Golem of Socks

This afternoon I recorded William doing the voice for the Golem of Socks, the last remaining character for my separate version of Sockvile. I wrote it a couple of years ago (notes are likely here in my blog for anyone who cares) with the intention of practicing some 3D After Effects. It is in 13 one minute serialized melodramas. I went to copy it to my portable drive off the older Mac based ProTools suite and surprise of surprise, the two wouldn't work together. Can't I go one day without facing a mac/pc conflict?
Yesterday I chose the update to the blog editor and it  allows much more manipulation of the posting, moving photos around and changing their size and so on. 

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Through some miscommunication, Eric and I didn't connect up until close to noon and I spent my morning close to comatose, cleaning my office and having it (relatively) clutter free for the first time ever. We eased into our work schedule, gathering stuff slowly and making our way to the classroom to go some more Ray-o-gram tests, on 35mm colour film this time. I exposed about 33 feet (perhaps 25 seconds) and have plans to do a large portion of the project once I have these tests developed. It will be about five minutes in total, featuring a lot of grain laid on top of raw film stock. Once this test was done, we shot more video footage of the Melies influenced "Professor Delusia the Nocturnalist", which should allow me to complete a 13 part cycle of them. Eric had an idea for music and we recorded it on the grand piano in the recording studio. I might run those as my next set of Youtube videos instead of the Golem of Socks story, "Sock-vile". Speaking of Sock-vlle, I finished typing up the script for it today. I'd written it a few weeks ago but had been carrying it around hand written since then, constantly afraid of losing it as there was no back up anywhere. I always like to have a back up, although somehow I gave Deric Olsen the only copy of a video Fazail made for me based around a 3D scan of my face. Deric moved on Montana a year ago and is now in the middle of moving to Lethbridge again and has just found a disc which might be the one in question. Therefore, I might have that animation again: my hope was to use it as an intro to some of my dvds with a loud noise.

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I'm trying to maximize my day and feeling both good and bad about it. I have some frivilous reading I'd like to do, and some tv to watch, but haven't because I've been working or on the computer or with William all day. Met with John and Trudy to get a game plan for the next few weeks for the End of Life videos. John and I discovered a shortcut for making dvds out of the Avid. I made a new video for William's blog. I started typing up my script for the next series of web videos I'm making, a 13 part serial called "Sock-vile". I did laundry. I drove Margaret to work at the Sherwood library and back again later. I picked up the new issue of the Buffy comic which I've been looking forward to for weeks, but haven't cracked open yet. I designed a spinning hand wipe transition effect that I think I'll use to combine all of the How to be an Experimental Filmmaker videos together once they are done. I shot material for the new one but have not created the video yet. I started working on a secret gift for my parents, although I still have no idea what to get dad for father's day. I watched some cartoons will William after school. I still feel so far behind.

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Our flight out of town is delayed, so our vacation won't start until 5 am now. I'll be away a few days and if I can't find a computer, I may have my first gap in the blog (I'm not taking a computer, just a pad of paper). I don't know if you have looked at the video I posted last night, but someone did. It got over 2800 hits in the first nine hours! Not many hits since then, but I didn't even have "sex" in the title! I made the technical corrections to Tanya's dvd this afternoon, and while the machines did their bit, I shot more animation with the puppet/doll Frederick, the apple-headed character who is the Golem of Sock's creator (the same character seen as a drawing in my blog a few days ago). He is pretty inflexible as his body is made of coat hanger wire covered with loose clothing. I was fantasizing about a full production with these characters in which I could get fully jointed armatures for each of them, then put apple heads on top. Collision of old and new technologies just cracks me up. Here is a clip before I start removing backgrounds and that sort of stuff.

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Today I got the new cut of the End of Life conference video authored to dvd. It is starting to look okay. John Hampton shot some great looking smoke for me. I had great shape although it was too fast. To make it seem more meditative, I've slowed it to half speed, it's almost impossible to tell. This is just used over the titles and intertitles, but it makes a difference. I'm scheduled to show it at our meeting with the elders tomorrow, so it's obviously been weighing on my mind.
While waiting for a render, I searched my office for the Golem of Socks again and finally found it. I was mistaken about having seen it recently, as it was in a box I've not opened in about a year. I shot a bit of animation with it, although at the end I realized I didn't have his flag stuffed into his head (how can one fly without a flag?). I'll be using him in some web videos later this year.

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I got a message from Adam Budd today, he's a young filmmaker and performance artist as well as being the co-star of Mark Wihak's "River". He's out in Montreal now, trying to find his path I imagine. He's brave and bold, more than I was at his age or even now, so I'm certain he'll make his name known soon enough.
I spent time at the university today, preparing the edit for the End of Life screening/meeting/discussion on Wednesday. John delivered a tape of smoke (sans mirrors) to help give some style to the otherwise talking head piece. While the machines were doing their thing, I almost caught up with my filing. I have so many papers on my desk and in boxes on my office floor that I can hardly stand going there. It's taken me 8 months to file, and I'm not even generating any new paper there. I also spent more time trying to find the Golem of Socks doll/puppet. I know it is somewhere safe, but cannot find it to save my life. I search the house and decide it must be at the office, then search the office and decide I must have it at home. Grrrrr.
Margaret and I finished watching episode 9 of Torchwood season 2 tonight, dying to see more.
Based on something Paul told me about search engines only looking at sites that are updated, I've taken to going into my old blogs and adding new material. It's like a treasure hunt: I added a new piece of video to a previous blog this evening.

256 test for Sock character animation in 3D

Finally started finishing some things today, delivered Tanya's disc she needs to her, and delivered all the work for New Dance Horizons to them. I can now purge my drives of all the material there and start on something fresh. At home I began trying to work with the 3D features in After Effects. Instead of the layers being flat on top of each other, they have a Z axis as well to allow the layers to be further from or closer to the camera. I've not figured out the viewpoint yet. I'd like to build the town out of tin buildings and let the characters move throughout them, but it seems you need to keep track of where the buildings are because if you don't, your moving characters will simply pass through them.
The BFA show opened at the MacKenzie Art Gallery tonight. I went alone, got Allan Dodson for my Warhol series. The art was very good, probably the best graduating show I've seen in many years.
Margaret and I watched two more episodes of Torchwood season 2 (thanks for downloading them Paul), both of tonights were tragic and more than a little melodramatic.