Merry Christmas from enJoy!

Just a quick note to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us and all of our 2011 Characters!

Keep your eyes peeled for us in the New Year, we have a new competition sting coming up in January, ideas for some new shorts, and it will be our first birthday in February so we will have a nice little treat for you all. 

enJoy your Christmas!

Taking a Break...

Just a quick blog post because we have been taking a break recently so not much to report.

We have just started working on the models for a new project (see pic); our entry to the British Animation Awards BAA Sting, which will feature our first animals as the brief is to create a short animation involving at least one sheep. We would have liked to have finished this by Christmas but it's looking more like it will be early next year.

In other news, we have confirmed two more screenings of Joy recently, bumping our total up to 8 screenings. The upcoming events are: 9th December at The Honor Oak (our first screening in London!), hosted by Tiny Dog Theatre; and 12th December at a showcase of local films in aid of Macmillan Cancer Trust at the Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds. More details can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=227437480642244

Heavy Dials: Burnt Trees

We agreed to make an animated music video for Heavy Dials in the summer this year, it was a great project to work on as the band already had a strong concept for the video, which we ran with. Set after a fire, the video sees a somewhat soul-less female character exploring a desolate burnt landscape, soon realising that she is gradually breathing life back into the earth. Trees and flowers grow around her, and towards the end she sees what she has created and decides to destory it so that she can begin the cycle once again; relating to the themes within the song.

The project came with many challenges as we were attempting things we had never tried before and it was a great learning curve. For one, we were making a female character with lots of skin showing and hair that moved in the breeze, these things were both troublesome so we are going to consider using different materials in future that are more adaptable to movement.

We also had to animate the set as well as the character, which was challenging from a design aspect as we had to build a set which could accomodate the trees underneath so that they could then be pushed up through the ground. It was also a challenge in terms of animating; adding tiny leaves one by one, shot by shot, whilst also moving the character was frustrating at times, but we really enjoyed this challenge and think that the end result is effective.

Once again our favourite part of the project was model making, it was great to be able to work on a detailed set again; creating charcoaled wood scrapings, ash and rubble and really working into the landscape. We also thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with a slighly more surreal 'other-worldy' aesthetic, encorporating un-natural materials such as wire into the naturalistic surroundings to give it a bit of an edge. This is something we would like to do more of in future.

The video is available to view in the work section of our website. Making photos and storyboard can be seen on our facebook page.

We are very greatful to Heavy Dials for giving us this opportunity, the single can be downloaded for free by following this link: heavydials.bandcamp.com

Philip

Philip is our second entry into the Flippin' Stings competition run by the Flip Festival. As our first entry was an object animation, we decided to make this sting more character driven, and used the opportunity to experiment more with the character. We worked in more of a cartoon style (mildly inspired by Camberwick Green and Pingu!), which we really enjoyed. Another reason we like working on these short projects is that it gives us a chance to experiment with different aesthetics.

The making was pretty straight forward as we had a simplified design. And the majority of the shooting went well as Philip was very stable, so we were able to just push him along! However the flip was rather tricky and we ended up having to go for closeup shots rather than a wide shot of the flip.

We really like Philip, and hope to do more things like this in the future.

We will keep you updated on the outcome of the competition.

Flippin' Charts

The Flip International Animation Festival are running a competition called Flippin' Stings, which invites animators to create a ten second ident promoting Flip, and the chosen stings will be used within the festival.

We decided to take part, as we really enjoyed making The E4sy Way for the E4 Estings competition a few months ago; when working in stop motion even a short film takes months to make, so creating a ten second film is a breath of fresh air as it only takes a couple of days.

We had two ideas for the competition so decided to make both. Flippin' Charts is the first of the two; the idea came from an office set that we already had made for something that didn't happen. As the set was already made we only needed to make the flip charts, so the whole process took just one day. The film features flip charts with animated writing displaying the four stages of creating a stop motion film.

See the video and images here: http://enjoy-film.com/Flippin_Charts.html

Look out for our second entry, 'Philip', next week.....

Joy Screenings!

The time has finally come for us to share Joy with the general public! We've been impatiently waiting to screen Joy and see what people think - so please feel free to come along to any of the events listed below, we'd love to see you there and hear your thoughts. Until then, check out the trailer and making of videos here: http://www.vimeo.com/enjoyfilm

Screening info:

SHOWROOM SHORTS 

13th September, 7.30pm @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield. (FREE)
 Hosted by the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network (SYFN) more details here:
http://syfn.org/news/ (second feature in the news bulletin)



MINI CINE


22nd September, 7pm @ Armley Mills, Leeds. 
A monthly film screening; showing a feature film supported by a short, the feautre film showing this month is 'La Haine' written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Tickets now SOLD OUT:
http://miniminicine.wordpress.com/%20

PECHA KUCHA
28th September, 7pm @ Portland Works, Sheffield. PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts etc. £5/£10/£20
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/sheffield/

NEXUS NIGHT CAFE


16th October, 2am - 6am (Sat night/Sun morn) @ Nexus Art Cafe, Manchester. (FREE)
A weekly night time screening event for those who want to wind down after a night out! Joy will be screened on a loop throughout the night so drop in at any time.

http://welcometo.nexusartcafe.com/

SHORTSBREAD

1st November, 6pm @ Dock St. Market, Leeds. (FREE) 
A monthly networking and screening event for filmmakers and film fans, hosted by the wonderful WYIFN:
http://www.wyifn.co.uk/

KERRY FILM FESTIVAL
1st November, 6pm @ Siamsa Tire, Tralee (6 Euro).
Joy will be shown as part of the international category of Animation Shorts
http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/?cat=57

TINY DOG PRODUCTIONS
9th December, 7.30pm @ The Honor Oak, London. (£3 entry)
The first evening of short film from Tiny Dog Theatre.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=288283354532309

NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS
12th December, 7pm @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds (FREE, optional donations to charity on the night)
A showcase of local film to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Trust.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=296609543696549


This blog post and Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107385339365359 will be continually updated with further details and (hopefully) details of new screenings as they come up. For anybody who is interested in screening Joy, please get in touch at contact@enjoy-film.com


Hope to see you soon!

enJoy!

The E4sy Way

We spent last weekend making a ten second animated short for the 2011 E4 Estings competition.

Our entry, titled The E4sy Way (clever eh?) is about finding the easy way in. The E4's want to be on TV, and they are all trying their hardest to get inside, but one E4 has more common sense than the others.

The video made within two days. We already had our idea for the concept and design so the first day was spent making the set, which was fairly straightforward, but we had to consider how we would do things like having the E4's coming through the wall and floor. Then the second day was spent shooting and editing, which was also very straightforward as we were just animating objects rather than human characters. All in all it was really enjoyable to work on something that was fast paced and completed very quickly, we'll definitely be entering again next time!

You can watch the video and vote for our entry in the competition by following this link and clicking Yay! http://www.e4.com/video/toCGWAyh6fnUT0bRnp9mZX/play.e4

There are also photo's of the design, construction and production of The E4sy Way on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/enJoyfilm or in the new gallery on our website: http://enjoy-film.com/E_Sting.html

New Developments

Since the completion of Joy a few weeks ago we've been making plans for several new projects, and we thought it was about time we shared the news!

Firstly, we have released our behind the scenes video 'Making Joy', available to watch on our website here: http://enjoy-film.com/Videos.html

We have been preparing for an exhibition of our Joy models, with an accompanying animation workshop in association with Point Blank Theatre Company, as part of a large event in a new creative space in Barnsley (date and details tbc).

This coming weekend we will be creating a ten second animation for the E4 Estings competition: ( http://www.e4.com/skins/doitandwin/100eba297679504b733671e9e8abd9a0/entry-terms.e4 ) We have given ourselves just two days to devise, design, model make, animate and edit the ident, and this will be available online next week. We are also looking into taking part in other film competitions which are coming up soon.

Finally, we are very excited to be working with Milieu Sound ( http://www.milieusound.com/ ) on the production of an animated music video for Heavy Dials. We are currently in the development stage and the video is due for completion in September.

Joy - Final Cut

Just a quick post to say that Joy is now finished!

We have loved making the film, and are going to miss working with our Harold. We can't wait to share Joy with everyone when we release it online in a few months, but until then we will have releases of the soundtrack preview and 'Making Joy' behind the scenes video, and other exciting news coming very soon...

We would like to say a big thanks to IdeasTap for funding the project through their Ideas Fund Innovators Award, and for making Joy possible. And a huge thanks to John Hamilton for lending us all his hard work and talents to create such a beautiful score.

Joy - Second Edit

We’ve had a little break from Joy while we have been travelling around South East Asia and Hong Kong, it was an amazing trip and a brilliant chance to experience different cultures which are extremely lively and vibrant and we are sure this trip will have some sort of influence on our future work. We also got a chance to visit the 25 Years of Pixar exhibition, which was residing at the Hong Kong National Heritage Museum; an amazing exhibition which shows the vast amount of preparation work that goes into digital animating and is never seen.

After a few days rest to recover from our jet lag we began work on Joy again this weekend, completing a second edit to correct some timing issues and also to experiment with our chroma keying. The soundtrack by John Hamilton is sounding fantastic, it’s extremely emotive and really drives the action and emotion of the film. A behind the scenes short is also now well underway and will provide an insight into the making of stop motion.

Joy - First Cut

This weekend we edited a first cut of Joy. It was amazing to see all the shoots come together in sequence and to watch the film develop in front of our eyes. The edit wasn't too complicated as the nature of shooting in stop motion means we did a lot of initial editing as we were filming. However cutting in closeups of the scrapbook and newspaper proved the most difficult aspect as we had to really focus on timing and synchronising the shots.

We have now sent this edit to John Hamilton, who is going to compose an original soundtrack for Joy. We can't wait to hear what he comes up with as his previous work is outstanding. We also need to record and edit sound effects into the sequence and fine tune the edit.

We are also beginning to work on editing a behind the scenes documentary. We filmed the whole shooting process and are now using this footage to give a brief insight to the process of making an animation.

Joy - Scrapbook and Newspaper Shoot

During this week we made a newspaper and large scale version of Harold's scrapbook. This weekend we also shot close-ups of these; both as the pages are turning, and focusing in on particular articles, photographs, letters etc. These shots will be edited into the scenes where Harold is reading the paper or looking through his scrapbook, so that we get a sense of seeing things through his eyes, and to utilise a different style of shot.

After this shoot was completed we began to cut a rough edit of the film. We have all of Harold's shots edited into sequence, and now we need to cut in these shots of the newspaper and scrapbook, and also some still scenic shots we have taken throughout the process to highlight some of the details in the models and to set the scene.

Our blogs from now on will keep you up to date on the editing process until Joy is completed!

Joy - House Sequence Shoot (Week 2)

This weekend we shot the final scenes with Harold, he has been great to work with and we are very proud of him as our first attempt at creating a functional armature, however he has also highlighted issues we need to address next time.

This shoot involved all the scenes with Harold in his pyjamas, so we were shooting in his bedroom for the first time, as well as filming the night time sequences. The lighting and camera angles were again much easier to control. We particularly like the lighting in the morning sequences when Harold wakes up; the morning sun shines through his window creating a lovely warm glow. The night time shots were equally as simple to light as we just gave each room a direct over-head light source.

Some of these scenes were the most emotional and distressing for Harold in the storyline, therefore we had to effectively portray this in our animation of him. The shots we took this weekend are some of our favourite in the whole film, so it was a brilliant shoot to end on.

We are going to miss Harold!

Joy - House Sequence Shoot (Week 1)

The house shoot is being split up into two separate shoots, as there is so much footage needed in the house set. This weekend we filmed all the sequences with Harold in his day clothes.

The house is our favourite set and it was exciting to see all the rooms together and completed for the first time. Unlike the other sets, which we made during the week and shot at the weekend, this set has been in development since the beginning of the project, as there were so many small details that needed to be incorporated to create Harold’s home.

This set has been the easiest to light in as we were able to realistically have two light sources (internal and external). We were the most un-restricted we have ever been in terms of camera angles because everything is contained within the walls, so we were able to get some lovely shots, however this also restricted us more than ever in terms of animating space.

After a wobbly start from Harold the shoot went really well in all, and we are looking forward to filming Harold in his pyjamas next week!

Joy - Dream Sequence Shoot

This is the most experimental sequence in the film, where we delve into Harold’s dream world. This was a very exciting prospect design wise as it enabled us to explore a different aesthetic to the rest of the film.

To achieve the dream sequence we have utilised two new forms of puppetry as well as chroma key to allow us to layer footage of shadow puppets behind the string puppets.

It was a very challenging and ambitious shoot in many ways. As one person was manipulating the puppets via their strings, the other was shooting in stop motion. We were also animating the set; breaking the world in two. This proved difficult in terms of camera angles, especially as Joy was hanging on the side of a cliff!

Joy - Memory Sequence Shoot

This is another shoot that we have decided to re-shoot to make the action smoother, as it was very fiddly to animate the layers of paper.

This is the first example of us using a different style of animation. We chose to use 2D paper cutouts to portray Harold’s memories. This footage will be incorporated into Harold’s scrapbook in the edit, to make it appear as though the photo’s in his book are coming to life in his mind.

Joy - Church Sequence Shoot

The church has been our favourite set to make so far as it involved more detail than the previous settings.

The shoot went very well, especially considering we had to make Harold walk for the first time. The only issue we had was restricted camera angles due to the size of the set.

Joy - Cliff Sequence Shoot

After last weeks filming we have made a few improvement to our animating method, which have proved successful. As well as shooting the cliff scene, we have also re-shot the bench scene and are much happier with it.

The cliff scene was more tricky to light as the tree cast a strong shadow, and we also had the new challenge of shooting with Harold standing.

Joy - Bench Sequence Shoot

Our first day animating, which brought several issues to our attention. The shoot overall went well for our initial attempt, and it gave us a good feel for what is required; how to set up lighting, move the armature and the time scale we needed to shoot in.

However, due to a few hiccups we feel we need to re-shoot this scene. The animation is quite choppy and fast, therefore we need to shoot more frames per second, and we need to make a new hat for Harold!

Joy - Storyboarding

The storyboarding process began with a basic idea for our storyline. We noted down important actions and locations onto post-it notes which we then stuck on the wall of our studio so we could move them around until we had a sequence we were satisfied with.

This then enabled us to move on to the second phase, adding in notes on design, camera angles and close-ups, lighting notes, character movement and direction.

From this we created a drawn storyboard (pictured above) which we further developed into a moving animatic to get a sense of how much time we needed on each shot and the full length of the film.