ALL SET

Everything is now ready. I have bought a cute little dress off ebay but it still hasn't arrived yet...hopefully it will come tomorrow, if not i have a reserve. I bought lights to light up the 1960's shelves where i am displaying Sindy and have placed maglights at the bottom of each Sindy stand to lighten the dancers slightly. The Sindys really look good amongst the performance, i'm glad i went with the idea. We had a dress rehearsal yesterday, everything is great and I am pleased with the dancers and grateful for their commitment!!
I put an auction on ebay last week to advertise my show as there are a lot of Sindy fans who look at the posts, so hopefully a few may come and see how big Sindy is!!! I am going to film the performances to do DVDs for the dancers and so I have a hard copy of the results. I was going to film it yesterday but the room wasn't clear of stuff so I didnt bother.
All I need to do now is relax until I get really nervous tomorrow!!!

BORING STUFF

I hate it when the technical part comes. The shelf was put up last week on the right wall which I will have to angle down and keystone. I thought the distance off the back wall was too far because the 3d didn't look great. This would mean that the beam would be well out of the dancer's way.
The dance is completely finished and being rehearsed with a few space changes.
Today I finished the rest of the blackout with Greg and Chris. The room is as dark as we are going to get now. I can't get the keystone right and Nick Jones said the projector wont do it but he suggested that it was the dvd that made the film lose it's quality and if i played it through the computer with my FCP file then I could project from the back wall and it would look better. We experimented a bit with different angles and positions and I think that high up on the back is best. I need a long extension lead which Nick is getting tomorrow so hopefully the projections will be sorted then, and it's just the white material I need to project onto. Greg suggested putting the projector in the space and have the dancers move around it but i don't want to confuse the dancers now as it's just sinking in properly and having to make something to disguise it at this point would be another stress!!
I got another extension lead for the speakers and taped the wires down to make them neat. Everything is done apart from the computer cable, 1 more dress to buy/make and material. I think I am going to bring my 60's cubes in to have in the space where the dancers don't go, with scenarios of Sindys displayed on them. This will go well with the dynamic of the dancers and the screen images. It will also add another aesthetic and the screen image is really big, the dancers medium and the dolls small.

BLOODY COMPUTERS

Been trying to upload yesterday's rehearsal vid and even tried emailing it to the dancers but for some reason the internet is playing up and still is now. Oh how I love to rely on technology.......
I have spent today, firstly adding transitions to my footage, which is now complete, then I touched up a few pencil marks on the wall in performance space, with some white paint. Nicola and I were about to trot off to buy 'proper' blackout polythene, which she calculated to about £50, when I decided to rebel and suggest we try bin bags first....if they fail, then we buy the real stuff. So we bought 60 Tesco bin bags, total: £3.48 and double sided sticky tape and normal black tape, Total of all: £6.47.
Nic was a bit scared of heights after seeing the the 3 ft ladder we dragged up from the basement so I got up there and covered the windows. We kept the bags folded and doubled them up, they worked a treat, how I love to cheat and get a bargain all at once! The only problem was that I couldn't reach the top windows and security wouldn't allow me to tread on the false walls so I used a stick and a lot of patients and got the job done. So the 3 windows in the space are covered and I will do the lower 1s tomorrow as the light is coming up from behind the boards. I left Nicola to do the far window in the little room but it's going to be awkward so might not get done.
Tomorrow I will hoover the floor and mop it before the dancers arrive. I removed a screw that was sticking up and will look for others to ensure the floor is as safe as poss.
I now have stands and speakers and just need a shelf for the projector and dvd player. The techs are cutting the wood once I give them measurements and then I will have to put it up

COMING TOGETHER NICELY

Finally, the end is in sight.....I see a finished performance heading my way, after a long and patient ordeal!!! The projections are 99% finished, only transitions to do and putting on to disc. I rehearsed with Kate and Leah today with a copy of the projection playing to make sure they went together. I didn't see how the 3d worked as I just did a quick export so the quality wasn't up to much. I need to put the projector up high and tilt it downwards to stop the girls crossing the beam. Tomorrow Nic and i are getting black out material and hopefully putting it up, so i can test the projections out once I have the disc burned. I need to paint over a small patch on the wall where I am projecting to cover some pencil marks and i have to get speakers, with either shelves or stands to put them on. I still have another dress to find for Kate and have ordered 50 pairs of 3d glasses, which are on their way.
All I have left to do as far as the movement is concerned is the last 45 secs. This will be weaving in and out of the stands. I finished the rest of the movement today so the girls just need to rehearse over and over to get it into their bodies. By weds the choreog will be complete and Sunday will be 2 hours of solid repetition of the piece, picking at focus, dynamics, timing and connection between dancers and the screen. We then have just under 2 wks to practice and perfect!!
The 1st section is great, mechanical, 2nd section needs a bit more relation between dancers on repeating it, when Leah stands. 3rd section needs more suspension and release as well as being sharp and quick in places. Ribs section is again mechanical, which goes into reaching out so extension needs to be greater. Handstand section needs to flow with a sense of being manipulated externally (like the dolls were for the footage and as we are dictated to in society) Next is the canon and movement is very doll like, limbs are isolated. After the position is held to reflect the projection, the next section should be bouncy as the lifts are done. Stands sequence mirrors screen then the duet should be close and connected at all times with a sense of competition. So the dancers are trying to get somewhere as the other stops them. They are then back in unison, a society of sheep......This goes into the tumbling part of cartwheels, shifts, bounces and spins to then go back to stands to finish.

IDEAS FOR ENDING

The performance isn't narrative and has no real sense of beginning, middle, climax, etc. Obviously, though, it has to end somewhere. As the beginning is very mechanical with developed simple movement to represent the dolls' abilities early on, then it develops naturally into more free movement. The pram clip I filmed, where the pram is moving away from Sindy towards the camera whilst she pets the dog, may be what I use for the end clip. The pram slipping away with a baby in it can be a metaphor for youth and beauty and how you have it for only a limited amount of time, just like how a child grows up. We all want to escape death and age and most people try their hardest to stay looking young....to no avail! Women substitute their age by having children and people have pets for something to look after, which are usually replaced soon after with another. So this end clip, though short and I may repeat it a few times to exaggerate the repetitious nature of mankind, will finish the piece with the thought that started the idea for the performance......our ideals of beauty are constantly twisting. It is a myth and unreachable and no matter what creams or potions we buy, or how much exercise we do, age is imminent.
Today I am importing the track and editing the rest of the film.

4 WEEKS LEFT

I had a rehearsal with Leah, Kate couldn't make it so I worked out spacing now that i have brought the stands into the space we are performing in. I have the track, which gary is allowing me to chop and arrange if I need to. I have a duet to work out next, I cant do that until Sunday when i have both dancers. I have created some pauses for the dancers to give the projections priority in certain places and vice versa.
I really need to get the projections done so they can be arranged in the right place with the track but i need to think about the dance fitting too!!

SPACE/FILM/EDIT

I have been really stressed recently about the whole damn project. The space allocation has not gone as I had wanted. It feels as if Nicola and me have been stuck together to share a place to make sure the uni has as much promotion as pos, rather than being given a decent space. I am not sure if the allocated place is ours for sure as there is now a sound issue. All I want is a nice wall to project onto and enough room for 2 dancers and an audience. We are probably going to have to buy paint or cloth to project onto as the walls we have are crap.
I have done loads more filming with the Sony hdv and logged and captured it last week. I have filmed stills as well as motion and will have still images when the dancers are moving a lot so as not to throw the audience too much info. Some clips are solos, some duets, and I have done a skating clip, sindy with a dog and a pram that rolls towards cam, and plain poses with various dolls. The trouble with the sony though is that the frames are all 1, like a film. I have had to seperate every move, which took ages and now i have to split each of those clips into left and right. It sounds easy enough but when you have 100s of clips, it's rather dooming and you have to watch the clips carefully to catch them before they switch focus.
However, on a good note, the clips I have edited so far have come out really well. I am so pleased, it's taken a load of experimenting, but it's now paying off. Another long winded task i am doing is in FCP. When I have the clips in screen mode to see the 2 clips together, I am now manually adjusting them to get a sharper and more effective 3d image. I have tried to copy and paste motion attributes but the clips are still slightly different. If I want the ghosting eradicated as much as pos then this is what I need to do. I am going to use the footage I have now, and try not to film any more, and spend the rest of the time getting them edited well and choreographing for the dancers.
The music should be done next week and is 10 mins long so that's my length for the show so I can edit the clips accordingly. I have arranged the 1st lot of stills into 1 min, which is how long the drone is at the beginning of the track. My title for the show is called 'PRETTY UNREACHABLE' I decided this as pretty relates to the vanity issue and unreachable are the goals we attempt when it comes to how we want to look.

GOING FOR QUALITY

I have acquired another dancer!! Katie Inns is joining us so I am really happy I have now got 2 dancers. I would prefer 3 but I will have to see what happens.
I have got the Sony cam back as I have decided to go for quality. During the projections I am going to put stills inbetween the stop motion as these seem to work best and the more you look at them the more 3D they seem to be. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when the animation stops as I don't have time to fill the whole performance with film but I also don't want to distract from the dancers so I think having stills will solve this.
Last week I edited some more footage in FCP and did 3d glasses effects in AE rather than putting the filter on in FCP as it seems to create a bigger gap between the left and right, i then end up using the wireframe to try and pull them in.
I am filming today with the Sony in HD and have made the gap smaller between the left and right view. Last week I made a platform to have the camera on so that I could move the cam sideways at the same distance each time. I just used objects with straight edges and sellotaped them to the platform. I bluetacked the cam to a video case so that it didn't move each time I pressed record.
Now I have the Sony I have a remote control which is necessary for precision, something the stills cam didn't have. I have done the same with that, just made the distance shorter, hopefully this will stop the ghosting I keep getting, although I saw on youtube that this was more likely when you have objects moving directly towards the camera.
For the performance, I may have a lot of my Sindy collection around the space, in different outfits, poses, etc to create more of a 3 dimensional aspect. It will bring colour too and will give the audience something else to view before the show starts.
I am having a rehearsal with Kate on Sunday to teach her the material so far then I will be rehearsing with both dancers to get it finished.

STILL PICS

I set up a background of A4 paper for a test shot for still pics. I did a quick edit in FCP, just changed the speed and applied the colour changes,then exported the left and right individually to a Qtime clip. I imported them into AE, 3D glasses effect and balanced red,blue LR to get that purple tinge. The stills seemto be more effective than the animation so I may have a series of stills during performance.
I can't use what I have photographed today as the paper looks crap and shadows, etc so I will do it properly tomorrow.I could photoshop each 1, I cropped them but they were small in FCP and don't know how to sort that, plus it's quicker to re-take the pics. If I can't get exactly what I want tomorrow with the Canon cam I will go back to the big Sony, as the quality is brilliant.

FCP AND NEW STILLS

I took some more pics for animation, using artificial light. It was hard to not cast shadows, there are reflections of the dolls under them but I dont mind those. I edited them all in FCP today. They are mostly in focus and the light is continuous throughout so I am happier with that. As I have done more of the animation during this project, I have worked out what movements are necessary and what I can leave out, and do the rest in editing. I am re-creating my choreography, which at the beginning is repetetive, so I can copy and paste some of the stills. I edited the left eye clips first then looked at the names/number of each clip so I knew which ones to drag in from the right view, to correspond with the left. It took ages because of changing speed and shortening each clip to be the same length, but I enjoyed it.
Tomorrow I am picking up my life-size Sindy stands (if only I had life-size dancers to go in them!) I have been told they have been sprayed too so they should look the part. I need to do some more animation too to start gettin my projections together.

FCP

Today i thought I would edit the same stills I did yesterday but in FCP rather than Adobe PR to see how they compared with the effects. It's nice to work with the dual screens at uni but the MAC crashes, which is really annoying!! FCP is easier to edit with for some things I think, unless it's just that I have used it more. For example, I don't know how to paste attributes in PR and when you have loads of stills you need it otherwise it takes ages to click on every 1 to change speed, filters etc. Also, you don't need AE with FCP because it's easy to change the filters for the glasses and put it into screen mode to view the 3d image.
I am still not happy with the light change on some of the stills. I really need to do it when it's dark and use lights and lamps because there are slight changes where the sun outside is shining stronger. I applied a contrast/brightness effect to all the clips hoping they would all come out the same but they are still a bit different. Also the focus on quite a few of the pics are off. I put the cam on a 10 sec timer so it would have chance to focus after I had shifted the cam over but it didn't work. I think I can lock the focus so I will try that too.
Still only one dancer..booooooo!!! If I need to then I will just have Leah on stage and have myself with 1 dancer on the projections in 3D. I am sure I can get a dancer for a few hours to learn material and be filmed if nothing else!! I don't mind dancing for the cam as I can film it in clips and my knee won't be put under strain, whereas in performance, I will need to perform from beginning to end and will worry that it might dislocate....damn my loose joints...those party tricks as a child were no good in the long run!

I am still looking for 2 more dancers. The 2 I have asked are unavailable for the performance week. yesterday i looked at a space at uni for perf and rehearsals. It's a lovely space but needs to be blacked out for the projections to work. Also, there wont be any professional lighting on the dancers, but I can live with that.
I have re-done the animation a couple of times. Firstly, because the light through the window changed with every snap. Then the camera had a slight movement so that showed really bad. I have now done it with the timer like i did with my camera, the light is still slightly different in a couple of the clips but I can change that.
Greg has just told me that he can order an arrivision lens to fit on the camera, which will be ideal and a lens also goes on a projector to view it properly. I am not sure how the lenses fit onto various cameras though and a specific camera may be required. It will be great for filming movement in 3d!!!

STANDS

Well one big obstacle is out of the way.....i have found a company to make 3 life size Sindy stands for me. They wont be exactly how you see it below because i wanted to keep the cost down as much as possible. They are costing 100 pounds for the 3 and they may be powder coated if they have time to throw that in!! If not, i will have to hand paint them. Instead, they are having 2 poles coming off the frame at the top, onto 2 long bases as the round base cost more. They should be made for 2 weeks, hopefully I will have 2 more dancers to go with them by then........

TRAVELLING

This clip has been improved and added to and is the first druaght of today's rehearsal. I created a travelling sequence, based on the ballerina/active Sindy, which has the most moveability. I wanted a sense of tumbling, continuity, fluidity, up&down....an unbroken journey with slight glitches along the way. The sequence will be for all three dancers to do in canon and maybe at close proximity, weaving around each other. Tomorrow I will be doing more stop motion for my projections.

1 DANCER

Here is the new sequence performed by Leah. I need to get 2 more dancers as the others have pulled out so for new Vibes Leah may be doing it as a solo and I will have to try and make it as presentable as possible.
I went to B&Q to find materials for making the stands but no luck, it was a small store. I need them ASAP!!!! B.S.A never emailed back about them. Now there is no funding for my project I will have to either make the costumes or buy them. I think ebay will be my first visit.... Hopefully Gary is still interested in doing the music, or I'm in the F*CKIN$ SH%T!!
I just spoke to Dennie and she recommended i use my last film, 'Tormenture' with a solo for Leah. Cat, Leah and myself had been discussing this earlier at Dx and I think it's a good idea. Dennie said to save the 3D for M.A. This will give me more time to get it looking really good. i need to look back at the film to see where i can fit the dance in.

MORE STOP. MO

Again, the quality is rubbish after uploading it on here and also it was filmed near the window to get the best light for my camera, as it is useless in artificial lights. I think with a better camera and lighting, i will get a good result! Once your focus has adjusted with the glasses on, you can see the white platform coming out and the 3 sindys are out of the monitor.

STOP MOTION

I have been doing a bit of stop motion today as I thought I could do it successfully with 1 camera and shifting it over, as I did yesterday. The result is above. The clip is quite small so some of the effect will be lost but you can see the closest Sindy especially, is off the screen. It looks better before export, but it's a quick example.
They are a sequence of stills. I had to edit first in Adobe Premiere and place all the left eye clips in and change the speed to 1000, to look effective. I then cut the clips down to a 5th of a second each. Once I had done this to both left and right I exported them seperately and then dragged then into A.E. Then, as yesterday, I applied 3d glasses effect, and changed the colours appropriately and this was the result. I tried different ways to export it because some of them lost the quality that you could not see the 3d properly.
Now I know I can do stop motion with 1 cam I am going to have it in my final piece. The Sindys' movement will compliment the real dancers.

ADOBE

I have just played around with still footage in Adobe After Effects as it has a 3d glasses effect. After working out how to use it properly, (it took me about an hour) I got a good effect with the footage I had. Using a single camera, a rubbish Premier cam, I filmed the image then slid it over a couple of inches to the right and filmed the same thing. This is what I did with a Sindy doll with her leg pointing at the camera and then put the film into Final cut and got the best 3d image, out of all the different ways I have tried. The cam was pointed straight at the subject, on a flat, level surface.
Once the left and right images are imported in A.E I just applied the 3d glasses effect then chose which footage I wanted to be shown in left and right view. Then i chose a red/ blue balance to apply. You then go to composition to view it and hey presto, you get this...

There is no need to play the video as it's still footage...you need a pair of red/cyan glasses to see the 3d.The pixels are large because of the camera, but I am going to experiment with the 2 cameras again and I may use 1 cam to do the stills for the opening clip for the performance. I will feel happier when I have something edited and ready to project.

This pic is made up of 2 photographs, with the same process as above. I don't think it works as well because the distance to the camera was closer...maybe. The stool on the 1st clip looks really good as it's in the foreground but still a few feet away from the lens. The nearest cactus in this clip is about 10 inches from the camera so perhaps the key is to keep a distance.

MONDAY

Leah and I went over last wks rehearsal and I filmed it all. I wanted to make sure she knew the material pretty well and we went over dynamics and timing, etc for the material so far. I stayed for a while after to work out what Maria will be doing when the other 2 have a duet. I wanted to do a large travelling sequence for all of them, showing the movement of the active dolls, but my knee is not up to it. It clicked out again today but felt better after the pain had gone!!
Next rehearsal I should have all dancers so a lot will get done on Friday.

OVERALL AIMS

To summarise my plans for my final project....
A performance will take place using 3 live dancers on stage, along with 3d film projected onto a cinema screen. 3D glasses will need to be worn by the audience to view these images correctly. I am working closely with Gary who is creating the sound score and a dressmaker who will make 3 dresses in the style of Sindy patterns chosen by myself.
At the moment I am rehearsing 3 times a week with the dancers, creating dance inspired from the movement the dolls were manufactured to have. This changed over time, the active ballerina Sindy having the most flexibility in the limbs. A constant struggling theme will be present, back and forth, forced, mechanical, competetivness, unreachable targets, showing how women are striving to be like plastic images, alien type icons as advertised on billboards, tv, films, magazines, everywhere!! Sindy's image changed from the 1960's up to date, showing how society has become more fake and surreal with how it looks.
The projections are my main concern at the moment and will be the trickiest part as I have never done anything like it and am still not sure of the best way to do it. I have experimented with different ways but none have been good enough. I have emailed b'ham school of acting about life size sindy stands for my dancers, if they don't have any I will make them.

FRIDAY

Got another sequence done with Leah today and worked out a duet for her and Emma. The sequence used some dance similar to the other stuff i have choreographed so far. I haven't put up the duet footage as me marking it through with a bad knee doesn't really give a good idea of how it will look.
This 1st video is still mechanical but with more suppleness in the spine allowed. I like the quality of how leah dances in this one, i asked for her to be more dynamic and gave instructions on how to perform certain bits. There are a few mistakes in this clip but the next 1 is correct, though the quality isn't as good. I'm happy with the progress of the movement so far but it would be easier having all of the dancers there so that I know they all know it and creating the canons and duets would be easier.
Yesterday Greg suggested I try the i-sight cameras to film the projections as they are small cylinders that can get very close together....almost eye distance apart. He said i could place a piece of metal under them, as they are magnetic, so they stayed together and at the same distance, etc. This idea would be great if it worked, easier to carry to the studio, easy to plug in but i am a bit apprehensive as they switch on and off and the quality is pretty much that of a webcam. We tried to view both cameras simultaneously but couldn't do it in imovie or image capture. I am trying to email as many people as possible who know about stereoscopic filming to find the best solution for a good effect. Mike said i may need more than FCP for post production such as shake.
I have emailed the guy who runs the library theatre film nights to see if it would be possible to use their venue for my show and also he has a list of filmmakers so maybe someone will know about 3d. Fingers crossed.

NEW SEQUENCES

I had the studio to myself today which allowed me the time to think and choreograph. I have created a new sequence for all to learn as well as a duet for Maria and Emma. Leah will dance near her stand to compliment the duet. The sequence travels a bit more than the others but not much as my knee wouldn't allow it!
I have been experimenting all afternoon with the 3d filming. I took still footage with 1 camera of 6 Sindys. Then shifted it over to film them again. It wasn't accurate enough so I decided to copy the same footage (left eye) and duplicate this to go where the right eye would. Greg suggested this before but I didn't think the same angle would work. I applied the same filters but the image didn't appear when i changed it to screen mode. I put up the image and wire and shifted the image to the left to then reveal the blue/red images. I put on the glasses and moved it until it was in 3d. I couldn't believe it worked. However, the image is like that of a magic eye picture. The background appears flat and the foreground stands out, but not off the screen. I tried some moving footage to see if it was the lack of depth but again, the images stand apart but do not come into your space off screen. I looked on youtube to double check with the stereoscopic films i had seen and my footage looked flat as a pancake compared to them. For a minute I thought I was going to get away with filming the footage once with 1 camera! The footage I saw was filmed with a stereoscopic webcam and looked great. Perhaps Greg will buy me one!

DANCING

I worked with Leah on sequences already learned and went over the last one created. We had Gary's sample track to work with so that was good to have the timing there to follow. I have emailed Gary with a few changes and ideas towards the track. I found it hard to show a bit of new movement as my knee dislocated on Sat but i will manage!
The movement, as Leah metioned, Resembles that of manufacturing and conveyer belts, etc which i thought was a great analogy for this part of the sequence. It is very controlled, not much room for own personality from the dancers just yet as the repetetiveness, monotony and lack of individuality is accentuated.
I should have Em and Maria tomorrow and want to work on a trio with them. I wanted to do a travelling sequence but due to the knee injury I will wait until next week. I also want to film some still images of the different Sindys through time, to have at the beginning so should get that done in the afternoon and put into 3D.

2 CAMS

I filmed a moving image with 2 cameras, side by side, as close as i could get them. A lot of time was wasted getting used to a different camera and making sure each setting was the same for both. They looked too far apart though so i got the projector out to see if enlarging it and standing back further would help. The footage decided to jump loads and un-render itself.....somehow. I viewed one of the stills i did yesterday, with the shortest distance, using 1 cam, and this looked really good. If i could film dance with this technique it would be great but obviously the dancers will not be in exactly the same space each time i film so this wouldn't work. I need to experiment more with the 2 cameras again.

TUESDAY

The morning session went well with the girls, they learned what I taught Leah yesterday and a new sequence. I have emailed Gary the footage of Leah and asked for a timing of 3 bars of 3/3 followed by 1 bar of 4/4 for so long and then into 8s with 1 bar of 3 to change direction on the 2nd sequence on floor. It will be easier when the music is there and once the dancers' bodies have remembered it habitually! The movement is fairly simple but the repetition and timing makes it confusing slightly. The new sequence needs to be taught to Leah, it contains some of the elements from the other sections, with more suspension, to look relaxed and effortless.

STARTING DANCE

Today I was with Leah in the studio, creating the choreography for the 3d project. I used 2 ballet bars to act as the Sindy stands. The 1st section was created with the mechanics of the doll's body so each movement is a hinge. The movement is basic and repetitive, developing slowly and into a canon between the 3 dancers. I want the monotony to show the endless urge, without getting much further, the ridiculous goals that women try to reach.
After the bar is an extension of limbs and small twists on the floor. All dancers are in unison for the 1st time then Leah stands and does a variation whilst Emma & Maria repeat on a different angle.
Now I have the 3d glasses I tried them out on some still footage I filmed, placing cam 1/2 inch apart. It worked but I need to try it with a Sindy extending towards the camera for a greater dynamic.
Tomorrow I am with Emma & Maria in the studio and will experiment further with the anaglyph images.

RESEARCHING ANAGLYPHIC IMAGES

Firstly today I decided to do 2 short films just in the lab of still objects. I got some instructions from a forum on how to create an anaglyphic image to use with 3d glasses. No special equipment is needed to view this film once the glasses are worn.The first take was for the left eye which I imported into final cut pro on V1. The 2nd take was of the same objects but I shifted the camera over to the right a couple of cm before filming. This was then put onto V2, under V1 in fcp. I deleted the audio as it was not needed. Click here to see how I got the effect. Once this effect was done I tried to buy some red and cyan (a mix of blue and green) glasses to see if it had worked but unluckily I couldn't get any but have ordered some off ebay. If this works then I know what software I am using. Last night I tried the 3d glasses effect in AE, which gave the magic eye look...if you adjust your eyes the image produces a 3rd middle image that stands out, like in the old picture viewers. I am not sure how this would work with glasses though.
I looked up distances between lenses and found that an experiment had been done where the cameras were 100 feet apart. This produced a good 3d image but appeared very small as the lenses act like your eyes, therefore, eyes that wide apart could only come from a huge person, giving the illusion of viewing a tiny subject. I don't want my audience to feel a lot bigger than the projection so I will experiment with different distances, probably very close together.
I came across an Arrivision 3d lens which fixes on to the camera's lens and divides it in the middle, top and bottom. The top is the left eye and bottom the right. However, using this method, you also need 2 projectors with special lenses. If i can do it without this it will be great. Another option is digital stereo projection and this is the best one I think. Polarized glasses are used and also 2 projectors.
Tomorrow I need to choreograph ready for Sunday and more research into 3d.

FINAL PROJECT 3D

My final project will consist of 3 live dancers and 3D projections, either stop motion footage of Sindy or a Sindy model built in Maya.
The theme is based on superstimuli and how women are constantly being fed unreachable goals to aspire to. Air brushed models are displayed for women and teenagers to look up to but it starts much earlier on. Girls play with dolls and use them for role play and throughout the life of the Pedigree Sindy doll you can see how much British society's moulding has increased. Sindy was an average looking female and through the decades she has become not only unreachable but alien like.
I spoke to Gary who is composing the music today and he mentioned the Dove Evolution advert and how it relates to my theme. It's a good example of how women are endlessley striving to be computer enhanced models! I thought I could start off the projections with the different faces of Sindy and how she has changed from girl next door to sunburnt, turquoise alien eyes, skinny figure and gleaming teeth, just like real women in society have changed with fashion. She now resembles the American standard of a woman...BARBIE and yet, during the 1960's, child psychiatrists found that girls didn't want this, but now obviously, after years of being sold it, they now see this as normal. Young girls are now playing with unrealistic ideals and that is something we will strive for, without reaching, and therefore consume more beauty products.
I want to base the choreography for my 3 dancers on the movement of the Sindy's bodies and their capabilities. There will be exaggerated moves in places, overeaching of limbs, risk taking, competetiveness and maybe falling over to mimic how women will go to all lengths to achieve their goal, but failing helplessly.
I want to create Sindy stands and have the dancers in 'their place' restricted and bound; ready to break away and be individual, only to find that this freedom is unatainable and that instead they are manipulated by ridiculous images of 'superwomen', hypnotised in fact to become just that!
The 3D projections will be larger than life, just like our goals. They set the standards with the images of Sindy changing through the decades, the closer we get to present day, the worse it gets. Fashion is on a loop, I was just thinking today how I have worn skinny jeans in the '80's and now again in 2008! I want to repeat sections of movement and asked gary to create the music starting minimal and bringing variations in. I want him to try and capture the 3 decades (60s 70s 80s) in the music, as a sort of undertone. He will be working with music software and the sound will be electronic and fairly modern.
This project is also part of New Vibes to be performed as a work in progress in mid July. I have lots of studio time with the dancers and Gary will be able to work closely with us by attending some rehearsals and i will film as we go to send to him. He will create snippets for me to sample with the movement and build a track with the ones i like. I am meeting the dancers on Sunday.
In the meantime i need to work out how and what to film for the 3D projections. They will be viewed through 3D glasses like in Jaws 3 and i may need a special lens.

COVER

I have spent today creating a dvd cover in photoshop. It looks really good, if I had used photoshop more i would have got it done quicker as i had to learn as i went. I managed to do everything I needed to so I am happy. I based some of it on the poster I used of a b movie in Sindy's bedroom.

MYSTERIES

Well I got to uni this morning to check my exported movie and the sound is completely in sync. I don't understand why though because I thought the movie was a slightly different cut!!?? Anyway, i am glad it fits. The only problem I have now is the quality of the film. It looks all pixelated, like a watercolour painting. Nick says it is best to use an uncompressed film when you put it into AE so I am now exporting the film again as a FCP movie with no compression to see if I can bring it in to replace the movie being used.
I have now tried to do the above to no avail. It seems that the effects are on the movie in AE and when I put the new 1 in it loses them. The screen, however, may be the problem because the quality looks different on the 2 screens. I have taken the exported movie from AE upstairs to look at it and again it looks different so Ana and I have put it back into FCP to export as a compressed file. We then put it into dvd studio pro and put a simple play button on and set the film to go back to the start when it ends. I now have 2 dv copies and am in the process of burning 2 hdv copies, hoping the quality will be better. The compressor is taking ages to do these compared to the dv. I have chosen the 16:9 letterbox format for the screen size.
I sat and waited for ages whilst the compressor worked on the hd film. Nick came along and said we had done it wrong and even if I wanted a hd copy it could only be played through a computer. We tried again as Nick told us but again, after a long period, they came out as an audio and film separately. So i just left it. When i got home to test my dv versions (the quality was poor at uni) i was extremely pleased to find the quality was brilliant on my tv!!! I am so pleased and less stressed now. I want to buy some dvd-r disks as I burnt one onto a dvd+rw whih is less quality, then i can burm a few copies. Tomorrow i will get the cover done and start on my self-assessment! Pleased, proud i love my film!!

WHERE'S IT GONE?

Well I got to uni to check my exported movie, which was there but none of the effects, apart from the stage, were there. I couldn't find the AE version so I am not sure if it was saved. Everything that was done yesterday was gone! Great..
I decided to open up the version with all the effects and import the audio and conversion again (because i altered the end slightly) . I tried to put the text in and managed to get the first line in but have no clue how to blur it and fade in like David did. I had a brainwave luckily which seems obvious now.... I imported the exported movie and used the text from yesterday so i placed it in and shrank it so just the end was on. Nick helped me export it, he said it didn't need rendering again, but this time in hdv as the quality was rubbish on the qtime movie. He said it was best to have an hdv copy anyway and we can change it tomorrow to dvd for systems that won't play hd.
We did a few tests to check quality and it looked a bit better.
Tomorrow I will burn them off, hopefully the soundtrack fits properly, if not I may be able to move the conversion (the one Gary has done sound to) up over the top of the fcp we worked with for AE so that it's that version we see. I wish I had thought of that today but assumed the effects were on top of the footage. I think they are separate though so it should work.

SOUND

The music that Gary has done for me fits with my theme and enhances it. We had discussed what I wanted prior to him working on it and he has picked that up brilliantly as well as adding his own personality. It's really interesting to see how someone else perceives your ideas and interprets them. The overall structure is how i wanted it, eg. I asked that the valium scene have a silence like in 2001 a space odyssey and he has got that as well as matching up the visuals. I wanted a Hitchcock drama for the titles and that has been done really well, but also he has got the 70's kids tv music in there, which was his interpretation of the film.

SENDING AUDIO

What a hassle! The movie was too big to send via a shared folder gary and I have so I had to zip it. I have never done this before so tried lots of different attempts which still didn't work! It was meant to convert and email so it said and i did email it....god knows where though. In the end Ian worked it out and zipped it into small files to send. We left it over night and still had to do the ones that wouldnt send. they worked so I have no idea what the problem was....stupid computers!
Gary has sent me the finished audio today, which I have imported into adobe AE with my film. We had to stretch the end of the film where I had changed last scene. David showed me how to do the credits and we created them to reflect the valium scene and effects I put on it. I have left it to render for 5 hrs. I hope the effects are still there, i just don't remember seeing some of them. I expect I will get to uni tomorrow and have to render it again. I hope the audio fits well too because i may have changed some other scenes slightly, therefore, the audio will be slightly off.

IMPORTING AUDIO

The final bit of audio has now been recorded. I tried to sing an accapella at the end (another Zombies track) but it was out of my range and sounded unbelievably bad! So i have opted for silence....a moment to contemplate poor Sindy's dilema and read the credits in peace!
I enjoyed putting the audio onto my track, it all came alive once the sound was there.
Yesterday I took the audio home and edited it in Logic but I edited it properly in final cut. I added fade ins and outs after i cut up each section so the room noise would be less noticeable. I placed each bit where I wanted it and to fit with the visuals. One clip in particular, where i am looking in the mirror, was placed exactly on a word so i blinked to fit with it.
The final scene was extended slightly to fit the audio better and also, it zooms out into the set, which I had planned to do before but decided not to. I think it refers to the reality/surreality of the film and Sindy's thoughts. It brings the audience back to the film and how she is just a doll on set that I have manipulated and used for my own thoughts.
I had a problem with the last scene not playing properly, it's done it before and makes it really hard to place the audio on. I had to guess it after the first bit had played so i hope it sounds ok. I changed the volume on most of the clips. My V.O had to be increased as other music played in the background and I faded between the 2 to make it sound good. The special effects worked well, they had to be turned up so they didn't just sound like background hiss. I think it's quite obvious now that they are Sindy moving.
I have exported the film and audio as a converted Qtime movie to send to gary. He needs the exact edit to work around for the sound he is doing. Once he has done the audio i can place it in and export it all from after effects.

RECORDING AUDIO

Nicola operated the desk for me today at the conservatoire whilst I spoke my V.O into the mic. I needed to see the film so my timing would fit with the visual so had to record in the same room as opposed to the live room. The room sound was more prominent than it would have been but I couldn't do anything about that. I forgot my cd for a track I want to sing for the credits at the end and without it I would sing completely out of tune so I will record that on thursday.
We recorded into Logic Pro 8 rather than protools because it wouldnt open for some reason but Logic was fine. The mic was a condenser mic so Nic told me! I used a pop sheild for obvious reasons.
Firstly I recorded each scene in order by watching the film. It took a few goes for some of the longer scenes to get the timing right. I then did the sound effects. I ruffled a towel for the bed sheets noise, stroked my arm for the massage scene, messed with my hair for hair scene, tapped feet, smacked arm....all to help bring the film to life!
I tried to open the files in the lab but no sound came out. I think it's because the firewire wasnt plugged in because I got them home and opened them in Logic audio 5 and they were fine....apart from 2 files which were damaged. I can do them again on thursday. I worked out how to fade in/out for each clip and then bounced them. I wasnt sure whether to bounce as an aiff or wave so did both, also as 16 bit or 24 so i did both. I turned the volume up on the master fader so hopefully this wont be too loud. Because I don't know about audio I just have to experiment and see which is the best. I learnt final cut as i experimented so the same goes for any other software. Using Logic now seems so much easier than before, I still feel like I am a beginner but I must have some knowledge within me because it doesn't seem as hard.
Thursday I am recording the rest of Vo and song then I will put it into final cut and get the timing right. I will then send a copy to Gary so he has the right length and intervals to work with.

AE cont...

David and I created thin black bars to put throughout the top and bottom of the whole film, using a solid. We added 3 mins extra onto the end so i can insert the text for the credits.
With the dream sequence, after re-applying the whirlpool effect to the edges, it still wasn't how i wanted it to look. So David suggested a radial blur and I adjusted the strength of it so it was just on the edges. It looks so much better now.
For the 'mirror' scene I had placed a frame on the lens during filming to create a mirror frame but it didn't really look that good so we googled frames and found one to put in it's place.
It has now been adjusted in photoshop to look black. The perspective of this scene was originally going to have the audience viewing the back of sindy's head looking in mirror to see my face looking out at camera. I filmed just Sindy and I looking at camera, one at a time and merging into each other. Now the mirror frame is there, you either view it as sindy in the mirror or the audience are looking in the mirror and seeing sindy look back.
The lighting on pole scene was lowered a bit to make the blue screening less obvious. I had to re-apply it to every frame because David had previously changed the light so it flashed every other frame.
Now i have to write the credits in word to copy over into AE, record sound tomorrow, DVD authoring and art for the cover and burn dvd. I need to write my self-assessment form too.

AFTER EFFECTS

The picture above is a stage David and I found on google. This is the background for the pole dance scene. It is now red with flashing lights and Sindy is on the top with her pole! David operated all the buttons as I don't know how to use AE yet so I have been telling him what sort of effects I want and he has been doing them really well!
There is probably quite a lot I need to do to my film in AE, I was going to play around at home but my quick time movie won't play in AE on my computer...I don't know why, maybe it's because of FCP, perhaps it needs to be compressed??
Gary just sent me a sample of the dream sequence..it's sounding good, I asked him to make it a bit more discordant. He has overlayed my voice and made it deeper on 1 sample, just where it needed it! It just needs to be a bit more sinister then I will be completely satisfied! I am looking fwd to recording the sound effects and VO in the studio next tues.

SOUND

The prozac scene has been changed to valium as Gary told me that prozac didnt exist in the 1960's! Also the Cog. behavioral ther. is just behavioral therapy now because that too came later. Im not sure if pole dancing existed but that's tough because i can't change that! I need to get after effects to finish that so i can't do anything visually until that is ready.
Gary came over and i showed him my film without sound. He said it has a 1970's kid's tv show feel to it!! I think the beginning does, I wanted it to be like Bagpuss so I must be succeeding. We recorded a rough voice over in Logic, using a headset and mic i bought, so he could get an idea of the rhythm. I had to cut a few things out of the narration to get a better fit with my editing. I had written it before the film was made and Gary pointed out a few grammatic errors!
I went through each scene and told Gary ideas for the sound and gave him the scenes I wanted him to do sound for. The opening titles are going to be little 'pops' to fit with the animation. When 'tormenture' comes up I want a 'Hitchcock' thriller type of sound. Gary will do the dream sequence. I asked him to include paranoia, clumps of laughter and whispers, and weird sounds to reflect the surrealism of dreams.
I am doing sound effects such as bed sheets moving, stamping feet on bed and any sounds that will add to the reality of the film. I am recording V.O at conservatoire to get a good sound and quality.
Gary may do the contemporary dance scenes, I want drum beats for the Graham and experimental sounds for Cunningham. He is going to research these choreographers to get ideas....I also mentioned John Cage. The pole dance will have an existing track like I chose for the LSD scene. Maybe some Jefferson airplane...'plastic fantastic lover'!
The credits at the end will have me singing a Zombies song (Greg will hate it I expect) it's called 'The way I feel inside' and fits perfectly with my theme. I will just sing one verse in mono.

LAST VISUAL TOUCHES

Well now that everything is in FCP I now have to tweak, just to get transitions and effects looking good, as well as making sure the edits are as near to perfect as an amateur filmmaker can get! The dream sequence effects....whirlpool, was repeated on the edges so that there was no hard edge, it looks great.
The final clip of the movie was swapped around a bit. The first clip of it had some footage on that I didn't want to fade into so I put it at the end of the last clip and shuffled then a bit until they looked good. I placed a soft focus effect on the 'mirror' clips of me and Sindy as well as adjusting the contrast so they looked similar.
I have realised that you learn how to film more effectively through editing. You have to make sure you have more footage on the beginning and ends of clips so that you can add transitions. I never knew before (it seems obvious now) that you could not fade between 2 clips if you only had the footage that was there and you had not cut any off. So I had to cut off a few frames either side of the 2 clips to place the transition on. It reads 'insufficient content' when there is not enough footage or the transition shows up as really small and does nothing...that's when you realise.
So, the finishing touches have been added now. I chose to place a kaleidoscope effect on the prozac scene, going into the 60's club to reference the era. I imported a cd track from 'The Zombies' for the club scene. It is an instrumental and fits well with the dancing. I opened the track with i tunes at first and tried importing them from there into FCP but they wouldn't let you choose them. I then just dragged them from the cd onto the desk top and they were already an Aiff file so I could import them.
I tried exporting the whole film as a movie file again to play on my pc but an error kept coming up. Nick changed the settings which then caused the film to be rendered again. It still wouldn't export it, saying error...disk space so I think the film is taking up a lot of room now! I just hope I can export it ok to put on to dvd.
Now I have to sort out the rest of the sound for the film. Friday I an meeting Gary to go back into Logic audio to do the dream sequence music. I need to book the studio to record the animation, which Nicola said she could be in the desk room as I am in the other speaking into the mic.
Now my essay is out of the way, the next month will be spent on the sound.

FINISHED

Well the last of the filming has been done I think! I filmed 11 Sindys each holding a letter I had written on a piece of paper in fancy font to spell my name. The backdrop was a lovely piece of retro fabric. I filmed both in colour and black and white to see which looks best when editing.
Today I also made some outfits from paper and black bin bags to re-create Allen Jones' 'women as furniture' to include 'Hatstand' 'Table' and 'Chair' from 1969. This was firstly for my essay, to put into my picture book but I will use the pics maybe for the cover of the DVD. I have been editing all of my footage and putting it in the correct order. The MAC was annoying me today because it said that there wasn't enough render space and to free up the disk! It still wasn't playing as well as it should so I will have to check it out to see my footage clearly. A few of the clips won't allow me to add transitions so I need to sort that too.
I put some nice kaleidoscope effects on a few of the clips: 3 on the prozac scene and 1 on the titles. I want to add some effects to the mirror scene where I am in it, it looks a bit raw at the moment. The pole dance needs a background, all of the sound has to be recorded too!
The longest job today was to change the clips where I had cropped them. I had to zoom them all to match and then crop the same so each clip ran smoothly into the next. I had to compromise with the chill out scene; I had cropped on the left by 10 but to zoom it in that much would lose a lot of the edges of the scene so I cropped to 5 and will have to put up with the bit of sindy stand in shot!

LAST SCENE DONE

I have just filmed the last scene! Again in black and white, I have gone back to the first scene of Sindy in bed. The whole film is about Sindy contemplating about her life and thoughts so each scene is about her thinking about what she has done and why, so the final scene goes back to her being in bed, after she had the bad dream.
I have animated her stamping her feet, shaking her head, pulling the blanket back over her to flop back into bed because she doesn't feel like getting out of bed to face the day and she's become so deluded that she now questions which one out of awake and sleep is the reality and how much should she have faith in either.
I have done close up shots of her head and the poster together as well as zooming out to see more of the scene. I will now play around with the sindys holding letters spelling my name and then that should be all for the filming.

ME ON SCENE!

Today I have filmed Sindy looking in the mirror at herself, her body image, showing how looks are important to her. I am looking back from the mirror. First I set the scene. My bedroom has blank walls and a white shelf at the back of my bed so I used this as it is neutral to build onto. I placed a large picture of Hitchcock's 'The Birds' (1963) at the back for a reference of the decade the film is set in. A Vespa calendar is on the wall and some shelves with various books. There is also a pic of marilyn monroe and a phallic shaped cactus plant!
I placed a small pic frame over the lens, which is not on the photo, to look as though I am looking in a mirror when I look in the camera. I wore an original 1960's mod dress, a blonde wig and lots of make-up with huge false eyelashes. I did several takes of me
looking in the viewer and camera, putting on lipstick and just generally checking hair and dress, etc. I was going to have Sindy approaching the mirror and then a backshot of her with me looking back at her but decided to film her looking into the camera, and I will blur the image to fade into my face. The last scene to do is the end where she gets back into her bed. I can then focus on the editing and sound.

PLAYING WITH PROZAC

With the title animation scenes, I sped them up and reversed them to how I wanted them to spell. I had to crop and zoom in in final cut, where the cam had picked up more than I could see through the viewer. I captured the prozac footage in 3 stages. The spin, animation and cut ins. I cut out all footage of my fingers spinning the cushion and also cropped and zoomed. I used dissolve transitions on the cuts i made, which gave it a real dizzy, 'out of focus/mind' look. After messing with the speeds I was really pleased with how the shoot had worked out. The animation with the pills worked well.
I also rotated the last clip of the dream sequence and put a ripple transition on it to go into the next scene. I didn't need a spinning effect after all! I cut the Graham clip as I had looped it to play again but the join was not right.
Tomorrow I am filming Sindy looking at me in the mirror, so I better get my false eyelashes and rouge out!

MONDAY MONDAY

Firstly, I am annoyed because I just wrote my blog and then highlighted it all and pressed return. So there it went! I am now starting again! Idiot!
Having 3 more scenes left to film I decided to do the prozac scene. After speaking to someone who had been on it for depression i learnt that suicide attempts and inertia are common when taking the drug so kept those ideas in mind when creating the set. The scene is part of the story when Sindy has tried various things to distract her endless negativity. I decided to film in black and white for a classic and sombre feel so chose the props to work accordingly. Sindy was in a lemon, lace nightie and gown called 'Dreamy Lace 1976. To the right is a newspaper reading '...the ups and downs' from 'Shopping in the rain' 1963. To the left is a glass on it's side and some pills (sweeteners). The scene shows how Sindy is in a state of inertia and deliriousness after taking her prozac and I have tried to show how she is feeling. I lay her on a 60's style cushion with her hand to head on her side. She remains still throughout. It is the cushion that moves. I slowly turned it, first the focus on the head, then we see the glass and pills, her legs and then the paper. The scene keeps going round, it looks like a suicide, which reflects one of the biggest side-affects of the drug. I then dropped some sweeteners onto her and animated them to swirl around the pattern of the cushion for a surreal element. The glass 'hoovers' them up and stands up in the centre of the flower. The pills have become the pollen, (sindy is the flower and the prozac is her centre) metaphotically speaking. I cut in to her head, paper and glass shot.
I have also animated the opening titles today. The first is 'A film by' and i used Sindy accessories such as parasols, shoes, hats, bouquets, coat hangers and many more. They will randomly appear to spell out the words. For the title, which I have decided to call 'Tormenture' inspired from the 'torment' poster I placed in Sindy's bedroom scene, is also animated, but using clothes. The title is a combination of the words torment, torture and men so it reflects perfectly how she is feeling and it fits with the themes I am using. It took ages to rummage through the endless bags of Sindy clothes I have to find the most maliable! Each letter will appear 1 by 1, first to spell torture and the 'men' will appear altogether, in red.
I tried different ways of writing my name to go after 'a film by' but animating it by hand writing was too hard for the time I have to do it. I even squirted ketchup to spell it but it looked a mess. I think I will have Sindys holding a letter each.

EFFECTS

When editing the human clips with the animation I was at first dissapointed and thought I may have to do it again. The lighting was different and the human clips closer. I couldnt zoom in too close on the dolls to make them appear larger because the cam goes out of focus at a certain range. I had a mess around in final cut, checking out the effects I could put on. I changed the brightness and contrast of each clip so that they were very similar, already this made them more connected. I moved the clips around, chopped small bits of them to keep and placed them in an order where the animation and people looked similar. I found an effect I liked called radial blur. I thought the clips would look better if they were slightly different to her awake clips. I then found whirlpool in distort menu, it has a sort of concave mirror effect and this looked fantastic for a dream sequence. The movement I have in the scene, coupled with this effect looks great, I'm really pleased with it. I need to find an effect similar to 'twirl' in distort. I want the pic to move in a circle onto the next scene. I looked in transitions but found nothing. Twirl has the effect but not the motion. I'm sure I will find it.
I currently have 3 mins of edited film footage, which is not bad for 6 wks of animation! I have 3 more scenes to shoot, 1 of them is of myself looking out from the mirror that Sindy is looking into. I need to think about the best way I can do it. The other 2 scenes are Sindy on Prozac, which will be brief and her getting back into bed.
I re-edited the club scene so the speed was slower and also the hypnotise scene. I seem to have lost my dance scene somewhere, i know it's under another scene but not sure how to retrieve it. I must grab Nick when I'm in next!
I have about 37 secs of dream footage which will need sound. This along with the 1min 23 secs of psychedilia will be the biggest scenes I will have to do sound for. I won't be doing any filming until weds probably as I have a presentation and draft essay to be in, which I am constantly working on.

HUMANS

After continuing with more editing last week I am now filming again. Last night I filmed short clips of torsos, kissing and a lap dance. The lap dance was in colour and will be editied next to Sindy's pole dance. The other shots were in black and white, for her dream sequence, they looked wrong in colour and will be placed with flashes of doll bodies. It is to represent Sindy's insecure feelings of picturing her boyfriend with other women. I need to make sure the camera is positioned to get the doll's bodies to look the same size as the human ones.

MORE EDITING

I began to fiddle around with the psychedelic club scenes first. I sped them up to about 800% but they still didn't look right so I had the idea to go through frame by frame and delete all of the still ones. Once this was done I then had to slow them all back down individually!!! God this took ages, there must be a way of selecting them all to change the speed but I couldn't see how. The chill out room looked good but the rest still needs to be played around with.
The Graham dance looked ok sped right up but I wanted to try the same by removing the stillness. I got a ghost like effect so I kept the first frame of every move and put them together, slowing it down to 5%. This looked good too. I need to have a longer mess with it though and David the Maya guy is coming tomorrow so he may have some good advice on removing still frames because Greg said it was probably best to keep some frames in. I really want to shoot the Graham sequence again because you can see dollikin shoot forward when she fell...damn doll!! Oh well the best things don't come easy I suppose.
I never had time to edit any of the pole sequence so I will do that tomorrow also. Hopefully I can start getting a background made in Maya for the pole scene.
I have been thinking about the music for the club scene. It has to be fitting with the era. I was thinking about using a Hammond organ if I can get my hands on one....oh and someone who knows how to play it too!! I could use an already existing track but I feel that would be the easy way out so I will have another think. Jonathan said I could use samples in a music programme, which is another option.

MORE SHOOTING

I decided to shoot another pole dance to try and improve the quality. I ironed the towels, not that they were bad before, but I wanted to make sure to do the best I could, for peace of mind. I secured the pole by poking it through a hole in a box then placing a towel (with a hole in it too) over the top. I tried to do similar moves to last time and smoothed the sellotape out flat so it was less noticeable.
The pole stayed in place better but still moved slightly, maybe blue tac on the floor would have held it in place. I did a few extra moves to make sure I had a lot of footage and I could look at the other sequence and edit them together. I set up a dance studio in my bedroom. For this I got my faithful clothes horse and pegged some 1960's material to it for 1 wall. Next to it for the back wall I draped maroon organza to look like curtains and opposite were my mirrored wardrobe doors, for the studio mirror. The floor is laminated so that was handy. I filmed in black & white and shot from the floor diagonally as the dolls sat facing the camera. There was Lovely Lively, ballerina and a dollikin. This was to be a Martha Graham class so they were in position to begin their sequence. I dressed 2 in leotards only and dollikin in short trousers and cardigan too. I was really pleased with this but dollikin was not very good at sitting up so every time she slumped I put her back in a slightly different position so when I edit this may look bad. I did a short sequence with the 2 Sindys. This time it was a Cunningham exercise, ballerina Sindy was great because she was made to dance! Lovely Lively had problems with her elbows not being as manipulative so looked rather stiff. Tomorrow I will edit the scenes I have done today to see how they look.

PSYCHEDELIA

Yesterday felt like a marathon but from editing a few scenes on Tuesday I realised I need a LOT of footage. Once you speed it up, etc the time cuts down quite a lot.
It took me about 2 hrs to build the scene before I even started with the filming. I wanted to do a flashback scene to when Sindy had gone to clubs and tried Acid! I own 4 1960's style, open (round-edged) cubes. I used the 3 largest as rooms for the club. I covered the backs in 3
different paper and fabric. One was a paisley-style purple and pink silk,

a floral paper and a fabric that reminded me of lichtenstein/popart if you folded it a certain way. I also placed 2 photo cubes in to pose as seats.

I did think about using them as podiums but the Sindys would have been to high for the set and their stands would have shown up. I filmed each 'cove' with just a bit of another one showing so the audience knows the layout when I'm focusing on just one of them.
I dressed the dolls I wanted to use, in 1960's wear, and got a variation on blondes and brunettes. I did their hair to fit the era, big and bouncy and long and hippy! I set them in place, some on stands, some carefully propped against objects. I placed a few Sindy glasses and a bottle around the scene. The only thing missing was men! I don't collect Paul but my sister had a Ken (Barbie....booo). Unfortunately, he is sooooo 1980's with his Beverly Hills smile and Hollywood tan, hair and muscles but I needed a man, this was no lesbian club after all and the theme is about men. I had no appropriate clothes for him, Sindy's wouldn't fit so I put him in a black roll neck, with no trousers!! It symbolises men's promiscuity.....
I put the main Sindy in the foreground (she will be in black & white) but I decided to film this in colour as psychedelia and black & white sort of contradict each other. The scene was about seeing them all dancing so I started to move each one bit by bit. You get into it by creating stories and personalities as you go. The guy stayed in the corner all night and a couple of girls go to him. He puts his hand up one's skirt, she's a bit moody, maybe in her 'own world'. She was sat down drinking before going over to him. Two girls are dancing nearby, one a hippy who has wacky dance moves and the other a bit more reserved doing the mash potato. One girl moves a little then walks off screen, main sindy is doing mash potato before she walks off and the other Sindy is doing the twist before she picks up her drink. I wanted them all to interact like you would at a party so made sure they are looking around. This take took ages. I then moved on to the next cove. The dolls that had moved off set were seen again in the next scenes depending which side they had gone off.
The next scene was a chill-out room. One doll sat down and 2 more walk to her and another sits to talk to her. The other goes to sit down but there's no room and the hippy girl brings her a drink over.
In the last room is the main Sindy and the other that walked off set. Main sindy is doing the twist and some weird arm movements. The other is very cool, quite mod-esque and she is casually moving her arm and twisting. The girl who was with the guy is in shot. She is sat, turns to acknowledge the 2 girls, moves her arms a bit then turns and gets up to stand with the guy. I think the 3 scenes took me about 6 hrs! My back was aching and my hip from sitting on the floor, moving each doll and going back to operate the camera. I enjoyed it though, I really got into the scene. It was almost as good as being there! Here are the 3 rooms I created..

EDITING

Had an experiment with some of the scenes I've filmed to see if they are coming out as I want. The log and capture was like 2nd nature after the last film; it's nice when these things become autonomous. The pole scene came out well, Nick showed me how to drop the background out using the filters and my old blue towels had done the job! The lighting worked and no shadows were created to cause problems. I want to shoot it again though because the sellotape shows so i need to think of something else to use. The towels need to be flattened to keep any creases because on 1 part, Sindy's boot gets slightly hidden by a bump. I want to try and secure the pole somehow to stop any wobble. I'm looking forward to re-shooting, I want to perfect the footage as much as I can and experimenting is what this project is about so it would be a problem if I went along with my first try. I learned how to crop the picture too. In the camera it looks fine but on screen you can see more of the shot. This is easily cropped and you can do it to each side as much as you need to, which is handy to know!
The hairdressing scene is my favourite so far but the duvet cover is creased, I may re-do this at a later point if I have time. I played around with the speed of the footage today only. Because it is animation you need to get it at a suitable speed to look right. This meant chopping up the scenes and changing a few frames then choosing the next few to a point where it looked ok to change again. The first scene of Sindy dreaming needs to be inconsistent because she is dreaming so some bits were sped up, some slowed and others copied and repeated.
I need to really focus on every detail when filming because I can see every little mistake, such as the poster not being stuck flush to the 'wall' and creases in fabric etc. Tomorrow I will film the dance and drug scenes. I also need to make them longer because speeding them up shortens the scenes drastically!

THE SHORTER SCENES

Now I have finished filming the pole dance scene I have been doing the shorter, flashback scenes as well as the 'lying in bed dreaming' scenes. I hope the blue towels have worked well as a blue screen for the pole scene but I will have to do it again if not. For the dreaming scene I drew the curtains to keep a lot of the light out and create a few shadows. In the scene was Sleeptime Sindy in bed, a wall behind her with 'Torment' poster on it and a wardrobe next to it. I moved her frame by frame, just a fraction, so it looked like she was tossing and turning. She then sits up and I cut to a different angle and replace the doll with Lovely Lively Sindy (my main doll for the film). I then moved her to look like she was traumatised and crying; she then lies back down. I used sellotape again to keep her hands in place on her head. I also did the cog. behaviourist therapy treatment of snapping the elastic band on your wrist. I did different takes of this to see which works best.
First i filmed myself doing it to my wrist then me snapping it on Sindy's arm then an animation of her doin it to herself. It worked better than I thought so I may use this one but would like to see what my arm looks like amongst the other scenes. With the hypnotic scene I sellotaped a chain above the cam lens and moved the cam side to side, frame by frame as well as moving Sindy's head a little each way. I wanted this to look as if the viewer was hypnotising her. The hairdressing scene worked well. I set up the shot so you could see 2 dolls in a mirror but also in the scene too, then animated it to look as though one was doing the other's hair. The mirror was a picture frame stuck to my wardrobe mirror and I used a duvet cover to look like the wallpaper; it has a 1960's pattern on it. I used the same cover for the massage scene but reversed it so the colour was white with black as opposed to black with white. One sindy was lay on her stomach and the main one was massaging her. Again I used sellotape to keep her hands touching. I had to re-do this scene because the camera kept going out of focus. I think it was because I was too close so I moved out a bit. The next 2 scenes I want to do are the contemporary dance scene and the drug scene where she will be doing some psychedelic moves! I hope the scenes are long enough so far, there is quite a lot of narration so I may have to add more scenes or lengthen them. The pics above are of the scenes I have filmed today except I filmed in black and white.