Saturday, January 29, 2011

16mm

Guess what I just did. I'll give you a hint...


THAT'S RIGHT. I just loaded a new roll of film into this beautiful 16mm camera (that I want oh so badly). I get to shoot with it for the first time this afternoon, but my Cinema class this semester is going to require me to use them on a regular basis. Granted, I haven't done anything with film before, and all editing has to be done in camera (for this assignment, anyway), and I only have two and a half minutes, and I can't mess up, but I'm still SO excited. And completely in love with this camera. That's probably because of the sound it makes while the film's rolling. It's absolutely swoon-worthy.

I know I'm not one to wish I was rich, but if I had some money lying around, I'm pretty certain this would become my new obsession. I've officially added "Own a Bolex h16" to my list of Things I Would Like To Do Before I Die If At All Possible.

Time to get ready to shoot! Our assignment was to make a [silent] instructional video. So what would make the most sense to show with such a classy camera? I'll let you know later!

Ps. If you haven't already, you should definitely watch my latest animation, Nothing Was Coherent. And tell me what you think!

Nothing Was Coherent

My latest animation, which I completed in December, is now on Vimeo (in HD!). It's rather different from my normal animating style. Typically, I try to have fairly consistent lighting, and a stable camera (as in, always always always using a tripod). I've never had a narration before. And I've never had things look so blurry. But I'm really pleased with it.


This animation (not video) is based on my relationship with the fictional character Sara Crewe (from A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett) while growing up. It addresses the source of much of my stress and relives my worst nightmare. Everything looks so urgent, but that's the way I remember it.

This was made with a new technique I have been experimenting with, in which I animated the camera frame by frame, having it come in and out of focus, rather than animating what was in front of it (with a few exceptions). I wanted the camera to breathe and move, and fight to remember things, in a way that we often do.

My beautiful friend Amanda, who makes wonderful paintings, was the actress in this, and also assisted in animating. I'm so glad she was able to do this, as I can't imagine it coming out better with anyone else.

The music was written and recorded by my very talented sister, Ciara Lynch (who has made some appearances in several of my other animations). She shares the same worst nightmare.

My dad is quitting smoking now. It's been 13 days and 15 hours since his last cigarette.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Lost Boys: Peter Pan Complexes in the 21st Century

Remember my documentary about Peter Pan complexes that I worked on last spring semester? Probably not. That was awhile ago, huh? Well, now that I have a Vimeo Plus account, I have lots of space to upload, and I can even upload HD videos, which is much more encouraging than trying to compress 1080p videos down to itty bitty versions. Anyway, my documentary is now online for you to see!


Whenever I'm having discouraging days filled with mind-maps and research and sketchbook pages filled to the brim and not a single idea that makes sense (and then I start wondering why I'm an artist...you know, those days), I watch my past projects, especially this one, and have a good laugh because the things I stress out about are how to make something look magical or how to animate toys just right. Well, maybe there's a little more to it than that. But this is what I want to do with my life, and really, that's not bad at all.

So what do you think? Would you admit to having a Peter Pan complex?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Library Animation Stills

I had a short term assignment for my Cinema class to create two stop motion animations (my favorite!) focusing on linear and circular camera movement. One of the two was shot at Case's medical library, which features all sorts of the old and beautiful. My friend Emily, who takes wonderful photos, was kind enough to go along with me. I thought I'd share some of the stills from it.















More can be found on my Flickr. So check it out! I've gotta go animate a cat and make some paper snowflakes now.

Coming Into Clarity

Remember koriARTica? (I know, I know... That was all the way back in April!) Well, maybe I should refresh your memory. I created an animation that was projected across three screens arranged in a way that distorted the video and allowed a dancer to interact with the image through a performance. It was a collaboration project between animators at CIA, composers at  the Cleveland Institute of Music, and dancers at Case Western Reserve University. Well, thanks to my wonderful family who got me a Vimeo Plus account, I finally put the animation online!


Keep in mind, this piece is meant to be part of a performance, so the animation may seem repetitive, but it isn't the entire focus.

There is a video of the performance, but I haven't gotten a copy of it quite yet. Hopefully soon, though! When I do, it will also end up on Vimeo, and blogged about here.

The music was composed by my wonderful friend Josh Rodriguez, who also did the music of each of my Curiouser videos. The dancer (who was filmed doing one gesture that was animated into this video and who also performed, not to mention choreographed the entire thing) was the very talented Rachel Stoneking. I'm still incredibly grateful that I was able to work with both of them.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Follow Yellow Bicycle Blog

If you're being redirected here from my old blog, or if you're discovering it for the first time, let me give you a little tour. But first things first... See that button on the left that says follow? (It looks like this.)
FOLLOW on Bloglovin
You should click it. It will take you to my page on Bloglovin, which is my favorite blog feed website. Or you can follow on another site, but you definitely want to follow this. I have some exciting projects to share.

On the left, above "follow" are a bunch of other buttons. You can READ my blog, LEARN about  me, WATCH my animations--embedded right here on this site, LOOK at my sketchbook, SAY hello, VISIT my favorite websites I've linked to, ENJOY my Vimeo page, LAUGH at my Youtube videos, and BROWSE my Flickr. Only the last few are external links. Some of the pages aren't up and running yet, but they will be soon, so check back!

Yellow Bicycle Blog

If you were looking for Lovelier Thoughts, you've come to the right place. My old blog is now set to redirect to this url, where all my previous posts were imported. In other words, don't panic.

 

A few years ago, while strolling the streets of downtown Charleston, Nicholas & I came across the most perfect yellow bicycle parked perfectly next to a yellow fire hydrant. Of course I was excited, considering yellow is my favorite generic color. But I kept thinking about that bicycle and everything that came with it, at least, everything I imagined for myself one day: to live in a place I love, making art, and riding into town on my yellow bicycle when I needed to run errands. It sounds simple, and it sounds close to what I have now: I love Cleveland, I make art all day except for when I'm thinking about making art, and I ride an old teal bicycle when public transportation is less than convenient. But for whatever reason, that yellow bicycle in Charleston made me want to accomplish more. I guess if I had time to ride a yellow bicycle around the block or down the beach, that means I wouldn't be working not stop and scraping for rent money; I would be ok. And that sounds perfect to me.

Friday, January 21, 2011

CURIOUSER (and CURIOUSER and CURIOUSER) Now in HD!

Hey there! Remember me? I decided today that I'm going to stop making excuses and start posting here more. Especially since I've been working on some really cool projects lately!

Remember my animation Curiouser (and Curiouser and Curiouser)? Well it is now on Vimeo in HD! I finally upgraded to a Vimeo Plus account (as a birthday present from my family...did I mention I recently had a birthday?), which means I can upload everything in beautiful HD quality. Just look at these!







And in case you were wondering just how Meredith was able to fly and fall, you can see the process in the behind-the-scenes video. It's pretty amusing. And yeah, that would be me, the insane one running up the ladder to take one picture, back down, moving things incrementally one frame at a time, back up the ladder... Don't worry, though, my hair's not that color anymore. Back to it's natural blonde :)


Check back for more HD videos soon, including some I haven't shared yet!