Through working in Brown Bag I have become a big fan of shallow depth of field in my photography. I recently purchased a Canon DSLR and discovered (not surprisingly considering the price) that the kit’s supplied lens is very limited. Don’t get me wrong, it has a decent range and works for most conditions if not pushed too far. But I realized that if I wanted to achieve more in my photography I would have to buy a new lens.
After some research I bought the Canon 50mm f1.8., mainly because it was cheap and also it has a very shallow depth of field. This lens is a great portrait lens for that reason and is really fun to use. The following are some pictures I took of some of my work colleagues.
So I’ve tried underwater recording before and to be fair, it didn’t really go great. I broke the mic, it didn’t sound right and was disappointing all round. So before Christmas, I had another crack at it to see if anything would work better. For this I needed a new location and since it was mid-floods, Cork and Galway seemed like as good a spot as any.
The beauty of working with animation is that the dialog is (usually…) nicely recorded in a quiet, sound proofed studio with candles, cushions, personal assistants to mop your brow or whatever else your diva’ish tendencies may require. In general, a lot of VO work is recorded one by one instead of as an ensemble performance which can sometimes lack a sense of unity and fun as there is no one to react to. Of course the good ones will still animate themselves with gestures and alike so the performance doesn’t ’sound’ too sterile but two of this winter’s better films have taken animated voice performances to a new level – and it turns out the secret was to treat it more like a live-action film shoot!
There were huge celebrations at Brown Bag Films yesterday as the news came through that Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty was nominated for the Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film!
Last night saw the premiere of Disney’s Princess and the Frog in the Savoy cinema. In attendance were the film’s directors Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid) and John Musker (Aladdin). Also there on the night was supervising animator Andreas Deja, producer Peter del Vecho, and Anika Noni Rose who provides the voice of Princess Tiana in the film.
Former Spline Doctor Angus Maclane made this funny chart of fame.
It’s a regular joke here how animators are among the least recognized people in the entertainment industry. Oh well, we really didn’t get into animation because we wanted to be famous…
Richie Baneham, Avatar’s animation supervisor, was interviewed on Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy show yesterday about his role in the production of the movie that’s fast becoming the biggest box office success of all time.
As mentioned in a previous post, John Canemaker came to visit recently. After his wonderful presentation on the Art and Flair of Mary Blair he talked about his life and the several different jobs he’s had throughout his career. He explained how it is so important to do other types of acting when you’re in the field of animation. Be it stage or film, an animator should step out from behind their monitor and desk and act in front of an audience at least once in their life.
This made a lot of sense to me as I had been toying with the idea for a while. I decided to take action and immediately searched for a improvisation course in Dublin and luckily enough I found a masterclass that would be starting the following week. I couldn’t wait! (more…)
What happens when Granny O’Grimm gets too old to tell stories? Well she now has some competition from a young girl called Astrid who is looking to take second place as the world’s scariest bedtime storyteller!
Well done Astrid, you made me laugh out loud this morning. Maybe we should have a competition for the best Junior Granny?
Bruce Block has shared his theories of visual storytelling with top studios worldwide, including Pixar, Dreamworks and Walt Disney Feature Animation, and was warmly received here at Brown Bag the week before Christmas for a three hour talk.
