Posts from — July 2009

Well, our short film The Room at the Top of the Stairs is finally approaching production, after months of planning, speculation, stress and procrastination. As I write this the art department is busily dressing the set - a spooky old house in West Hobart, currently uninhabited. This is a big task, as it’s a huge house and has to be filled up with all sorts of weird stuff that art students might have made or collected. On the upside, these characters are not very domestic (or wealthy) and so don’t need to have much furniture.

This will be our "art school sharehouse"

We’re also having wardrobe, make-up and camera tests today. Sean (costume designer) is busily putting together outfits for the key cast. I’m excited to see how it all comes together… It’s realistic art student fashion, but a little heightened. Not boho, more a bit folk, apparently. And layering. The make-up, courtesy of Liz, is going to be pretty natural but with an occasional touch of glamour (because they are artists after all).

Rehearsals for The Room at the Top of the Stairs are picking up momentum. The cast have been doing improvisations to get to know their characters more and we had our first rehearsal at the location tonight, which really helped. There was some intense action with some of the scenes - shouting and pushing each other around (well, mainly pushing Kate around!). It was all very Jerry Springer, which is good because that’s what I wanted.  Hmm, how often do you hear a director say that?. I hope the neighbours weren’t too freaked out.

As the title of this post implies, today was the first cast readthrough of our short film The Room at the Top of the Stairs.  I wanted to have a proper readthrough so that everyone could get an idea of the flow of the piece and how their character fits into the scheme of the story. It was good to finally see the actors together in one room, helps to get a sense of whether they will be convincing as a group of peers.  I think they will - which is lucky because I don’t fancy having to find more actors, it was hard enough to get this lot!

Learn how levels and enemies where designed in part two of The Design of Piccolo’s Adventure and how the player would control Piccolo.
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If you’ve been up to date with us you’ll know that Arcade Trap has been selected to screen in a few film festivals. One of them happens to be right above us. Yes that’s right, heaven. No wait, it’s Melbourne! Realising this would be a great opportunity for us, Adam and I decided to visit this uncanny area Yes! Finally an opportunity to meet fellow animators, see other animations, meet famous animators and celebrate animation in general… all with the help of special liquids.

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After auditioning many young actors over the past few weeks, we’ve finally cast the lead in our short film The Room at the Top of the Stairs.  Fiannah de Rue, a Year 12 student at Hobart College with considerable theatre experience, will take on the role.  I hope she’s ready for some hard work becuase she’s in almost every scene!