3D Film set props

Week 4 - 423 days to opening night

Day of learning lines today - damn that Billy Shakespeare and his wordy wordyness - but I've managed to grab and sort some modelling time on set stuff . I'll be starting set design next week so these set props will be useful for the first scene to give me an idea of space.

Anyway, my script is calling. I may be back later if all the 'thees, thous, do's, dost' etc don't make my teeny little brain go 'pop'.

**pop**

Neil

Youtube - dontcha just love it

Week 4 - 423 days to opening night

More teaser poster stuff. I'm beginning to bore myself now.

I've had an hour or so today to do some Youtube research which has been very useful - and given me some much needed inspiration (one idea from a ve-ry random place). I've also managed to render a car version of the train teaser which can also be used at the HCP summer show this year.

I've found a short keystone cop film that involves custard pies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axbv_KzbVkM

Obviously humour has changed slightly since then... 

Neil

Genius Silent Movie Title Card

Week 3 - 424 days to opening night

Let's just take a moment to appreciate those Wacky (note the capital 'W' on wacky) Edwardians.

I've been looking for some pre-show stuff - public domain films to show (which I've now found) and also some title cards similar to those originally shown in the early 1900s and I came across these absolute gems.

Bad, yet at the same time strangely brilliant. I will definitely use these, or rework them into the show's 'housestyle' - once I've decided exactly what it'll look like.

You can't half find some unintentionally-brilliant crap on the web if you look hard enough. Hurrah for google.

Neil

To project, or not project. That is the question.

Week 3 - 425 days to opening night

I've been working on some of the staging for the last couple of days - only a few minutes here and there, jotting down a few notes etc - it keeps me sane and is a welcome distraction from the pressures of work, Hamlet, home life - and I think I've come up with an interesting concept for staging one particular scene. 

I've decided, in principal, not to fall back on the digital projector too much for this show - more physical effects than projecting this time. On paper this particular  staging is quite simple, but could quite good, and more importantly unique to this show. Need to look into it a bit more first....

My friend Ian has got back to me about an AV mixer/switch (ahhh, be still my geeking heart) and it looks like we may have several options that we can play with for the show (see May 12th Blog). Hurrah. Hurrah. And one for luck. Hurrah.

Neil

Time to start flag wavin' a little bit.

Week 3 - 427 days to opening night

We're close to starting to publicise the show now, probably only a few days, and the first to know will, of course, be Highcliffe Charity Players. Georgina has asked me to sort out a logo/graphic that we can use for this purpose - which I've done.

Incidentally,I don't think it's been mentioned yet that George and Pete are also committee members - Georgina is the Chairman(woman)(person) and Pete is social secretary of the society - so important people all round. I, of course, am their bitch. No, not really. Ha ha ha ha haaaaa.... (**whispers** no, I am)

Neil

You're just not my type...

Week 3 - 428 days to opening night

I'm a geek. No hush now, I am. Now shush. I'm geek, and very proud of the fact. So it isn't really a big surprise that I've been reworking the font we're using into a more managable one. The original font has some extended crossbars that just get in the way and I had to outline the fonts, remove the extra nodes and close up the kerning on every word. Hmm, I feel I may have lost you...

Well anyway, so that others can use the typeface without the annoying extra bit, I've taken it into a font programme, removed the extra crossbar and resaved it out as a font. No more removing bits by hand, no siree. Now we have a shiny new Mack and Mabel font that can be used by all.

Remember, the Geek shall inherit the earth. If you're nice I'll let you have a bit. Probably Croydon.

Neil

Set in my ways - begin at the beginning

Week 3 - 429 days to opening night

I'm starting to look at the set. The opening is an overture - with an animation over it - so set number 1 is very straight forward. A tracking gauze behind the main tabs. There. Job done. Piece of piss.

Set design's ea-sy.

Neil

Tapping our troubles away...

Week 3 - 429 days to opening night

After watching a couple of versions of the show now ......i'm the same as neil... i know there's a great musical in there but not feeling much excitement after the big production numbers of which there are many.. so i really need to find that 'thing' that is missing....The two i'm most worried about are hit em on the head and big time..... the tap will speak for itself i think... people love tap... but the other two are more tricky.
 
Big time .... fantastic song that the players have done in panto a few times... it involves suitcases.... the question is do you make these a feature or not???  not sure yet.  My main worry with hit em on the head is it tries to do a silent movie within the number and so far from what i've seen this doesnt work... i just switch off about half way thro which is not good!! tho i do have very poor concentration!!I loved the routine that the policemen did in Billy Elliot the musical and thinmk that some elements of that might be good to use..... tho i'm still trying to find that somewhere on you tube.... also off to have look at Jerry's girls a show I love celebrating the music of Jerry Herman...well worth a listen if you dont know it... TTFN 

Georgina

Go on, jump for gods sake....

Week 3 - 430 days to opening night

I've done a quick jump page for the HCP website to this blog, which we'll put up once the show is formally okayed by Samuel French, so that if anyone is in the slightest bit interested they can follow the course of the show from now until July 2010. Still seems a long way off....

Neil

Let's play tag....

Week 3 - 430 days to opening night

Oh the shame. No, no, I'm red-faced. **looks at feet and shifts awkwardly** 

Trying to think of some good/clever tagline for the show. So far the best I can come up with is...ahem...

'Based on a reel story'...

Hmm. I think there may be something wrong with me.

Neil

Chuffed.

Week 2 - 432 days to opening night

Day off today, so I've been catching up on the house chores (Gardening) and learning lines. Basically my morning was:

11:00am - Start gardening 

11:02am - Lawn Mower explodes 

1:00pm - Finish gardening using tiny blunt shears 

1:13pm - Turn on daytime TV 

1:14pm - Turn off daytime TV

But I had a spare hour this afternoon so I started doing some things (illustrations) aimed at HCP's Summer show this year - basically some teaser posters to be dotted around on the tables and on the walls. Well it's a start...

Neil

Money, money, money - makes the vorld go a-rouwnd...

Week 2 - 435 days to opening night

Hey everyone let's talk dosh, mula, wangah, ol casheroony. Let's talk pounds, shillings and pence. Let's talk money.

So what do you do after you come home from a long 3hr rehearsal late at night - chat with your loved one? Watch TV? Go to bed? Do you know what I did...sat working out budgets for the show. Yep, my life is wild beyond comprehension.

Perception is that it's all a bit arty, this theatre thing, but in the end it does come down to cold hard cash. We have a certain number of seats to sell (about 450 per night), we need to set a ticket price that isn't stupid (particularly in this economic climate) - then you times seats by ticket price and that gives you your cap for a budget. Spend more than your income and you make a loss, spend less and you make a profit. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that but I, quite frankly, can't be arsed to get into all.

I'm not going to talk figures as, Sue (Treasurer/Accountant) will actually grate my testicles off if I do, but compared to other larger groups in the area who can spend £60-70,000 on a show we're  small(ish) fry in budget terms. The trick is use the budget cleverly to make the show look twice as expensive as it actually is.

So I have a rough budget calculated (taking into account all the big spends: theatre, musicians, sound hire, costume etc etc) - a number ending in several zeros (I think I'm safe in giving that much away) - and a rough ticket price. And I'm fairly happy.

This show is about flag waving and letting people know who we are - so the aim is to break even. The last show we (Neil, George, Pete) did sold out well in advance with a relatively unknown show, so I'm fairly confident we can repeat it this time round. Hey, look, a glass half full attitude will get you everywhere....

Neil

Script, script, script

Week 2 - 436 days to opening night

I think I'm over the almost-suicidally-rubbish disappointment of Saturday night now. I think it was good to see, and I'm not against anything the company did, but I was just disappointed that the revised script hadn't really improved anything. And, oh god, how bor-ing it was. Don't get me wrong - I think, no, I KNOW there's a superb musical in there - always have. That's why I want to take it on. It just needs the right approach. Needs a bit of life.

Spent some of yesterday going over the old script I have highlighting the changes, the problem areas etc, but I think I've sorted out the opening - it'll work much better than the standard opening of the show, and without deviating from the script or score at all. 

Yeah, I think there's a faint glimmer of a show starting to appear.

Neil

You little tease you...

Week 2 - 437 days to opening night

I've quickly done an updated version of the teaser which we can start putting up as soon as we get the paperwork through from the license holders of M&M...

Neil

Charity begins at Frome - seeing the revised script in action

Week 2 - 437 days until opening night

We (Georgina, Pete and myself) went to see Mack and Mabel last night in Frome, and in particular to see the revised script. And I'll be honest I'm still seeing the same problems in the revised script - bits are confusing, still has the same sudden ending and there's no real natural progressing of the main relationship. Plus some of the changes actually make the flow worse. But hey, I'm up for a challenge and think we can turn it around. 

Neil

Gettin' Into Character (Design) - Part 2

Week 1 - 438 days until opening night

As with below the animation for the overture will include famous icons of the silent movies, and so I can't really look myself in the eye unless we include Charlie Chaplin, now can I.

I want the Harold Lloyd/Clock face referenced, and the Buster Keaton falling house gag (and if you don't know what I mean - shame on you. That's what Youtube is for). So they will have to be designed as well....

If nothing else, I think I can probably use these for some teasers over the next couple of months anyway.

Off to Frome tonight to see a Am Dram version of Mack and Mabel with Pete and Georgina. Looking forward to it. PLUS, I aint driving. Huzzah!

Neil

Gettin' Into Character (Design)

Week 1 - 438 days to opening night

I've been doing some research for character designs for the overture animation - I'm wanting something fun, bit cutsy and be able to made 3d - and I came across those Japanese toys that you can buy and decorate yourself called 'Munnys'. Their shape is perfect so I've based the first initial look on one of them - I'm still trying to decide between 2d, 3d or a bit of both for the opening. But I like the overall feel so far...

Neil

It's a date

Week 1 - 439 days until opening night

The dates have been confirmed with the Regent Centre in the last couple of days, so it's all moving forward nicely. I've quickly done a teaser that we can start showing on the web (facebook, bebo, myspace etc) once we've let the company members  know what we are doing next year. It's just a filler until proper graphics are worked up.

Spent this lunchtime looking over character designs trying to find a suitable style for the overture, and also watching title sequences at a cool website: The art of the title sequence  for a bit of inspiration. 

July 2010 does seem a long way away to me at the moment...

Neil

Rights (and Rewrites)

Week 1 - 440 days until opening night

Looks like, as of this morning, all the rights for Mack and Mabel are now in place which is good news, with the stipulation that we have to use the revised 2007 script by Francine Pascal.

An updated script is good news, actually. Funnily enough I was just reading about this only last week. The original script has always been acknowledged as having a few problems - in particular a weak ending - it all stops rather quickly, and on a bit of a downer (which is what happened in real life), but apparently the newer script addresses these problems and is much better.

Georgina, Pete and myself are off to Frome on Saturday to see an amateur version of the show,  so I'll be interested to see what they've done with the script.

Where the hell is Frome, anyways? **sound of google maps being accessed** Ah - near Bath.

Neil  

I'm a Model, I am.

Week 1 - 441 days to opening night

I'm just back from passing a fencing exam - I'm playing Hamlet in an outdoor production this July and, if you are familiar with the play, I have to sword fight at the end and then **not much of a spoiler** get poisoned and die.. This is just to explain/give an excuse just in case I accidentally insert Shakepeare stuff into these postings - it's because of Hamlet rehearsals, not because I'm highbrow, or intellectual. Or a bit of a cock.

Anyhoo, to the task at hand Mack'N'Mabel - I'm sorting out 3d models that I'm going to need for the overture. Even at this very, very early stage I know that I want to mimic film title credits and project these during the overture - the plan is to have an animated sequence of about 4 minutes a la the Pink Panther films but in a 1910/20s style and probably featuring the Keystone Cops, a damsel tied to a train track - y'know the kind of thing, a nod to all the classic silent movie moments. So with this in mind I've sorted out the 3D train model and the Keystone car.

I'm pleased with them, i'faith. Verily, so.

Neil

Projection. It's all about projection.

Week 1 - 442 days until opening night

I'm going to get all technical on yer ass now (hell, yeah). I'm a big advocator of using technology in productions - been using digital projections for years - and it's worked out really well. You need to show a train journey - project one. Need to show a giant peach rolling through a town, crushing as it goes - project it. Need to be above the clouds flying - project moving clouds. Up to now it's been very straight forward - connect the computer to the theatre's industrial sized digital projector and press go. Simple. 

But, for this production I'm looking at live feed - realtime images - on a couple of cameras as well as straightforward projection and again, in prinicipal, it's all (fairly) straight forward. I have the cameras, the cables, the projector, the computer, the programs BUT to make it work smoothly I need an AV mixer - and they cost thousands. I've done live feed before successfully but it was a bit clunky with the AV box I was using - then I had the genius idea of talking to one of my closest friends, Ian. He runs a security systems company (cameras, keypads etc) and having sat with him on Saturday and gone through what I want to achieve it sounds like he can help - oh gawd bless ya, Ian. 

This image of a scrappy bit of paper is the first stabbings at entire projection system we've done for M&M...and dammit it will work. Four hundred odd days to iron it out and test. Piece. Of. Cake. **crosses fingers 0h-so-very tightly**

Neil

Research, research, research

Week 1 - 443 days until opening night

Lunchtime's been spent researching today. Probably one of many to come, knowing how anal I can be. Found a good vintage silent movie site with numerous Mack Sennett posters and downloaded a fair few of them - might be able to do some fake versions for publicity purposes. 

Grabbed some Keystone Cops reference  - there's a couple of original Sennett films that I can download - I'm thinking maybe show one in the pre-set stage as the audience are coming in, and possibly one during the interval as they're usually only a couple of reels in length (about 15mins).

And obviously researching images of the main characters - they were real people, of course. S'based on a true(ish) story, dontcha know. 

Here are the titular characters - Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand. They just loved their soft focus didn't they. Not too keen on smiling though...

Neil

Digitally modelling the Regent Centre stage - too much time on my hands

Week 1 - 443 days to opening night

Yeah, eh? Not smiling now, are you. Nooooo.

Y’see they all laughed at me when I said I was going to build a scale 3d digital model of the Regent Centre’s stage. And now? Well, they still laugh at me, but gawddammit the inner geek in me knows just how useful this will be as a director once finished. 

I can use this model to design a set that fits exactly, can work out any storage space issues in the wings months in advance, rather than find out at the get-in that that all-important prop just won't fit. I can rig lights and work out a lighting plot with a realistic idea of how it'll look. I can block cast moves using this model - and see how it looks from any seat in the auditorium. See, it's not a completely stupid idea. Time consuming, yes, but not completely stupid.

For all you technology/software fans, we're using Cinema 4d, rendered out and then photoshopped. 

For all you non-technology/software fans, yes I am wasting my life.

Neil

Mack and Mabel - Royal Variety Performance 1995

Week 1 - 444 days to opening night

Another test I'm afraid - obviously we're going for the dullest blog award - but I just want to check/see how web links work. The link - hopefully - is a youtube video of Mack and Mabel at the Royal Variety Performance 1995...

Click here for 'Mack and Mabel - Royal Variety Performance 1995'

(By Jove, I think I've done it)

Neil

Final Uploading Test - Movies

Week 1 - 445 days to opening night

Yeah, feeling slightly cocky now.

Uploading an image was a massive triumph, so filled with newly found confidence I'm trying the old 'upload movie' button. This show will have projected animations - so here's a quick animation test I've done for it...hopefully it'll appear like magic...

Oh. Quality's a bit crappy, isn't it. 

Neil

Test Teasers

Week 1 - 445 days to opening night

Luckily for this production we have a graphic designer **sound of slightly off-key trumpet fanfare** ...which is me - so we can start getting stuff out pretty much straight away to advertise the show. And no, it aint 'way too early'.

HCP have a Summer Revue Show coming up this July, so we'll be advertising quite heavily the next two shows - the annual pantomime, and of course, Mack and Mabel.

To be honest, the whole reason for this posting is to see if I can upload an image. There, I've confessed. Hopefully if all goes well you'll see a couple of work-in-progress test teaser images. 

Fingers crossed, people.

Huzzah. I am an uploading god.

Neil

Off we jolly well go

Week 1 - 445 days to opening night

So. Here we are. Posting number One. Numero Uno. Blog Eine. Writing our own blog about a theatre production way, way, way off in the distance. Four hundred and something days until opening night.

The idea about this blog is to document the whole production from start to finish, the ups and downs, ins and outs – and trying, basically, not to disappear up our own arses on the way. Hopefully, Georgina (Choreographer) and Pete (Production Manager) will contribute to this whole bloggin’ thing, otherwise it’ll just come across as a bit of a vanity project...

And once we have a cast maybe they'll chime in as well...?

Anyways, we'll see how it goes. It's got some potential, and by golly, we’ve got some potential. Whoop, whoop.

Anyhoo. Time to figure this blogging thing out. First stop: ‘uploading images’

Whoop indeed.

Neil