Taking Every Shot

Friends of this blog and project have said some marvelous things about it. And This particular post really illustrates what they were reacting to as professional animated photography artists.

"Every where you put the camera is going to have its own story..." Justin Rasch

"Usually in a set, what you see on camera is what has been built - but here, I have the feeling that there really is a world around the corner, up in the attic, outside that window, just waiting with its own stories to tell..." Nick Hilligoss

"Puppets and miniatures are 3D. Cinema is called 4D with the addition of time. Here I want to call Halfland 5D with the addition of "life" in itself..."  Yasemin Sayibas Akyuz

After posting the interior cottage set fully dressed, I made a list of every shot planned now for it and the landscape areas surrounding it. After all these years, this blog is such an extraordinary document, as I could link to posts illustrating every shot mentioned. It's a testament to how much has been built at this point.

Compiling this shot list took me three days, so I moved it here as a stand-alone post.

In Halfland, Time is not only a Frog but also traversed as a physical place.  The camera moves through Spring/Dawn (green trees, butterflies, and birds), then through Summer/Day just as we reach the cottage at the creekside (We meet the Time Frog in his pond featuring the Koi of Enlightenment see Kyra arrive via the creek. Once inside the cottage, the Cottage Set Scenes comprise the third Akt/Chapter called "Autumn/Dusk," as described below.

1. Birds in hats fly into branches over the door and tussle to see how they look in a mirror.

2. Bird's hats fall onto the Sleeping Cat's head, one by one, just under the door threshold.

3. Rana stirring the soup kettle on the hearth.

4. Rana sips the soup from her comfy chair and smiles.

5. The visiting mermaid, Kyra, rests under a blanket in the bay window with a special food tray.

6. We see the Pink Snail lumber from the bedroom window into the underbrush outside (Over-scale set).

7. Rana nestles under her handmade covers in her bed as the Caterpillow squeezes her.

8. Knitting Beetles click-clack in the nightstand's lantern light beside the bed as evening falls.

[add] 9. Pan up to the attic above her bed to observe the Lace Making Spider weaving lace.

Transition to Winter/Dark Akt/Chapter as follows:

10. One Exterior interlude scene happens here at night (transitioned from Large Pink Snail in Over-scale set to Small Pink Snail walking over bridge to attend Bug Party), out front by the fence, of the wildly fun Bug Party happening. We hear and see the music playing and all its merriment. Then things wind down to crickets in the dark.

[add] 11. Pan up from Bug Party to show the cottage illuminated in the darkness, welcoming and warm.

[add via Reader Jill's great suggestion!] 12. Shot of landscape outside cozy cottage includes a shadow/silhouette of Tarn's half-wingspan on the ground below as a foreshadowing of her arrival. 

13. Tarn's shadowy face appears in the moon's light through the bay window during a crack of thunder.

14. The front door crashes open in a flash of lightning, silhouetting Tarn as she crumples onto the floor.

15. Close-ups of Kyra and Rana's faces in distress at the sight of Tarn in her injured condition unconscious.

16. The Lacemaking Spider stops work in the attic and looks down at Tarn on the floor.

[add] 17. Kyra pours golden sand into Rana's open hand. (This gesture wordlessly indicates both where  they both know they need to go and gives them the means to get there.)

18. The Writing Mouse scrambles into Rana's cloak pocket as the shadow of Rana's arm grabs to put it on.

19. (Through the back of the cottage exterior, the camera moves into Winter/Dark, and we fade to black.)

That's it for the cottage interior and all its richness. After this, the next scene begins the final Akt/Chapter, which fades up from black to see the little troop at a distance in the bright Golden Desert, pulling an unconscious Tarn on a sled (to be built) behind them on their quest to seek help for her from the Serpent Sage Musician at his Oasis.

Those Secret Season scenes of the Final Akt/Chapter to be described in further posts will conclude the Halfland Story Series.

The film's Opening/Prelude Live-Action scenes will be at The Real Beach with the large Kyra puppet and the ocean-going stunt tail. 

When we arrive at the first Akt/Chapter of "Spring/Dawn," we see a long shot of the main cottage set and the full landscape. Halfland's "Summer/Day" scenes of Time Frog and Bug Party and Writing Mouse arrive at his house's exterior in the main set's exterior landscape.

                                

There's one scene inserted inside the Mouse's house under the Answer Tree, as he writes the Root's Wisdom onto seeds. We first see Rana whispering her question into the Tree, panning through the underground set featuring the stunt worm and transitioning into the Mouse's house interior. Also inserted, in Summer, in the stream beside the cottage, we see the mermaid arriving from the sea where we last saw her. Rana happily walks down from the porch to the creek to collect Kyra in the water barrel. We pan above their heads, returning to the cottage door, to transition into the Birds in Hats scene (#1 above).

During the Secret Season scenes, The opening flower superimposed over the top of Urhu's tent completes the series as the final shot as the camera/audience retreats/ascends, ideally leaving the viewer lifted into their thoughts in flower.

That's the whole movie series as planned to be shot. It's Four Akts/Chapters: Spring/Dawn, Summer/Day, Autumn/Dusk, and Winter/Dark, like symphony movements.  A big illustrated storybook must describe the tale's action more narratively. The dialog-free movie exists to enhance the storybook by bringing certain scenes to life. 

Anyone in the world, regardless of the language they speak, can watch the movie series and enjoy a visit to Halfland. The storybook will be available in as many languages as possible for those who want to stay even longer.

Cut it Out!?

I also mention below what characters and shots I'm looking at cutting. Not because they aren't equal to the rest. Only that I am 61 years old now and aware that while the artist in me would build and shoot everything I wish to, the producer in me must get done what can be done within the confines of time and space.

I may do it all yet. What's great is that I can always shoot the additional scenes below after the list above is completed as inserted sequences. It can all hang together perfectly. Halfland isn't a one-and-done film; it's a series of scenes, like pearls on a strand, that can be added to as they are found.

Gone for good, though, are the stage-sized white paper proscenium framing the Halfland long shot reveal and the small white paper shadowplay at the very end, indicating the entire visit was within the imagination. Gone is the bamboo grove set for the Mothman to carry the lantern through. It was left behind at the old loft for space.

We have yet to mention Yanu, the Mothman (to be built), as he may be cut out altogether, although his scenes in the Answer Tree canopy hanging the Moon Lantern would have looked beautiful in the Dusk to Dark chapter transition. Any scenes and characters are worthy of their own short film, and if my luck holds out, they can be made. I *may* also cut out the Torhar (half tortoise/half hare) creature (to be built) Tarn arrives on. I have everything to build it, and it deserves to; I'm just applying some production limits out of the realities of time. 

Also gone currently is the Queen Bee (to be built). She and her attendants would be ideal for the Summer scene as we move through the garden. And lastly, the underwater scene and the Painting Chicken which are both entirely wonderfully populated thanks to the artists reading this blog. Again, I would love to film these. Stay tuned to see whether I can!

xo