Spooky Pre Production stuff

omg, there are just so many pictures and so many stories, I'm not sure if i can fit it all here on a blog entry. As much as i hate condensing things that have a larger backstory, here's a selection of the things that went on before the animating filming stage.

I must give the biggest shout out to Serena, my right hand person. She was there from start to finish, excellent with the fine detail Spooky Doll Kids demanded, and mostly brilliant at times when I was freaking out or losing momentum. check out her cool rings, and her cool handiwork (bottom of this entry). In the bg there's Greg Black (what a spooky cool name) helping out where he could.

I made my own pattern for the mice's cloaks, and tailor sewed them to fit each mice as they were all different heights. the fabric was the same one I used for Taboo, except I dyed Taboo's. pure raw silk, I picked up in the bargain bin at a fabric store for only $5 or something crazy cheap. i guess the colour wasn't anything appealing for dressmaking.

I did many storyboards, and many changes, and pulled it back to not too many changes. One big change was Brownie at first was a boy, but the fabulous Hugh (screen play) suggested I change it to a girl, which made the dynamics between the three of them perfect. In the other pic, Christien helped out where he could, and Jem on the right, made Taboo's armature and other tricky bits. I sewed up the rest. painstaking and uberfiddly.

Fiddly but not as painstaking, was his facial parts, and Brownie's was quite fun. Scribble logistics was a real nightmare.

Moved from the Film and TV Institute, where the space was getting limited, over to the now demolished Old Civic Theatre building, where the Davison Brothers was set up, working on their stop-motion pilot "Medusa First Date". Big thank-you to Pierce,

for the production space, and for keeping an eye on me while I was meandering around, and he helped me make Brownie's armature and fit it with latex, which i then painted to get the final gingerbread colour right.

Working next to Pierce i got to meet many cool people I wouldn't have got to cross paths with otherwise since i have a general aversion to social events. Magnus in the hat there was one of them. very charming voice (talent) and crazy, funny entertaining guy.

Taboo's rooms was one whole span of set. this was the hardest to transport and i had to crush the top of the set which made me wince, to get it in and out of my dad's station wagon as we were shifting it.

Here's a bad photo of me (that's why i don't use camera flash) with Serena mittened up. It got damn cold at the Civic theatre. and the little amazing spooky bits she made. Oh and if you look closely, there's a green psuedo snake off the top of medusa's head that Pierce slipped to me one day. made a nice bottled ingredient for Taboo's shelf. you'll see it in the last page of the film credits.