The Friday Society

Illustration

2012-01-23T14:36:00.004Z

Shots december 2011

2012-01-13T14:53:00.001Z

Shots magazine has been kind enough to invite me between there pages. You can find the interview I made about my film the Brown's Daughter in the december 2011 issue.

Colombia Road

2012-01-13T14:38:00.001Z

Fashion short film for Jacky Tsai’s T-Shirt and Dress Collection 2012, made at Watergun Studio .

My role included editing and also animation (watercolor)

January Fresh

2012-01-13T00:46:00.003Z

January is starting off nicely; I have some good project coming on the freelance side and my film the Brown's Daughter had found his way into some more new festivals : Exposure in manchester and also Tricky Women in Vienna. Also it got nominated for the Official Best of Fest, which completely made my day!

What have I been up to?

2011-12-07T13:40:00.003Z

It has been a really long time since I put something here, so I thought I might give a bit of an update. SInce last post I went and back from Tallinn in Estonia where I had a really nice time at Animated Dream. Such a good break

In the meantime I have also been freelancing with Alex Amelines and Short form Film Company on some really cool projects. I just put a few sneaky screen shot of the latest project, and it will soon be out.

I have more project on my board to keep me busy for x-mas time, but I also hope that between to family meal I will be able to work a bit on my own projects.

Will see

I Love good email!

2011-09-20T00:23:00.002+01:00

The Brown's Daughter is part of the official selection at the Saint Louis International Film Festival ! I might have a celebratory Guinness.

The Brown's Daughter Screening

2011-09-05T14:50:00.003+01:00

The Brown's Daughter will be screened at the Hackney Film Festival alongside a spirited selection of work. The screening will be at 3:45 pm at the Rio and the ticket are 5 pounds. Surely a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, as anyhow it will rain.

More informations here

The foam Shop

2011-08-16T00:10:00.003+01:00

Today I went on get some foam (for some puppet project) at .... the foam shop! veridic time capsule on in London E2 (78 Swanfield Street)

Great shop, great service!

Joseph Pierce

2011-08-01T23:17:00.004+01:00

Today I met the great animator Joseph Pierce.

Thanks for the good chat and the precious insights.

You can watch his film, A Family Portrait, just below, enjoy!

French Subtitles on the way!

2011-07-06T15:08:00.001+01:00

The Brown's Daughter Trailer

2011-06-24T21:44:00.004+01:00

If you hadn't already see it on my website here is the trailer of my short film. I would love to put it online but I have to keep it lock for a while if I want to submit it to festivals ( novelty novelty!)

I should let you know about future screening.

Pictures from the Show

2011-06-24T00:11:00.005+01:00

Pictures token at Central Saint Martins MA communication design 2011 final year show ... it went pretty well.

Our Show!

2011-06-04T11:25:00.002+01:00

I will be there along with a lot of very talented people, thus if you pass by just come have a look, it should to be interesting.

Colin Berry

2011-05-19T23:21:00.004+01:00

Colin Berry has accepted to be the voice over of my project. I met him Tuesday and we recorded the sound together in a studio in Soho. I had a great time and it was a real pleasure and honor to work with him! His voice sounds fantastic and really bring a new quality to my project. In the meantime you can listen to Colin every Friday on BBC 2 the Friday evening from midnight to 3 am.

The Beast

2011-04-27T13:17:00.001+01:00

2011-04-21T23:19:00.002+01:00

While being in Scotland my camera stop playing back video, after one week of waiting for the cleaning head tape, I am happy to announce that my camera is back on track !!!

Lets check now if my videos are good.

The picture is a screen shot from one of the sequence and I really like the color in it. It remind me of Saul Leiter pictures.

Scotland

2011-04-21T23:15:00.002+01:00

I have been one week on the Sky island in the north of Scotland and it has been a mazing opportunity to refresh my mind and as well ... to shoot some scene of my animation!

The Pool

2011-04-01T14:14:00.001+01:00

After one month of email I eventually get my entry to the lido swimming pool for shooting. They were really nice and the sun even show up, so it should be good material.

Some updates and screenshot

2011-03-29T21:48:00.002+01:00

The so called easter break is coming and with it some expectation. It would be ideal to have my animation done by the coming back to school 3 of may. I do not think it will be completely finish and it will probably benefit from some retouching responding to a fresh wave of feedback on may, but be optimistic and lets say that it will be nearly done by may 3rd. By this I mean, all sequence done, including sound design and music and color correction and the all edited, … of course.

To complete this goal, some points to fix :

First of all the overall of the story sequencing doesn't communicate as much as it could, meaning people doesn't seam to understand the connection between to sequence and as well the all what it is about. Even if I attribute this to the fact that my animation is only partly done with an approximate sound and a completely out of toe voice over, I do think I have to rework some sequences. My focus will be to establish better connection and to express more clearly the way of thinking, the attempts, the failure, success and reflection of my character. Thus hopefully people would have more access to her and be more able to relate to her, in other world people should get more from the story than they do now.

I get surprise as well of how much my whole work aim to lake rhythm. Which is a pretty sad discovery. I am rethinking the editing of some sequence and as well add some little shots that helps to link the sequence together. (you know for example a close up on the door/hand when she is about t change room and no just a big cut in the corridor) As well I strongly value the sound and music as major help for this particular problem. from the creation of a ambient over all sound (the humming that will be present and only heard but not listen and which will act as glue from the all range to other sound.

Thus talking of sound I have to think of creating a sound esthetic for my character (my best hint so far is to explore the sound of her original materiality = paper) but it may end up behind different. I also need to complete all my foley sounds (which can be not as realistic) which will give volume to the video. As well I am very incline to add music at some point but is here conscious of the right of music usage and will have to find a solution ( free of right music ? compose original score ? get a friend help ? no music ? buy it ?) to be define (but quickly)

This is, I think, the main problems I am facing so far, but it doesn't mean they are not surrounded by an endless succession of little problem (why does my edit doesn't work in premier cs5, how to I add this plugging, the endless rendering time, I can't get the authorization to shoot this, try to not make it look to much as if you are using still, avoid to spill your ink jar on your laptop, get expel from a swimming pool after being take as a pervert trying to get some shortage of the locker …) and great joy ( it will be good !)

This diagram trace my thinking from my dissertation up to my project shapping

2011-03-29T21:09:00.000+01:00

DIY STEADICAM

2011-03-29T21:02:00.003+01:00

After experiencing some limitation in my shooting (my hand made tracking and other motion are extremly shakky, which give me a lot of work in postproduction as well as a quality lost) I engage myself in the building of a steadicam (a new one is out of my budget, even a second hand one actually) This project received the most precious help from Joel kitzmiller and is still in process.

this is how it is suppose to look and the plans can be find here

The Script latest update

2011-03-29T19:46:00.001+01:00

LOUISE BROWN

SCRIPT

NARRATOR

Mrs Brown was a genetic engineer. Pushed by maternal

ambition, she, from the earliest stage of her pregnancy,

applied her expertise on her own daughter.

NARRATOR

Consequent to this attention, her daughter was born

at the age of seven during the winter solstice, which

happened to be particularly cold that year. She called

her Louise.

NARRATOR

Louise never knew her father

NARRATOR

Mr Brown was a lightning conductor representative.

He thought he’d do well in London.

NARRATOR

He was wrong.

NARRATOR

He left during the third year of Mrs Brown’s pregnancy

and took residency in a country “at the measure of his

ambition”. He was never heard from again.

NARRATOR

Mrs Brown had always told her daughter that her

father was professional cyclist who had gone to cycle

around the world and that maybe he will come back ;

one day.

NARRATOR

Louise has always been dubious of this, even if since

then she became a fervent follower of cycling events.

NARRATOR

During her childhood, Louise spent most of her time

withdrawn from any contact, devoting her time to restrained

and specified activities.

NARRATOR

When it was raining, and it was often because it was

Great Britain, Louise use to take endless baths and

imagined all London disappeared under the water.

NARRATOR

Her social interactions were restricted to the monthly

meeting of the her mother’s Genetic Engineers Club

(GEC), where she was the central point of attention.

NARRATOR

The circumstances of Louise’s birth and the specificity

of her social community, gave her a precocious development

as well as an impenetrable self-confidence.

NARRATOR

Louise spent the next decade focusing on her passion

for botanics, though her mother secretly tried to nourish

her interest in astrophysics.

NARRATOR

Louise completed her PhD in Biology and Environmental

Science at the University of Sussex in collaboration

with Kew Gardens. Her diploma was composed of

the creation of two original specimens: the Kalhocactaceae

and the Sarracenia Calypso, new species of

hypoallergenic plants.

NARRATOR

During a study on fossil plants, she discovered the

DNA of the Cryptoclidus. She created a specimen,

Mary, that she keeps in a fish tank.

NARRATOR

Three years later, the family cat ate the miniaturized

dinosaurs toy given in the packet of biscuits and died.

NARRATOR

Following this tragic incident, she decided that her

research on dinosaurs should never be published and

destroyed them.

NARRATOR

As the fishtank grew smaller, Louise chose to release

Mary in a remote Lake in Scotland. She would always

be missed.

NARRATOR

From that moment on, Louise went regularly visit the

sea otter of the London Zoo. During one of her visits,

she decided to put an end to her blues and to take up

swimming.

NARRATOR

The day before her twenty-first birthday, Louise placed

fourth at the regional 400m swimming championship.

NARRATOR

Exactly one year later Louise left earth.

Louise was offered a place on Dorrado: an orbital selfsufficient

biosphere. She left at ten in the morning from

Kennedy space center, her mother was present at the

launch, overcome with joy.

Poster

2011-01-31T19:12:00.000Z

Poster for my animation to be.

The new york time

2010-12-07T14:00:00.001Z

Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem-Solving

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07brain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hpw

"The punch line is that a good joke can move the brain toward just this kind of state. In their humor study, Dr. Beeman and Dr. Subramaniam had college students solve word-association puzzles after watching a short video of a stand-up routine by Robin Williams. The students solved more of the puzzles over all, and significantly more by sudden insight, compared with when they’d seen a scary or boring video beforehand."

"The findings fit with dozens of experiments linking positive moods to better creative problem-solving. “The implication is that positive mood engages this broad, diffuse attentional state that is both perceptual and visual,” said Dr. Anderson. “You’re not only thinking more broadly, you’re literally seeing more. The two systems are working in parallel.”

The idea that a distracted brain can be a more insightful one is still a work in progress."

The myth of Sisyphus

2010-10-15T16:18:00.001+01:00

Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide".^[13] "Revolt" here refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd; "Freedom" refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others' moral codes; "Passion" refers to the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so it is concluded that every moment be lived fully.

Existentialisme / Absurdisme / Nihilisme

2010-10-15T13:19:00.000+01:00

Vincent

2010-08-23T18:56:00.000+01:00

Louise Bourgeois ...

2010-06-06T19:50:00.001+01:00

... is dead

and it makes a hole suddenly.

Sleeping Beauty

2010-01-29T18:29:00.002Z

Les Shadock : les pasoirs

2010-01-23T17:34:00.002Z

Don Hertzfeldt - Rejected

2010-01-23T17:20:00.003Z

2010-01-19T17:55:00.001Z

SOME POINTS ABOUT METAFICTION

DEFINITION

· Metafiction is simultaneously to create a fiction and to make a statement about the creation of that fiction.
· Metafiction is a mode of writing within a broader cultural movement often referred to as post-modernism.
· Metafiction draws attention to the process of the re-contextualization that occurs when language is used aesthetically, when language is used playfully.
· All metafiction ‘plays’ with the form of the novel, but not all playfulness in fiction is of the metafictional variety. Metafiction very deliberately undermines a system.
· In fiction, the description of an object brings that object into existence. In the everyday world, the object determines the description.
· Metafiction maintains a finely balanced tension between awareness of its literary-fictional condition and its desire to create imaginative realities, alternative worlds, in which the reader can still become absorbed.

STRUCTURE
· A metafiction novel often begins with an explicit discussion of the arbitrary nature of beginning, of boundaries, and they may end with a sign of the impossibility of ending.
· Any text that draws the reader’s attention to is process of construction by frustrating his or her conventional expectations of meaning and closure problematizes more or less explicitly the ways in which narrative codes artificially construct apparently ‘real’ and imaginary world in the terms of particular ideologies.
· Everything is framed
What is a frame ?
Is it more than the front and back cover of a book ? The only frame of which the reader is sure is the front and back cover the book he is holding.
Analysis of frames involves analysis of the formal conventional organization of novel.
The concept of frame includes Chinese-box structure which context the reality of each individual ‘box’ though a nesting of narrators.
· Parody and inversion are two strategies, which operate in the way of frame-break.
· Characters in fiction are of course, literally signs on a page before they are anything else. Novels are primarily a word of words.
· Parody in metafiction may operate at the level of style or of structure.
· More commonly, metafiction parodies the structural conventions and motifs of the novel itself (as in T S) or of particular mode of that genre.
· In metafiction, the criticism is provided in the work itself by the process which produces the joke or parody, for this method of displacement and substitution carries with it an implicit critical function. Parody in metafiction, despite what is critics might argue, is more than a joke.
· A fictional character both exists and does not exist.
· Through many metafictional novels, characters suddenly realize that they do not exist, cannot die, have never been born, can not act.
· Being or not being ; the fictional characters do not exist until we know who they are. We can refer to them and discuss them.
· Fictional characters may travel in space and time, die and carry on living, murder their authors or have love affairs with them. Some may read about the story of their lives or write a book in which they appear. Sometimes they know what is going to happen to the and attempt to prevent it.
· Names are used to display the arbitrary control of the writer.
· Pretending characters are free can only be a game.
· Fictional characters have no identity outside the script, and do not ultimately have identity within the script. One common metafictional strategy is to present characters who are aware of this condition, and who thus implicitly draw attention to the fictional creation/description paradox.
· Sometimes character believe they are creating their own fictional identity, but the reader always knows that it is being created for them.
· Sarah (the French …) is mythical : she stand outside “history” and “fiction”. She haunts Folwes in his “real” life.
· To play with the relation between story and discourse, a common strategy is to begin a novel in the first person and then to shift to third-person narration and then back again.
· Metafiction novel which shift from the personal form “I” of discourse to the impersonal “he” of story remind the reader that the narrating “I” is the subject of the discourse.
· I do not say “I am going to describe myself”, but “I am writing a text and I call it my name” … I myself am my own symbol. I am the story which happens to me.

EXAMPLES
· « Since I have started thinking about this story, i ve gotten boils, piles, eye strain, stomach spasms, anxiety attacks. »
· « Fuck all this lying look, what I am really trying to write about is not writing about all his stuff “
· When Fowles discusses the facts that these characters he created never existed outside his own mind, the particular reality forced upon the reader is that the character who is the apparent teller of the tale is the inventor and not the recorder of the events that happened.
· Some metafictional novelist makes the reader explicitly aware of his or her role as player. The reader has to choose the ending in the French …
· When the conventions regarding fictive time, for example, are undermined in Tristram Shandy, the novel never gets Under way as an histoire but fictions only as a self regarding discourse which never quite manages to get the story told.
· The basic strategy of the novel (Tristram Shandy) is regarding through incompletion. At all levels of Tristram Sandy, nothing is competed, Walter’s encyclopaedia is never written. The novel begins with a description of the coistus interruptus which brings Tristram into the world. The central narrative is never finished because it is continually punctuated by descriptions of events whose relevance to the main story is apparent only to Tristram himself. Character are repeatedly ‘frozen’ in time, stranded in odd voyeuristic poses at keyholes, or left in strange physical positions.

CONSEQUENCES
· Metafictionnal deconstruction has not only provides novelists and readers a better understanding of the narrative structure, it is also offering a extremely accurate model for understanding the contemporary experience of the world as a construction, an artefact, a web of independent semiotic systems.
· Metafiction, does not abandon ‘the real world’ for the narcissistic pleasure of imagination, it does to re examine the conventions realism in order to discover through its own self reflection – a fictional form that is culturally relevant and comprehensible to contemporary readers. Metafiction help us to understand how the reality we live day by day is similarly constructed, similarly « written ».
· Of course we know that we are Reading is not real, but we suppress the knowledge in order to increase our enjoyment. We tend to read fiction as if it were history.
· Metafiction suggest not only that writing history is a fictional art, but that history itself is invested, like fiction, with interrelating plots which appear to interact independently of human design.

MORE
· Far from « dying » the novel has reached a mature recognition of its existence as writing.
· It is impossible to describe an objective world, because the observer always changes the observed.
· I am the father of the book, the mother is the recorder machine.
· Truth and fiction, is telling stories telling lies ?
· The more the author appear the less he exists.
· The death of the author makes possible the birth of the reader.