"Iron teeth, with nails brown and ridged."

I love Hellboy.

If anyone has reading this has yet to read a Hellboy graphic novel by Mike Mignola I'd urge you to buy the entire set in one go, and fall into it's pitch black spaces and deeply crafted world.

One of the characters I've come across whilst reading Hellboy is the Slavic witch, Baba Yaga.

From wikipedia:
In Russian tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as a witch who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of silver birch. She lives in a log cabin that moves around on a pair of dancing chicken legs.

The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top -- often with one pole lacking its skull, so there is space for the hero's. In another legend, the house does not reveal the door until it is told a magical phrase: "Turn your back to the forest, your front to me. "

- incredible, that level of fantasy doesn't appear in modern tales.

I'd like to use her in something, but there'd be a slight concern that brown nails may brush my window one night.

..he took one last look and then departed

Clearly this blog is a bit bewildering of late, and it's not nice to be bewildered, just ask Prince Charles.

Current status of things is that I'm looking to move in the next couple of months. You may well know (or not know) that an animation set needs to be more tightly controlled than a London airport car park (one slightly opened curtain or nudge can look like a nuclear bomb or earthquake in the film) so this needs to be addressed before shooting starts.

One thing to mention is that the set crafter Julian Stodd had a bit of a knock recently on a boat in Tasmania (now there's a wealthy Brits injury) so get well soon Julian.

Love to all, please feel free to post replies still, I will look at and update this little journal a bit more regularly from now.

P x

Back From Vienna

...and eventually Paul returned from Mozart's city after 3,000 years, to find his project had been encased in a thick, cold, crystalline substance.

He paused and knocked on the opaque surface and, after about a minute, deep within it a reply, could be heard. Something wanted out.

1st April 2005 - work begins...

In the meantime general intermittent waffle will be found here.

This Means Nothing to Me

Hi all, I'm now off to Vienna until next Thursday - so no posts will be forthcoming till then.

Have a great week and if you need a blog fix, check out these great pages:

Projector Films
Danny Stack's Scriptwriting Blog
Pen is Mightier than the Spork

Merry Xmas!

Paul x

How Out of Character

I have endeavoured over the last week or so to create the characters for my animation myself, but to no avail.

There are three steps to creating a claymation character.

1. The armature
2. The skin
3. The clothing (optional as with good old morph)

However not being particularly skilled at this I have ended up with several frankly laughable monstrosities that would be great for another film other than The Wallpaper.

The idea of an atmospheric opening sequence, based on shadowplay camerawork down creepy halls, only to reveal a cross between Vincent Price and John Merrick leaning against a banister will not do.

So I am looking elsewhere. This will delay shooting somewhat but will be worth it in the long run.

More news as it happens!

What I did: Abandoned all pretense of being skilled at sculpture.

Just like James Brown

Ok - I'm back, and beating myself up for no posts on the last two working days.

This will not happen again!

Please tune in tomorrow for erudite, lucid and witty insights into Paul Draper's Fabulous World of Animation.

The subject will be "characters"......

What I and so forth: A few more lines writing. It's a painful stage.

A Question of Atmosphere

Not so much of an anecdote today more of a question.

What is the essence of haunting?

What factors need to be present in order to evoke this atmosphere?

Question open to the floor, all input welcome.


What I did: A bit more writing, interminable.