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The making of Jug Band Blues and The Passage of Time
Jug Band Blues and The Passage of Time both got 4-star awards at BIAFF 2008.
Jug Band Blues
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This was a follow up to "The Chandler's Wife" which I produced a few
years ago. It used the same group and similar type of music.
I would like to think that my animation has improved over the years, working now from more precise templates and using the computer's software to produce some of the movements. I use some 'clip art' as the basis of a few of the scenes, but all the characters are draw from scratch. After a while a format evolves which can be incorporated into the repetitive motion. Having first decided upon an idea, usually inspired by a piece of music, I then start by laying this soundtrack on the timeline. By noting the peaks and troughs in the sound wave, I can then use these as the guidelines for the animation. |
"Paint box-Pro X" provides all the necessary tools for compiling the artwork and "Animation Shop 3" renders the many drawings into 'Avi' files. I still use Adobe Premier 6.5, which I find much more user friendly than the later versions. All the 'clips' are then laid onto the timeline in Adobe Premier to synchronise with the music.
An animated link is useful to smoothly blend one scene into the next. In the "Jug Band", the bird flying across the sky was designed to give continuity between the animated sequences.
Once a rough version is put together, it will become obvious that certain sequences (if not all at times!) are sub-standard and need "fine tuning" or completely redoing. The "Jug Band" took several months to complete but with long breaks for other commitments. After a break, one can take a more dispassionate view of one's work and frequently re-fabricate both the story and the action. One is never satisfied but time is limited and a compromise has always to be reached.
The Passage of Time
| One of the local camcorder clubs, had for it's monthly challenge, a set
subject on 'municipal clocks'. Having taken a dozen or so clocks necessary
for the challenge, I felt more could be made of the idea if set to music.
Haydn's symphony 101, 2nd movement, aptly entitled "Clock", fitted the bill
perfectly, so I set about videoing and photographing as many clocks and
timepieces as possible.
The same principle of cutting picture to movement was used as with the animations and a rough copy was soon completed. There were a lot of irritations in the original and many more clocks were captured in camera. The first presentable copy was called " Passage of time in Cornwall", being only clocks of that county. It was entered in the Cornwall Film Festival but sank without trace, although I'm told, a copy is held in the film archives. Throughout last year, if I came across a clock of interest, it was either photographed or videoed for possible future use. |
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The final version contains barely 10% of the earlier "rough cut" edit but then there's always room for improvement in every production.
Clive Ody, Cornwall 2008