Finished the run sequence that we received a RADF grant for. This work was a collaboration with the Ipswich Art Gallery where they have the 3 minute sequence from Wombok Forest , 13 large production stills, time lapse and a case with three puppets in an exhibition that runs through to May..
We finished this work on the 5th February.
Feeling good and refreshed and back on focus. this last work we did above with the mirrors was very inspiring. We are ready to get back .
Straight after finishing the run sequence, we did a series of workshops at the gallery. It was good working with school age children showing them and their teachers stop motion techniques and programs etc which excitingly enough most schools are now using as part of their curriculum. But it was exhausting for both for us and we were still wanting to get back to our animation. We had had the expaned shed space but had not had a chance to work in it yet so we pulled down the set we had built but had never shot in because we now had the room to build a bigger set. We now started to focus back and concentrate on Wombok Forest.
We had started to cover the walls in black material and make new animating tables with trap doors when in late April we got a call from a director who asked us to do some special effects on a horror film and now with the extra rent of the new shed, telephone internet etc to keep finding the money for, we said yes. We thought we would make a fair bit of money with this job but as usual it ended up being one of those "no budget" things that you have to squeeze them for the money. So in this 8 week period we had to make a fake knife, bolt gun, smashable work light, fake hammer, fake head that gets smashed by the hammer, fake neck that gets slashed by the fake knife and litres and litres of fake blood which we pumped through an old fire extinguisher. Once again a huge job than took so much more time away from our film. We paid rent etc ahead and were just about to get back into things when we got a another call to ask us if we would do the TV pilot for the show we had originally done the Frilly Lizard Puppets for.
We knew this was going to be a huge job for us. We thought the money would be enough for us to finish off the film. So we said yes. We had to completely gut our shed of the new tables and props etc and create a mock live tv studio situation in which we could have a band and commentator and an imaginary live audience. Once again we found ourselves in the never ending battle just to finish -[so we gave ourselves a time frame and with the money we earnt from this job we put towards a TRIP. We had been invited to Texas several times by our friend Moviestuff, so this time we booked our holdiday and found ourselves having to finish this project with the thought in mind of NEVER EVER doing any more big jobs til we finished Wombok.
So on the 1st of October we ran away and visited Roger and his family in Utopia Texas. We then visited Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We had just the best time, everyone we met were just awesome and we loved just walking around the streets and seeing things we have never seen before. The train from Seattle to San Francisco was absolutely beautiful. We loved Seattle and want to go a live there. We loved Texas but can't explain exactly why. It could be the wide open spaces but we think it is like a land lost in time.
We came back and were all ready to get back to building the last of two of the three major big sets and start back animating when we were told our lovely landlady had been dismissed of her position "and things were going to change around here" Automatically we though oh no here goes the caravan, rent will go up etc etc . We are still not sure what is happening BUT a good thing has come from this.
With the thought of wanting to say no to any more big jobs and concentrate fully on Wombok - we have decided to give up the second shed we had spread in to. This extra shed which doubled our original 5mx7m shed plus an extra 5 mX5m of computer space had been costing us a lot more than we could really keep trying to find the money for. We are positive that this will be a good move and it feels good to make a decision finally.
Right now this is where we are at waiting to hear what is happening with our shed and moving all of our stuff back into the one shed and the rest back home. We are enthused at the thought of becoming smaller again......weird hey!!!! but it is a very good feeling to know we are finally getting some control back.
December saw us go what the hell lets just keep going so we got back into the animating and we are working well and continuing to make progress daily . Since our trip away it seems easier to make decisions and cutting back on everything also seems to be working really well for us. We are cutting down on everything, getting rid of the internet at the shed cutting down on the phone line. We have been selling a few things to get us a bit of cash (we spent everything on our trip) but it was so worth it. Maybe we were on the verge of burnout. Looking forward to the new year and continuing with the animation, this is probably as close as we hve been to how it used to be before we took on all those big jobs.