The JasEn Show

I made 3 short films called "The JasEn Show". All contain different styles of animation. The first of 3 instalments, I didn't use any toys at all. I used a friends awesome drawings, which I animated, and a photo of a bowl of fruit in my kitchen; which I also animated. For the second, I used a brief stop-motion I filmed on my loungeroom floor with random kitchen objects, it worked out well until I decided to light the candles which melted wax and went everywhere haha. I used Adobe Flash andPhotoshop with live shots and pure animation. I took a lot of photos in an old folks home, which I ended up getting kicked out from because apparently you can't take photos in an old folks home. I still took photos on the way out to make sure I got what I need! The last part was stock footage with my own voiceover. For the 3rd I used my distraction as the main attraction, my cat Soda. He always interrupts for his own attention, which is fine. Except when I need him not too. This gave me the idea to use him in this short. For the 4th, I used Lego all the way! I decided to take the kids toys to the next level, but wasn't sure how. Most of the Lego animations used green screens etc. Maybe I should go in another direction with the actual scripts. So I did. I have been watching a lot of "Robot Chicken" and they use kids toys to produce some wonderful adult animation. This was the direction I decided to go. Enjoy....

"The Weirding Room"

This is the third installment from my "North Stradbroke" trilogy. I made this the first night of a weekend away. I basically got the idea on the spur of the moment and ran with it taking multiple photos on a 10sec timer until I thought I had enough photos to work with. I really enjoy the spur of the moment ideas. It is what I do best. Unscripted madness I guess. I never know when they are going to happen but when they do - I try and make them happen. In this case it did nicely. I really had no idea what I was doing or what the outcome would be but that was no reason to stop!

North Stradbroke Island in Time Lapse

One of the things I've been trying to do is find my own style. We all do I guess. I've tried a few styles now and one of them is Time-Lapse which I've experimented with a few times now. Both in a studio with Lego and outside in the real world. It's something that I find quite challenging because I really am not sure going into it, what I'm really going to end up with. When I say that I know what the pictures are because I took them but the end result is always a mystery. It's like opening a present that you've had hints about. "It's a teddy bear - but how big is the bear?" Recently I went to North Stradbroke Island for 4 days for a wedding. During this time I took photos everywhere I walked, every 5 or so steps. I did all the places I went to, sometimes twice, and then went back and edited them all to fit together over 2 videos. I'm quite pleased with the end results, even though they are a bit jerky, it still works well with the great music my friend Jim Stanley aka Anvilheadmusic.com provided. These really turned out quite well. I managed to mix the still photos with live video in places. I didn't expect to get as much footage in the end as I did. I aimed for about 3 minutes but ended up with over 12 minutes. Well that's enough rambling on - here are the 2 videos....

Feral Berryl

Ok so this one is based on a poem I wrote during my "poetry" phase of 1991 - 1995. Most of the stuff I wrote then was the basic A,B,A,B rhyming style. This particular poem was written in 1994 when I was in the midst of my "clubbing/pubbing" era. By this stage I knew a bit about human body language (thanks Alan Pease) and I saw this type of behaviour alot whilst sitting at the bar people-watching. The filming itself had alot of issues, mainly camera related with my lens deciding it didn't want to work properly anymore so I had to repeat a few of the dancing loops which cheapens it a bit but doesn't really detract from it so much. Well, here it is: "Feral Berryl"

Smoked by Salmon

This was a labour of love and time. Neither of which I had time for. Yet, going into it I knew both but still pushed myself to complete it. So yeah - not sure. Was originally intended for the Sydney Tropfest but I just didn't have the time to make the deadline. Luckily enough another film festival on the Gold Coast with a deadline a few weeks later was what I knew I could make and did. I really pushed myself to make this deadline. I was totally drained emotionally by the end. With work and TAFE, sleep came a distant 3rd in this equation; and it showed. I actually got caught sleeping at work. As far as the outcome is concerned. I'm still unsure if I like this. I'd have preferred more shots with the traffic to not repeat the shots I used but overall, I guess those shots were needed to show the fact that this was happening day after day after day.

Star Wars Vs Peer Pressure

This video was one that I made based purely on "well if you're animating Lego - you may as well do a 'Star Wars".... And so I did. This was originally totally scripted but after the shoot (which I wasn't fond of the outcome) - I decided against. I actually scrapped this whole project but then after a month I went back and looked at what I had and realised it had 'musical potential'. And thus it happened.

Lego Stop Motion/Time Lapse Modulars

I previously posted a Stop-Motion/Time-Lapse of the Lego "Fire Brigade" Since then I have continued on and done a further 3 Lego Modular sets, the Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, and the Town Hall. So here are the 3 videos