The kids and I have been doing videos about working on our Star Wars movie. I think it’s high time to tell that story. In April 2013, NJ and I had been dating for about two years. I had effectively moved in, and I had been interacting with the kids for about 18 months, but still hadn’t fully shifted into “parent” mode. It was very much NJ and the kids, and me. We had just brought Leo to live with us a matter of weeks earlier. Our little fstar waramily…
Tag: filmmaking
Stop motion film: J. Felix Faces his Fears
The kids and I had a blast doing this one. The story of encountering your own insecurities and finding the strength to push past them to create something cool is one that resonates, I think, with people of all ages. Especially since my Little Fish is such a perfectionist — and a very sensitive kid, too — I saw a lot of recognition in J. Felix’s story that she had. The kids designed the Fears, they designed, directed, and assisted with the construction of the set (though I took it…
Workbench Time Lapse – Continuing the Camaro
After oh so long, the Camaro model approaches completion. (It’s actually already long since completed, but I’ve had this video sitting on my hard drive for ages.) I’ll do some commentary and share sequences from the final film soon. I also do some work with the ThreeDoodler and some clay! You might notice that the Camaro in the lightbox shots at the end is a little worse for wear. It took some damage in filming. In a future video I’ll fix it up and make it a real showpiece.
Workbench Timelapse – Post-Apocalyptic Camaro
Inspired by SyFy’s series Defiance, I paint up a 1:25 model Camaro for an exercise in my Film Studies class. I’ll follow up with more videos putting together the car and the road, but for now check out this paint job and the ThreeDoodler at work! Music is by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com.
Workbench Time Lapse – Painting the Lizardman
After casting, sculpting, more casting, laying in latex, and pulling the prosthetic from its mold, it’s finally time to paint the big creature makeup! I use what I learned painting the Bajoran nose appliance and turned an indistinct green blob into an alien creature. This has been a real ride. If you have questions about the process, throw them in the comments below, Shot with a Canon EOS Rebel T5i. Time lapse done with in-box EOS Utility software. Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Music is “Early Riser” by Kevin…
Painting the Bajoran Nose Prosthetic
This time, with some commentary! I spend some time painting the Bajoran nose prosthesis I was making in the last episode. It’s based on the makeup worn by Michelle Forbes in Star Trek: The Next Generation. We’re almost at the point where it can actually be applied. Music in this episode is Phase One by Jeremy Williams, via Podcast Fantastic.
Workbench Time Lapse – Laying Latex
On tonight’s workbench timelapse, I fix a mold that one of my students made (it’s a Stephen Moffat-style creature), lay latex in the Bajoran nose appliance, do the same with my reptilian creature makeup, and re-sculpt and cast a zombie nose appliance that another one of my students lost to a horrible mold disaster. Man, I’m busy. Shot with a Canon EOS Rebel T5i. In-box EOS Utility software. 5 second intervals. Some messing with the timing of frames so you could see what I was doing. Music is Early Riser…
Miniature Comet Set (Work in Progress)
The product of some pretty awesome work by my ladies (with my help) this afternoon. A great WIP model set for some indie filmmaking. #make #mo365 A video posted by Trevor (@lovemakeshare) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:30pm PST This is an upcoming build. The girls are helping me to build a miniature set (which will loosely mimic the surface of comet 67P when it’s done) as an exemplar to use in my film class. Man, were they into it. A more detailed post and probably a podcast is definitely forthcoming…
#mo365 Day 9
There’s something wonderful about teaching, and it’s this: I get to go to my job and play. Fundamentally, I know that if I’m not having fun, my students won’t be having fun. I have no illusions about the fact that, with the kind of students I have, I need to be equal parts educator and entertainer. It would be awfully easy to put the onus on them to pay attention. Some days, I do. It’s their responsibility to be engaged. But it’s my responsibility to do my part to grab their…
Art and Science in Perfect Harmony: IBM’s Atomic Stop-Motion Film
Researchers at IBM have made me love stop-motion animation. Using a scanning tunnelling microscope, these fine folks have painted perfect pointillist pictures using individual atoms, and made a fun little short film about a boy and his one special atom. This may just be a smile-inducing aside to real research into quantum computing but MAN is it cute.
Sunday Reading 10/02/2013
Good morning folks! The plan for this morning was to sleep in, but there was one three-year-old and one five-year-old who had other plans entirely. Thus, instead of sleeping in there was laundry and cleaning and blogging and very soon a workout. Let’s round up the week together. Microsoft Surface Pro Review – David Pierce, The Verge Oh man oh man oh man. I’m psyched about the Surface. You’ll remember how much I love Windows Phone and how I was pretty thrilled to experiment with Windows 8 on my old…
Star Wars Anniversary
It was roughly 2003. I was in ninth grade, and my friend Chris, several years older, approached me for help with his short film. He called it Star Wars: The Gifted, and it was an attempt to bring Star Wars into the real world (as we know it). There’s a slow and ongoing effort to remaster the film, to build out the bones of the larger story that we had initially planned. But more important than the film itself or the story behind it is what it represents. It was…