yes !!!!!!!! off to the ancient spooky Olive groves ...

come hell or high water I am getting myself over to Italy to my artists residency...
only a week late !

finally I finished up my video for the kickstarter site and got it up and running just moments before I jumped on the first plane...

I love this site ...it is set up for artists to find backing for their projects ... with loads of lovely rewards for those who help...

this is my project on kickstarter

in the air ......again and I am half-way there...sitting in Hong Kong airport for a transit ..... there are lots of lovely massage chairs, and cups of tea.... so I am in heaven ... 
(although the mushed glue rice pork soup with whole peanuts was a bit odd....)

just wait til I start shooting with the back breaking monorail architecture 5x4 "sheet film cameras I have brought with me !
This one is just my little baby digital camera...

at this point I would like to thank Steve Marshall at House of Travel     Barrington Christchurch for the brilliant work and support he and HOT gave me to get me on my way !!! 
Its all going swimmingly Steve couldnt be better !!!!!!!!!

thank you so much !

songs in the key ... part 3

the set..

test prints ready to pick up tomorrow from Poia at the the ever obliging lab  ...

intention : 

 ...utilise my photographs of a  friend's Milanese abandoned house,.........................prior to its renovation by Dutch interiors space design  guru Geert Koster, 

"before" images for my shabbychic "nobilita cadente" location for my stop motion animation music clip...

wallpaper of woven silk and damask

imprinted with images of the paintings that once hung there ...

the acids from the golden gilt Borghese frames have absorbed into the fabric walls over the century 

leaving 3 dimensional feeling markings....

hmmmm my door seems a bit klunky and oversized....

(feel free to step right in here Koster !)

the puppet armature is in Norway having a wetfelted body sculpted...

the door and frame is being made by an amazing artist called Kallia ... in Greece !!!

 (more on Inger and Kallia to come ...)

character development

female

victorian

insecty

elegant

gung-ho

eccentric

full of personality and wit

quiet and pensive

looking at what could have been or what has been ... we never know...

 inspiration:

some of the fabulous works by blackeyedsuzie  and Ryiochi and Yinka Shonibare


and one of my own shoots in a Milanese apartment ... ... this is an apartment ..can you believe ?

not an apartment by "our new world " standards...
I havent really seen any "normal peoples" apartments with real candelabra fittings on the walls that are all made of gold .... and lightable candles...and museum piece portraits that must not be photographed for insurance reasons...
hmmm


well not so often anyway ...


aggghhh I love my Italy ....
just cant help it

I seem to have accidentally become an honorary spider fellow.....

black and white spider awards
is it a good thing ?....

eyebrows moving ....

*looks with magnifying glass at judges....

the "ghostgirl" does it again ....

shot on 5x4 inch, black and white, infrared film on a mono rail camera in an  abandoned house in Sydney Australia circa 1998

styled by Claire Potter .. (who has alot of letters after her name but I cant remember what they are ...something something something PhD philosophy, feminist studies... poet...psychoanalisi... something something .... another book launch about to happen... something something ...style guru  )

songs in the key ... part 2

so,
...where were we ........?

ah yes ........music clip,
"songs in the key." ..........puppet construction with eyeballs that are moveable within a very tiny constricted set with a big hairstyle over the open head surgery part....

first test: - solid clay head 

character :

female

insecty

victorian

big bug eyes

mid 20s-ish

sweet

creepy

threadbare

 

 

 

and so if anyone has any fantastic ideas about workable eyelids at this stage ...feel free to ...let me know ..!!!!!!!!

the little hands were weird...as I was making them they were wrapping creepily around my finger .... odd little life-signs coming out of cold wet clay.............................................................

now ...armature for the body ... proportions ... to head size .... I want the head quite big like a child's head is,    ... too big for the body ... a kind of innocence of character...

the wire is an aluminium armature stop motion wire from the UK, specifically designed for animation ... twisted to add strength with brass jointings that are tensioned for ample but restricted movement in tiny increments over a long period of time ...

the feet have joints and points for nut and bolt "tie offs" on the set so the puppet doesnt fall over from shot to shot .....

......

armature running off to Ingermaaike in Norway for a victorian felted body encasement ....

ahhhhhhhhhhh.............. if only it were that simple ............

:D

songs in the key...

having agreed to make a short film /music clip

and having decided to shoot it in stop-motion animation

and having realised today that I am already 2 months into the project and not one frame has been shot .....

...I thought it high time to mention what is going on...

to a stills photographer 2 months pre-production time sounds insanely long ...

for film it appears years are needed  ... I have 4 months more
before finished product must be visible
tick tick tick ...tick.....tick...tick  tick tickticktick...

(pick yourself up off the floor Mr Failsafe!)

*first step listen to the song a million times and read the lyrics

*second step interpret story - make alot of notes and scribbles for producer to make weird comments about ..try and understand that my weird scribbles don't translate to someone outside my brain

*third step design character - make a lot of sketches

*fourth step realise that you have to work out how to construct an entire workable puppet head from scratch, with moving eyes and eyelids that you can get to in the back of her head in a small set and move in tiny increments during a very long period of time...that wont fall apart during 4 months of filming

hmmmmmmmmmmm

well at least I have her eyeballs so far