Subject:
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Re: Coolest LEGO Experience? Animation!!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.people
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Date:
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Sat, 7 Dec 2002 02:35:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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1436 times
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The Inspiration:
I was majoring in Cinema at San Francisco State and had started my first
Production class. We were all using Super 8 cameras. I had to buy mine due
to the unfeasability of renting one from a place in SF since I live in the
East Bay. Our first assignment was to demonstrate our knowledge of simple
techniques like pans, match-action cuts, close-ups, and so on. After
completing that, I had plenty of leftover film. I immediately grabbed one
of my space MOC's and preceded to animate the cockpit opening in
stop-motion.
It took several weeks for the developed film to be returned to me via snail
mail and even then I had to wait for my weekly class to see if my efforts
had paid off because I didn't have a projector at the time. Oh, the
anticipation! My reel was loaded and the assigned work flickered to life.
I waited breathlessly. Then my ship appeared and the cockpit opened with
perfect precision. To this day, I can still remember the blast of
excitement I felt in those few seconds as the ship took on a life of it's
own.
The Project:
It was this powerful surge of accomplishment that compelled me to attempt a
stop-motion short film as my final project for the class. I wrote a little
story about spacemen unearthing an alien artifact of great power and the
consequences of its use by those who cannot control it. With the story
finished I began storyboarding and building the set. For three very sweaty
nights, I labored. I worked only in my underwear since I had two 500 watt
lights in a tiny room (necessary for focus in tight close-ups of small
objects) and I couldn't have the window open because the levelor blinds were
right behind the set and the wind would move them during shots.
On the last day of class we gathered to screen our finished work. I brought
a bottle of Bushmills's to share with my classmates because I was so
nervous. It went even better than I could have expected. There were only a
few flaws; one shot was underexposed and another I'd meant to fade to black
but had instead blown-out. Additionally, sweat had clouded my eyes and a
few shots near the end were out of focus. However, all the work resulted in
a cool little 5-minute film that worked really well overall and got a couple
of big laughs. When the film finished I got a great round of applause and
even my hard-nosed instructor was visibly impressed. So much so that I got
an "A" for the film and the course! By far, my best semester in college.
Coming Soon:
For Xmans last year, my dad gave me a program for editing of digital video
(Studio 7). This program will purportedly allow me to use my digital camera
to take still frames, which I can download to my hard drive and then use the
program to animate them. I'll be attempting to construct a new film using
my Castle:
http://home.earthlink.net/~xenobuzz/MyLegoCreations/Simmons%20Castle.htm
Stay tuned and most importantly, stay inspired!
Dave
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Coolest LEGO Experience?
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| Inspired by John's post ((URL) I would love to throw out a question! What is your coolest LEGO Experience? Maybe you built an amazing castle when you were eight years old. Or perhaps you've had a more recent experience like watching an FLL robotics (...) (21 years ago, 6-Dec-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.people) !!
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