this is why I can't have nice things

                Animating.....

                                                                   

                                                                                    .....and foley-ing!

 Here is Brent as he takes a break from animating in order to cover the house, and the cat, in blue fingerprints while I make the sound of gravel-y footsteps using a bike chain!

When we were in NY getting that fish and doing errands recently we went to a fundraiser for our friend Peter's arts organization Triple Canopy. While there a woman I know asked me what I have been doing lately and I tried explaining it to her "You know? Making sound effects? For the film? Um...?" She asked me if I had any training or background in it which made me stutter thinking, "Should I? Am I qualified to be doing this?" Which then made me laugh imagining my lack of "sound making credentials," especially because I think years and years of classical music training actually are coming in handy in the sound department...? Sort of? Right? Ha! I DO have sound making credentials! Anyway...animating and foley-ing, animating and foley-ing...

i was dressed for success

As promised here is Part 2 of the costume posts! Well we all know about the dress and all but a few other pieces of costumes in the film are also handmade as well! My mom (Hi mom! I know you are reading this! Hello!) is a devout knitter who has provided me with scarves and mittens and socks for years! I definitely didn't appreciate her skills until moving to the chilly woods (the photo at the bottom shows our current snowy predicament taken as the car was being pulled from a snow bank by a friendly truck driving passerby) and wearing all of her knitwear at once both on and off camera. 

My friend Laura also provided the film with a burst of knitted color with this yellowy scarf , something I kept adding to my characters costumes the more sickly and gray I became. I think even Mike dons some homegrown knitwear his significant other, the lovely Miss Holli Hopkins, whipped up for a  freeezing Chicago! I also made a few simple skirts out of thrift store remnants that grace the film a bit. The one up top I really like, it looks and feels like an old man's pajamas- more clothes should have this quality! I'm planning on wearing this skirt in one of the final scenes we are shooting next week in which Mary & Leonard meet. They meet in a car crash. I wonder what will get fake blood out of these clothes? Or real blood. I hope there's no real blood. I need a stunt double.

The Cat

Do you see that little white blur in the middle of this screen shot? Ghost? Nope. Trash? Nope. It's our cat. Well, more truthfully, our neighbors cat. We accidentally stole the neighbors cat. When I moved in we went for a late night walk around the woods and a cat about a mile away followed us home. A year  later found out he actually belongs to our neighbors and was in the process of fleeing an outdoor cat life, complete with torturous children, when he chose to live with us. 

Dr. Julius Irving, as he has come to be known, appears throughout the shots of Gravity. Stop motion allows for him to be seen for milliseconds but sometimes he'll linger still in the frame. Once during filming he managed to climb 16ft to our artificial heaven construction that looks down on Leonard's house and just sat in the middle of the shot. This incident led to Brent scaling the rickety heaven, retrieving the cat, and having his glasses knocked off by the (freaked out) cat during the descent sending me, Mike & Holli (Mike's fiancee/occasional second camera operator) into the bushes with flashlights in search of, literally, the directors vision... Bad Cat! Here is a picture of Dr. J/Dr. Jai-us/Blood Cat in his former glory days of being Number One Killer (another photo by Drew). Now he is more of a cat who eats pieces of dead mice out of a mouse trap in the kitchen. O Julius....sigh...remember when you were Number One Killer (reluctantly sets mouse trap)?

Fish Update: I'm a Cartoon!

Here is me doing my best Felix the Cat impression, hope you like it! I'm planning on putting up a bunch of short film clips as we get closer to being done so check back for more...! Also, any remedies for getting the taste of fish out of ones mouth?

Fish Update: Disgusting

As Brent said "There isn't enough incense in the world to cover up that smell." Absolutely gross.

fish at your own risk or my retro fish experience

 The thing that Brent has been animating lately is a scene in which Leonard causes a flood in the film and kids start fishing in the street. The flood is animated but the kids, and the fish, are most definitely real! After being greeted with a closed sign on most days, even after calling ahead, Mike & I eventually made it to this little wooden shack on a pond that houses a local fishing club/trout hatchery. There was a huge old  stove in the middle of the club, squishy white linoleum flooring and a fifties looking food counter offering, strangely, burgers. A group of older hunched men waiting for the rain to pass were circled around the stove in rusted folding chairs and raincoats looking at Mike and I suspiciously yet interested. I really was waiting for someone to whip out the story about the time they caught that big fish but, sadly, no one did! After retrieving the little guys from a pond they gave me my change in 2 dollar bills (!) and we left with coolers filled with 4 trout (2 were freed and 2 were eaten after filming).

Then, Brent tells me he wants another scene involving fish. I think "Yes! Back to the hatchery! Now I'll get my tall tale!" But no! He wants a different kind of fish! More precisely a whole dead fish! More exactly a whole dead fish skeleton! Trying to find whole fish for sale in an area overrun with "Rod & Gun" clubs is a bit difficult. This means, when running errands in NY, we picked up some whole fish in Chinatown!

It happened to be Chinese New Year so we had to dodge crowds and confetti and dragon parades in addition to all those people trying to buy bootleg designer purses and Faux-lexes. The day was unexpectedly warm and we had not come prepared to refrigerate the fish. This led to the frantic purchase of a (very fifties looking) freezer bag type thing and the collection of New York's finest gritty-gray snow to fill said bag with to insulate the fish! Now comes the fun (?) part: trying to boil the fish to keep a full fish skeleton intact (any pointers on this?). First, to the store for something, anything, to mask the scent of boiled fish...

the barn

At this point I don't even remember most of the reactions when I told all my friends I was moving to a barn in Pennsylvania to make a film. I think there was a lot of skepticism and general disbelief- the particular curator who introduced Brent and I warned "Don't move to the barn!" far before I was even considering! But, here I am! Still alive and still in a barn and almost finished with the film! The Nervous Films studio set up is actually kind of amazing and I can't believe I am often forgetting that...

The studio is a 250 year old (renovated) barn! Most of it is chaotic studio space but a small section is a one room apartment that was once a horse stable and which, currently, is also chaotic studio space that we happen to sleep and eat in! The stone basement is mostly used as a woodshop. The large main area has everything from tools to old sets to instruments to an in process 16ft high 12 ft wide wooden drawing/lightbox that depicts a scene from Gravity. (It also has a small corner of my own studio space which is pictured below! This is also the part I hit with the car, what can I say? I'm the worst driver ever!)...and, of course, you all know what we've been doing with the barn yard! The talented Ben Liddle took the above photograph of Brent at the baby grand piano for a magazine article on the film- I think the photo happily sums up the wondrous messiness that is Nervous Films barn studio!

bulbous

Brent doesn't really like lighting. Or should I say he loves lighting but just very little of it. I can't begin to tell you how many hours of my life I have spent trying to find the perfect dim bulb for this art project or that. The worst time was when we were setting up the Gravity booth for Miami and a Brent made sculpture with VERY specific bulbs got knocked over sending me on a wild goose chase throughout southern Florida looking for "antique style edison bulbs" in the land of neon. Eventually the nicest woman in the world, I think her name was Tatiana and I've been searching for her card to write her the thank you she deserves, at a specialty lighting store said "I think I know what you mean." She actually took down the bulbs in the store that were for functioning usage, not even for sale! Thank goodness for her! Despite Brent's urges to turn off all the lights Gravity does have some pretty wonderful in camera bulbs, the film still above shows some of them quite nicely I think! I'll write more about lighting later since it's a current obsession of mine after getting used to having these stage lights we are borrowing for the film hanging around- they make everything instantly feel like old Busby Berkeley Hollywood! Be careful Brent, I'm gonna make a musical in the yard next!

foley foley foley (sung to the tune of rawhide! with the rawhide foley!)

Well...this is what my life looks like nowadays! It turns out my little mic wasn't cutting it in the range department so Brent outfitted my recording setup with his various cords, a mixer, real headphones and an awesome (borrowed) mic (thanks Mike McGinley!)! It definitely got a lot more layered and textural with this new set-up which is great because morale was getting low there for a bit! Also, our cat is loving me and my foley making! I was shaking around stuff, making noises and he just kept whacking at them thinking it was playtime...how to cat-proof a studio? O, and not to toot my own horn (insert horn sound here please) but a new animation I did is up over here which I also did the foley for!

...I got $20 riding on somebody creating a Brent font! sans serif!

Brent's handwriting is distinct- it definitely adds a dimension to his work that is both disurbing and childlike at the same time. He uses title cards a lot in his films mostly because I think he has a lot of thoughts he needs to get out and he can literally say one thing while another, written, flashes on the screen. I just realized this is a far, loud cry from silent film title cards! He tends to make them on the back of old film negative holders that are eeriely matte black which, I also just realized, is an odd (unintentional?) comment on film being that he shoots mostly digital...hmmm...

Brent's recording and editing some of the narration and making title cards for Gravity right now. When we were listening to this one particular part he said "I think in rants..." which is true! Just ask the poor kid who works at the video store...little does that kid know that some Brent Green rants can be inspiring!

Here are some photos of title cards from the new film (up top) and 2 photos of part of a word based piece from Brent's Site Santa Fe show as we were working on it last summer on the farm- the pop sensation/sweetie pie Drew Henkels took these bottom photos when he was out here helping us prep for the show! Yay Drew! Check out his band Drew and the Medicinal Pen! Not only do they often provide our studio with some much needed awesome, upbeat rock n'roll they are the single best band to have sleep on your floor during a tour! So nice! So clean smelling! Get them on your floor today! Or at least get their beautiful new release!                                                       

Valentine's Special: Filet Mignon with Blueberry Sauce

Our internet was destroyed in the snowstorm so currently I am holed up in a rural coffehouse that prides itself on being "just like New York!" I find this claim extra funny given that a woman around here once told me she always wanted to go to New York City, specifically "that street where they sell all the purses?!"  "Canal Street?" "No. That's not what it's called." Also, the local idea of cosmopolitan dining is just combining two things people like- shrimp & jam or, as this place is offering for the holiday, steak & blueberries. Anyway...

So we are still trapped inside with Brent animating and me sound effecting...and now the internet, and the loud ass barista, is telling me more snow is coming!

At least I've learned how to take much needed breaks from making sounds...I started making these drawings yesterday and Brent turned them into Valentine's day cards when I wasn't looking... ok, I need to get out of here the holiday crowd has started arriving in search of local wine and this new thing called the "Apple-tini."

we don't get internet when it snows, and sometimes when it doesn't snow too!

The other day we were driving and Brent kept stopping the car on the farm road to see if the snow was heavy enough to show up on camera for filming. Eventually, about halfway to our destination, he exclaimed "It picked up!" and we turned around for some night time snowy shots...Needless to say a week later we got more snow! A lot of snow! I can see some of it amassing in one of Leonard's rooms but I refuse to walk through the untouched whiteness to see what is going on in there.  At least Brent is content to staying inside animating while we are snowed in as I work on sound effects for the finished scene edits we have completed! Finished scenes! Exciting!

"the house isn't a ship Leonard"

As I mentioned before Gravity is based on the story of two real people, Leonard & Mary, who lived near Louisville Kentucky. I never got to meet Leonard but a friend of a friend did who gave us this envelope of some letters belonging to him. 

When I was going through them today I found them particularly sad when I realized most of them were written well over a decade after his wife died but before he sold the house meaning he was in this house he built all alone contemplating God and music and the loss of his true love for years. He was faithful and hopeful throughout even after all of the losses he suffered. 

On a brighter side though, a lot of these letters were written on the back of diner placemats so I'd like to imagine Leonard at least got out a bit, maybe ate well...or at least well enough...

...to all tomorrow's parties

I don't know where to begin on the costumes that are in the film and since I really like clothes, even though you wouldn't know it since I look like a hunter in the woods trying to stay warm, I thought I'd divide the costumes into three categories/posts; stuff I bought when I lived in Brooklyn, stuff on the cheap in the woods and stuff me (or my mom! love you mom!) made!

I think it's weird that I have some expensive clothes and weirder that I ruined them all in the making of this film. So...let me explain...

Read more »

"a system of pulleys and wires to illuminate the moon with powerlines"

The title of this post is from one of Brent's first handrawn animations- Hadacol Christmas:

I'm not sure if when he wrote it he had in his head that he would eventually do just that- create an electric solar system in his own yard. The stars dangle on electric wire from pulleys draped over a system of more wires pulled across a metal pipe frame, lowering up and down, plugged into a dimmer system to control just how bright they can be. The moon also pulls down across wire, hand cranked up and down like an artificial sunset...At night it is unbelievable!

Mike Plante, of CineVegas-Sundance-Cinemad-Lunch Films-#1Hershey World Fan-fame, came out to visit last year sometime, and took the above & below photo (and a bunch more  you can see here) . His photographs are stunning! I think they really get across the otherworldly-ness of our backyard in its current state...his article on his time here will be out sooner or later in The Believer I think? Now back to admiring our microcosm...ahhh...

the wall

This was the beginning of the building I think it was late Fall 2008? 

I don't think I ever went into detail about the walls surrounding the set? We realized early on filming indoors wasn't feasible so what else was there to do but build three gigantic walls out in the backyard. There's a wooden frame about 16 feet or so high and then another 16ft frame of steel pipe. Then there are support beams concreted into the ground that are screwed into the wooden frame every 4 feet or so & in some spots there are 18ft wooden support trusses. I don't know how long each wall is? As long as the barn? However long that is. Then there are those black curtains riveted into the wooden frame that are attached to wire so they can be hoisted up to the top of the metal frame creating a 34ft cloth background. When they aren't in use they are tethered to the top of the wooden frame to prevent the walls from sailing away. It definitely provides a good backdrop to film against and at night it just sort of blends into the country darkness...

 The walls are also good for hanging laundry on as pictured here last Spring!

The other day one of the walls bent drastically in the wind (but is still standing!) and we started talking about how we're going to dismantle the walls soon when the set moves to New York & then Arizona, did I mention the set is moving...?!

day for night

I've heard the expression "light tight" before I just never thought I'd live it...! Today we went about sealing off all of the windows and the door so animation can be done during the day in the house without the reflection of light in the glass layering system contraption. I need to put a big clock on the wall and have forced outdoor time before both of us go completely insane!