Been busy filming more and more today. Very pleased with how it has been going. Lots of challenges to overcome however. Such as realising my plasticine men can't hold up a knife to butter some bread and having to use a plastic one instead, nor is he able to pull some toast from the toaster so I had to make cunning use of some thread to pull it out instead. Most problems are overcome through creative thinking, and copious use of Blue tack and cotton thread.
Help today came in the form of my dad who proved to be far more successful at animating than myself, so I took more of a directing role.
The process is becoming increasingly organic, which I like. Plans are subject to alteration during the production process. For example, today I planned for the figure stirring the coffee to fall off the cup backwards in a humorous and slapstick style. We realised it was easier to animate him falling into the coffee itself. This was also funnier. Everybody wins!
I chose to remove some steps from some of the actions, long sections of figures moving from place to place when the audience would assume it had happened if it wasn't shown are incredibly boring, and added steps in other, such as adding a section of the figures sliding down the banister of the stairs when moving between the bedroom (upstairs) to the kitchen (downstairs.) One unfortunate loss was of the planned Dolly shot across the bedroom floor. This proved impossible as the figures were unable to stand up on the carpeted floor.
Progress is good on the animation front and I should be fine to film my live action this time next week. Promising progress in my oh-so-humble opinion.
