documentary film making

Experiments in creativity: Pram Cam!

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In the novel I am working on at the moment one of the characters is a YouTuber and I had been thinking about having a go myself, partly for research and partly to get back into film making. However I was finding it difficult to know what kind of films I should make as I didn’t think the sitting and talking to camera format would work for me.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the YouTuber and psycho-geographer John Rogers and how I had been finding his videos inspiring. His videos involve a narrated walk and while  I would not be able to replicate his kind of carefully researched walks as I don’t have time, I did think a kind of ‘walk and talk’ format would be worth trying. Walking and thinking has been part of my creative process for a long time and this feels like something that fits with the work I’m already doing. 

I have since bought myself a cheap sports camera (a Dragon Touch 4K – this is the model if you are interested (affiliate link)) and have been experimenting with ways to attach it to my pram. So far I have managed to go for a walk with the camera at South Norwood Country Park, which I know relatively well, and have edited a film out of that footage. It includes a kind of rambling narration which combines thoughts about the location, a bit about me personally and some thoughts about my novel.

And so (drumroll please!) I bring to you Pram Cam! I have set up a YouTube channel under the umbrella of Magpie at Midnight Films, and my first film is now up. I think I’m going to be able to put up about one film a month, which isn’t a great deal of content by YouTube standards, but realistically all I have time for at the moment.

I would really appreciate it if you would have a look at my video here, and consider subscribing to my channel:

 

Thank you for reading. I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

New story board attempt.

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 7 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and draw. After we moved and adopted the cats it’s taken a bit of time to settle in to doing creative things with paper. I’ve now been through a full cycle of ivf which was exhausting but ok. We are waiting on the outcome now. I also had quite a lot of animation work left to do on the computer and so prioritised getting that done.

But today I had some time to sit and draw some mini story boards for a documentary I’ve been working on for some time. I have some audio that needs visuals to go with it and I’ve been animating those sections among others. It feels really nice to be drawing again.

In other news I’ve started a patreon. There isn’t much on there at the moment but I’m planning to post pictures and updates on my drawing and writing which I’m less happy to put out in the public lest the ideas get pinched. I’d really appreciate it if people would be interested in following me there.

You can follow me here:

https://www.patreon.com/Midnight Magpie

Weekend work in progress

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I’ve been working on an animation for my documentary that involves some figures playing poker. Here’s a quick peek at one of the work in progress images.

I planned for the hands to be more of a mint green but didn’t have the right paper. But I think this shade works fine – I’m pretty happy with them.

Like what you see? I also make art. You can things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself. If you wanted to. Just saying.

Weekend work in progress: animated sections for my Doc

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Here is a little extract from a documentary I have been working on for a long time now. I’ve been experimenting with different forms of animation and this one is pretty simple compared to some of the other things I am thinking about, but actually I think it looks really nice and clean. It could probably do with a few tweaks around speed and that kind of thing, but mostly this one has come together quite nicely.

Would love to hear any comments/ feedback.

Like what you see? I also make art. You can things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying.

Quote Challenge – Day 2

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OK day 2 of the quote challenge. I was nominated by the lovely Laurie from the lovely blog Meditations in Motion. As well as blogging brilliantly about range of things, including running, she also wrote this lovely post about her mother’s ring as one of her ‘objects with meaning’. Well worth a trip over there to have a read, that’s all I’m saying.

So here are the rules:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you.
  2. Post a quote for three consecutive days.
  3. Nominate three bloggers each day to do the same.

Today I would like to nominate:

  1. Bjorn the Stormborn who runs a lovely blog in which he blogs about his artistic hobbies which include table top gaming and digital art. It’s such a quirky interesting blog – well worth a visit.
  2. Yolanda Chavez Sherma from the blog Yochet. This is a great blog about all of the interesting crochet project Yolanda has on the go, and more.
  3. The Frugal Veggie – who’s blog includes some great veggie recipes and tips for keeping down those costs, which are useful to most of us I think.

So here’s my quote for today. It’s from a book called ‘Letting stories breathe: a Socio-narratology’ by Arthur Frank.

‘The all too human dilemma is that by accepting being a story, a person at least provisionally accepts being what the story casts him or her to be, it’s interpretation’

So I think this is probably a geeky choice for a quote, but I really like it. I have been working on a documentary about someone for quite some time and this is one of the things I am troubled by, as I try to get anywhere near finishing it. I am telling someone else story – the finished result will necessarily be my construction or interpretation of what happened. That’s quite a big responsibility if the aim is for other people to see it, which it is. so I have been thinking on this for quite some time.

Animation, finally finished

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I have been working on this little animation for what feels like forever. It is a short excerpt from a documentary that I am working on which will eventually feature animated sequences alongside filmed footage.

I’ve had to re-start it several times because of mistakes I made when I set it up, and through getting my head round how to combine my paper cut art work with digital animation and film making soft ware. It has been a real trial and error journey to get to this.

If you have time please have a look and let me know what you think. The film is just over 30 seconds long so short enough for a quick peek. I would love to know what people think about this.

A little clip from my documentary, a long time work in progress

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I have been working for some time on a documentary about a lovely man called Stuart Hughes for some time now. I really long time, actually. The outcome will probably be quite different to what I initially planned, as it’s a bit like ideas have been sitting in a slow cooker.

I have finally managed to put a little clip up on Vimeo. I would love to know what you think. You can have a here:

It started with a short wave radio… from Rose Thompson on Vimeo.

Fancy some things with my things on? My designs are available here. If you wanted to. Just saying: Threadless Redbubble Society 6