Friday 18 May 2007

Anyone can look suave in the right dressing gown

One more scene before the grand finale, in which the camel's back is well and truly broken. While the preceding sequences were constructed around a fairly simple back-and-forth between the Duck and Hunter, in this scene another character is brought in to create a veritable nightmare scenario. The Hunter brings home a prospective lay (named simply Prospective Lay in the script) who finds her head turned by the unfathomable charms of the Duck who, despite appearances, manages to muscle his way in and whisk her off to his room after making the Hunter out to be a remorseless dastard. In bed the Hunter is plotting something to rid him of the Duck for good...but how ever will it pan out? You're on tenterhooks, aincha?









Monday 14 May 2007

Lip-Sync Test #1: Flautism

With roughly a month to go before I hand in my critical evaluation, it might be apt to actually experiment with, y’know, animation of some sort. Being properly introduced to the dope sheet/lip-sync process last week, I figured that’d be a good place to start. After all, the lengthiness of my film is largely down to hefty chunks of dialogue, and if I don’t know how to lip-sync, I’m a little bit fucked.
Rather than brazenly charging into sequences for ‘House Guest’, I thought it’d be best to work on something completely separate and one-off. I’ve isolated three short, random samples of conversation from recordings made for various music projects, with the intention of going through the dialogue phonetically and familiarising myself with the dope-sheet process.

This teeny-weeny chunk of dope-sheet represents about 2.5 seconds of dialogue. Bear in mind this is for a sequence with barely any body animation or direction.

Without a lightbox at my disposal (we have plenty on campus but it’s been kinda muggy, so fuck it - I’m stayin’ in) I put my first attempt together just using a series of rough sketches. While this does the trick for a little bit of test animation, in the long run I won’t be able to use this method when working on the actual film. Inevitably I’m going to have to find some way of obtaining a lightbox for the summer if I want my output to be at all valid.
As I'm dealing with lip-sync primarily, the plan was to have no animation other than mouth movements. However in this first example I couldn’t resist the temptation of throwing in some facial expressions too. The overall effect is pretty stilted (owed mostly to the fact that the bodies don't move at all) but hey, the mouth movements sorta kinda work, which was the point after all. Check 'er out!

Hopefully with the two remaining test animations I'll be able to refine the process a little more. But given that this little sequence represents about six hours of work, and I have until February to make this film, I'm cautiously confident that it may turn out kinda cool...
BTW Many thanks to my anonymous flautist for letting me use her voice.

Tuesday 8 May 2007

Case Study: 'La Science des Rêves'

This entry actually relates specifically to my Research Methods module, but given that Gondry is a pretty big influence on me and that the film in question is part-animation, I figured there'd be no harm in including this as an additional case study.

The trickiest thing about looking at a movie by a director (or any piece of art, by any type of artist) one admires is to see it in its own right, disregarding all previous work. This is especially difficult when reviewing Michel Gondry's recent film 'La Science des Rêves' ('The Science of Sleep') as it is visually reminiscent of almost every project he's previously put his hand to. As a consequence, comparisons inevitably shape this review. The film, which did not receive wide distribution (bless the Watershed), is Gondry's first written feature, although he's already been firmly established as a director for a number of years now. Through a myriad of dream sequences, hallucinations and shared fantasies it tells the story of Stéphane, arriving in France from Mexico to take up his dream occupation only to discover that he has been woefully misinformed about the nature of the work. While dealing with his disillusionment he forges two friendships, one with his unabashedly sex-obsessed work colleague Guy, the other with his neighbour Stephanie, with whom he shares a creative bond. When his initial romantic infatuation shifts from a casual interest in her friend Zoe to Stephanie herself, his propensity to fantasise grows exponentially to the point at which it starts to encroach on his waking life.
In many ways this film retreads a lot of familiar visual ideas - in fact, at times it seems to directly reference numerous prior works, most of which being music videos, Gondry's (like many modern film-makers) primary medium before moving onto feature films. A lot of technical devices and shortcuts will be familiar to Gondry enthusiasts - the crude construction of sets (Stéphane's mindscape is primarily made from cardboard) and projected backdrops especially.At one point Stéphane wakes to find his feet in a freezer, presumably dragged into his room somnambulatorily to synthethise arctic terrain, a scenario that recalls Gondry's kaleadoscopic video for the Chemical Brothers' 'Let Forever Be', in which a young woman flits between conscious and unconscious states, finding elements of dreams bleeding into real life.
Another sequence in which Stéphane's dream persona battles his co-workers with oversized, cartoonish hands harkens back to the Gondry directed music video for 'Everlong' (Foo Fighters), in which the band's singer Dave Grohl does likewise to save his drummer Taylor Hawkins, in drag as a damsel-in-distress. This cinematic convention of the lady in peril was also worked into 'Eternal Sunshine...', seeing Jim Carrey's uncharacteristically-subdued lead Joel desperately try to preserve the memory of his former girlfriend by dragging her through various unlikely recesses of his brain. In 'Les Sciences...' the premise is adapted somewhat, but the splitting of the prospective love interest into two separate characters - one real and flawed, in a sense unremarkable, the other a dually romanticised and idealised figment of the protagonist's imagination - remains. When a lovesick Stéphane sees Stephanie apparantly succumbing to the charms of another man, her fictionalised doppelganger apologises profusely from within his brain. Similarly, in 'Eternal Sunshine...' Joel imagines the fading memory of his former lover Clementine apologising for emasculating him early on in their relationship, an atonement she never proffered in real life. This device is perhaps the most relatable element of two decidedly-abstract love stories, that our minds, when afflicted by love, will deify those we're attracted to, and the profound disillusionment that comes with the eventual realisation that they are only human.
When he isn't referencing himself, Gondry draws upon the trademarks of a handful that have come before. The minimal yet decidedly eerie dreamscapes of David Lynch are a definite presence, as well as the hallucinatory miscreations of David Cronenberg's earlier work, Gondry's distinctive take on such approaches being to present them in a more lighthearted, overtly 'daft' context. An early dream sequence, brought on by Stéphane's fascination with a malfunctioning electric shaver moving itself across the floor, sees the device mutated into a mechanical arachnid whose function is reversed, causing it's victim's facial hair to rapidly grow. Perhaps a more direct influence on these sequences, and one which has not been so prevalent until this film, would be the use of pixellation and overall sense of aesthetic of Jan Svankmajer. With the exception of an interesting pixellation experiment with Lego blocks for a White Stripes music video, Gondry is not best known for animation. In 'Les Sciences...' however it is a consistent theme, reminiscent of Svankmajer's short films and in particular his abstract take on 'Alice In Wonderland', the more succintly-titled 'Alice'. The animated characters that, visually, hover between being ridiculous and being unnerving, as well as the use of delapidated, derelict house interiors as set-pieces are shared traits of both films. It is also worth pondering whether or not Gondry's experience of working with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman on 'Eternal Sunshine...' was in itself a direct influence on the screenplay. In many respects both films are thematically similar - an awkward (bordering on irritating) but identifiable and sympathetic lead, an unlikely love-interest ...However, while the sting in 'Eternal Sunshine...''s tail seemed to be that the portrayed couple are doomed to go in a loop, repeating the same mistakes yet being drawn to one another time and time again, the decidely less mythic premise in 'La Sciences...' is that the couple are simply doomed before they can begin, affections being entirely one-sided and unreciprocated. For what is seemingly a small difference in detail, this element makes the film an altogether different type of love story, one which is perhaps exclusive to Gondry as a screenwriter as 'Eternal Sunshine...' was to Kaufman. While being, in technical terms, amusing and enjoyable (if not especially brilliant or innovative), the story on which the eye-candy is predicated has genuine soul. Essentially it's a study of how love in a real, unromanticised sense can be a stifling, obtrusive handicap that marrs one's rationale. In this instance, it engulfs the lead to the point where he is both unable to even function in a work environment and, more tragically, attempt the preservation of what could potentially be a meaningful friendship with the woman he cannot have. It's not a topic that lends itself to contemporary cinema well, especially not when married with such an atypical narrative (the story doesn't progress so much as loop in gradually increasing circles) and visual style, and as such its demographic is narrowed to admirers of independent film and Gondry fans. As both, I personally found much to enjoy in this film, but it's clear from observing the critical and public reaction to it that its mass appeal is notably limited.

Wednesday 2 May 2007

How exactly do you pronounce 'calzone'?

As I invest more and more time and energy into this project, I'm finding it more and more impossible to relax when not working. I'm one of those types who can't just sit still and do nothing without getting anxious. More often than not I can't even watch television without having something else on the go at the same time, hence all the comics and indie records (well, we've already established I'm shameless). I wouldn't be surprised if this was common amongst those looking to become animators, as it's a craft that demands so much time and attention that you have to abandon pretty much every moment you have to yourself. This has proved useful in storyboarding the movie, as the fairly mammoth task of working out how to frame every shot (and every action therein) demands a lot of hours. After scribbling away in any location that has a surface I can rest my pad on - more often than not the aforementioned chav-free cafe whose staff are doubtless sick of the sight of me - it's finally finished, more or less. The direction notes and dialogue are practically illegible due to my piss-poor handwriting, and so for the purposes of the blog and what I eventually hand-in I'll have to type it all up, which hopefully won't take too long.
So onto the boards, this scene depicting the Hunter and Duck's growing animosity toward one another. A fairly typical argument that I imagine anybody who has ever shared a house, apartment or hall of residence can appreciate - the old 'who ate my food?' fight. In this scene we see how manipulative the Duck can be in a pinch, even when the Hunter attempts to assert himself. I've always had a sort of admiration for those who can win a verbal argument through the complete and utter abandonment of all logic.




More to come, my happy slappers!