An Appetizer...
Taking a break from working on my sets, screenplay and storyboards, I decided to have a bit of fun and practice my animating.
Hope you enjoy!
http://youtu.be/qO1OHIqumuU
http://youtu.be/o_asugGZewI
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Missing Link!
For a great portion of this build I have had a particular thought lingering in the back of my mind. How am I going to fill in the gaps in the cardboard caused by the corrugation? If your first thought is,'Why bother?', my answer is that I believe that if I am going to do something, I ought to do it well. If I try my best and fail, I will at least know with certainty that I'm barking up the wrong tree and I can move on. Anyway, back to the problem at hand.
As the sets inched closer to completion, this lingering thought became a nagging thought. I considered epoxy, house filler (such as Dap), auto-body filler (i.e. Bondo), plaster of paris, and (if you can believe it) paper mâché. Finally, I think I got my head straight.
I decided to cut strips of thin cardboard (like a cereal box), and glue those over the gaps. Simple! As you can see in the picture below there is a decided improvement. Till next week. Thanks for reading.
As the sets inched closer to completion, this lingering thought became a nagging thought. I considered epoxy, house filler (such as Dap), auto-body filler (i.e. Bondo), plaster of paris, and (if you can believe it) paper mâché. Finally, I think I got my head straight.
I decided to cut strips of thin cardboard (like a cereal box), and glue those over the gaps. Simple! As you can see in the picture below there is a decided improvement. Till next week. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Feeling the grind
It has been a long week. I wish that I could say that I was so consumed with working on my film that all other things slipped by the wayside. The opposite is quite true.
The week was not a total loss. I did manage to finish off one side of the building. Now all that remains before I can start prepping for paint is to finish the last side, lay out the interior and create a removable back. Not to shabby.
I have a shot of the side of the building for your consideration.
The week was not a total loss. I did manage to finish off one side of the building. Now all that remains before I can start prepping for paint is to finish the last side, lay out the interior and create a removable back. Not to shabby.
I have a shot of the side of the building for your consideration.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The End. Or is it?
It's been a busy week here at the studio. The gas station set is looking very nice, in fact I don't think I will be adding much of anything before I begin painting it.
This gave me my first opportunity to see my two sets side-by-side and, well, it revealed a problem. My initial decision to only construct the face of the building was not going to allow me to get the shots that I am looking for. So I have gone back to working on the sides of the building to make them more presentable than a blank wall. This post is a little pic heavy but I wanted to showcase a bit more detail than you may have seen in my other pictures and I have added some actors in the shots to help people realize the scale of the sets. Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think!
This gave me my first opportunity to see my two sets side-by-side and, well, it revealed a problem. My initial decision to only construct the face of the building was not going to allow me to get the shots that I am looking for. So I have gone back to working on the sides of the building to make them more presentable than a blank wall. This post is a little pic heavy but I wanted to showcase a bit more detail than you may have seen in my other pictures and I have added some actors in the shots to help people realize the scale of the sets. Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Filler' up!
Now that the weekend is gone I though I would share the progress of my second set. Hopefully you can tell that it is a fuel station. There is still more to do before it is ready to be painted and dressed. So here it is.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
A New Beginning
Movies have always been a part of my life. Some of my fondest memories are of my father and I parked on the couch watching movies. We would watch the same films over and over, soaking up every detail. One of our favorite pastimes was spotting the errors in continuity that seem almost unavoidable in filmmaking.
For a long time I wanted to be a director. Of the countless people who work on movies, the director always seemed to me to have the greatest impact on a films success. It is their ability to maintain the vision of the film, while overcoming countless obstacles that I find most impressive. This doesn't really seem a coincidence as I grew up watching the films of Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Paul Verhoven, James Cameron and Tim Burton, to name just a few. These were my childhood heroes.
As time went on and I grew older, my dreams still centered on a life making films. The problem that I faced was largely psychological. I have several, issues, that interfere with learning and I had a long and painful journey through the public school system. This left me feeling as though I was incapable of accomplishing anything, let alone living my dreams.
Fast forward a bit. I am now a husband and father, working hard to support my family. Outside of this one thing, my family, I consider my life a glorious failure. I have really accomplished nothing, just as they said I would. But...
After thirty odd years I have finally put together a way to fulfill my lifelong dreams. As a young boy I was always fascinated by stop motion. Whether it was King Kong or Gumby, I would always end my channel surfing on finding anything to do with stop motion. I always wanted to try making my own stop motion films, but my aforementioned conditioning and my complete inability to sculpt made this too seem impossible. It never even occurred to me that there was any other way. It wasn't that I did not want to learn. I simply believed what they told me all along, that I couldn't.
A year or so ago I was out shopping with my family and my attention was grabbed by Mega Bloks line of Halo mini-figures. Their range of motion and high level of detail was very attractive and I soon became an avid collector. It was shortly after this that I discovered the myriads of films made by fans on the Internet. That was when I realized, 'I can do this'.
The process of making a film is quite large and has many facets. The idea of being able to not only be the director, but also the writer, production designer, photographer and editor is a perfect fit for my somewhat obsessive personality. So now that I have made up my mind to begin living my dreams, only one thing remains. So I have decided that I should share my journey from obscurity to the world of filmmaking (likely still obscure) with you.
I am anxious to begin my journey and I hope you'll be anxiously watching.
Mike
For a long time I wanted to be a director. Of the countless people who work on movies, the director always seemed to me to have the greatest impact on a films success. It is their ability to maintain the vision of the film, while overcoming countless obstacles that I find most impressive. This doesn't really seem a coincidence as I grew up watching the films of Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Paul Verhoven, James Cameron and Tim Burton, to name just a few. These were my childhood heroes.
As time went on and I grew older, my dreams still centered on a life making films. The problem that I faced was largely psychological. I have several, issues, that interfere with learning and I had a long and painful journey through the public school system. This left me feeling as though I was incapable of accomplishing anything, let alone living my dreams.
Fast forward a bit. I am now a husband and father, working hard to support my family. Outside of this one thing, my family, I consider my life a glorious failure. I have really accomplished nothing, just as they said I would. But...
After thirty odd years I have finally put together a way to fulfill my lifelong dreams. As a young boy I was always fascinated by stop motion. Whether it was King Kong or Gumby, I would always end my channel surfing on finding anything to do with stop motion. I always wanted to try making my own stop motion films, but my aforementioned conditioning and my complete inability to sculpt made this too seem impossible. It never even occurred to me that there was any other way. It wasn't that I did not want to learn. I simply believed what they told me all along, that I couldn't.
A year or so ago I was out shopping with my family and my attention was grabbed by Mega Bloks line of Halo mini-figures. Their range of motion and high level of detail was very attractive and I soon became an avid collector. It was shortly after this that I discovered the myriads of films made by fans on the Internet. That was when I realized, 'I can do this'.
The process of making a film is quite large and has many facets. The idea of being able to not only be the director, but also the writer, production designer, photographer and editor is a perfect fit for my somewhat obsessive personality. So now that I have made up my mind to begin living my dreams, only one thing remains. So I have decided that I should share my journey from obscurity to the world of filmmaking (likely still obscure) with you.
I am anxious to begin my journey and I hope you'll be anxiously watching.
Mike
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