Out of the Shed and Down to the Seaside

 

Before and After

Am I being more shed? I am trying to be braver, and certainly to accept more challenges. I had made the film of the book, so why not the book of the film?..of an animation I made years ago, in Flash.
I can draw better now, (I thought) and I enjoyed the working process of making a series of finished images which would last longer than 1/25 of a second.
Actually, the best part of the film was the soundtrack, in particular the voiceovers by Paul (the voice of the shed) Baldwin, Julie McBean and Chris Moreland.

The picture book would not have the benefit of those so obviously, that was the challenge to go for. Having completed the drawings I immediately decided to redo them all in a more stylised way, which would have been impossible in an animation. Not that that would have stopped me trying.
Now that retirement from academia has removed the pressure to "publish"...it's playtime. And inevitably, it's also time to feel cut off from a creative community and flounder around eating too much cake, like Annie the main protagonist of The Sea. The story itself dates from the early 1990s, when I was seduced by the idea of a "wordprocessor" in the house. This led to a few short stories and the beginning of an epic but doomed fictional biography of my Great Aunt. Sometimes it is useful to explore a completely different medium -but mainly for the change of pace and the opportunity that affords for reflecting on how a story can be told... as much as asking WHY it should be told.
Annie took her feelings of cut-off-ness and sorrow and made magic out of them. Annie is definitely More Shed.

Having a plan...

wasps don't actually have teeth like this...OR DO THEY?

Finally, latest 4 minute animation (about gardening, magic realism and - er -  wasps) is completed and sound mixed, ..Actually, I spent today so far redoing the soundtrack, because it just didn't quite have the pace; but I still made my deadline of  the start of the new teaching year. Last week was induction but my bottom line was to be done by my first (PT) day of the teaching year - tomorrow. I don't usually have a strict deadline for films, except for a few ludicrously quick submission dates for themed shows... it's usually more like...just do it! and when it's done, do another one... But it is motivating to have a timescale, a plan, a deadline. It also means you can actually get ahead of it and give yourself time off, which is hard to do for an artist/ animator when that isn't your (every)day job.
And some of those things that annoyingly motivational business people say are useful... If work expands to fit the available time, it can also be made to contract to fit it...but only if you have a clear sense of how much time you're giving yourself. I'm always telling the students the importance of planning and managing their time... so you'll all be pleased to know that my house looks like Mr Trebus lives here (google it) and the garden looks like an amazonian rainforest...but the film is done...TaDa!

Virtual gardening

Soundtrack for The Slow Lane is done, and the finished movie has gone off to some festivals for rejection. Updates completed to the website, to create pages for the most recent movies and , oh yes, re-link every single page to the blog via the OTHER menu. (which I forgot about) Yes, this is why style sheets are a good idea. (ask your Mum)

It's beginning to feel very much like the website is redundant, and that the blog is as much information as anyone would be bothered to read... But for me it's important to close the projects, to reflect, to tidy my virtual desk and get ready for the next idea. Digital projects that are infinitely copiable, tweakable and clone-able can sometimes feel like they are always in flux, that it isn't necessary to commit to a single, finite version and move on. But I believe it is. Let the narrative find its natural ending, its most expressive face and then frame it.

Then, move on to the next project which right now is some "virtual gardening" with added magic realism. It's an idea from the thinking stone, and a tiny bit metanarrative-y, investigating the nature of the animated world, where things can become other things quite easily, seamlessly and without the need for stunt-shrubs.