The Big Slam. A Philosophical Interlude
Joe has been incarcerated again. This time he spends the time brushing up on his philosophy. This is the new special edition where I went back and removed all of the text and improved the audio. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the horribly flawed (imo) original cut.
The Genesis
My brother, friends and I spent many happy hours as kids playing with our Action Men (the British version of GI Joe). Having already done a project with 1/6th scale figures (Barb Hella) I was excited to have a go with toys from my childhood. Actually I ended up with toys from someone else's childhood. My GI Joe is an older model. He's about 50 years old and cost me 40 bucks on ebay. I don't think he's a reproduction but I'm not that much of an expert. I wanted the beard and the orange jumpsuit, but unfortunately I ended up with pre kung fu grip hands which made posing and animation harder. I ended up taping his wrist joints and using wire in the shots where he's holding a book. The orange flight suit reminded me of a prison suit, I'd just watched a documentary on Nietzsche and so an idea was hatched.
Script and Story Boards
I decided to have 3 philosophers. I think that was a mistake. Given Joe's limited ability to emote and the target length of the film ( about a minute) I should have just focused on a single idea. My story boards tend to be very quick and simple, after all only I have to read them.
Something that I'm realizing though is that, too much of the idea is in my head and not in the film. This means the films make sense to me, but not to anyone else. In fact that was the biggest takeaway from this one. Live and learn right? |
Production
The film was shot almost entirely with a 5dMk2 using a 24" tv as an external monitor. Using the TV makes it much easier to see what you are doing. I also used my cheap slider track to do some basic camera moves. I wasn't brave enough to do a camera move and move the puppets at the same time. Lighting was from a single 500w photoflood. I really should have been using a lens hood. There are bad lens flares in the last couple of shots. I used a wireless shutter release to trip the camera which minimizes the need to move around.
The prison set is mainly made from foam core on an mdf base. Poplar battens stop the foamcore from warping. The book covers were made in photoshop and then printed on my inkjet.
The monster is a Masters of the Universe action figure. Originally I had planned to make a big creepy maggot puppet, but staying with a toy was easier and seemed more aligned with the GI Joe theme. The buildings in that scene come from the model train store.
The prison set is mainly made from foam core on an mdf base. Poplar battens stop the foamcore from warping. The book covers were made in photoshop and then printed on my inkjet.
The monster is a Masters of the Universe action figure. Originally I had planned to make a big creepy maggot puppet, but staying with a toy was easier and seemed more aligned with the GI Joe theme. The buildings in that scene come from the model train store.
Post, Editing and Music
As usual I used Vegas to edit and composite, Sound Forge to edit audio and Acid to score. You can take the boy out of Sony but... I settled on 24fps but with the animation at 12fps simply because Joe doesn't animate that smoothly. Hey, he's an old dude, give him a break :-)
Summary
This was a fun project and I do feel like I'm getting better at putting these things together, but I completely underestimated the complexity of the ideas I was trying to present. Having too much of the film in my head continues to be an issue :-) I showed the film to many friends before calling it finished to get feedback on the descriptive cards. I'm thankful for their advice and commentary :-)
Gallery
The Original Version
This was the original cut I released. I really struggled with the text cards in the film. I eventually got fed up trying to get it right and I think it shows. So after a certain amount of time I went back and recut the film with new narration and no cards. I think the new version at the top of this page is far better, but judge for yourself.