Death of a blog...

OK, so its not like I update this regularly, so it will really make no difference, but, I have scrapped my 'Hare's Bride' film in favour of the taxidermy animation, therefore all my work can be found on my taxidermy blog rather than this one. I might continue with this blog at some point in the future, if I start any new non-taxidermy related projects, but for the moment, if you want to see what I am up to, go here: RE-ANIMATION

Hare-man re-design....

All my designs for the 'hare-man' character in my 'Hare's Bride' production are not right so I have decided to try a new approach. Instead of a clothed man with a hare's head, I want him to be an 'idea' of a man, which at the same time remains part hare. I have been looking at old anatomical drawings as reference for this, such as these...

Here is a drawing I made of a possible design approach and a quick puppet I made in a session with Mary experimenting with different materials. I want my puppet to look much less like a zombie than, and more a sort of anatomical sketch, and of course, he will have an actual hare's head! But I think its moving in the right direction, at last.

Something else

A very short bit of footage for the collabarative project words home. We decided to base our animation/ piece on patterns that we associate with home. This very short test is based on the pattern on the bathroom blind, origami, and nothing much more. Have no idea how the final 'collabarative' piece is going to come together, or if it is. I think we all have more pressing projects that we are involved with so this has sort of taken a back seat.

Anyway, here is my, very brief, contribution to the project...

Galimatias

This is the collabarative project between myself and Mike from my MA and another student (Adam) from the Composing MA at the Royal Academy of Music. Our brief was to create a one minute piece responding to the word 'galimatias' (a meaningless language), we were interested in the way language could lose meaning through repetition and process. It is a mixed media piece, made using traditional stop-motion, maya and after-effects.
 

Animation by Fiona Campbell and Mike Farrar (UWE)
Sound by Adam Dickson (RAM)

Hare-man puppet design

For my Hare's Bride production I need to design puppets for two characters. A girl and a hare. However, each character takes on different forms throughout the film so I will actually have to design about six or seven puppets. The 'girl' puppet is causing me a massive headache, so I have started with the hare. The hare starts off as a small hare a  (normal, or in proportion to how you would expect a hare to be), he then becomes a man-hare (man with hare's head) and his final transformation is into that of a beast-hare. The final hare is going to have an actual hare's face (taxidermy) and therefore this dictates the aesthetic of the other two hare forms. They don't have to be identical but there does have to be some continuity. Paper designs don't work that well for me, so the following pictures are a 3d sketch of the hare-man puppet, and indicate roughly how I want him to look. He is also animatable, so I should be able to do some animated tests in the near future.

                               His ears are made from actual rabbits ears, and his face is covered in rabbits fur, which I trimmed and glued. Sadly the glue is visable, and the fur is rough, the arms too long, plus the eyes are too big for his head. However, he does give the impresion of what I ultimatley want. The next one will be much better.




                                                                    The making of...

I made this maquette animatable but using a simple puppet making technique which we were taught in the puppet making workshop in the first semester. Its made with twisted wire, polymorph, foam, latex and milliput. The head is made from light sculpey, fur and ears, and plastic eyes. Sadly the head is just glued on at the moment. Will do the next one properly...

A mock-up

One of the mock-ups for my 'rabbits (hare's?) bride' production. I have reams of these things (although they only go so far in depicting how its actually going to look), but I think its time I stop thinking and start actually making the thing...

Taxidermy blog

I am currently doing two project, one on taxidermy, and the other one is a narrative film adaptation of the Brothers Grimm's traditional folk narrative 'the rabbits bride', I have decided to keep the things seperate as I have been getting a little confused having the research for both on this same blog. Therefore I have set up a new blog here which I will use for all things taxidermy, and will continue to use this blog for 'the rabbits bride' and other more traditional animation projects that I undertake.

Some puppet designs/ experiments

I have been struggling with the designs of my puppets for my 'Rabbit's bride' project. Drawing and design in general are not my strong points, so I have made these rough maquettes (or 3-D sketches, as they really are) to help me get an idea of what my puppets might look like. I think I still have a way to go with this, but here is what I have been messing about with...

Firstly, I have been looking (again) at the idea of masks, creating an illusion of character. So I have been playing with the idea of the girl being a rabbit and a girl all at once, or in fact neither, someone who is pretending to be both girl and rabbit but in truth is just acting, or playing at these roles. I really like a series of photos by Pamela Klaffke entitled "Bestia Parvulus" (animal child)- check out the link here, as this was part of the inspiration for this idea.

So,  the pictures above show someone pretending to be a rabbit, and below the same 'person' is pretending to be a girl...

However, I think these are pretty creepy, and not really in a good way. Plus the idea the the girl changes ages and changes between rabbit and girl, at the same time the rabbit changes between rabbit and man might be a little bit too confusing.

Ok, so next up is another puppet idea. I think the girl is still a bit doll like though. So I am still very much working on these designs. I am even considering scrapping the puppet idea all together and using live action and green screen...

                                         
                                              And here is the same girl but in a rabbit mask...

Urban exploring- abandoned and derelict buildings/ forgotten spaces.

I have never (since a few fairly unwitting adventures as an adolescent) done any ‘Urban exploring’ (described by Wikipedia as “... the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities.”) myself. Nor have I any real desire to, although I am fascinated by these spaces, I am also a terrible coward. However, there are countless online resources of the sometimes astonishingly beautiful photographs of Urban explorers on the internet. While researching the set design for my “Rabbits Bride” project I have been using these pictures as a reference. I am captivated by the residual memory in these spaces, the loss of function, the destruction/ alteration as nature begins to reclaim these man-made structures, the sadness and beauty that coexists within each frame. In my film I am exploring the idea or memory and perception (within the context of a relationship), as well as creating a dream-like, nightmarish quality. I want to use derelict buildings as sets but through the film the level of dereliction will alter, suggesting a changing time. Although time will go backwards and forwards, the set becoming progressively less derelict (rebuilding), the character of the girl will become older. The photos I have seen by Urban Explorers have been a large influence on creating the concept and look of my set design, so below are some links to a few sites, and a couple of pictures...

   

Some amazing photos of an abandoned school in Belgium (including the one below) at

http://www.talkurbex.com/2009/08/chateau-de-noisy-abandoned-school/

People have posted loads of fantastic pictures from all over the UK (and beyond) here:

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk

This photo is from derelictplaces.co.uk...

It was taken at ‘Barnes’ hospital in Manchester. Which I think might have been the venue for a rave I went to in 2005. But I am not sure. It was a long time ago and my memories were hazy at the time. But I do remember the building being amazing.  A really interesting and slightly sinister location for anything, let alone a crazy drugs party...

Here is another good website:  http://www.28dayslater.co.uk

Again, a forum for people to post photos (and histories) of all kinds of spaces around the UK, really fascinating and some really beautiful amateur photography can be found here as well...

This blog entry ( http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/25-bonechilling-photos-of )has some fantastic photos, such as the one below...