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In another life.
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Message
Posted
I read about Robert's disinterred paintings, and have found I've been doing some arty archeology of my own. It can be surprising what you unearth.
I've been redecorating our spare bedroom, a process that takes me at least twice as long as it used to, but I'm happy to take my time. This room contains my desktop computer, and it's walls are covered with my pictures. As I had to take all the pictures down, I thought I'd do a major swap of the various paintings. This involved going through three portfolios crammed to overflowing with pictures.
Whilst doing this, I came across this...
...it's a bunch of 6 x 4 photos of characters I made for animated films.
I'm going way back here. I started making these little super 8 mm animations
back in the late 1960's, carried on through the 1970's, and finished in the very early 1980's...so the NEWEST of these photos are over 40 years old.
At that time there was a thriving amateur film world with regional and national competitions/festivals where you could show your films to an audience. The film side died out with the advent of home video cameras, video cameras were no good to me as an animator because they couldn't take the single frames necessary to build an animated film. (Unless you had a mega-bank-balance...so rule me out.)
I have other photos from that time, but thought I'd lost these in an earlier cull. They are all stuck on black paper from an old album. I need to carefully remove them, and scan them.
Here's a photo from the same era that fell out of another folder...
These figures are mostly plasticine, so I could animate them.
The odd thing is that they look exactly like the stuff I'm doing now...so much for evolving as an artist...I'm stuck in the 1960s.
So, not really what POL's about...but they have a slight nod in the direction of sculpture.
I thought it might be of interest, because I'm sure I'm not the only oldie on POL who dabbled with super8 cameras back in the day.
...it's a bunch of 6 x 4 photos of characters I made for animated films.
I'm going way back here. I started making these little super 8 mm animations
back in the late 1960's, carried on through the 1970's, and finished in the very early 1980's...so the NEWEST of these photos are over 40 years old.
At that time there was a thriving amateur film world with regional and national competitions/festivals where you could show your films to an audience. The film side died out with the advent of home video cameras, video cameras were no good to me as an animator because they couldn't take the single frames necessary to build an animated film. (Unless you had a mega-bank-balance...so rule me out.)
I have other photos from that time, but thought I'd lost these in an earlier cull. They are all stuck on black paper from an old album. I need to carefully remove them, and scan them.
Here's a photo from the same era that fell out of another folder...
These figures are mostly plasticine, so I could animate them.
The odd thing is that they look exactly like the stuff I'm doing now...so much for evolving as an artist...I'm stuck in the 1960s.
So, not really what POL's about...but they have a slight nod in the direction of sculpture.
I thought it might be of interest, because I'm sure I'm not the only oldie on POL who dabbled with super8 cameras back in the day.
Posted
I hadn't forgotten about the films CJ, obviously I remember making them...it's just that I'd lost the still photos. I had some left, but assumed I'd lost the rest, or had some over-enthusiastic cull in the past, thinking I'd made digital copies of the photos when I hadn't. And there they were, tucked away with some old drawings.
Here's another pic I found...
It shows my Super 8 camera, which I still have. I think you can still get filmstock from specialist shops, but my projector died long ago, so all this is consigned to the past...a reminder of happy times. I have most of the films saved as digital files, the quality isn't great, but that's better than nothing. Back then it was an event putting on a film-show. A darkened room, setting up a screen and the projector, loading the films. Less convenient than sticking a DVD or USB stick into your TV, but it made it a little bit special. Obviously, I made family and holiday films as well as animations.
It shows my Super 8 camera, which I still have. I think you can still get filmstock from specialist shops, but my projector died long ago, so all this is consigned to the past...a reminder of happy times. I have most of the films saved as digital files, the quality isn't great, but that's better than nothing. Back then it was an event putting on a film-show. A darkened room, setting up a screen and the projector, loading the films. Less convenient than sticking a DVD or USB stick into your TV, but it made it a little bit special. Obviously, I made family and holiday films as well as animations.
Posted
There are times when we often think things are gone, but they're there lurking for year, just waiting to give delight once again, and isn'y it wonderful to find them.
A wonderful read of your happier times, Lewis I think your relating to the vibrancy of youth, that get up and go. I'm sure many of use have the 'get up' and then just have a little think before the 'go'
The body language and the expressions on the animated characters are a treat to look at.
I agree the getting it all ready is a special process and a part of the entertainment to come, what a treat.
Posted
Fantastic characters Lewis. Is that Michael Heseltine, MP for Tavistock in the 60’s? If only I had done such things, I used to work in the same building as Aardman Animations. I even knew the founders of the company. It would have been a great career break. But I gave up on the TV world and went into vocational training instead.
Posted
Thank you CJ and Linda. Linda, your experience of Aardman's sounds like one of those life changing decisions, had you joined them quite probably your life would have been completely different. I guess we've all had those moments in our lives. Yes, it is supposed to be Heseltine, the one next to him is supposed to be John Major...I went a little heavy on the glasses I think. These weren't for a film, I was just playing with the plasticine...a bit like sketching (maybe?).
Posted
Lew, you've clearly been creative all your life - love those plasticine figures; the last of them but one, who looks as if he's wearing a Labour rosette - I think I've met him! And a great, pompous prat he was....
I marvel at the patience required by animators, particularly the real artists who had to work without computers - like traditional watch-makers, they had a patience beyond my dreams, never mind being available to me in practical reality...
Posted
I am amazed at how sophisticated your models were Lew. At the time that you were making these, Aardman were making the Morph series using plasticine. They also did a series of shorts to illustrate real people going about there every day lives. I was shocked and horrified to hear my dentist as the voice over to one of these films. They were doing the frame by frame shots with a rust rum camera at the time - amazingly time consuming.
Edited
by Linda Wilson
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