Twitter / MisterPlease

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Making of - TV ON THE RADIO - Second Song



Oh hey there...
Here is some stuff to look at, from behind the emerald curtain...
Alota the time, my favorite shots are the one's I can't use.
In this scene my hands were red for weeks.

After many hours
of threading things on wire
we realised we could have just done it on a computer.
tho, I'm glad we did it like this.
As he turned on the record player,
I slowly sliced him to pieces.

So, this set is responsible for the only time in my life where hysterical laughter has seamlessly melted into genuine crying as Sean Hogan (above looking nonchalant with a drill) and I realised that the 2000 hand cut rectangles which had to be individually wrestled into each hole to eventually fill this grid, were all one square to the left of where they should be. Watch the video again, this shot is up there for 2 seconds. Sean had to leave the room while I stood in the corner shaking like an old lady.

Ha! Just reading this back it sounds reeaaal bleak. It wasn't. I mostly had a delightful time with an amazing crew, playing with models figuring my way around problems in the most ridiculous way. Which is real fun.

There is more stuff like this but... i'm don't think I'm going to show it. Sorry.
I think it removes a bit of the magic. What do you think? discuss:

9 comments:

  1. one... the video looks amaazing! also I dont think it takes away the magic to show some of the sets etc, because it looks so different when its all done and on the screen, I personally love seeing how things are done and if anything it makes me even more interested in it. Great work Mr Please! :D

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  2. Hello, first of all, great video, it's really a master piece, very original.
    Like scriven said, I'd love to see more pics, and I think that they'd add more magic since they'd be a great inspiration source. Also I would like to see how you made those "solid" objects that became liquid with kind of a crush.

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  3. Your work is beautiful. It definitely doesn't remove the magic. I love seeing the process behind the animation. Frustrating when I can't figure out how its all made!
    Congrats on the Bafta for The Eagleman Stag too. A truly inspiring piece :)

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  4. Thank you most kindly guys! Those are some real nice things to say. I too love trying to figure out how other people do things. It's fascinating and frustrating isn't it? But isn't it a little like a love affair, where most of the fun is in the chase? Once you actually have it all there laid bare in front of you, interest goes and you're looking for the next thing?
    Anyway, thanks for your comments y'all!
    M

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  5. Hmm, I suppose that is true! Well what a tease you are Mr Please! :) In that case, I'll just have to keep on pondering then..

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  8. I just appreciate what you have shown us behind the scenes. It's a careful balance between showing to much and not having enough competition. It's important to bolster competition enough to challenge each other towards greater works. We train our competitors in the Arts. It's just when our egos get out of control that when reality tv takes over.

    If you look at the guys who did the Liquid Light Shows in the early 60s and 70s who put on shows for the Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa and crew). One of the things they said was that the main reason they never really went further with fluid dynamic light shows was that there really wasn't any competition back in the day to help drive them forward.

    It's nice to see more work with fluid dynamics that doesn't just devolve into marbling. I defiantly had the feeling that there was 3d animation involved with this. But then again if not. It's good to see that with hard work beautiful animation can be obtained. : )

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  9. Well after watching the video, I was just bewildered and felt compelled to search for how the hell it was made, which eventually bought me here. Will that do for a compliment in itself?

    I'm still really curious as to how the hell the liquid ink stuff was done. Also, the paper modelling was so beautifully executed I couldn't work out whether it was paper, cgi, or just plain wizardry. Superb.

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