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Adam Procter - Film 2009
I have promised to talk about production whilst in production in the past and have seen a surge in this activity elsewhere so here I'm going to talk about my new film due for completion in Sept 2009 (just about fits my 3 months production time frame). So firstly here is a rather good example of an already great production blog An Eyeful of Sound which talks about the production of this new film directed by Samantha Moore (who taught me animation a while back now).
So let's back track a little and I will try to present some of the production so far in chronological order. I of course have my own personal schedule to complete another film within the year after Polvo. I of course at various times think about making a new film, however at no stage do I sit down and do any 'brain storming', I have come to the conclusion that ideas can be generated any time and through living we take in the world around and that at some point the idea will come out. Scott Walker puts it better than me in 30th Century man [need to add quote]. I also know I want to create an open content film, that is the files for the film are free for anyone to use (Creative Commons Licence), the tools to edit the files are free (open source) and in some way offset the production to have near zero environmental impact (carbon neutral or other)
I also wanted to go back to having one character as my main driving force behind the narrative and on the 24th of April I sketched out this Raven.
At some point recently I had decided I would like to do a film with a Raven in it, I can only assume this is due to watching the film The Owl
sometime late summer 2006 to be included in a Sound and Vision screening ran by Jason Wilson and myself, I just loved the bird character and the black, of course the entire film works for me too.
I have been looking the combining of 2d animation into 3d enviroments for a while now and more recently David Rodriguez contacted me too look at his recent work, which I think is a fantastic example of 2d in 3d in Blender. A long time ago I contacted him about a still image I liked and he also requested some files from one of my films, so I hope to gain some tips from him as well and of course Blender Artists forum is great help.
I also spoke to Tom Gorrell who informed me that Ravens, Crows and all where all of one grouping (Corvidae) and that they all had distinct features and often mistaken for the wrong one, so I was then unsure if it was the Raven that I wanted. Well whilst photocopying some items at work I noticed the book club box had a rather wonderful book on birdsand had some amazing pages on all these, these where photocopied (would love to buy book though) for educational purposes, this confirmed it was indeed the Raven that I wanted it had more 'characteristic' features and was the largest of the group.
I had been thinking about a few narrative ideas, mainly based on the movement of the animal and possible ways to develop a 2d character with interacting bones and leaf shaped feathers, I also decided to go hunt for some narratives around the Raven, itself, having been interested in various creation myths for a while, I searched for Raven Myths where else but wikipedia. There is lots of details to delve into which kept informing my thoughts.
During these searches for images and myths I came across this version of the Raven creation myth, and have no decided this will form the basis for the film.
I was looking for videos on Ravens (possible rotoscoping) and Images for reference (although I think the book is pretty great) I found this nice video/image resource
So after all that is said I am now going to try to work out some Inkscape/Blender workflows, and think about the look of this film past the Raven (although he will drive it all) I would expect it to be pretty black and white (see Doljer).
I'm now on the search for some electronic music from Jamendo, ccMixter, the other day Kraftwerk in the car got me thinking about my Raven, so maybe something similar.
Shortlink: http://adamprocter.org/s/107
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