scruffy days

Finally, I’m gonna take a moment and blog something besides Xbee code and alternative energy. Ahhhh… Almost forgot Suzanne had gotten tix for This American Life’s live tour - the show was excellent. Actually, I didn’t really realize when we got these tickets that they were for the launch of the t.v. show. I was skeptical like most of their decision to test the waters outside of radio, but tonight’s show was evidence of how cautious they were in approaching the whole thing. They opened with an animation telling the story of how some elementary school kids got caught up in a trend of playing with fake cameras made from cardboard/toilet paper tubes. This was executed so well - a compelling use of visuals for storytelling, and such a good intro for the show’s transition to moving images.

It was amazing to see Ira Glass in the flesh, working his radio magic on stage, and being able to associate his voice with physical mannerisms. There was discussion with the show’s director about delivering the show in a completely different medium - how terrified they were of a “sucky show”, avoiding the reality show angle, and using carefully crafted cinematography. The clips they showed still carried that distinct TAL essence - I’m looking forward to it. All this plus awesome performances from Sarah Vowell, Jonathan Goldstein, Dan Savage and Mates of State.

Click here for a rough storyboard (click images). The story is based on an actual symbiotic relationship existing between certain species of goby fish and blind shrimp. Gobies are unable to burrow their own homes and blind shrimp are unable to see predators, so in exchange, shrimp provide a home and gobies provide protection.

Treatment / Style:
Cutout animation, play with varying textures. Photoshop, AfterEffects

References / Inspirations:
Jacques Cousteau, Cartoon Modern (a look @ 1950s animation)
Eric Carle, Romare Bearden, Winsor McKay, Chris Ault

Research:
links (background stuff on goby + shrimp)

Checked out the Drawing Center’s Analog Animation Exhibit yesterday evening. My favorite encounters were works by Anna Kiraly, Oscar Muñoz, and John Dooley.

Kiraly’s Animated Drawings shown in the display window were 2 frame animations composed of line drawings in which a motor rolled the second frame up and down. I loved how simple and mechanical the process was; it reminded me of going to penny arcades like the Musee Mechanique (San Francisco, CA) or the Tinkertown Museum (Sandia Park, NM).

Oscar Muñoz paints with water on concrete sidewalks; with a few quick strokes a face emerges and just as quickly evaporates. John Dooley layers five years’ worth of the daily newspaper’s Weather Report and you see patterns of temperature morph across the States, columns of text endlessly scrolling and dancing charts. His work takes existing maps and newsprint and rearranges them into new patterns, showing the viewer new ways of interpreting that same information. See more of his work here.