HELP video project

This is the ten-minute film I created for the community development organisation Health Empowerment Leverage Project (HELP). The footage available was wither from previously-edited material and therefore was not raw footage, or was more recently recorded with a handheld camera in quite noisy environments. The challenge was turning this footage into a film without embedded bits of music stopping and starting, the editing seeming too choppy, and the recorded voices being legible.

This is in fact the second version of the video: the original purpose of the film was a material to assist in explaining HELP in community events and training. I was therefore able to use copywrited music on the soundtrack since the video was for private, non-commercial use.

The organisation then decided they would like to make the video available online so the soundtrack needed to be changed - and since the soundtrack I put on was disguising a lot of choppy music clips not removal from the previously edited footage, I could not simply remove the soundtrack altogether. I had to find suitable replacement music available copywriter free.

This site is completely brilliant for that, and I'm grateful for all the people out there who share their music free of charge!

To America!

... And here's the finished product:

I'm still playing around with that background inbetween doing bits of animation, trying to achieve more of the effect I want. I'm much happier with this version, using a photographic background to the tent (after all that work drawing a tent, grr). Also using a Petrushka-themed paper I found for the stage.

I've been playing around with the character's shapes and proportions, having decided they're too normal looking and wanting them to be a bit more grotesque and strange.



Here's what I've so far (for the Moor, the Ballerina and Petrushka):

So... yeah.

I hate when that happens: you've got all your seperate elements working fine, then you put a few together and get something different from what you expected.

I mean, this looks fine, except it's too clean-cut and bright. That really wasnt the intention.

I think it's the bright, pastel colours of the Petrushka puppet against the background. I might have to do some re-colouring on him.

Also possibly the faintness of the outlines? Perhaps if they were heavier, the jointed puppet nature would be more obvious?

Oh, I did replace the stage surrounds with speaker stacks here, which I think works better.

Flash is not my friend today...

... So while I wait for it to sort itself out/crash I'll say abit about how I've been colouring the characters and scenery.

I wanted lots of pattern and detail, and I happen to have a big bag of bits of nce paper I've collected over the years which get used in the collages i do (kathrynrosamillerart.co.uk).

So, I scan a selection in and do some preliminary work in a graphics program. I decide which patterns would go where on the characters' clothes, and usually play around with the colour balance and saturation and stuff. When I've got a rough representation I import the lines and colour seperately into Flash and start neatening everything up, adding shading etc.

This is the background I've created for the main part of the video - the performance of the puppets in this Big Top/puppet theatre style marques.

It's pretty heavily based on Petrushka again - the starry background; the stage surrounds etc are based directly on the ballet sets. I drew the structure of the tent by hand and scanned it in, out and the colouring is a mixture of painting within Flash and images and patterns I've imported, vectorised and played around with.

I'm not sure this isnt too much like the ballet set, though... considering the puppet characters that are going to be in this setting are also very heavily based on Petrushka, it might all be a bit too much. I want a mix of the ballet with other elements. Like some rock n roll imagery.

At the moment the only incongruous element is the collection of lanterns hanging from the roof, which I like...

I'm thinking of changing a couple of elements, like maybe replacing the stage surrounds with speaker stacks or something.