Hello again friends

So I haven't written on here in quite a while and I feel I should explain where the heck I've been. The Main reason for my lack of blogs has been due to a lack of working internet in my flat and since I usually post my blogs in the evening after a days work, I haven't had chance. :P

So to fill you in on what I've been upto, the week before last was spent in sunny sunny (but freezing cold) Berlin, which was amazing. I came back feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world (lets hope that feeling lasts) with the sites and sounds of Berlin still buzzing in my head.

Last week was spent trying to get a big dent into my dissertation. I'm at around 1200+ words now most of which is my introduction, But I'm hoping by the end of today to have got to the 2000 word mark. (wish me luck) By the end of this week I aim to have atleast 3500 words and then get the rest of it written next week so that I can spend the remaining weeks touching it up, adjusting the layout and focusing on my project.

As for the project side of things, I'm still working away getting the set ready for filming, which will hopefully be next week provided I can get camera equipment booked in time. Not a lot more to show you right now but I'll get pictures up as soon as theres something interesting to see.

Bass Guitar and Mic stand

Got set about making the bass guitar yesterday and decided it would be fun to actually paint the body this time (boy was that a mistake) spent half the day literally watching paint dry. I did how ever also make another guitar stand and a rather nifty mic stand which you can see below. Enjoy :)

2nd Guitar stand (it needs a lick of paint)

Microphone (need to get leads for all the instruments, hmm..)

Mic and stand

Bass Guitar

Template and first layer of our old friend "funky foam"

Starting to paint first layer of red paint

Several layers and a lot of waiting later, the starburst effect was added.

(this was achieved by stippling black paint around the edge of the body in towards the centre)

Finished effect, along with the fretboard added and some other detail stencilled on the body.

Finished Guitar (so far) it still needs a lick of varnish to add shine and some more detail added to the fret board and body. It also needs a strap.

Today's plan is to sort the above mentioned issues and find a subtle way to get a wood effect on the head and necks of all three guitars and also start working on back drop number one. May also paint my stage (if I have time)

Some puppet shinannigans...

Aloha. So today has been another productive day, I made a 2nd guitar and I've started building an amp. I even got bored and got a buddy to try testing out the puppets with the instruments and recorded a couple of short .avi's.

I felt that my last blog didn't really show the steps taken for making the guitar and drums, so I've broken this one down a bit more so you can see the guitar and amp actually forming :)

The 2nd Guitar

Template

building it up with "funky foam" (heck knows why its named that?)

"paint" ( just fancy patterned paper)

scratch plate (metal effect card)

fret board (black paper)

just some personalised detail :p (what can I say the girl likes butterflies)

adding the frets (sticker set from rejects)

adding the bridge (same sticker set as above)

adding the inlay (another sticker set)

almost complete (welllll bar the wood and strings)

The Amp

basic template

putting it together

adding deffinition with yet more "funky foam"

with some buttons (sorry for the crappy quality, light was stupidly bright for some reason :S)
The top part was made entirely from "funky foam" (yey) the whole thing painted black and the front panel silver.

The full set so far

....and since I was waffling about avi's here they are :P enjoy!

Drumage...:p

Guitarage....XD

Finished drums!

Also got my drums finished today, they took me ages because the glue was being lame. (actually had to mix two differnet glues to get some thick enough that dried quick enough to allow me to stick the framework together) Anyway here is the finished article (again crappy phone pics, sorry folks.)

Top View

birds eye kinda view

Front View :P

So tomorrow is going to be spent making the other two guitars, and farting about doing stuff for the Degree show. I'll get some better pics of things up tomorrow :)

More mini Instruments.

Today I got stuck into making one of my guitars, it's a little on the big side (compared to the drums) but its looking good, need to get some card or something to mimick the wood on the neck and I also need to gets some wire to make the strings. but otherwise this baby is done.

Before I let you see the pictures I should appologise for the crap quality, the battery ran out on my camera today so I reverted to using the aweful camera on my phone. I'll try and get some better pictures tomorrow once I've bought batteries for my cam :)

Template

Foam layer

Preparing to give it "paint"

Woooo thats starting to look like a guitar.

yep. thats a guitar.

Ooooo and a stand too. :P

close up.

Guitar on its stand :)

Another close up.

Moving Forward.

OK so I said in my last post that I had a plan for my project. I spent all of last week fleshing out the storyline and drawing out some plans, And without further Ado here's the treatment for my new Music video plot.

Treatment
A group of friends mysteriously turn into sock puppet alter egos of themselves and have to fight to keep their individuality as real life hands try to control them, eventually persuading them to perform as a mini tribute band (despite the fact they have no idea how to play any of the instruments).

At the weekend My Dad and I got set about making the the stage for the puppets (which is now taking up a considerable amount of space in my living room :P) I'll stick a picture of it up in the next couple of days once its had a lick of paint.

Yesterday I went into Primark and bought the socks that would make up my little group, and last night I gave them some eyes. The video is going to start in real life and with my five friends sitting bored in someones living room, so since the sock puppets are meant to be to represent these people, I will be trying to give them some visual similarities (e.g. hair colour and cut and clothes).

Last night I got as far as sticking eyes on them, will need to buy wool tomorrow :S Here's what they look like.

Five Brightly coloured buddies

They are watching you :P

I also went and bought lots of shiny materials for building my props at the weekend, below are just some of them :) Sadly it looks like I'll be buying a lot more.... My poor wallet.

Pretty, pretty, pretty.


Closer up pretty XD

Today I used some of the above sexy materials to begin making my miniature drum kit. The pics below show today's progress :)

Very basic bases.


starting to look a bit more drum like, no?


How about now?


More cymbals :)


close up XD



Now THAT looks kinda drum like to me! :P


Close up.

So I still need to finish them off, but I'm confident I'll get that done tomorrow easily, and then I can get cracking on the guitars, Amps and mic. I'll also get working on the backdrops for my set this week. Anyway I'm exhausted so I'm off to relax and possibly do a bit of reading.

Any comments or advice would be fantastic :) And thanks for all the support last week, can't tell you how much it helped :)

Karma Strikes again.

Well... I'm not to sure how to start this blog. I was looking forward to being free of filming and focusing my energies on my dissertation and editing, but sadly life had other plans for me.

After spending the last two months working hard contacting various people to book and get permissions in place for filming at all the locations last weekend, and trying everything under the sun to keep the band informed of where and when things would be happening, spending a small fortune on props and tapes (and locations), Saturday came and two of the Band members didn't turn up (one of them the crucial singer who was meant to be getting kidnapped by sydney) I was forced on the spot to completely revamp my script (with terrible results) and come Sunday for day two of filming I was so tired and disheartened that when the band member who we where meant to be working with on that day didn't turn up I just called of the rest of the days filming and set my crew home.

To put it bluntly the rest of that morning was a pretty bad one for me, For the last few months I have been solely dedicated to this project, I had put a lot of passion and energy into it and despite trying to be as organised as possible everything had fallen apart, not because of anything I had done wrong but because of people letting me down.

However. Come the afternoon, and knowing that my crit was coming up, I made a decision. I was not going to let this take me down! And so I began to consider options to move forward. I made a strong choice to ensure that my new plans would involve less people management and would mean I only (for most of the time anyway) had myself to rely on.

That in mind I knew I needed a fresh idea and storyline that would give me more control over my project. I knew that while shit happens to everyone, the people that stand out are the ones that can take that shit and turn it into gold. So with that I spoke to Paul for guidance and went into my crit yesterday ready not say how terrible things had gone, but instead to present a positive plan of how I was going to move ahead despite the stream of black fluff that had been sent my way at the weekend.

I don't want to give to much away about the new script until I have some stuff to show you guys, but hopefully by next week I'll have the script fleshed out and some cool images to put up...so watch this space. :)