Making GREY AREA 'Mime Artist Shoot'

Here's the third webisode in the Making Grey Area series I'm making for TANDEM films. In this episode mime artist Stuart Luis came into the TANDEM studio; the footage recorded in this session will provide valuable reference material for director Dan Greaves and his animation team.

Making GREY AREA 'Model Making'

Here's the second webisode in the Making Grey Area series I'm making for TANDEM films. In this episode we see animator Steve Edge creating a puppet to be used for stop-frame animation.

I shot this on my Canon 600D camera and edited it on an iMac using Adobe CS6 (Premiere and After Effects). The last shot of the model features a rather pleasing circular camera track; this was shot using a DIY tabletop camera dolly I made last weekend.

Making GREY AREA 'First Sketches'

In my day job at TANDEM films, I've been asked to make some BTS (Behind The Scenes) videos following the production of Grey Area; the next animated short film from Oscar-winning Director Daniel Greaves. We've decided to create some short online episodes giving our web followers some bite-sized glimpses into the production stages as they happen.

I've worked on Dan's films before, but it's been nice to be asked this time to help document and publicise this one as it happens. The Making GREY AREA films will be published to the TANDEM Vimeo site and be shared via the Grey Area Facebook page.



The first of the Making GREY AREA films is called 'First Sketches' and has just been published. It's a little 1 minute film showing Dan Greaves at work sketching some of his early character designs.

I shot this on my Canon 600D camera and edited it on an iMac using Adobe CS6 (Premiere and After Effects). The music is a haunting piece of tango called Gretchen's Tango by Ergo Phizmiz. It goes really well with the mood and subject matter of Dan's film and I can recommend a visit to Ergo's website to discover more of his work.

Another Day Another Gimbal

Here's another gimbal I've just made. This one is better and much more compact. The outer square of this one is just 25mm in size.

Gimbals Old and New

Keen readers of this blog will remember that back in 2007 I was trying to make my own camera stabiliser device. The centrepiece of most of these Steadicam-like mechanisms is known as a gimbal;  a special type of joint enabling very free rotational movement in 3 axes.

My 2007 efforts usually involved some skate bearings and plastic tubing of various types. Here are a couple of pictures from back in the day.




Well, much time passed and none of these attempts came to much and I eventually had to abandon the project. I would add my video camera to the top of these gimbals and have an outrageously spinning and certainly unstable result. Reading around the subject a lot, I realised that I just didn't have the patience and skills needed to accurately construct an adjustable top stage to centre the camera: an un-centred camera would twist and turn in a very alarming manner.

Well, Over the last couple of months, I have (probably foolishly) ventured back into the world of DIY camera stabilisation! Yes, I'm back at making gimbals. This time I'm mostly using square section aluminium tubing and some much smaller bearings. The results seem a lot more convincing this time...




Using smaller bearings leads to an entirely more compact design, because smaller axles and nuts can be used than previously. One huge advantage is that tiny bearings can sit tightly within the small holes (8mm) I can drill at home, so I can finally make 'bushes' to hold the bearings in position.

Using square section tubing rather than round  pieces makes it easier to drill more accurate holes, and these tend to be at 90 degrees to each other as they should be. Anyone who has ever tried drilling holes into the sides of circular tubes might appreciate this!

This overall construction is pretty small compared to my previous efforts; the outer square of this gimbal is only 50mm x 50mm in size.

Of course, this is a long way off from being a usable camera stabiliser, and work on some kind of top stage needs to come next...

DIY Circular Camera Slider First Test

Here are some first test shots using a DIY Circular camera slider made from a 14 inch 'Lazy Susan' bearing. DSLR camera Canon 600D.

Conclusions... A much larger diameter bearing would be more useful, but this one could be quite handy for macro shots.

Jubilee Pageant

Here's a hastily assembled panoramic photo I took at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee river Pageant on Sunday. I turned up at London Bridge hoping to get some nice photos, but who would have thought that the authorities would block every possible access to the riverbank? I walked way down past Tower Bridge and this was the only bit of river frontage I could get to. Seems like this was an event for ticket holders, riverside property owners and corporate shindigs, not so much for regular punters hoping to turn up and take a look. All those miles of riverbank and none of it actually accessible to the tax-paying public... Ho hum...

Cat Fans Do: 'Simon's Cat' #05

Here's the fifth episode of the 'Cat Fans Do' series I've been editing for Simon's Cat Ltd. Artwork by the fans of Simon's Cat, narration by Simon Tofield, music by Russell Pay of shrooty.com

Cat Fans Do: 'Simon's Cat' #04

Here's the fourth episode of the 'Cat Fans Do' series I've been editing for Simon's Cat Ltd. Artwork by the fans of Simon's Cat, narration by Simon Tofield, music by Russell Pay of shrooty.com

TXT ISLAND Rides Again

My 2009 animated shortfilm TXT ISLAND is now participating in an on-line competition here...

The competition is put-together by the Milan Film Festival; selected festival films with an 'eco' theme have been chosen for this on-line competition sponsored by Air Dolomati and Aeroporto Di Monaco. Fans of the film will have to register to vote...

Cat Fans Do: 'Simon's Cat' #03

Here's the third of the CatFansDo fan art video series I've been editing for Simon's Cat Ltd. Narration by Simon Tofield, music by Russell Pay of shrooty.com

Piano: 'Georgia On My Mind'

A while back in my piano lessons I was trying to play 'Georgia On My Mind' from the sheet music. I've since then learnt to play the tune just by remembering the chords, so it's something I keep coming back to to have another go at.

TANDEM Vimeo Channel Launch

TANDEM Films (the studio I mostly work for) has just joined Vimeo. The first couple of films up are some behind the scenes 'making of' time-lapses I shot/edited back in the day...

Typographic Artwork Quotation Thing

I was recently asked if I'd make a typographic artwork thing as a gift for a friend illustrating one of her favourite quotations. After lots of false starts, I went for a three dimensional assemblage that fits inside a 5"x7" box frame (so this artwork is pretty small). The box shapes are formed from thick watercolour paper and the text is coloured vinyl cut with my CraftRobo cutter/plotter. The font used is inspired by cinema signage, it's called 'Now Playing'.

Cat Fans Do: 'Simon's Cat' #02

Here's the second of the CatFansDo fan art video series I've been editing for Simon's Cat Ltd. Narration by Simon Tofield, music by Russell Pay of shrooty.com

Train Spotted!

Our man on the spot captured the moment a steam train sped through Enfield Chase station this morning.

Cat Fans Do: 'Simon's Cat' #01

Here's the first episode in a new series of videos I've been putting together for Simon's Cat Ltd. This is a pretty simple concept; something of a nostalgic nod towards 'Take Hart' and other TV art programmes.

We invited Simon's Cat fans to send in their Simon's Cat artwork, and the selected images become a 'gallery' style film for the Simon's Cat Extra video channel. Simon Tofield narrates, and the music and final sound mix is by Russell Pay (a.k.a. Shrooty)

Piano: 'Once Upon A Time in the West'

This month in my piano lessons I've mostly been playing Once Upon A Time in the West by the great Ennio Morricone. This really is the best recording I can get for now...

Simon Draws: Mice

The seventh episode in the webisodic series I have been recording/editing for Simon's Cat Ltd. The super-talented Simon Tofield draws some mice...

BAA!

Well the 2012 British Animation Awards nominees have just been announced...

My film for Canongate Books 'Little Hands Clapping' had been short-listed in the 'Best Commissioned Animation' category but obviously hasn't made it to the final three. But hey, here's that BAA short-listed film again in full...



Congratulations to all those that did make the grade, here's a link to the Televisual article with a full list of all the nominees. Let's not forget that I had my 'big moment' at the last BAA in 2010 when TXT ISLAND WAS nominated a Finalist for the 'Best Short Film' award; and that's my excuse for a repeat showing of that film here too...