structure proposal of materials and measurements