Hi Fangsters,
and seasons greetings to you both.
I've made and shown a couple of short films to my fellow illustrator/ cartoonists at our "Art Dept Short Film Festival". It's always good to have a deadline.
I'd not made any films for a little while. Films with a beginning middle and end that is. There's been plenty of screen tests of various character developments, camera and lens experiments, and location scouting (some more fantastic mountain bike tracks near Mt Panorama, Bathurst).
Shot these latest films using the Sony Z1-P HD camera (using the production subsidy I won in a pitching comp at Metroscreen in Paddington) in high definition wide-screen. Learnt a lot about production values, and the difficulties of working alone.
Very keen to bring every aspect of the project up to speed.
Very excited that Gonzos' head now tilts into the corners, his head is now connected to his steering mechanism, which gives him an improved physical "attitude" when cornering, and a lot more expression when he's talking, though, of course, making it a more complex operation when operating the "puppet". Visor, eyes, head-tilt and throttle, all going at once, requires some serious puppeteering skills.
Enjoyed very much carving some arms for one of my old puppets, to enable him to play the guitar, and to have every appearance of painting at an easel, in a beautifully appointed studio.
I've made a film of him playing guitar along to my Uncle Pats' song "Tickling Trout in the Long Arm Creek", a true story:
The other film was "Oversteer", to complete the Understeer/Oversteer "educational" series. I was really keen to make it fast paced, more slapstick, with a different twist to "Understeer", and in HD widescreen. Quite ambitious. Pleased with the action sequences, storytelling not quite there yet.
Keen to build McPhillamy a new body, he's still made of cardboard, always was just a prototype, which has lasted remarkably well, but always planned to make him a much better designed body, with working, turning, lights, and perhaps a mouth of some sort.
Here's a pic of a design idea.
I've always wanted Gonzo to have a faster looking, more up-to-date body and wings, still cartoony, like a caricature of an F1.
This is the original concept drawing from 2001.
His current body is too square, and his chassis has no suspension or 4wd, necessary for controlled oversteer (or drifting).
I'm also planning to build him a real, scaled-down, shed, timber framed, corrugated iron roofed, with lights, window sashes etc.
I imagine shots of, for example, the shed in pouring rain with water streaming off the corrugations, nocturnal scenes (interior and exterior) on location, and shed interiors with tools etc. hanging on the noggins of the exposed internal timber framing.
I like the idea of hooking up with a sympatico existing production company, with professional production facilities and expertise.
I've always thought than one of the potential directions the project could go would be as a segment in a motoring or motor racing TV show.
On my YouTube channel, the more "hard core" motor racing Fango films are the more popular ones, bit of a clue there.
