All Things Bakenius

Puma film

Wed, 13 May 2009 10:19:01 GMT

Oh by the way...

between moving houses and a plethora of children book animations, I worked on an 'animated' trailer for a new Puma sneaker as a viral promotion. A cheesy yet cool absurd trailer reminiscent of 80-90's sci-fi. One of the strangest and surreal things I ever worked on. But it was nice to step out of my comfort zone again. We shot the dolls in a warehouse and I Photoshopped them into the backgrounds and did some post and animation in After Effects on it.

You can see it here: on vimeo

I'm curious what you think of it. Not my proudest work but fun nonetheless. And yes, that's real Japanese and Chinese that's spoken in it.

Alexander and Marin on ARTE!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:59:39 GMT

For those who receive the German/French television channel: Tomorrow 12 November at 0:30 AM there will be an interview shown about my faithfull composer Alexander Reumers, at 1:05 AM Marin will be shown (German title: 'Unter Wasser';))

For all of you who do not receive this channel you can watch bits of the program here.

Here's a shortcut to the clip of Alexander's item where he talks about the prize and orchestra recordings for the Moai Inc project. (including the traditional dodgy German dubbing :D)

And here is interesting clip where Alex talks about the challenges of writing music for Marin.

Marin, no sorry - 'Unter Wasser'- also got it's own page. :)

Talk about publicity eh? :)

Klik 2008

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:07:34 GMT

It's been a mad couple of days with the Amsterdam Klik festival. Seen a lot of new inspiring animation, spoke to a lot of interesting people and had a great time with my girlfriend all at the same time.

And I was interviewed for the AT5 news program.You can see the interview here.

After a festival like this I really can't wait to start animating myself again, mostly because I know that what I'm making, you practically see nothing like it on festival screens. It's going to be a blast! :D

My 15 minutes of fame

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:30:12 GMT

Mensen, ik heb het momenteel te druk om na te denken, maar ik wil jullie toch een kleine update geven van wat er allemaal gaande is in mijn bescheiden leventje.

- Ik kom zaterdagavond op televisie. In een programma van AT5 welteverstaan, het Amsterdamse tv kanaal. AT5 wil graag verslag doen van het Amsterdamse animatie festival Klik, en het leek hun leuk een Amsterdamse animator uit te lichten. Dus komt er zaterdag ochtend een cameraploeg over de vloer om een interview met me op te nemen. Mocht je geen AT5 ontvangen, de uitzending is, na wat ik heb begrepen, ook nog een week online te bekijken op de website van AT5. Maar ik zal er nog over posten.

- De organisatie van het Klik festival zijn aardig bezig mij steeds te betrekken in de media want maandag werd ik ook al gebeld door verslaggever van de Metro om mijn mening over de Nederlandse animatie te geven en stond geciteerd in de dinsdag editie van de regio Amsterdam. Ik zal het artikel eens in scannen zodra ik er even de tijd voor vind.

- Ik ben sinds verleden week vrijdag een zelfstandig ondernemer met een BTW en Kvk nummer zodat ik legaal freelance klussen kan aannemen. Dit betekend hopelijk een zeer lucratieve aanvulling op het salaris van mijn part time baan maar ook dat ik kennis ga maken met de wondere wereld van boekhouden en inkomstenbelastingen. Maar Leo de Wijs Visual Productions is een feit.

- Alles wat Alexander met het orkest in Keulen aan muziek wil gaan opnemen met het WDR radio orkest is nu gescored en uitgewerkt tot ouderwetse bladmuziek. Maar net weer op de valreep natuurlijk aangezien alles aan het paaseiland project griezelig ambitieus is, zo ook de muziek. Zonder de hulp van collega componist Joram Letwory (de 'huiscomponist' van Marissa ;)) die zorgvuldig de partijen uitschreef die Alexander nog geen uren daarvoor gecomponeerd had was het zeker niet gelukt. Nu maar hopen dat we alles met het orkest kunnen opnemen... we tenslotte meer dan een kwartier aan scoremuziek en slechts een halve dag de tijd met het orkest.

- De WDR/ARTE gaat een programma maken over Alexander naar aanleiding van de muziekprijs die hij gaat opnemen deze maand. Marin zal in dit programma ook vertoond worden en zal te zien zijn in heel Duitsland en Frankrijk; de non-exclusieve rechten die zij daarvoor van ons moeten krijgen levert ons ook weer een behoorlijk zakcentje op als alles goed gaat. De uitzending hiervan is medio november, en ook dit zal online te bekijken zijn, ook hier zal ik nog wel nader bericht over geven.

Het lijkt allemaal in een stroomversnelling te raken de laatste tijd, ongelofelijk. Maar goed, vannavond begint het Klik, en ik heb nog een honderd dingen te doen voor Marissa hier is (haar film seasons draait daar ook!) dus ik ga maar weer snel door hier!

Festival nieuws

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:34:32 GMT

Ik zou het bijna vergeten eens te vermelden hier, maar mijn afstudeer-animatiefilm Marin is binnenkort te zien op het grote doek in zowel Amsterdam en Utrecht!

Ten eerste op het Klik festival; een nieuw animatiefestival in Amsterdam (www.klikamsterdam.nl) op zaterdag en zondag 13 en 14 september in studentenblok 3 in bioscoop de Kriterion.

Ten tweede op het HAFF; het roemruchte twee-jaarlijkse animatie festival in Utrecht van 5 tot 11 november. Daar is het programma vooralsnnog niet van bekend.

Maar zeker leuk dat Marin, nu toch al weer een jaar oud, nog steeds zo in de belangstelling staat. Ik hoop echter echt dat volgend jaar onze Paaseiland film mee kan mee draaien in het festival roulatie, want te lang op oud succes teren is niet gezond, er is altijd een groter en mooier project dat wacht over de horizon!

And there goes 1.0 down the toilet...

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:19:02 GMT

I think a little update since my last post is appropriate. :)

Last Sunday at the last day of my week off I managed to finish off the moving storyboard of Rapa Nui project against all odds. I felt really content, like I could relax again.

Well not really. You see, the movie wasn't exactly working. It was too long, most dialogue scenes felt boring, the tone of the film seemed to shift all over the place, and worst of all: we thought that Kaula, our main character, was a whiny, irritating little brat, your typical nine-year-old righteous environmentalist with a bad temper. Somehow it happened, somewhere between the umpteenth rewrite of the script and three months I spend storyboarding it we allowed this film to become long-winded and unsympathetic. And it was a deal breaker. We both just couldn't make this film as is. Something had to be done, something drastic and quick - since Alex only has one month left to write the score before it must send to the orchestra.

This resulted in possibly the worst Wednesday of my life where I spend from 11 in the morning to 10 in the evening in a tiny little room with my composer trying to think up a way to save this film: what we could do to make it work again? We had really rough spots in our 6-month preproduction track before, but usually one of us was hopeful enough to pull the other one out again. But this time we both couldn't see the light and we were pretty close to just giving it up, throw in the towel, just wrap it all up and go on with our lives. That's a pretty grim thing to consider after spending a good 300 hours on this thing the past half year for sure, it's been my passion and artistic goal to tell this story well for so long...

But somehow we found a solution at the end of that day and the days that came after. But it's a bold solution. It means clearing out all remnants of previous visions/versions of the script, rewriting about two thirds of the existing dialogue in a new tone and cut out another third. ( zolphia helped us out a tremendous deal with this over the weekend we cannot thank her enough.) And also effectively throw out two months worth of pretty storyboard art and redraw it all roughly in the new vision in a matter of weeks. Painful but necessary: all remnants of the previous incarnation must be purged for this story to work emotionally.

You see, we started out with an epic period piece where the island's native society were a lot like the ones you see in a movie like Pocahontas, but by now the natives are much more like village clan from Asterix. We mock modern-day consumerism and the problems of it's sustainability in a gentle and playful way by placing it within an ancient Polynesian society where the islanders created a totally silly industry of an ever increasing production of Moai statues and their spin-off merchandise.

We've lost a lot of the initial esoteric/ecological themes of the project along the way since we wanted to avoid becoming to preachy or pretentious. Yes, we do have a message to convey, but to do this in a fun and fulfilling matter is really important to us. This is no propaganda film for an environmental organization. The characters and their respective story arcs have to play out in such a way that they’re likable and believable even it doesn't necessarily serve the film's main message. Finally we dared to set our priorities. There's still the change it won't work out ideally... but I'm confident it'll be at least a hundred times better then our initial version. And that'll have to do. The music has to be written, the timing has to be locked.

But I'm learning so much about film making and story telling once again, it's pretty wonderful really. This film is really pushing the limits of my abilities and thus expanding them. It might take infinite effort and patience but animation sure is rewarding if you hold your breath long enough. I still can't think of anything I would rather do with my time. :)

Heh, but so much talk yet so little to show for it. I promise to release some material here as soon as were happy with it again. :)

project update - 2nd week of June

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:28:12 GMT

Heh, I purchased a paid lj account again because I got fed up with not being able to edit comments. :P Oh well, it has some other benefits besides that silly little thing, expect some neat new user pics as soon as I think up some... I now have 35 slots instead of 6 after all. :)

I had a very fruitful progress meeting on Wednesday. We hope to finalize the dialogue in next week's session, record a temp track to roughly time the storyboard the week after and in 4-5 weeks time record it with the real voice cast. I've got till then to finish the moving storyboard, and make character sheets for Lizemijn to get into drawing and modelling the characters in a uniform way throughout the production. All and all a fruitful meeting and I feel like going forward again.
It was also nice that zolphia could finally join us in the discussion since she's more or less involved since the beginning in building the story but she had never met Alex and Lizemijn up till last Wednesday. Hurray for shorter communication lines.

In other news, my new graphics card arrived in the mail yesterday and Alex is coming over in the afternoon to install it. Let's hope the problem is fixed this way instead of making it worse. (like a completely dead computer. ;)) I'm still planning to buy a new system somewhere next month, but I rather do that with a good running system in the mean time.

And to conclude this post a little appetizer. Here are some newly coloured (or rather, grey scaled ;)) storyboard images I've done the past couple of days, respectively out of scene 3 and 10.

oh shit...

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:35:54 GMT

Something very annoying is happening to my computer this morning, and I have no idea how to get rid of it. Everything is looking like this:

Although none of the systems seems affected, I can't work like this on my animation. >_<
I have done nothing out the ordinary last time I used my computer. Does anyone have an idea what this is and how to get rid of it? :(

What a way to start the day.

edit: A replacement card is ordered, and my composer will get it installed somewhere next week so I can continue work on the project full force.

As for now... I going to visit Fiona this afternoon now. Way better then getting totally frustrated with f*cked-up visuals. (the more you draw in an area on the screen the worse the distortion gets. Aaargh!)

And as for tomorrow... it's my mom's birthday party so that's pretty convenient at this point. With any luck I'll have the new graphics card installed before the next long day of work on the animation. :)

A little request to all anime-savvy people on my flist.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:00:07 GMT

ADK-Japan is at the moment in a pitch to get to do an animated commercial for a navigational system; as in animated anime-style. But the client is hesitant... they see animation with prejudges such that it is the
culture for kids or for very limited maniac people.

Now ee all know that is not true, but if I find some articles on how anime (style animation) is rising in popularity, even for the adult mainstream market it might be just the thing to convince this client in going ahead with this totally ace animation project.

So if any of you knows some article that might convince our client I would be forever thankful.

outline v4.05 - Dialogue!

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:50:48 GMT

A good afternoon my dear readers,

What I have for you today is the first version of the script with dialogue. Yes, that's right. But I also know language isn't my strong point nor writing compact, witty, natural feeling dialogue that keeps consistent with the characters personality. I know many of you are strong in the English language and have read/written a lot. So any suggestions for improvements on any of it is more then welcome!

Here we go...

Script v. 4.05

ACT 1

1. THE ISLAND: VARIOUS LOCATIONS – VARIOUS DAYTIMES

We begin the opening credits sequence with pretty foliage (different shaped leaves/flowers, butterflies) which then disappears from the screen with the crackle of trees being cut. We then see an old craftsman processing the just-cut tree into a pillar. We switch to a close shot of a volcanic rock wall around which a wooden pillar construction is build. We pan upwards and find a big man picking out what appears to be a big nose out of the black volcanic stone. Rubble flies through the air which is picked up in bucket by a running boy transporting the rubble to a hole below.

*In the background we meet Kaula playing with a little creature that is abruptly caught by a clan member.*

Near the hole woman are weaving the palm tree leaves into rope. The same rope we see then towed by a group of man pulling the statue we yet have to see in full. Then the statue’s being raised *very grand and proud moment* and the local Shaman performs a blessing in front of the whole clan that has gathered. Kaula runs in late during the ceremony and exchanges a tense look with her father. Then the clan, led by the heavyweight Chief, burst out in cheers and celebrate.

! important here is to show how many and very different members of the clan are invested in this statue making process, and do this with great skill and pride.
! The islanders introduced in the close-ups will be the same people Kuala goes to plead her case to in the montage sequence.
! Also important is to show in detail how this process is very depended on using the island trees.

2. FIELDS BETWEEN COAST AND VILLAGE – AFTERNOON (CLEAR)

While walking from the ceremony back to the village the Chief takes a moment to talk with his daughter.

CHIEF
*content* “ahh... some party, wasn’t it?”

KUALA
*pondering* “Why are we erecting new statues father? There are so many already…” *points at the many statues scattered over the coast*

CHIEF
“Well uhm, that’s the wish of our ancestors of course. This way they can watch over us. The more we erect, the safer we are.”

KAULA
“But how can you really know? Can they talk back then?”

CHIEF
“In a way I guess, but that’s the Shaman’s territory”

KAULA
“But how does the shaman know–“

CHIEF
*interrupts while smiling* “This is no business for little girls to be concerned about.”

KAULA
*pulls an annoyed expression*

CHIEF
*notices it, then decides to ‘pull out’ a surprise he got planned.*

The Chief pushes a surprise in Kuala’s face: it’s a rare little bird in a beautifully crafted cage.
Kaula looks at the little creature aghast since she recognises this is the one that she was playing with the other day before it was caught.

KAULA
*looks painfully at the bird*

CHIEF
*surprised* “You… don’t like it?”

KAULA
*continues to stare painfully*

CHIEF
*slightly agitated* “You know, these are rather rare today. It took my servant a lot of effort to find and capture one.”

Kaula, while still staring at the little creature that’s whining and quivering of fear, is now boiling with anger. The Chief now gets disappointed because she doesn’t even try to be grateful with the gift that took him so much effort to acquire.

CHIEF
“You don’t like it?”

KAULA
“It’s sad.”

CHIEF
“Well if you don’t want it, I like it back please. They’re a delicacy after all.”

KAULA
*angry* “What?! No!” *runs off with the caged creature.*

CHIEF
*calls after her* “Kaula! Be reasonable!”

CHIEF
*gathers that her daughter really needs to blow of steam and leaves, sighing.*

3. THE REMOTE CLIFF – DUSK (CLEAR)

We cut to Kaula sitting on a remote cliff looking out over the sea in deep thought, obviously still feeling angry about what happened earlier but it turned more into a feeling of incapacity now. There is also an ancient-looking statue standing behind her (which shouldn’t really attract the viewer’s interest too much, because they are everywhere.)

KAULA
*looks at the still encaged bird* The little birdie looks back quivering.

KAULA
*sighs*

KAULA
*mutters while releasing the bird from it’s cage* “Why won’t my father understand?”

The bird immediately flies away, happily twittering. Kaula keeps looking at it go until it’s gone. And the sighs deeply, finally unwinding a bit while the sun is setting.

Then a deep wary voice behind her agrees with her statement…

STATUE
“I guess because he’s too thick-headed. The whole island is, actually.”

KAULA
*Looks behind her startled but doesn’t see anyone.*

STATUE
*dry* “Hello.”

KAULA
*amazed* “You… spoke?!?”

STATUE
*dry* “Yes?”

KAULA
“I never seen a Moai speak before.”

STATUE
“Well, I prefer not to these days. It is effort wasted”

KAULA
“Why?”

STATUE
*sigh* “Because the island is doomed, of course.”

KAULA
“Doomed? How so?”

STATUE
“Just… look at the hill behind me.”

POV Kuala looking at the main hill of the island. Aside from a little group of trees at the top the main hill is a barren wasteland. Kaula’s expression tightens.

STATUE
“They keep cutting trees in order to erect more Moai statues, as if there were not enough of us elders down here already”

We see ancient statues in the background that now seem alive: the field cluttered with statues resembles an old peoples home. Most of them are snoring, some of them are staring ‘out of the window’ One is complaining about another statue blocking his view.

KAULA
*is looking at the barren scene with open mouth.*

STATUE
“Somehow your quaint fellow villagers are too daft to realise they also live from plants of the forest. *matter of fact-ly* So it wont be long before they will all starve.”

KAULA
“We have to do something!” Tell… Everybody!”

STATUE
“It’s no use. They’re just too thick-headed to comprehend so I stopped caring a long time ago.”

KAULA
“So we just go on and starve? I don’t think so. We just have to stop erecting statues! I’ll just convince my father, he might be a bit dim, but this is just so obvious. He’ll have to do something!” *storms off*

STATUE
*Inhales to make a response but doesn’t as he’s notices that Kuala already left the scene*

4. THE CHIEF’S HUT – EVENING

Establishing shot of the ‘Chief palace’: a ridiculous lush and big hut compared to the rest of the village, it’s interior has a laid-back lounge quality. Kaula goes through the moonlit room to address her father who sits comfortable in his ‘throne’ made of palm trees (of course) busy eating a coconut while playing with a miniature Moai statue.

KAULA
*hyperactive* “Father? Father! We have to stop making statues! It’s really bad, you know, we use up all the trees to make them! Without we will starve!”

The Chief is clearly thrown for a moment, and looks glum to the miniature he’s holding but then decides to take Kaula’s warning as a personal insult.

CHIEF
“You can never be supportive in your father’s business, can you?”

KAULA
“No, I’m serious. An old Moai statue told me-”

CHIEF
*interrupt her* In a condescending tone: “Kaula, are you sure you didn’t just dream off again?”

KAULA
*infuriately takes a deep breath to argue*

The chief is still unconvinced but in his hope to reconcile with his daughter he decides to play along.

CHIEF
“Well then, why don’t you show me that talking statue in the morning? But first- ”

KAULA
“-To bed. Yes, I know.”

ACT 2

5. THE REMOTE CLIFF – MORNING (GREY SKY)

We’re back on the cliff. Kaula and her father enter the shot. Kaula is holding her father’s hand, trying to make him go faster.

CHIEF
"This dinky old one? We make far better these days.”

KAULA
“No… just wait.”

They now stand in front of the statue. Kaula desperately tries to get the statue to speak, even knocking on/touching the statue, the statue however, stubborn as he is, remains inanimate.

CHIEF
“Uhm, dear… I think you might have dreamed the whole thing. I mean, the island’s fine, I’m sure.”

KAULA
“No it isn’t. Argh, stupid statue!” *gives a final kick*

CHIEF
“Kaula…”

KAULA
“No, if you won’t believe me I’ll just have to convince everyone else.”

While Kaula walks off the Chief keeps standing there a little while longer shaking his head in disbelieve for her daughter strange behaviour but suddenly catches sight of the empty, barren hills and scratches is head with a looming worried expression. The statue in the background notices this without giving himself away.

6. THE ISLAND: VARIOUS LOCATIONS – VARIOUS DAYTIMES

Montage: We see Kuala trying to convince the stone hackers, the wood pickers, the rope weavers, the running boy and so on with increasing inventiveness but without any success.
Various statues in the background - awoken by the recent stir in events Kaula is causing - do notice her continues effort though.

When the montage winds down after a row of rejections we see near-beaten Kaula enter the sinister hut of the Shaman which is completely devoted to ancestor worship.
The audience notices a prominent row of portraits of previous shamans: under each portrait stands a little row of wooden, miniature Moai statues. Each succeeding shaman seemed pressured to build more. The current shaman appears to have broken all records though, with so many miniatures that they threaten to fall of the shelf.

SHAMAN
*carves a miniature statue above the firelight*

KAULA
“Uhm, Shaman? May I ask you something?”

SHAMAN
*dignified without stopping his activity* “You may.”

KAULA
*talking overactive* “We have to stop making statues! It’s really bad you know, we use all the trees to make them! Without we will starve! The old statue at the cliff told me so!”

SHAMAN
*stops dead in his carving*

KAULA
*winding down* “…so, you know, we have to stop…”

SHAMAN
*turns around and gives a mortifying grim stare*

KAULA
*looks sheepishly*

We cut to the outside of the Shaman’s hut, Kuala runs out followed by the Shaman who angrily shakes his shaman-voodoo stick from the door opening.

7. THE REMOTE CLIFF – NIGHT

Exhausted and disappointed Kaula drags herself to the old statue again.

KAULA
“Stupid statue!”

STATUE
*remains inanimate*

KAULA
Why don’t you talk? Coward!”

STATUE
*remains inanimate*

KAULA
“Fine, don’t.” *sits down facing the sea* *sighs while staring out*

KAULA
“You were right, you know. Nobody wants to listen. They just don’t really believe it. Not as long as no one is starving, I guess…” *the statue comes alive behind her*

Still with Kuala in front of the camera the statue responds:

STATUE
“Now you know for yourself. It’s hopeless.”

KAULA
*gets an angry expression while the statue says this*

KAULA
“I refuse to believe that! It’s only ‘hopeless’ because you’re not helping. You could have said something when my father was here.”

STATUE
“He seemed rather simple-minded…”

KAULA
“Yeah well, I know, but still… he means well. And he is our Chief, he can change things if you managed to convince him. I know you still care about the island. You’ll have to try, even if it’s most likely to fail anyway. What do you have to lose?”

STATUE
“Yes, uhm, well…”

KAULA
“well what?”

STATUE
“I eh, may be able to ‘help’ a little…”

8. THE CHIEF’S HUT - NIGHT

We see the Chief sleeping, then the colours change from night-blue to feverish red. The Chief wakes up inside a nightmare: a completely barren version of the island. He is confronted with scary, living statues that try to crush him. He starts to run for his life. From his point of view a hillside comes into view: completely barren, with one tree on the top that is being cut. Then the Chief finds himself in a cage that looks just like that one he gave to Kaula hold by a giant version of the little creature. The creature moves the cage to show him what happens to his people without trees left. No building material, no food… visions of people perishing from hunger, fighting over what’s left...

ACT 3

9. THE CHIEF’S HUT – NIGHT (NEAR DAWN)

Awoken from the nightmare he storms into the room where Kaula is sleeping who wakes up immediately. The Chief is soaked in sweat but with a determent look in his eyes. Kuala looks back delighted.

! No words are spoken here to heighten the tension of the viewer that really needs to be left in the dark here for a moment know at this point.

10. THE REMOTE CLIFF / THE VILLAGE – DAY (GOING FROM A CLEAR TO DARK SKY)

! This is a cross-cutting scene going back and fourth between Kaula and the Chief raising the tension more and more. This scene should be a real nail-biter.

CLIFF

KAULA
*Happily hops towards to old statue to tell good news.*

VILLAGE

CHIEF
*Walks toward a stage in the middle of the village while arranging his official garments*

The whole clan has walked out to hear what the Chief has to say… there hangs tension in the air. Even the Moai statues overlooking the village ‘hold their breath’.

CLIFF

KAULA
“Old statue! Wake up! It worked!”

VILLAGE

CHIEF
*Finally addresses the clan by breaking the silence.* “My dear clan, I had a vision…”

CROWD
*goes ohh*

CLIFF

KAULA
“…he’s going to stop making statues. Isn’t it great?”

STATUE
*is pleasantly surprised* He had more or less forgotten he capable of anything besides observing. Now he is moderately optimistic for the first time in a century.

VILLAGE

CHIEF
*progresses his speech*, “…look at the hills! When we cut the last trees we’ll have nothing! Nothing to eat, nothing to build our houses from….”

CROWD
*responds in unrest.*

CLIFF

KAULA
*overly enthusiastic spins out future plans* “…If we spend our time replanting seeds and crops, the island will be greener in no time, the birds will have more places to nest and…”

STATUE
*Listens encouraging*

VILLAGE

CHIEF
*Trying to calm the crowd* “…it’s the will of the ancestors.” … “R-really… they told my daughter…”

CROWD
*unrest and confusion grows even stronger*

Then the old Shaman - sitting stone-faced till now - ‘rises’ with grim urgency…

SHAMAN
*points to the Chief* “Heretic! His lying daughter is blinding him!”

CROWD
*Goes berserk. Some people are about to storm the stage.*

The Moai statues behind the crowd are shocked.

CLIFF

KAULA
*Is still enthusiastically ‘spinning plans’* “…and then we can build a whole village for the birds and…”

The background statues are relaying a message from the village: the Chief is overthrown and they’re about to sacrifice him. The old statue that kicks back in his doom thinking mode immediately:

STATUE
*sigh* Alas, we are doomed after all. Why oh why did I allow myself to be carried away once again…”

KAULA
“What… why…“

STATUE
“At least you can be saved, Kuala. Look over there.”

He directs to an old overgrown forgotten boat lying in a secluded bay you can see from this remote cliff)

STATUE
“Head east and don’t look back.”

KAULA
“But what about my father?”

STATUE
“A first victim of ignorance, I’m afraid.”

VILLAGE

People are closing in, the Chief still desperately tries to reason with them, two big man grab the Chief by the arms

CLIFF

KAULA
*Running as hard as she can, crossing many Moai statues on her way that now cheer her on.*

VILLAGE

A ceremonial blade appears.

Amidst of the chaos Kaula appears and grabs the hand of her still stunned father. In the chaos this ensues the Chief is temporarily released and they sneak out. The Shaman spots them though and yells at the angry mob to go after them.

11. THE REMOTE CLIFF – DAY (DARK SKY)

An angry mob follows the two through a maze of statues towards the coast.
When they reach the remote cliff and the mob has almost caught up with them, the Easter Head statue is amazed to see the Chief still alive despite his doom scenario and this gives him the incentive to actively help them escape. The overweight chief has trouble keeping up with Kuala and trips, so now he appears done for. Now in a spur of bravery the Easter Head comes to life and tumbles over cutting the chief of from the bewildered crowd that is genuinely scared by this.

12. COAST – DAY (SKY CLEARING UP)

With the mob out of the picture, Kaula leads her father to the boat. But the Chief stops dead in his tracks for a moment.

CHIEF
*Reaches his hand out to the direction of his people with a sad and bewildered expression*

CHIEF
“But… Can’t I… W-why… ?!?”

KAULA
“They’re not going to understand.”

CHIEF
*Still looks sad*

KAULA
*comes to a bitter realisation while having to say to her father:* “It’s… heh… hopeless.” “Come on.”

The two get into the old boat waiting in the secluded bay, get in and leave the island. The clan people who now reached the beach are angrily yelling after them.

-THE END-

(AFTER THE CREDITS) 13. THE ISLAND SHORES FROM SEA – DAY (CLEAR SKY)

While the credits run we see the island going up in flames and near the end of the credits we see the ship of Jacob Roggerveen and arriving at the barren island. Stunned, thinking what the in hells name happened here.

Easter Island outline 3.03: Getting close yet?

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:37:54 GMT

Good morning my dear Livejournal readers.

The past two weeks have been pretty intense writing-wise. The feedback I got on the previous outline I posted here (v. 2.01) proved to be very helpful. A lot has changed though, the story got more whimsical (talking statues, WTF), the background conflict emphasis changed from environmental issues to religious dogma, I had to cut the love story (bye, bye Manu) that became quite impossible to rhyme with the larger scale drama and focus more on a daughter-father relationship since the Chief is naturally torn between the two ideological fires with a daughter that deviates from the cultural established way of life and his role in the island society.

The story has become… big. Dauntingly so. It will even require a lot of spoken dialogue. (We have to find good voice actors as well as people able of writing clever dialogue since I know that’s not exactly a strong point of mine) but that’s all of later concern. First the story needs to be right. And I know no other group of people as sharp and inventive plucking on stories as you. So hereby we gladly offer our outline for your eyes-only and in the hope that this story appeals to your senses and imagination.

Untitled Easter Island project
Synopses v. 3.03 (21/1/08)

Background:

The story is loosely set on Easter Island during the fall of the proud Polynesian society that flourished on the Island for many centuries and erected an incredible number of giant stone statues of their gods and ancestors. It’s now commonly believed that this proud society collapsed because they completely cut down the island’s forest for producing and transportation of their giant statures and left them with no means to sustain their food supply. After fierce warfare under each other they eventually perished leaving the once green and fertile paradise a barren wasteland filled with broken statues well before the first European explorers came ashore in 1722.

The principle characters:

Kaula is daughter of the chief, an energetic 11 year old that’s pretty bright for her age. Kaula is bit of the odd one out since she has a radical different outlook on life then the rest of the clan. While the whole clan seems occupied with the wrath of the gods she’s more interested in nature. Kaula is immensely frustrated by the fact that her father doesn’t seem to really understand her nor take her very serious. Encouraged by the Easter Head statue she tries to convince her father of the impending danger of cutting down the forest for erecting ever more statues.

Turam is the Clan’s chief and Kaula’s father; a strong leader and a caring father but sadly not all too bright for a man in his position. He is quite oblivious to the manipulation by his Shaman and the impending doom for the island it is causing. He is quite content to live in a little bubble where everything is fine and dandy and isn’t all that eager to leave it until daughter takes decisive action to burst it. He is totally aghast to finally face the truth but he does find the strength and courage to take action, even if it means to go against the wishes of the Shaman.

Tahiri is the clan’s pretentious Shaman; the ‘great’ spiritual leader revered by the clan. The Shaman is a character with great inner-conflict because his secret shame is that he has spend his whole career trying to get a personal connection with the gods trough talking with the statues as his proud predecessors did, but failed. His inability to do so led him to believe he has yet to find his personal ‘medium to the gods’ and thus manipulates the chief into building ever more and bigger statues, not minding the strain this has on the island’s environment.

The Clan people are not the brightest bunch and they allow fear to take over by preferring to listen to the Shaman reinsurances then the Chief stern warnings and eventually starve to death under the Shaman’s reign when the chief and his daughter fled the island.

The Easter Head is an ancient statue inhabited with the spirit of the first great Shaman. He has grown rather wary over the last decades and worries the end of this once proud civilisation is nigh. Disappointed and annoyed by deluded last-in-line Shaman he believes in all honesty that the 10 year old Kaula is the only sane person left on the island and thus the only one that has a shot in changing the course of history… This old statue has a disturbing odd sense of dry humour without losing it’s sincerity.

---

Scene 1

We open with a series close up shots of the process of hacking a new Easter Island statue and see it then towed toward the coast. We are introduced to the clan cutting trees, hacking stones and towing cords while we see Kaula playing amongst it, studying flowers, protecting creatures out the forest from the careless clan workers, that kind of stuff.

[introduction & exposition of the clan and Kaula ‘in action’ intersected for maximum effect of their differences]

Scene 2

Kaula runs in late on the statue completion ceremony just when her father congratulates the clan for the completion and gives the word to the Shaman who all to eagerly starts a pompous sermonize of how this new statue will please the gods and of his vital and exclusive role of mediating with them. Most of this speech will be background noise to a meaningful exchange of looks between Kuala and her father.*

*First a fierce look of annoyance and incomprehension of Turam why her daughter is late on which Kuala responses with a ‘dunno, does it matter?’ look/shrug, Turam’s facial expression then goes from angry (not again) to sad (why is she so grouchy / can’t I do something) to determent (I know just the thing to cheer her up)

[introduction & exposition of Turam in the role of Chief and father the ‘strained relationship’ with his daughter and introduction of the Shaman and his role.]

Scene 3.

After ceremony Turam takes a moment to talk with his daughter. She asks why “we” are still building new statues, since there are so many of them already; she points at the many statues scattered over the coast. Her father explains that it is the will of the gods and that the gods should be obeyed. Kaula then asks how her father really knows that this is what the gods want and her father explains that it is the witchdoctor who knows these things. Kaula goes on , asking how he knows, but her father smiles and kindly switches the subject (“enough big questions for a little girl like you”, something like that). Kaula grows annoyed again which Turam notices (although still pretty clueless as to exactly why) and hurries on with the cheer up part he had planned.

He has a surprise for her. It’s a little creature in a beautifully crafted cage. Kaula looks at the little creature aghast since she’s protecting these for a long time against the other islander’s deforesting. Turam, disappointed in the lack of gratitude this gift brings to her daughter he continues to tell her that it’s very rare these days and that it took one of his servants many days to find one for her. Kaula, while still staring at the little creature that’s whining and quivering of fear, is now boiling with anger. Turam now gets angry because she doesn’t even try to be grateful with the gift that took him so much effort to acquire.

Kaula snaps and runs off. Her father - partly angry partly confused - yells after her suggesting to talk about it. But when he gathers her daughter really needs to blow of steam he leaves, sighing.

[staging the main father-daughter conflict as well as the nature vs. religion theme]

Scene 4.

Kuala stops running on a high far-out cliff overlooking both the island as the sea. (this would be a good point to show that the island is more than half deforested). There is also a statue present (which shouldn’t really attract the viewer’s interested too much, because they are everywhere. Completely caught in her anger she curses her father and the whole clan for not understanding her or anything else while she releases the thankful creature which immediately flies/crawls away. She keeps looking at it until it’s almost gone. And the sighs deeply, finally unwinding a bit while the sun is setting.

Then a deep voice starts talking to her (something like: I wonder what your father would think of this). She freezes, then swiftly looks around, but doesn’t detect anyone. The statue speaks another line while Kaula is now looking in his direction. She is amazed. They start talking. Kaula gets of her chest what bugging her. The statue can’t do much more then agree and then explains to Kaula that she’s probably the last sane person left on the island. He could know, he’s been looking out on the island from this statue for generations, but lately the hunger for more and bigger statues is unnecessary (insert joke with many heads in the background complaining) and has disrupted the natural balance on the island. It should be stopped; she should find a way to make the people see.. She suddenly notices it’s already dark and tells the statue she should go home.

Scene 5.

As Kaula returns home she finds her father discussing plans for a new, even bigger statue with the Shaman. Kaula is very energetic and tells her father they shouldn’t build a new statue. The Chief is baffled because this was the last thing he expected his daughter to say after their fight just that afternoon. The Shaman, however, looks visibly annoyed. Turam brings her daughter upstairs while she explains what happened and that he should come with her to see the statue, he doesn’t really believe her but in the hope of resolving the issues with his daughter he agrees to come with her in the morning.
When the chief returns to the Shaman and murmurs some mild doubt about the necessity of this ridiculous big statue, but the Shaman reassures him that this is the will of the gods. They will provide for the people if the people keep them happy.

Scene 6.

We are back on the cliff. Kaula and her father enter the shot. Kaula is holding her father’s hand, trying to make him go faster. Kaula desperately tries the statue to speak, even knocking on/touching the statue, the statue, of course, remains inanimate. Her father explains she must have been dreaming and that the island is fine, the Shaman told him last night. Kaula blames her father for not taking the Easter Head seriously (‘that must be it’) and storms off, Turam who keeps standing there a little while longer shaking his head in disbelieve for her daughter strange behaviour suddenly catches sight of the empty, barren hills and scratches is head with a looming worried expression before heading off.

Scene 7

Now she feels her father will not believe her, Kaula goes off to seek the shaman for advise. (He is working on drawings of the new statue-to-be) She tells him that she spoke to an ancestor through an ancient statue on the high cliff, the shaman is shocked but does not show this, he laughs it away. She must have dreamt this, surely only he is able to speak with the gods…

Scene 8.

That evening Kaula is making her way up to the cliff again. When she’s almost there she meets the shaman walking away from the site. He acts as if “caught”, makes up a silly excuse why he was there and then quickly goes away again. Kaula goes on and tries to make contact with the statue again. Once again, it speaks. He tells her he’s only willing to speak to someone really capable of listening. (if you catch my drift) He mentions that the shaman was with him a moment ago and that he clearly is not; he jokes about that he was glad that he finally left. Kaula tells of her problems trying to convince her dad. The statue ponders on that a while and then replies that he may be able to “help” a little convincing him…

Scene 9.

The Chief has a nightmare in which he is confronted with scary statues. And then he is confronted deforest island. (Maybe at some point in the dream we could do something with the little creature being huge and the chief in a cage that looks just like that one he gave to Kaula. This would help move away the focus on deforestation, toward a more general-lack-of- respect-for-your-surroundings.

Scene 10

Awoken from the nightmare he shares his new insight with his daughter and promises that will stop the statue-making process at one. Delighted, Kaula runs off to the statue to tell him the good news. The Shaman, who was listening in on their conversation is enraged and decides to follow her secretly.

Scene 11

Kaula wants to give the statue the happy news but stops halfway when she finds that the statue is in a particular blue mood. The statue warns her that bad things are coming and tells her he can help her to get away from the island, but she must act quickly. Kaula wants to get her father first. The grave statue then tells her that her father is doomed, that there is no point going after him. Simultaneously, the Shaman hidden behind another statue is completely crushed by finding out that Kaula really can speak to the statues and almost breaks down, but gets himself together again and while a vicious gleam appears in his eyes he runs off at the end of the scene. We don’t see whether or not Kaula decides to take the offer or not.

Scene 12.

Kaula’s father is standing in front of the crowd and tells about his plans to stop the building of statues. The crowd responds in a confused shock. An enraged Shaman shows up again and declares that the Chief is a going against the will of the gods and thus should be killed. Some of the crowd respond in favour to that idea. The Chief, thrown off guard, clumsily (the Shaman is the better speaker) tries to convince the crowd that the Shaman is wrong. That everyone will die of hunger soon if we don’t stop making statues. The crowd looks confused and scared. The Shaman then promises that the gods will provide for the people if they keep building statues for them and kill this heretic. The crowd goes wild and storms the stage to kill the Chief. But amidst of the chaos Kaula comes to get her father. They run off.. The Shaman, even angrier because he sees Kuala again, yells at the angry mob to stop them.

Scene 13.

An angry mob follows the two through a maze of statues towards the coast. When the mob almost caught up with them the Easter Head statue suddenly come to life and tumbles over. Cutting the bewildered crowd off. With the mob out of the picture, the two flee following the other statues lead. They lead them to a quiet spot on the coast where a little boat is docked. They get in and leave the island.

The end.

While the credits run we see the island going up in flames and near the end of the credits we see the ship of Jacob Roggerveen and arriving at the barren island, stunned, thinking what the in hells name happened here.

Yeah, I know. Me and Alex would like to do a feature film length production if it were possible. But somehow this thing has to be condensed in 10 to 15 minutes. Without feeling rushed. Talk about ambition. XD

The Easter Island project

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:49:17 GMT

Good morning my dear livejournal friends!

First of all: happy New year everyone! (I mean, it's my first post of the new year)

Remember that first fairytale outline of my new animation project? It's off the table. I spend the past two weeks brainstorming with Alexander and we came with quite a different concept since we want a slightly unusual exotic setting, personal drama and press an environmental issue.

But, as always, the story is far from 'there' yet. Especially the way to end it is something were not exactly sure off. So if you, my livejournal's 'writers room' have any ideas or suggestions on any aspect of the story... don't hold it back!

Background:

The story is loosely set on Easter Island during the fall of the proud Polynesian society that flourished on the Island for many centuries and erected an incredible number of giant stone statues of their gods and ancestors. It’s now commonly believed that this proud society collapsed because they completely cut down the island’s forest for producing and transportation of their giant statures and left them with no means to sustain their food supply. After fierce warfare under each other they eventually perished leaving the once green and fertile paradise a barren wasteland filled with broken statues well before the first European explorers came ashore in 1722.

The principle characters:

Manu A simple clan-boy, 14 years but still very child-like in his thinking. Very energetic and contagious optimistic but oblivious to the coming disaster till the very last minute. (representing the majority of mankind)
Kaula The pretty and intelligent daughter of the chief, 14 years but very wise for her age. Tired of trying to convince her father of the impending danger of cutting down the forest for erecting ever more statues. (representing intellectuals and environmentalists)
(Possible role)Kaula’s Father The Clan’s Chief, oblivious to the impending doom, too closed off to take his daughters warnings serious. Afraid of looking ahead but too proud to admit it. He keeps ordering more statues to the gods. (representing orthodox governments and businesses)

proposed story

1. We meet Manu skilfully navigate the dangers of the forest, dodges for wild animals, passes dangerous cliffs… all in pursuit of plucking an exceptionally beautiful flower. (He passes by men hacking wood and picking stone faces)

2. At night Manu sneaks into the tree house of a rival clan leader to bring his beautiful daughter the flower to declare his love to her. (The clan members are celebrating outside for the completion of yet another big stone head) The somewhat older and much wiser Kaula seems troubled looking out over a deforested hillside from her window. (Her room shows her care for nature and there hang blueprints to build a rowboat.) But Kaula lightens up by Manu’s clumsy but genuine gesture of affection.

3. In a montage we see a smitten Manu get out to collect flowers progressively beautiful and rare to fancy Kaula, however, Kaula seems less impressed each time. (Manu is blind to the fact that Kaula deeply cares for nature and feels bad for him bringing her rare flowers) (We see Kaula actually building a rowboat when Manu meets her at the beach) Manu gets increasingly frustrated when most of his ‘secret flower spots’ seem to have turned into virtual wasteland caused by the ever more escalating head-making process.

4. Feeling rejected, Manu seeks the ultimate flower but to his horror finds the whole Island is a deserted wasteland with a preposterous amount of giant heads standing all over the place. But then he sees it: the most beautiful flower on a sole little tree standing on the edge of a cliff. As he runs to the tree Kaula stops him. Finally the truth dawns to Manu: the flowers (stand for material possessions) don’t matter squad for Kaula loving him. They embrace their love and leave the flower tree untouched. (Once the kids are out of frame, however, the clan reaches the last tree and cut it down with a great sense of triumph. Then they all fall quiet and look around with a ‘now what’ feeling)

5. As Kaula and Manu row away from the Island with mixed feelings we see a clan war breaking lose in the background.

6. After the credits – The 18th explorer Jacob Roggeveen scratches behind his ear seeing the odd face statues on the deserted Island with a stupefied expression.

---

The things we come up with...

Persepolis is finally coming?

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:13:29 GMT

This makes me incredibly happy.

This animation is breath of fresh air to me. In it's subject, style and technique. I really like the style/animation technique: it's raw and personal but doesn't seem to conflict with telling the story. that's rare in European animation.

I just hope the movie will be as involving and energetic as this excellent trailer suggests.

Cool stuff. :D

Flash test

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:03:38 GMT

good morning everyone!

I'm still making progress on my new website. Since it's still extremely quiet at work I'm spending my days learning Flash. That's right, my design just begs for a Flash site if I want all the little man animated.

Anyway, here is a rough early test with the little creatures animated as buttons, I created an over and a down state for all of them so please: try them out! :)

Enchanted

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:27:40 GMT

To all Disney enthusiastics on my friendlist: (Eyes especially luna_puella and ilona)

I recently acquired the soundtrack to the new Disney 2D animation/life action hybrid Enchanted and put a smile on my face so broad it almost runs off.

The movie or what I've seen of it seems a pretty much sugarcoated romantic comedy taking a shot to the typical Disney (animated) Princess movies. But a sense that this parody might be done with style I got when I heard the soundtrack. Which is awesome. It's Alan Menken & Stephen Swartz back in full force.

Just listen to this.

It's Menken's persiflage of his own early style of Disney scoring (Think Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast) thickened with some broad Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical tricks and typical wishful-speech-going-into-song bridges very reminiscent to classics like Snow White and Cinderella. It's a musical patchwork of old Disney songs cliches, and yet it sounds fresh and powerful. (I'm telling you, if you play this a few times you'll be humming it for days!)

'The working song' is another excellent example of this.

It fills me with so much joy to hear some satisfying new Menken material (I still think Home on the Range was horrible.) This stuff makes me hopeful that Disney is heading in the right direction again. :)

And for the real enthusiast, here an excerpt of the musical score. More Classic Menken you can not get. :D

But anyway... I can't wait to actually see the movie that is accompanied by such brilliantly jolly music.

Marin on Youtube

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:46:25 GMT

That's right, I 'published' Marin on Youtube.

First I hesitated because it might disqualify me for some animation festivals if your animation is already 'out there'...

And then I thought, fuck it. I want to share it with world. That's the point of animating in the first place now isn't it?

And the festivals? I just have to wait and see I guess. :)

New animation

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:23:22 GMT

Please go to the (soon to be finished) new website of ADK-europe and you'll find a first taste of a new animated series I'm making at the moment that form the backbone of a blocky universe that'll be the new company's identity.

I really am having fun with these blocky guys. Without being distracted by complicated physical features I can purely focus on movement, posing and timing. :)

I hope to refresh this animation with a sound version before next Monday.

Graduated!

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:30:15 GMT

As you know, I showed my animation to the exam board yesterday... and were totally blown away. The end result exceeded their expectations, even coming from me. Especially with the new Alexander music it was total overkill as far as the general school's standards were concerned. ;) To put it in their official words:

Presentation

very good

Elaboration on thesis

very good

Elaboration on project

very good

Integration of thesis part and project part

very good

Focus, depth and range of underlying research

very good

Realistic, innovative, balanced concept / approach

very good

Artistic achievements

very good

Technical achievements

very good

Positioning within the discipline

very good

Progression since MOCK exam

very good

Particular strengths

Buitengewoon professioneel en af product.

Particular weaknesses

-

MA TRAJECTORY ADVISE EXAMINATION COMMITTEE

Based on current evidence of progress the commission advises the student regarding the successful completion of the Masters trajectory (48 weeks)

Advice:

green

Additional comments

Kies voor jezelf!

In other words: I HAVE GRADUATED FOR MY MASTER! :D

Just some final tweaking of the music to be done the next week and I can finally show you guys with what exactly I graduated. :) For the moment I have to get back to work!

2 MB

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:16:18 GMT

What the...

My Hotmail inbox is just upgraded to a whopping 5 GB. o_O Does it make me ancient that I still vividly remember that my hotmail inbox was a measly 2 MB?

Anyway, I'm off to Hilversum to record some sighs and grunts for my animation. Almost there now. :)

Oh, and for those interested: this is a really ace piece of modern string music I've been listening to all morning. The textures, the dramatic highs the even more dramatic lows... awesome.

Picture from work

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:44:50 GMT

Good morning everyone, I thought it would be fun to show the picture that's taken of me by a professional photographer, since ADK thought it would be nice for their clients to know who works for them. And let me tell you, it was rather a bit different from the school photographer since he took his time and made several shots of everyone.

And I quite like the result. I love how you can see clearly out of the window without the foreground being underexposed.

And this shot gives a bit of an impression of the creative department I work in. And yes, we have a X-box 360 and a Wii, which isn't that healthy for the productivity I can tell you.

the last shots

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:21:57 GMT

It's almost there. Just a few more shots and my animation will be... finished. I can't really believe it yet. So many months I worked on it continously. But then, I still have a week to polish it, so that's good. :)

In the evenings I usually get out into the city with friends to unwind, or I draw really silly oekaki's, like these:

Oh, the fun. I really like to make similar things on actual canvas again. Something to look into when I have more time on my hands again.

Alright, back to finishing the last pieces of the puzzle!

Animating a fun intro

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:07:49 GMT

You know, I always find it cool when a film company logo is animated in the style of the movie...

...so I actually animated the bunny swimming into frame... by it's ears! XD

So much fun.

Ugh. I have to get back on writing the final touches of my thesis. It has to be completed and turned in before the 8th of August afterall.

But in a few hours: Ratatouille! :D

one scene to go

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:36:30 GMT

Yesh! One more scene to go! Just the last one! ;)

heh, I felt to need to update my bunny logo for this new production, see here the result.

For those who are wondering, this is an unique hand drawn typeface. Drawn with vectors in Photohop! The madness, I know. XD

Thursday I'll finally have a briefing with my composer. I can't wait! Let the musical magic commence! ;)

Also, tomorrow evening I finally get to see Ratatouille! Something I as an animator anticipate more then say, the final Harry Potter. It's Pixar! And what's more, it's a Brad Bird movie, the best animation director of the last decade in my opinion. *bounce bounce*

finishing scene 7

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:17:43 GMT

It's amazing, but my desire to finish my animation is stronger that finishing Harry Potter, I just read about 150 pages of it. Animation really is my ultimate addiction. o_O

Yesterday I finished scene 7. Which leaves me with only the transport sequence of scene 2 and the final scene, scene 8, left to do. In other words: give me one more week and I'll have the whole damn thing finished. Leaving me with two whole weeks to fine-tune. And let me assure you, two weeks to fine-tune is a lot of time if you consider that I produced the entire animation (backgrounds, puppets, effects, etc) under eight weeks. So it appears I really will have the time to give a lot of the less convincing shots some extra care, hopefully enhancing the whole experience even further. :)

Today I spend my morning building the cast of transit extras. I'm quite pleased how they turned out, even though most of them won't enjoy more then 3 seconds of screen time. :)

I just hope I'll hear word from my composer in the next few days...

Taking that extra mile

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:57:11 GMT

Sigh.

I just spend my entire morning (8 AM - 1 PM) working on a measly 4 second shot. I had to rebuild the Mayor in a three quarter angle after fiddling with the frontal one for over an hour, it just didn't feel right.

And go here to see the animated fruits of my labour.

Now that I actually rebuild him I'm glad that I did. Not only does it feels better, it's also a pretty important shot to convey the general giddiness of the Mayor and his enthusiasm for Marin's building. Sometimes I just have to make that extra mile to get as close to the storyboard as possible.

Alright, I better head off to Culemborg now!