Hogspot's construction site

Took a break from polystyrene to start my first wood structured set; a 1m2 Office for Hogspot. The black lines on the wall represent where a bluescreen window will go. Still need to add another wall or two, some skirting boards, and some serious set dressing...

What we need is a great big mountain landscape...

In the darkness of the studio, my camera fell onto the dirt floor today, fortunately the floor is padded with polystyrene...

Which came from cutting out this landscape:

You hardly ever see exterior wide shots of landscapes this big in stop motion, because I need 4 sets (2500x1800mm) all connected together to create a realistic wide shot (without forced perspective)... This particular set still needs more sculpting, rocks, then paint & snow.

The Exterior fields are being built at 1% of actual size (1:100), but the characters are 1:5 size (20%), so the sets which require characters will be much bigger. Fortunately, Nick is a genious and has saved me heaps of work with his designs (I am recycling sets, stages & materials).

The Animatic

Edited together all the voices with temp storyboards, and was able to watch the North Pole Deception for the first time on Friday night. I am quite happy with the way it works as a short film, but think that the sound design and real live animation should really bring everything out in the end.


Mr Boone Jr recorded 3 different voices, and I kind of like all of them, but have picked the one which sounds most like Boone in his other movies.

For various reasons I have decided to cut the end of the film off, meaning there is no resolution for the characters, but leaves it more open to interpretation. It also means I have two and sets to build, and obviously, less to animate.

I have also decided to simplify an interview scene, having characters interviewed on a couch with a wall, instead of a full on dressed house. This means less work for me, but the main reason I chose to go more Nick-Park-Style for two scenes, is that it seems more like how It would be done in a documentary. EG. If I was interviewing elves in the North Pole, they wouldn't be walking round talking all the time, so I'm shooting a couple of basic scenes on a couch.

The film is now going to be 7 minutes, which should be a "more accessible" running time. (instead of the predicted 12 mins)

This also brings down by anticipated frame count from 12960 photos to 9120, which is approx 27Gb of RAW photos, which I will then need to add the bluescreen backgrounds etc...

Construction begins...

Utilising amusingly dull natural lighting, I began construction today in the basement.

The photo below is of my key light source... This is actually one of the largest "windows" in the room! Of course, I will get an extension lead long enough (approx 30 metres) for me to have some decent light soon.


Fortunately my camera flash is awesome, so you can see the start of the first set, which is a 1:100 scaled exterior snow field, and it is really massive. When we were planning the sets, Nick tried to convince me that these sets would be too big and I am only now realising they are going to take up lots and lots of room.


This is the base for one of 4 fields, and is 2.5metres long, and 1.8 metres wide. The stacks of poly are the start of cone shaped mountains, which will soon have a train bridge and tunnel. The 4 exterior snow sets will be assembled together to form one huge landscape, providing the establishing shots for the opening montage of trixie going to work. Below is a crazy focus on a train model on the polystyrene. Of course the set needs to be painted, dressed and snowed on after they are built.



If anyone has a spare warehouse I could fill with sets for a couple of months let me know...

Hogspot

After a few months, I have finally tracked down a DV deck capable of NTSC playback, so I can transfer the voice of Hogspot to PAL (thanks to Jody & Graham!). Never saw that hurdle coming...

However, am very stoked on Mark Boone Jr's take on the character, and can't wait to see the storyboards edited to his voice. You can also see him in the new restricted 30 Days of Night trailer. I also have a claim to fame in the wide shot of the street, where the car turns a corner, that is me driving that car...

You can see the 30 Days of Night trailer here

Voice of Trixie

Recorded Maia Wharawhara's voice for Trixie yesterday. Her voice sounds really cool, although it's hard to imagine coming from an elf without seeing it. I can finally start assembling a storyboard animatic in the next week (editing storyboards to the voice tracks), and will be building snow mountains at the same time.

The best things in life are free...

Today I am officially moving in to a bigger, darker basement in Te Aroha...



It is a very glamorous location with no lighting (yet) or flooring. But it is a large space where I can make a big mess with Poly and other materials. I will then be moving into daylight for painting, detailing & dressing sets...