Two festival screenings to announce today. FILTH has been named an official selection of the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival and the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. Both festivals run in August. I will update the screenings page with the times, dates and locations.
I just passed the 100 page mark in my storyboards. I’m also very close to finishing the last major skeleton. That’s good progress but I have to say … I’m feeling the weight of another long project. It’s at times like these that I think back to the The Lady of Names and its 14 year production and wonder how in god’s name I ever got through it. This need to create is a very odd thing indeed.
A few weeks back I wrote about using prefab 5 mm ball joints from R/C cars to make the smaller joints for my puppets (elbow, neck, jaw, etc…) For the larger joints something a little more durable is needed. Enter the helping hand. These are sold for about $10 each and from them you can get 8 steel balls for use in a ball and socket armature. I can pinch quarter inch steel plates around them and they are 100% solid. You just have to be creative in how you solder your steel rods to them. What you absolutely must have if you are going to rub steel on steel is some form of lubricant. Starting on FILTH I’ve been using Brute Lube and without a word of exaggeration, this is the best product I have ever found. It’s wax based so it’s not runny, it’s odourless and you will not believe the difference before and after application. Animation is enough of a challenge, the last thing you need is a puppet that will not go where you tell it.
It’s taken me 20 years to get my work bench looking this way. It’s covered in stains, burns, rubber, the list is endless. I can’t tell you how often I’ve lost track of puppet pieces on that surface, so much so that I’ve start places the smallest parts on a white sheet of paper. Still, I often find myself searching for the one that got away. Let’s not even get into the bruises, burns, cuts and back aches I’ve inflicted on myself and will continue to endure for the foreseeable future. However … if I were ever to move, I would carefully dismantle and reassemble it in that new location. Some things you don’t leave behind.
a film by ADAM CIOLFI 