The Lunchbox of Notre Dame

I really liked Disney's adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," but I can't believe it ever got green-lighted in the first place. The original story is about as appropriate for kids as "The Scarlet Letter*," and even the Disneyfied version was pretty darn dark. You wouldn't know that from the advertising, though. Check out these 1990's ads selling "Hunchback" burger toys and sweets to unsuspecting kids.

The third Burger King commercial (video #3) is the coolest, with Burger King transforming into some kind of crazy Renaissance Faire, complete with a giant Gothic cathedral belltower rising up from the building!

*Disney should totally make an animated musical comedy adaptation of "The Scarlet Letter," though.

Hunchback in 4 Minutes-No Narration

This is my video as it stands now. I'm still lagging behind, because all the drawing sequences are supposed to have audio commentary and right now they don't. The only sound is the music (and a sound effect) at the beginning, and another sound effect at the end (which plays twice...I need to fix that). When I add narration, the movie will be VERY different. It'll make more sense, and hopefully it'll be funnier. I would like people's opinions on the drawings alone, without sound, just so I can see how effectively they communicate a complex story (my guess is not very well).

FEETS DON'T FAIL ME NOW

RUSH RUSH HURRY HURRY HURRY. THE FINAL VIDEO PROJECT IS DUE ON WEDNESDAY OH LAWDY.

Thankfully my video is SUPPOSED to look frantic and rushed. I just need to get my butt in gear and finish the darn thing NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.

Here's a preview. It includes a title sequence and a "THE END" image, with appropriate music and cheesy sound effects. In between is a a bunch of sped-up silent footage of me illustrating "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in silly, simple cartoon drawings. Narration will be added later. I plan to speak as quickly and clearly as possible, using simple, casual language. I'm not going to speed up my voice like a chipmunk. That's cheesy and distracting, and it'll be hard to understand.

The narration will probably be among the last things I add, because I want to determine exactly how long the video clips are before I record narration for them. Originally I was working on a script, but it would probably be better if I just improvised the narration, just like I'm improvising the drawings. People like spontaneity. So now the script is just for the purposes of helping me remember the story.

Half-Formed

This is a quick video sample, meant to convey the idea I described in my last journal. It's just a little title sequence, then a short introduction to the character of Quasimodo while I doodle him on camera. Halfway through drawing Quasi, my camera batteries died, so it ends abruptly. I didn't heed the lesson of always keeping your camera charged and ready.

I'm still using a little rinky-dink point-and-shoot digital camera (not a digital video camera). Even though I planned to use voice narration in the final project, I didn't even try to record my voice for this sample because that camera's microphone is really bad. Plus, I wanted to experiment with using subtitles instead of (or in addition to) voiceover narration. I still want to use voiceovers if that's possible, because with voice, you can convey a lot more information a lot more quickly.

For the final video, I hope to recruit my friend as a camerawoman, and have her use her Mom's digital video camera to record better image and sound.

The title sequence builds up the video so much with its dramatic music, that I feel it's anticlimactic once I actually cut to the drawing part. That was sort of intentional, but it's less funny than I had hoped.

New Video Direction: Hunchback of Notre Dame in 4 minutes

I have another video idea that's been brewing in my head. It's a takeoff on the "camera recording me draw" idea, but I'm drawing a series of pictures to tell a story. Specifically, The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. I've been obsessed with that story (all versions) since September. The idea of condensing it into 4 minutes or less is an amusing challenge, since the novel is really long and fairly complex.
The bulk of the footage (as I'm imagining it) would be sped-up footage of me drawing simple cartoon illustrations of important characters and events in the story. Once each drawing is done, the camera would linger a bit on it so you could get a good look before moving onto the next picture. To break things up, these drawings might be juxtaposed with other relevant or comical images, like screenshots (or footage) from various "Hunchback" movies, or photos of Notre Dame itself.
The soundtrack would mainly be my voice, doing a running commentary as I tell the story in a highly simplified, dry, somewhat irreverent way. I'm not going to CHANGE the story, but neither the illustrations nor the narration should convey that I'm taking it very seriously. The original "Hunchback" is such a moody, dark, brooding story that it's way more fun if you DON'T take it seriously. I might add instrumental music from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (or other sources) for dramatic or comedic effect. The music would either play softly behind my narration, or I'd use it for little musical interludes.

Dear Arthur

It looks like I'm playing on the computer but I'm not. I'm taking notes on what you say by typing them into Textedit. It helps me pay attention and remember what you say.

What to do, what to do...

I didn't submit my video proposal on Wednesday because I've been REALLY stuck for ideas. If my pet rats were still alive, I'd force them to act in my video. Maybe I'd shoot a rat version of "My Dinner with Andre" where Andre incessantly tries to steal food from the other guy's plate. But unfortunately, both rats have passed on. I'd shoot a cat video, but cats are harder to direct than rats and more mundane to watch.

Here's couple of ideas:
-Show the creation of one of my digital illustrations from start to end. I admit there's already a billion of these "tutorial" and "artistic process" type videos out there, but at least it gives me something creative and personal to do. It would also be helpful and interesting (I hope) to people who want to create similar stuff.
These illustrations are usually done in pencil and pen on paper, then scanned in and given colors and digital effects in Photoshop. Everyone has different techniques for doing this sort of thing, and I use a combination of other people's techniques and stuff I figured out on my own. For the traditional part, I would aim a camera at my desk and record the sketching and inking of the picture. This can take quite a while so I would either show it in "phases" or speed up the footage. For the digital part, I would use one of those programs that records what's happening on your computer screen and then edit that footage. I would add a soundtrack later, with music, voice narration, and/or overlaid subtitles.

-Make a video version of an art history paper that I particularly like. (I like writing about art history once I'm actually forced to do so.) There's a few I could use, but I would probably go with a paper a couple of years ago comparing different statues of the biblical hero David. It was a lot of fun to write and got a good response. Obviously I wouldn't recite the paper verbatim. I'd edit it and make it briefer, simpler, and snappier. I'd display quality photos of the pieces I'm discussing so you could see exactly what I was talking about.
The challenge here is to not make the video into a boring Powerpoint, where I just drone on over a slide show of static images. It needs some actual footage of moving things. I could solve that by taking on some art critic "persona" and acting as an on-camera narrator. I could even wear that priest costume I wore on Halloween and become some kind of quirky, gender-bent cross between Guido Sarducci and Sister Wendy Beckett (the real-life art critic). Any other thoughts on how to spice up this idea would be appreciated.
　

And now for our feature presentation

As promised, here's my wonky ABC video:

And here's my 1-minute video:

Coming Attractions

I shot, edited, and published my 1-minute video. The actual image quality and camera work is pretty bad, because A) I was using a regular point-and-shoot digital camera that wasn't designed for taking videos, B) I didn't know what I was doing C) I was in a dimly-lit room, and D) I was working alone. But you can see everything clearly enough to get the message. Originally I narrated the clips as I shot them, but the sound quality was really bad and staticy because of my equipment. So I muted the audio, added music, and overlayed text on the final shot. It was a lot easier to edit that way, and the results are much more pleasing and effective.

I also completed my ABC video, but it was marred by technical problems. I shot four clips, and two of them were shot with the wrong orientation so they ended up being rotated 90 degrees clockwise. I used Quicktime Pro in the lab to rotate them the correct way, but then iMovie HD kept squashing and distorting them to make them fit the program's horizontal display. I ended up having to complete the project at home using Windows Movie Maker, since I don't have a Mac. Windows Movie Maker refused to even RECOGNIZE Quicktime (.mov) files or let me do anything with them. So I was stuck using the original .avi files with the wrong orientation.

And that, kids, is why half the clips in my ABC video are rotated 90 degrees clockwise for no apparent reason. If I have time, I'll make a different version using iMovie once I get back in the Mac lab.

Digital Collage, Schmigital Schmollage

I completed my digital college REALLY late and I'm not satisfied with the results. I got cocky because I'm comfortable with Photoshop and have already done a bunch of projects like this. I figured it would be a piece of cake. Since I have a difficult job and take two other classes besides ART 119 (one of which is particularly challenging), I made poor time management decisions in favor of other classes and at the expense of this one. I forgot what a glacial pace I work at, even when I'm comfortable with the medium.

But I delivered what I promised: giant squirrels invading Mt. Hood.

A Buffet of Excuses

I shot the footage for my ABC video, but I haven't edited and uploaded it yet because half of it was shot with the wrong orientation. I didn't consider that when I was shooting, because I assumed rotating a video clip 90 degrees would be as easy as rotating an image. GOLLY GEE WHIZ, was I wrong. After consulting various internet tutorials and using four different programs on two different computers, I STILL couldn't figure out how to rotate the stupid things. At this point my best bet is to find a lab computer that has QuickTime Pro, since mine only has regular QuickTime. Apparently rotating your video 90 degrees is a fancy-pants special feature that you have to pay for. Don't ask me why some of these lab computers have the froo-froo version and some have the working man's version.

I haven't shot the footage for my one-minute video yet because I really, truly did not have the time or energy yesterday. I routinely go from school to work and back again with only three or four hours of sleep in between. I don't really have a choice. The footage will be shot and edited (God willing) by Wednesday morning. It will probably be something stupid, like my semi-feral cat eating a bowl of cat food. That presents a narrative beginning, middle, and end: cat gets served food, cat eats food, cat leaves. Compelling.

Update: I got onto a computer with Quicktime Pro and rotated the video clips, no problem. Now they're oriented right, but iMovie HD squashes and distorts the clips so that they fit into a landscape format. I didn't want that. I wanted it to display with black bars on the sides. Black bars are the lesser of the two evils. I can't figure out how to get iMovie to NOT distort the videos, even with Arthur's help. Ugh.

Talking Heads- And She Was

 After watching a bunch of stop-motion music videos in class today, I remembered another stop-motion music video that I fell in love with: the music video for "And She Was" by the Talking Heads.

I  saw this video in my History of Animation class with Professor Laura Di Trapani last Spring. She was a member of the animation team that created the video. I love how catchy the song is and how the animation mixes ugly grittiness with lighthearted whimsicality. It reminds me a lot of Terry Gilliams' animation for Monty Python.

There's a version with better picture quality here:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSVTdAtNYE

For some reason I had trouble embedding the "good" version.

You want videos? You got videos.

So we were supposed to find an online video that we enjoy and find inspiring that's under two minutes. Easiest assignment ever. Although it's a bit frustrating that some videos I particularly liked didn't fit into that time frame.

I'ma go with the viral video "Kittens Inspired by Kittens."

Why? Because it's cute, it's funny, it's spontaneous, it's edited well, and it's ultra low-budget. I used to put words in the mouths of book characters just like this kid. The video LOOKS really easy to make, but in the hands of other people,  it might not be nearly as charming or funny. I like the odd little details, like the restraining chair in the background (for the girl's disabled brother) and the temporary wolf tattoo on her arm.

Another video that juuuust goes over the 2 minute limit is Remi Kart 2. This French guy does a lot of silly public stunts like this and has his friends record him. In this case, he's acting out the video game "Mario Kart" in real life.

For a video I shot (but didn't edit) and a video I "acted" in, see my October 23 blog.

I feel like...

... repeatedly slamming my hand in a heavy oak door more than I feel like going to class or to work.