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.

POLE DANCE ANIMATION

Last night was fun! I found a long silver curtain pole in my cupboard, just the right width for Sindy! I covered my clothes horse with blue towels and sellotaped the pole to it, 3 ways to keep it secure. I had a lamp next to the scene as well as the room lights on to make it nice and bright.
I knew the animation would be hard to get it to look good but it was really fiddly for what I wanted her to do. I used sellotape to stick her hands and legs to the pole, because it's see through I'm hoping it won't show but the scene is short so hopefully it will not be noticeable.
I moved Sindy frame by frame (in her little 'Red Raver' number and red boots) to walk around the pole, 1 hand on pole. Then she lifts 1 leg and leans over. The next bit she jumps up the pole and goes upside down, gripping with her legs to slowly slide down and land on floor. To do this 'gracefully' was a challenge but I wanted it to look realistic. I'm happy with this scene for now and should be able to edit it all together to create a good little dance! Although I will do a few more things before I take the scene down.

MAYA INTRO

I was meant to have a session with a Maya expert on Tues but there was a problem with our version not working. We are getting a new installed so we just spoke about what I wanted to achieve and had a bit of a play in the sample copy.
For the dream scenes I want to have Sindy in Black & white (to reflect her melancholy) and the rest of the scene in colour, to bring a different look to the awake scenes. David said to film in colour and then we can change it in after effects but I will just film in B&W for the scenes where I won't need Maya. I asked about a technicolour effect, he wasn't sure what I meant but we can look when we get it installed. For the scenes where I want the animation to be placed in a virtual room I will need to film on a blue or green screen. This is no problem because of how small the scenes are so a piece of large paper will suffice, but if I want to create a background for the shots, which I will be in, I will need a larger backdrop. The first scene I am going to film is a pole dancing shot with the Sindy. I want her to be surrounded by mirrors, which I will try to create in Maya. You can create reflections, etc so this should be possible.
To build a character in Maya you start with different Polygons, using a sphere for the head usually. You can then pull out the nose, add hair etc. I need to take a pic of the doll I'm using. One from each angle with her in a sort of crucifix pose. Apparently it takes a few days to create a head so I've got my work cut out for my final project! I'm looking forward to getting started with the experimentation of Maya, the options are endless.
I printed out the poster for the Sindy bedroom and scaled it down to 6cmX8.5cm (roughly) so it looks the right size for Sindy. I have the tripod to start the stop motion properly, now I've had a play with animating her I can start shooting. I now have to look around the house and find a suitable item that can be used for a pole for Sindy! This will be fun, creating a pole dance frame by frame!!

SINDY AUDITIONS

I have been sorting out clothes for the Set for Sindy to wear. I am still a bit indecisive as to which decade I choose. It's between the 1960's and 1980's. I prefer the '60's so think i will go with that; I don't like the '70's fashions, although I do have some lovely outfits that would look good. I may shoot in black and white for the majority of the film, for a classic look but then in colour for the dream sequences to show the 'reality' of Sindy's nightmare.
I have been doing a test shoot using stop framing with 2 Sindys today. Sleeptime Sindy was used for the bed scene where she is dreaming because her eyes close when lay down, I want to make it as real as possible. The other Sindy is Lovely Lively Sindy and her arm joints rotate 360 degrees, whereas other dolls either bend slightly or not at all. I filmed her sat on the bad, putting her head in her hands, when sped up slightly it will work really well so i am going to use her. I also filmed her walking, with feet out of shot so I can hold her, and also stop framing. Again this looked effective but I will need to make sure the cam is steady and keep myself out of shot. I don't want Sindy on a stand, I hope to make her move as close to a human as I can get! I will have to use blue tac and sticky tape and possibly see through string for when she needs to do certain actions such as holding things and halfway to sitting down.
I have an old book on Movie posters. I want to photocopy one of the pics and have it as a poster on Sindy's wall. It looks cool, fits in with the era and is a British film called 'Torment' (1949).Pictured above.
I am now going to make a final decision on the outfits.