Storyboarding: Inspired by inactivity

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Last night, because I wasn't working on music or anything else worth my time, I decided I should still use my energy and work on something. So I cracked open a dusty text file with the outlines for the story of the film and read. Unable to focus long on the words, I decided to attack from a different angle and opened up a sketchbook where I have a sparse few doodles penciled in for this project. I blocked out a corner of a blank page and started to set up the opening shot of the film. Then the next block and the next and realized I could really see the story better unfolding in storyboard form.

I've only done a few cells so far but I can already feel the story making more sense. So long as I can fill in the blanks between the major moments I'm sketching, this could actually work. Of course character designs, color palates, and over all style are still nebulous. But when have I ever done a project "like everyone else?" I mean, I started with a soundtrack and I'm working backwards!

The storyboards will definitely help me see everything better and give me something to come back to when I'm not sure what to do next. Everyone else involved in this project is in the midst of other more pressing matters. One brother, Mike,  is directing and shooting a movie with one group, designing websites, and still working a day job. Another brother, John, is preparing for his first baby with his wife! (Congratulations to all three of them! ^__^) My sister Theresa is busy with a dance/performance art group and various collaborative art projects. And my other brother Jim is a full time parent and part time thinker-of-big-things who is getting ready to move his great big family to Texas. Put all our skills together on the table and this movie can definitely happen. It's just a matter of coordination between individual endeavors and life-matters and those pesky day jobs we call livelihoods.

Perhaps I'll share these early storyboards some time. Especially if they become outdated and are replaced by better work from Mike. He's the animation guy here after all! Until then, watch this beautiful 26+ minute film I found on YouTube and completely adore. It's set in a dark Steampunk world where the sky is sailed upon like the seas and monsters are waiting behind closed doors.

Also, here's a music video for a song called Eye of the Storm. The songwriter was involved in making the video as well. There's a behind the scene video as well which shows how hard they worked on this. Inspiring stuff from both videos!

Merry Steamery & Punkitude,
--dam

More Silence and Looking Busy

It has been, once again, quite a while. Again.

My most recent attempts to recreate Part 3 of the music that was lost have been, at best, failures. Mostly due to the spontaneity involved in the composition and arrangement of the piece. I attacked this music with far less discipline and much more of the whimsy and madness I so long to employ in my work. I think this kind of orchestration lends itself to a little madness, as does the steampunk genre as a whole. So, clearly, this inability to recreate a spontaneous work means it won't ever be exactly as I meant it at that moment. But hopefully, with a little time and a lot of mad luck, I can make something that is on par if not better than what I intended. THEN....

Then? This movie can actual move. The plot is there. Details need to be sorted and then finer details, still. But I think I have a great piece of art to share. And I'll be damned if I don't see it through as far as I can on my own and with the help of my sibling-cohorts.

Now, I know this is not much of an update. It's rehashing of previous thoughts. But, really, it's exactly where I'm at with this project. Frustrated, and honestly, pissed off at my own artistic abilities. That will pass and in will come some clarity, soon. In the meantime, I continue to work on my solo musical endeavors found here: www.davemagario.com.

Currently, I'm working on my first ever proper studio album, as many of you know. Most of you probably even have a few dollars of vested interest in this project. (Many thanks for that. You know I love you for it.) So please keep an eye out at my website and here for any movement in this film project. It will be a labor of love and time. Thanks for the continue interest! See you around the web and in the real world.

--dam

Sometimes, computers hate us without knowing it.

In case you didn't know. It's 2011 now. Way to go, Dave, on keeping up with the times. This beautiful idea of mine. This concept...it's still in the conceptualization stage. Because of the loss of music-files in the folder for this project, the entire 3rd movement of this piece has to be re-recorded and somehow rebuilt with only a scratch take to base it off of. SO much work and energy lost to the infinite abyss that holds all of our collective lost files. Sometimes, computers hate us without knowing it.

All that said, I haven't given up on this project. But I am still royally PISSED. The track that I lost had roughly 15 tracks (different audio layers). It was about 5 1/2 minutes long. That all took me a dozen upon dozens of hours to record, re-record, mix, edit, and so on. And it was nearly finished. Just a couple things were left... So to have it be scrapped...and need to start over? You can see why I've had to step back. I almost said 'Forget it' and tossed the whole thing. That would have been stupid and brash. I would have regretted it.

So, this year, I plan to buy a new keyboard. With that, plus a hopeful reviving of my trumpet skills, I'll be able to rebuild Part 3 and put this project back on track. My siblings have some great ideas and really keen senses for artistic direction. I'm positive we will see this thing finished. Here's to a new year, folks. I'll see you around the steampunk'd bend.

The Interum

There's been pause in the progress of the project mostly due to the growth of my solo-music endeavors and preparation for an upcoming tour. But I promise I think about this project every day! Time is simply limited. Please in the meantime, check out my main blog (Dave, Officially.) and keep up with all the happenings leading up to and throughout the tour!

I know you were probably hoping for some stunning update but for now I felt I should update you as to WHY there is no significant update. Keep your eyes peeled for more though. Always.

Until then, I'm Dave Magario. "Keep watching the skis. ..I mean skies."

Update: Week 3 (sort of)

I'm back with an update on the project!

It's still really early on in the whole process. We've got this fantastic story that's growing and a mountain of reference materials to sort through and absorb. The cool bit is the location I chose. I am going with an actual city and going back to the mid-to-late 1800s to mix in the steampunk look with the local culture. It's a fantastic process and I don't think there is anything like it out there. And what city is it, you ask? I've settled on Braşov, România. It's one of the largest cities in the country and about 150 years ago, it's exactly what I'm looking for. The population is just about right. The factories and war-time mentality fits. In the mid 1800's, Romania wasn't even an established country yet. It was still split into various small principalities/kingdoms -- Moldavia (Romanian: Moldova) and Wallachia (Romanian: Valahia). By the end of World War I, Transylvania and a few others joined the growing nation. 


Within this country, there are several languages and base cultures to work with. The dominant ones of course are Hungarian, Romanian, and German. French, Spanish, Italian, and English are taught in schools and millions of people speak these languages. As you can see, I've been doing some homework. The history of this city is rich and reaches back as far as 100 BC. Plus, Prince Vlad the Impaler! (Dracula!?!?) The fun part of all this is going to be melding the Romanian culture, clothing, and customs into the gears, leather, brass, and contraptions of the ideal steampunk world. The "Victorian Era" for Romania was full of colorful clothing, beautiful architectural masterpieces, and a coming-together of long separated peoples to build a new nation. There is so much to work with! 


Goals: We plan to focus our efforts on finishing a draft (if not a finished product) of the Introduction and Part I. That's roughly 7 minutes worth to work on. With this we may look for outside help to finish the film. Hopefully extra knowledgeable animators. But for now we are ironing out details and beginning to explore what the characters will look like. 


More to come, as always...
--dave

Origin and Mutation

A few of you have already heard how this project came about, but for those of you just joining us, here's the back story of the And It Hurts project.

In 2004 I was unemployed and uninspired for the most port. But one evening, I had a bolt out of the blue find me and I started writing a song. As I wrote the parts I would record them and edit as I went. 12 hours later I had (what I thought at the time was) this amazing, epic piece. It was almost 7 minutes long and had three distinct movements. After a while, I decided I didn't care for the recording and the whole song was shelved.

Now jump forward to 2009. The 'demo for the solo listener' EP was in the final stages before I started making copies to the CD release show. A glitch in my audio software had slowed down one of the tracks, Come See, making the mp3 about 26 1/2 minutes long instead of 4. When I listened to the track, what I heard was fascinating. Rattling. Rumbling. Groaning. Clanking. It sounded like a demon detuning the bass strings of a piano. An alarm immediately went off in my head. I need to sample these sounds!

The samples started to form this mechanical rhythm and I knew exactly what to do with it. I started recording guitar parts and vocals from the '04 AIH track and quickly realized this was going to be longer and more complex. It turned into three movements and had this rich underlying emotional drive. The same emotions I felt when writing the song but amplified and expanded to 15 minutes and more instruments.

Parts 1 and 2 came together pretty quickly but Part 3 was eluding me for some reason, so sometime in the fall last year I put the project aside to work on a live album. Now it's 2010 and about a week ago I decided to get back into this music. After three days and 10 or so hours of work, I was about 80% finished with the track. But the software crashed and erased every shred of audio in Part 3. Luckily I had exported an mp3 of what I'd done so far right before this. So I'm in a tough spot as far as that goes. It's either start over trying to rebuild and recall everything I'd done so far, start from scratch completely, or work with what I've got and add to the mp3 to complete the track.

Since I started this up in 2009, I've felt the need to do some sort of videos for these tracks. From there it seemed to want to be one continuous, short film. Animation seemed like a good way to go. Now, I'm not going to give hints about plot or anything yet but the style is going to be steampunk. If you have heard of it yet, check out that wiki link. The music will be the soundtrack to the film. There won't be spoken dialogue, but there will be sound for sure. I'm shooting for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes long.

Ok so that's the history of the project. More to come, soon as there's something to post up!

First thing's first...

Welcome to the new blog for the brand new film project I've started! I will be posting updates about the progress and process. Since it's new territory for me I enlisted the help of my brother Mike whose an animator and artist. I also asked my siblings John and Theresa (Architect/Writer and Poet/Artist/Dancer respectively,) to help along the way. So it's a family affair, but it will most likely grow beyond that if need-be.

Thanks to the wonders of Google Wave (still in beta/invite only mode) I have been able to get the ball rolling with the others with full-on discussions and brainstorming for design, setting, and the over all look and feel. Some great ideas have come about in just a couple different conversations so I can't wait to see what comes next!

In the next post, I will talk about the origins of the project; how it started at a 7 minute song and found its way to being involved with a short film.