"Twice Upon A Time" (48 Hour Film Project)

I received a pleasant surprise today: The new and longer edit from my team's entry (Aura Media Productions) to last summer's 48 Hour Film Project competition in Washington, DC.

The film project is part of a worldwide competition. The spirit of this contest is about promoting a sense of can-do urgency in filmmakers.  They are challenged to conceptualize and complete a short feature in an assigned genre, in very limited time frame. From what I had observed, the adventure of submitting an entry by deadline eclipsed any direct competition between teams.

There are a few "catches" in order to prevent filmmakers from jumping ahead of the gun.  There are secret, surprise elements that are revealed to all the teams at the start of the 48 hour filming period. All these elements must be incorporated into the film. Last year they were:

Character	Samuel or Samantha (Sam) Canterbury, Event Planner
Prop	an envelope
Line	"You can trust me."

The director pulls the assigned genre out of a hat:

•    Comedy

•    Dark Comedy

•    Drama

•    Film Noir

•    Film de Femme

•    Fish Out of Water

•    Horror

•    Musical or Western

•    Road Movie

•    Romance

•    Sci Fi

•    Silent Film

•    Thriller/Suspense

•    Time Travel

We got "comedy" with parody as the sub genre. So a parody of a fairly tale was crafted: Twice Upon a Time.

My contribution had a limited but visible role in the longer cut of the film. My artwork was in the background inside of wicked Samantha Canterbury's castle dwelling. In reality, the castle dwelling was the director's condo building party room that can be rented out for resident events. I took down much of the designer match-y art already on the walls and hung as much work as I could bring, mostly on the entertainment shelves for big screen tv watching. (We took down and/or hid all the electronics.)

Veronika Downes as Samantha Canterbury in "Twice Upon a Time" copyright 2014 Aura Media Productions

For this, I was given a Production Design credit. There were other visual artists on this team who shared this credit. They stayed up late creating the pencil portraits and other art in the magic book, and in the background of the final credit roll. 

In the competition, the run of the entries must be capped at seven minutes. A lot of footage gets left behind in editing, and my own art was pretty much a brief blur. I was a little disappointed, but considering the hard rules of the contest. I had figured getting edited out could be a possibility.

No, we didn't win....but I'm glad to see Aura Pro Media took the time to re-edit the footage for the original seven minute entry to a piece (in this cut, seventeen minutes) that better reflects their vision. In this one you can see much more of my artwork, as well as the rest of the crew's contributions, and a more developed storyline. 

I was impressed with the friendly but no-nonsense hard work and cooperation of everyone on set: Director Stephanie Cristancho, Producer James Lewis, the actors, the film crew, the hair and makeup artists, the wardrobe coordinator, the catering, and those who doubled their duties with providing transportation early and late hours to the rest of the cast and crew. My first experience on a film set was a positive one, and I would enjoy more opportunities to contribute my artwork in ways that would be of service. 

Here is the (approximate) seventeen minute version of the short film:

Dreamscapes, Sea and Space (April 2015)

Here's more of completed "dreamscape" drawings worked with color and collage.

Both are acrylic ink, watercolor, and collage drawings on recycled, painted frames.

12.5" w x 16"h

                                                                      14"w x 17" h

Spring 2015 Updates and Collaborations

Hello!

I've been quiet here, but busy in various projects. It's time for a few updates.

I've getting ready to display monthly sampling of my work (six paintings to be rotated monthly on the first of May, June, and July...and also to replace work as it sells) at Local Colour Gallery in Alexandria, VA. The first month will have a selection of still lifes. The second and third will have a variety of possible still lifes, landscapes and figurative work. You should be seeing all new work for that by the end of this month.

I'm also getting ready to have a new selection of surreal dreamscape work on paper and wood available for purchase online (payment available through paypal) and on my sales page . It should also be updated by the end of the month and growing over the summer. There's work available there currently, so go check it out if you haven't. With the exception of very large or delicate pieces (those I prefer that customers see them in person by appointment) , most are available for shipping. Just contact me directly (email artbyjeannehospod AT yahoo DOT com)  about any questions, and to place an order. I'm not doing etsy or ebay as listing and relisting adds up in fees, with very little visibility in the sea of arts and crafts.

I'm eager to see the release of that David Huntsberger comedy/animation special, which should be available sometime this summer...online and dvd being at least part of the ways you can view it. I'll pass on updates as I get them. This was my contribution , among a very talented team of animators . The sound is omitted for the preview, but trust me...the accompanying stand up is entertainingly offbeat and funny. You should get a copy when it's available.

That wasn't the end of my collaboration. I also made a couple of title credits for the special. This one is purdy. The concept was David's.  I rendered, refined, and animated it:

It's supposed to go on for only two seconds, so I looped it for easier viewing.

There was also the Sixteen Second Story that was part of David's Junk Show (a monthly variety show where all entertainers perform outside the usual expectations of their work). The Sixteen Second story starts with a volunteer at the show who presents the bare beginnings of a story on the spot and they tell as much as they can in 16 seconds. Then it is given to an animator to flesh out. The next month, the story and animation is presented to the Junk Show and another storytelling volunteer adds to it. The cumulative animation and the new audio is given to another animating volunteer to interpret, ...and so on. This goes on for a year and the whole piece is presented at the 13th Junk Show, which happened to be this past weekend.

I like how the ending brought the silliness full circle, as well as the unique styles and approaches of all the animators. I also enjoy Rob Crow's background music. It was a great fit. My part runs from 2:50-3:07.

Link to video for smartphones

There's also a mini rundown on my art and some technical tips/tutorials on animating for newbies in a video. I'm  not very technically proficient compared to the other animators on both projects, but can provide information for those interested would-be animators who find buying/renting expensive software with a high learning curve prohibitive and daunting.
 Some of it may accompany David's Comedy/Animation special, but not sure how much...likely just a very small portion. I'll be sharing clips of what isn't used on my youtube page when I find that out.

                                                                               

Most recently I've been painting and drawing...both from observation, and imagination.
A small sampling of some of the dreamscapes, before watercolor, colored ink and some collage has been added:

Some have changed considerably since reworking in color.


This was a mashup/collage of two black and white ink stream of consciousness drawings that worked out better combined. 12"w x 16"h ink/watercolor/acrylic ink/collage on watercolor rag paper and acid free matboard. (I'm open to name suggestions on this one if you'd like to share them in the comments.)

Something random, fun and weird: A couple of years ago on my twitter timeline, I came across an interesting character, "Hacksawgranny" who dwells there. She's not on daily, and sometimes takes longish breaks....possibly taking care of responsibilities in other dimensions and parallel universes. (Which makes me think of David Huntsberger sharing an interesting theory on dementia and dimension hopping in an early episode of the Professor Blastoff podcast with fellow comedians Tig Notaro and Kyle Dunnigan. ) It's always a treat to read her posts when she returns. 

Her world has a cast of odd folk : her dead husband Walter who she still bickers with on occasion, town ladies like nasty Mrs. Bat, and that hussy Mrs. Cream, grandson Stinkypants, Chickens #1 through #6 (possibly more) and her kitten Tuba.  Death itself is her frenemy...they go way back to the time when he returned her to this earthly realm because her check bounced. He's quite the mercenary type.  He squats on her property, steals from her refrigerator, and sometimes takes over her twitter account, always in the goal of scamming for a quick buck.  

I've worked in elder care before, so I can't help being *that* busybody neighbor who checks and fusses on her now and then. She may be all over the place in her mind, spirit, and body, but she's always fine. Hope my world is as rich at age 98.

I interpreted one of her tweets in paint recently:

I made two versions: this one below is acrylic ink on

 6 5/8" round wood panel

and this one (will be available on my sale page soon) is acrylic ink on 18" round wood panel

So that's all for now....other than brainstorming and storyboarding an animation for a favorite musician later this summer (tba).   I'll be uploading paintings more frequently this season and next.

Hope you are enjoying your spring!