We’re hearing a new and improved score, I’ve tweaked the lighting and shading in the earlier scenes, and I’ve pushed forward to the 4:30 mark! 6 minutes left for me to animate.

So — this is a work in progress, what do you think? What do you love and hate?

Just keep in mind, things like the eyes being white — that is an actual choice I made, not something I forgot to do.  I originally drew this very nice Hanna-Barbera style face for Gustave…and it was completely wrong for this story.  I worked to make it a little more primitive and, to my mind, appropriate to this story.  The same with the buildings being flat and airplanes casting shadows on the sky.  You are witnessing a digital Punch and Judy show, except that it’s a semi-self-reflexive tale about a forgotten aviator.

I’m so pleased with what I wrote on my “Current Work” page that I’ll quote it here:

I’m making an animated documentary about Gustave Whitehead.   He was a flier, and was largely forgotten.  The reason why this is interesting is because he made a controlled, powered flight in a heavier-than-air vehicle two years before the Wright Brother’s flew!  So, I’m making an animated documentary about him.  Perhaps this work will inspire other people to innovate and push the envelope of human discovery, knowing that even if they never achieve fame, even if they die penniless, it’s possible that someone might make an animated documentary about them.  Indeed, a chance at immortality.

Yep — I am indeed doing it!  I’ve made the bulk of the artwork, which is charcoal pencil on heavy watercolor paper, and I’ve got it into After Effects.  The voice track is done and I’m quite pleased with it!  An original score is also underway.  Exciting things!

Below are some low-res captures from my first renderings.  I’ll no doubt do some general color correction and maybe throw a vignette on it and whatever other finishing is needed.  Blah blah.  Here are some stills!

Since when do airplanes cast shadows on the sky? Since I adopted a puppet show aesthetic for my new documentary! That's when.

Gustave Whitehead exhorts his assistant to stoke the steam engine!

The judges have spoken, and our noble effort garnered us (The Knights of the B) the prize “Best Use of Character”. Sadly, they are not referring to our personal virtue, but to the use of the specific character, Scarlett Johnston. The top honors go to a film I’ve yet to see, called “Of Mares and Men“.

Cheers!
KP

I’ve just discovered that our short fable, “Scarlett Johnston’s Tales to Amaze and Delight”, won the Audience Favorite Award for screening group A. To refresh your memory, this is our (Knights of The B – led by Rob Benica) entry into the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project.

The rest of the award should be announced in the coming weeks! So…. We wait.

I recently went up to Baltimore help my friends and colleagues Rob Benica and Brad Lambert in the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Festival. If you’re new to this – it’s a contest where you are given a genre and some mandatory elements (props, character names) to work with. 48 hours from that moment, you must write, shoot, and edit a short film and hand them a tape of it. It’s a fun and potentially grueling endeavor.

For us, the genre was Fable, the character was Scarlett Johnston, and the prop was Earrings. Rob is a great director, Brad is an amazing editor, and both helped immensely with actually putting the story down on paper.

Check it out here:

For an account of how the screening went, please read an email sent by our team’s lead, Rob:

The screening went great!!

The laughter started as soon as they saw Matt prancing through the field and didn’t let up until the credits were over. It was cool watching the laughter build to an overwhelming crescendo. Chuckles towards Matt carried into snickers at Marielle, to guffaws at the leering Rob. Big laugh at breaking the recorder back to snickers at Rosanna and Eleanor (kudos to the crunching as well). Huge – doubled over laughing at the eating of the ant. Back to chuckles during the race and ending with the biggest laugh of all – the reveal. In fact it was so overwhelming that you couldn’t hear anything Matt said while walking away. So for at least that night with that audience the ‘ending’ couldn’t have worked any better. It generated at least 30 seconds of uproarious glee finally settling down when the screen went black. I’m glad Brad inserted the graphic and audio breaks for as long as he did, because it allowed the laughter to die down so that the stories could be heard. We just never thought it would be needed for the ending. After the laughter finally died at the end we got heartfelt applause, cheering and whistles.

[W]e engaged the audience like no other film. We also had the best sound, writing and most importantly acting!

Perhaps the coolest and most edifying thing was how many compliments we got while walking out the theatre. At least two other team leaders told me how good they thought our film was, the lead actor from another team also sought me out. But the truly cool ones where the people from the audience. I ran to my car to get the DVD to hand out and I was stopped by four different couples telling me how much they liked it. Our film definitely created a buzz not only in the theater but also in the lobby after. If the audience votes their hearts we have another winner. No other film came close to involving or moving the audience like ours did. So everyone should be very proud of themselves. Thank you again for all your hard work. See ya’ll for DC in May.

Rob

This last weekend, I had the honor of winning the award for Best Animation: Narrative for my short, “Pac(hyderm) Attack!”. It was also a great evening because I was able to provide all the motion graphics for the awards ceremony — all based on the Visions 2008 Bumper. I worked alongside the talented David Laster, who put together the DVD for the awards ceremony, and Prof. Maher, who gave us technical and aesthetic guidance – generally ensuring that the project went well and that the evening was a success.

There were some other excellent winners, and you can view the work at the American University SOC website. Be sure to check out Brad Lambert’s “Rhinos Rock”. It’s really wonderfully done and extremely funny!

Thanks!
Kristian

This was a mock commercial, shot on a stage with a Bolex 16mm camera. I was going for a cross between a DeBeers diamond commercial and 007. I’m pretty pleased with it! I makes me giggle when I watch it.

Cheers!

Produced this with a fellow classmate. A dark fairy tale about a garden. Working with children, interiors and exteriors, and the bolex camera was quite a challenge for someone used to digital video! However, given the challenges, I think we did well! I’m most pleased with the appearance of the Fairy. Just as I’d imagined it! Also, the sound mix was really fun to work on.