UPDATE: 1/22

ATTENTION ANIMATORS AND ILLUSTRATORS!

Here's an update with what we need:

1. Can we get more animated characters for the background?  There are great illustrations of people already contributed, would be great if we could have them animated.  For exacmple:  check out the ones Jana did for Ben Franklin, The Little Girl, and the cop?  Arms moving, that sort of thing.


2. Illustrations of people taking photos with cameras.  They can be animated, too!

UPDATE:  1/21

ATTENTION ILLUSTRATORS AND ANIMATORS!

There have been some awesome illustrations and animations contributed to the 'Lights Off - episode2' collaboration so far.  Now we some more! :oD

What we need:

CHARACTERS:

• Founding Fathers / Mothers — Thomas Jefferson, Betsy Ross, George Washington, James Madison


• Mobs of Protestor

SETS

• Wall Street scene — maybe include some recognizable Wall Street landmarks like the Bull, or the NYSE building.

OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

• Illustrations of Police officers doing dirty deads — cop littering, selling drugs, beating a homeless person, assaulting a peaceable protester with pepper spray at close range, exposing himself to an old lady.


• Illustrations of technology:  iPhones, computers, cameras, etc.

ANIMATION

• The lyrics of the chorus with a bouncing ball — sing-a-long style. :)

OK, I think this is all for now — this is gonna be awesome! :oD

<3

J

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Calling all Animators, all Illustrators, we are working with The Gregory Brothers on a second episode of the HITRECORD classic, They Can't Turn The Lights Off Now! And it's on the books to be screened at Sundance next week!

Episode One rallied behind Gay Civil rights, Episode 2 discusses the civil liberty to record Police and Law Enforcement officers throughout the country. Certain states in the USA have actually taken steps to outlaw anyone from photographing and video taping their local law enforcement, a direct slap in face to the First Amendment. 

That's why The Gregory Brothers remixed the "Lights Off" music and wrote a new story with new lyrics and characters that addresses this concern.  What they have made is fucking awesome!

And now it's our turn to start designing and animating the short film. 

Here's what to do:

ILLUSTRATORS -

Design the 3 main characters:

1. The Kid with the Camera


2. The Policeman


3. An Angelic Benjamin Franklin who comes to educate us all

Design Background Settings:

• Listen to the song that The Gregory Brothers have contributed and read the script to learn the settings and environments.   


• Watch Episode One and School House Rock to get a sense of the style we are looking for.  

Also, it'd be great if you can contribute your character designs along with the limbs, head, and torso seperated, so that animators can have total control and ease while animating. 

Animators - Once we get some good Character and Setting designs, start animating!  But please do it as simply as you can.  The idea is to get this done in 7 days to be screened at Sundance!

Okay, get to work!

Thanks Again

<3

J 

Calling all Graphic Artists, Animators, Visual Effects Artists! We are making Strawberry Bootlaces into a short live action animation and guess what? The rotoscoping is already done!

You may or may not know the wonderful piece titled 'Strawberry Bootlaces', written and spoken by Day Glo. Well, a while back Ozie picked it up and played a beautiful piano score underneath. 

This week, I finished recording the live action part of our short film, which is me pantomiming the story in front of a green screen.  So now it's time to design and animate the world it takes place in.

Here's what to design: 

SETTINGS - The store, the Boy's apartment, the parents' house.

PROPS - The strawberry bootlaces, the phone, chairs, table, etc. 

OTHER CHARACTERS - Mother, Father, The Store Clerk

I want all of these visual elements to be very SIMPLE, BOLD, BRIGHT, COLORFUL, sorta cartoony.

Okay, we are going to be screening this at Sundance as well, so we have 8 days, we can do it!

Thanks Again J 

Calling All Animators!

We need 2 animated sequences for our short film called 'The Blue Dildo' that's going to screen at our show in Sundance 2012. 

There are 2 props in the film, an envelope and a brown paper bag, that have cute little illustrations on them, like bunnies and flowers and cats etc. These are the 2 illustrations that I want to come to life by being animated.

Here's what to do:  

ANIMATION ONE - THE ENVELOPE http://hitrecord.org/records/628570 (copy and paste the links)

• The envelope is illustrated with romantic cats and cute flowers, hearts and other lovey dovey stuff.  ANIMATE this illustration to a 10 second sequence that is really CUTE and HAPPY.  The animation needs to maintain and expand upon the sweet, lovey dovey feeling that is the illustration.  The cats can kiss and the flowers can hug, whatever you think works. 

ANIMATION 2 - THE BROWN PAPER BAG http://hitrecord.org/records/628581

• The brown paper bag is illustrated with similarly happy, sweet, cute bunnies. ANIMATE the bunnies in a 10 second sequence that starts off the same way as the envelope, where the bunnies are happy skipping along.  But then the bunnies need to get SCARY. REAL QUICK AND STARTLING make the bunnies get ferocious and bear fangs or whatever you think is frightening. MAKE IT AS SCARY AS YOU CAN.

If you want some background on where this fits into the the short film you can check out the screenplay here: http://hitrecord.org/records/493201

Or if you wanna see how this project developed you can check out the Tragedy/Comedy Collaboration here: http://hitrecord.org/records/474657

Thanks Again

<3

J

Calling all Graphic Designers! All Typographers!

UPDATE: 01/22/11 -------------------------------------

Really great work so far everyone! Less than a week left to finish this so keep it up!

LET'S ALL FOCUS ON THE LINES THAT ARE NOT CROSSED OUT FROM THE TEXT BELOW:

Ladies and gentlemen,

the world is much larger and stranger than you have been led to believe

there are extraordinary things in your everyday lives

there are hidden treasures in familiar shadows 

you have been kept shielded

shielded from the dangerous and untamable world of the actual

we hand it all to you on a plate packaged and pristine

the blandly mass-produced trinkets

the omnipresent corporate cafes

the unchallenging brainless autotuned overprocessed media that fills your screens and airwaves

we've anaesthetised you like a Huxleyan Soma

with all the aroma of neatness and control

whilst the disorder of your anarchic nature has been pounding at your soul

we can never be like you

so we reduce you to simplicity

but you have sparks of divinity

you are married to infinity

we make you fear your imperfections

but in fact they are the diamond of your being

and they will always offer unimaginable variations

you have forgotten how to dream

because we have removed it from your language

but there are things inside you that are mysterious and magical and impossible to explain

and if anything cannot be rationally explained then our machines will not compute

you are being watched, my friends

you are taxed livestock

you are numbers on our screens

and you are seeking little other than the peaceful parade of pictures on screens

the tranquil melody of corporate lullaby

this is an invitation

put down your newspapers

turn off your tvs

because there is a war being waged for your minds

and you're starting to feel scared

you're starting to forget just how free and powerful you really are

deep inside you there is a roaring fire

that is not cooled by comfort or tamed by fear

a fire that burns in all things

a fire that can drag your fellow beings out of stagnant waters

and re-imagine your world with no leader or station

no grants from rich foundations

a world that is not made of atoms but stories

a world that shifts its shape with every passing daydream that intervenes your daily routines

and the narcotic moments of creative bliss

the bizarre stomach flutterings with the lovers you kiss

the complex structures you devise

and the endless nights shooting stars into your eyes

there are trails of light in your collective dreams

there is sentience in your discarded machines

everything in this world is intoxicating

everything is on fire all the time

and you are bound only by the limits of your imagination everything else will follow

the world will follow

as above so below

a new heaven and a new earth

END UPDATE:-------------------------------------------------

As you may or may not know, we are making a REPRISE of wirrow's 'and a new earth' for our show at Sundance this month.  

The original video has text recited by a computer and wirrow astutely added subtitles so viewers can read along with the computer's voice. 

My idea is, instead of giving our REPRISE a plain subtitle at the bottom, what if each line of the text has it's own typographical treatment that can pop on and off all over the screen! 

Here's what to do: 

• Select a line from the text and design titles for that line.  Be as creative as you want with whatever colors and fonts and maybe other little iconic graphics.


• Make it large enough so it can fill the screen if need be, the aspect ratio of the video is 16x9. 


• Make sure your text is on a transparent background so it can be superimposed over the video.

Thanks Again,

In honor of our upcoming show at The Sundance Film Festival 2012, I'd like to start making art regarding the theme of Independence. You can record a testimonial of your thoughts regarding this topic but more importantly, you can contribute a short story, an illustration, a song or even make a short film. Anything that regards the idea of Independence.  

We will then take these pieces and put them together in a clever, funny, entertainingly way and intersperse them throughout our show while bringing up audience members to share their thoughts. 

Independence is the theme that is running throughout our show. Not only because it's the Sundance Film Festival but also because all of the projects that we are working on embody this topic in their own way. 

Here are some ideas regarding Independence to think about: 

• The Sundance Film Festival showcases Indy Films.  What is Indy when it comes to art and business? 


• A child's life can lead to independence, independence from their parents as an adult. 


• And as an adult, Independence changes and one can become codependent.  Codependent in a relationship or with other things. 


• Political independence. 

Let's get this conversation started early shall we!

Thanks again

<3

J

This last Halloween, we put on a show for seven hundred standing RECorders at The Poisson Rouge rock club in New York City.  The evening's centerpiece was a theatrical performance/shoot of the Brothers Grimm's LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD.  Costumed characters from the crowd pantomimed the parts while the vocalists voiced the story, and we all shot it.

Now it's time to make the short film.

I've just uploaded my first try editing the audio together from our half-hour staged shoot to make a ten-minute cohesive piece -- http://www.hitrecord.org/records/610429 

VIDEO EDITORS: Here's an album of all the video footage we have so far from that night -- http://www.hitrecord.org/records/593080 -- So let's start layering video over the audio above.  Also, while we'll certainly use a lot of footage from that night,  I also want to start making and mixing in other visuals as well to create a "kitchen-sink" collage sort of aesthetic.  So go ahead and find any other footage (either from our site, or from the Public Domain) you think is remotely relevant to the various moments of the story and try cutting those in there too.

ILLUSTRATORS & ANIMATORS: I also want to cut away to a bunch of graphic art that tells the story along with the theatrical performance.  I'm really envisioning an extremely wide variety of aesthetics and mediums all mixing together here, so you don't have to follow any guidelines other than one: TELL THE STORY.  Pick a moment, any moment, from the story and illustrate it.  Animators, take those illustrations and start animating them.  

Definitely aiming to screen this at our Sundance show on January 26, so let's get to work!

thanks J