Animators Diary : Back To The Drawing Board

With Sensations of the Season (my recently finished animation video for Onethirtyeight) now gearing up for the festivals… I’ve headed back to the drawing board to start work on my next project. 

My next animation project is titled ‘Creepy Treats’ and will be a series of short episodes involving two very silly witches living in a castle. I plan to make three short episodes at the same time .. then if they go well I would like to make more. 

So here are some early doodles I did for the look of the castle and characters in Creepy Treats. 

The caste will have a very garish look. 

I have recently received an order of plasticine in the mail, so can now get started building the main characters.. more to come. 

Wilhelm Scream

Taken from Wikipedia (because i’m too lazy to write it myself) …. 

 

The Wilhelm scream is a repeatedly used film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and several other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games. 

The Wilhelm scream has become a well-known cinematic sound cliche, and is claimed to have been used in over 140 films.

 

The sound effect originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take along with five other short pained screams, which were slated as “man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams.” The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene – but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film – when three Indians are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4 through 6 are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as “Wilhelm” by those in the sound community.

The Wilhelm scream’s revival came from motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who re-discovered the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled “Man being eaten by alligator”) and incorporated it into a scene in Star Wars A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper who screams as he falls. Burtt named the scream after Private Wilhelm, a minor character who emitted the same scream in the 1953 film The Charge of Feather River. Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films he worked on, including most projects involving George Lucas and/or Steven Spielberg. Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers.

Although the identity of the individual who recorded the scream (or more correctly, the entire series of screams) is unknown, Burtt uncovered documentation suggesting the scream might have been recorded by singer-actor Sheb Wooley. Burtt discovered a file at Warner Brothers, which contained paperwork from the editor of Distant Drums. Amongst the paperwork was a short list of names of actors who were scheduled to come in to perform various lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. After reviewing the names and, even listening to their voices, Burtt determined that Sheb Wooley seemed to be the most likely suspect. Wooley played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums, and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. It is conceivable that he was asked to perform additional vocal elements, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator.

So anyway … some people have actually trawled through some of the 140+ films to put together a compilation of the Wilhelm scream!

Ricky Gervais and Elmo !

Devo Previews New Songs

At a recent performance in Dallas, Devo previewed three songs from their upcoming new album… the first album in roughly twenty years! From these YouTube fan video’s you get a feeling they haven’t lost their trademark sound one bit. 

Here’s an interview Gerald Casale did with NME. 

Steve Brule & The Griddleman

Cecil Without A Parachute!

Slug Slimed

Kraftwerk Live 2009

Kraftwerk have confirmed these live dates for the coming year..

15 Mar 2009, 20:00, Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico
16 Mar 2009, 20:00, Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico
20 Mar 2009, 20:00, Praça Da Apoteose, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
22 Mar 2009, 20:00, Chacara Do Jockey, São Paulo, Brazil
24 Mar 2009, 20:00, Club Ciudad, Buenos Aires, Argentina
26 Mar 2009, 20:00, San Carlos De Apoquindo Stadium, Santiago, Chile
27 Mar 2009, 20:00, San Carlos De Apoquindo Stadium, Santiago, Chile
25 Apr 2009, 20:00, Wolfsburg, Germany
25 Apr 2009, 23:45, Wolfsburg, Germany
26 Apr 2009, 20:00, Wolfsburg, Germany
29 May 2009, 20:00, Urban Art Forms Festival, Wiesen, Austria
19 Jun 2009, 20:00, Hurricane Festival, Scheessel, Germany
21 Jun 2009, 20:00, Southside Festival, Neuhausen, Germany
24 Jun 2009, 20:00, InMusic Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
10 Jul 2009, 20:00, Balaton Sound Festival, Zamardi, Hungary
11 Jul 2009, 20:00, Exit Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia
13 Aug 2009, 20:00, Flow Festival, Helsinki, Finland
15 Aug 2009, 20:00, Vaerket Outdoor, Randers, Denmark
12 Sep 2009, 20:00, Bestival, Isle Of Wight, UK

Thanx Technopop.com

Amazingly the first seven dates on the list – Kraftwerk will be supporting Radiohead!

Devo Anounce New Album !

Yes .. the day I have been waiting for. I had heard it could happen .. but would it – I wasn’t sure. But after all this time it’s now official … Devo will be releasing a new album in the fall of 2009! You can read more HERE.

Below is a copy of the statement from their site.

What the iconic new wave, art punk pioneers cautioned us about almost 30 years ago is no longer a humorous theory. It’s pretty much fact–we now live in a devolved world that’s getting wackier each and every day.

The fall of 2009 will bring a new DEVO studio album, their first one since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps . It’ll mark their first new music since the strong fan reaction that greeted the 2007 single “Watch Us Work It,” their first new song in 18 years and one that was produced by Sweden’s TeddyBears (Robyn). They’re now in the studio putting the finishing touches on their new album (title TBA).

The five-piece– featuring co-founders and songwriters MARK MOTHERSBAUGH (lead vocals, synthesizer innovations) and GERALD CASALE (lead vocal, bass) and rounded out by BOB CASALE (guitarist), BOB MOTHERSBAUGH (guitars/vocals) and JOSH FREESE (drums)– are set make a special U.S. appearance at SXSW this year including a press conference (4:00pm) and keynote panel (5:00pm)–moderated by radio veteran Nic Harcourt–set for Thursday, March 19 at the Austin Convention Center (500 East Cesar Chavez St.). They’ll follow that up with a Friday, March 20 one-night-only SXSW concert at the Austin Music Hall (208 Nueces St.). Pre SXSW, DEVO fans in Dallas can catch a special one-off show on Wednesday, March 18 at the Palladium Ballroom. To purchase tickets, go here: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C004251D5078964?brand=aeglive .

In May, DEVO will head to the United Kingdom for a series of dates. On Wednesday, May 6, DEVO will perform their debut album, the seminal Q: Are We Not Men, We Are Devo ! in its entirety from beginning to end at London’s Kentish Town Forum. Released in 1978, the seminal album produced by Brian Eno and recorded in Germany features such notable tracks such as the band’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Mongoloid” and “Jocko Homo.” Next up on Friday, May 8, they’ll headline the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Somerset at the Butlins Holiday Centre.

Formed in 1972 in Akron, OH, DEVO–short for “de-evolution”–began as an art project cautioning that humans were devolving and regressing into a herd mentality of American society, not evolving. A conceptual band from the beginning, DEVO were ahead of their time, incorporating elaborate aesthetics into their live shows and seamlessly combining their music with visuals years before MTV or any music-video culture existed. Indeed, the group’s first appearance at Kent State University in 1973 was recorded with a black and white portable video system. Societal satirists, DEVO’s lyrical mix of comedy and quirky wit, warned of the dangers of rampant capitalism in “Whip It” and “Freedom of Choice ”, and the devolution of society in “Jocko Homo” and ”Beautiful World.“ Onstage in their early incarnation, the group began with a mixture of synthesizers and rock instruments; as they developed in the late seventies and early eighties, DEVO became one of the first American acts to perform using only synthesizers. DEVO have now returned with an evolved look, ready to impact the vastly devolved world we now find ourselves trying to navigate.

Git Gob

Git Gob (by Philip Eddolls) is a wonderfully inventive animation playing with someone’s idea of what a hole in the ground is for.

View HERE or read his blog HERE.