It's Alive

The animation of The Cat Piano is being steadily created by our 2d animation team here at The PRA. It is really amazng to see a film slowly coming alive by the day. We thought we'd put up an example of a cleaned up, but uncoloured shot from the film. It gives you a sense of what the animation style will be. This shot, of a folk-singing cat atop a city rooftop was animated by Ari. We have also chosen to make the film in a 2.39:1 ratio as it seemed to really help the dynamic of the composition in the film.

TWO JOIN THE CLOWDER

We're very happy to welcome two more animators aboard The Cat Piano animation team. Alex Grigg and Benjamin Drake both students of Queensland's Griffith University animation course. The two animators who studied with our own Makoto Koji, have come down from sunny Queensland to work on the film here in well..sunny Adelaide! Both of them have great drawing and animation skills and we look forward to what they can bring to the project.

Check out Alex Grigg's blog



and Benjamin Drake's




Here's a lively page of cat piano themed sketches that Alex sent us a week before he arrived. His style clearly fit with the film's.

The film will be finished by the end of January 2009 so watch this space.

Cat Piano in IF mag

Hi all you fiesty felines

There was an article on The Cat Piano in the latest issue of IF (Inside Film) magazine. The issue was focused on music and sound so our film sat well at home in it. The article, by film journalist Simon DeBruyn also includes an interview with Benjamin Speed in regards to the film's score.

Here's the link:
If Magazine

Also, above is a sketch of some of the cast of characters that our poet in the film enlists the help of. The pic is only a sketch and is still to be cleaned up and coloured of course.

Thanks to everyone for your interest and kind comments on our film. We really hope to have a really cool final film to show you in the coming months. Along the way we promise to put some animation tests up on the site.

Nya!

Hello and hajimemashite! (nice to meet you!)

My name is Makoto Koji and I am a member of the Cat Piano team. After graduating my animation degree in Griffith University Brisbane, I traveled south to animate on this project alongside the inspirational duo of Eddie and Ari.

We have once again been over due for a blog, so I will be filling in this evening to update you all on our progress.

Since my arrival I have been animating after hours alongside co-director Ari, who has taught me so much. It is a pleasure to be animating beautiful characters "traditionally" and I have found it very therapeutic. Eddie has now joined the animation team (making it three of us! YAY!) , to help us colour the Cat Piano world.

To help you visualize the process, I have drawn a picture!
(My camera is broken...)

The Cat Piano Animation Team!!!



Eddie in orange: colouring,
Ari in blue: animating on his cintiq
Me on a Piano....???

Although it may seem that everything is coming along, we are actually having many difficulties.
At this point in production it is vital to have a locked edit of the film.
We do not have one.... BUT!!!!

Ari has postponed his animation and is working hard on this edit as I speak/type.
He is confident that it will be completed soon and this should assist in speeding up the animation process.

We are aiming to post some animation tests as possible.
So please stay tuned!

Until next time, OYASUMINASAI!!! (Goodnight!)

The poet arrives

The narration by Nick Cave was recorded last month in Melbourne's Soundfirm studios, who kindly supported our film. It was a very exciting day for myself and producer Jessica Brentnall. The day ran very smoothly...well almost.

We arrived at the studios and then thought we'd go and have a coffee for the next hour before Nick arrived. This was a perfectly fine idea, except for the fact that my phone's clock was still set to Adelaide time not Melbourne time (a half hour behind). We only realised this when we arrived on time (we were actually 30 mins late) but Nick Cave had just arrived and so weren't in too much strife.

The session was recorded by Rob McKenzie who had set up two old style microphones in the style of the 1950s Kerouac beat poetry recordings we were trying to borrow from. With very little discussion we went straight into the recording.

It was great to hear Nick's voice immediately and know that we'd made the perfect choice. We did 6 takes of the poem. Some slow, some fast, some very straight and others very animated. I couldn't have asked for a better selection. It was great to witness such a great artist/performer doing his thing. After a nice chat with Nick about his kid's movie choices (They went to see 'Surf's Up' but ended up taking them to 'the Bourne Ultimatum'), both of our upcoming feature film projects and some other things we said goodbye and knew we had some great stuff to work with.

The next day in Melbourne both my laptop and digital camera were stolen when my girlfriend's father's place (where I was staying) got burgled. This was not good. BUT luckily the thieves didn't take the Cat Piano picture signed by Nick Cave (Thanks thieves...in case you happen to be reading this blog) I guess maybe they realised that some things can't be replaced.

We are currently cutting together the narration and we are trying to get the film to around a 5 to 6 minute duration. We will have much more to show you in the coming weeks so keep checking us.

Nick Cave adds voice to Cat Piano

Well we promised some exciting news and here it is. Singer, poet, writer, actor and generally all round legendary Australian artist Nick Cave, will be narrating The Cat Piano. Myself and Ari are thrilled and honored to have him lend his voice to our film. Thankyou to our producer extraordinaire Jessica Brentnall who helped us in aquiring his services.

The narration will be recorded in early November in Melbourne.

In other great news, with the help of Jessica Brentnall (once again) WACOM the makers of the ever helpful drawing tablets have come on board as a sponsor by providing us with a CINTIQ. For those of you who don't know what a Cintiq is, it is basically a screen that doubles as a monitor AND a drawing tablet. It speeds up the animating process dramatically and has thus far proved to be an invaluable tool in the process. So a big thanks goes out to the people at WACOM.




Other people that have joined the Cat Piano team are award-winning sound designer Rob McKenzie who will be creating the soundscape for the film, and Jeremy Hill-Brooks who has kindly agreed to be our editor.

So the journey continues. Here is a couple of pics that help show you what the style of the film will be.

STORYBOARDS EMERGE

Hi everyone
Well after some weeks of working on the storyboards for The Cat Piano, I am happy to say that we have completed them and have put some a few on here for you to see. Obviously we don't want to put on so many that it gives the whole story away, so we've chosen a snippet of a selected scene.

Ari has started on some tests for the animation and will start animating the film very soon. As soon as we have some pencil tests for you we will put them up on the blog. I will also be be able to announce who will narrate the film in the coming weeks.

We hope to finish the film by early December. Jessica Brentnall, one of the film's producers is organising a film showcase called PULSE, featuring emerging young Australian directors and so The Cat Piano will hopefully recieve its premiere at the Pulse screening on December 6th in Sydney, alongside films by young director's such as Nash Edgerton, Garth Davis and Amiel Courtin-Wilson. The Pulse showcase is also going to travel to L.A and New York City in Jan next year which will be cool.