we've enjoyed this quite a bit.
Thanksgiving
A total humungous thank you to all of you (KyleChrissyLeviPerryEvanandErisy) who came out and hoopla-ed and feasted with us all in the name of a how-to video. We had a blast and we're even more ready for the fall to come. Enjoy this little video that was thrown together in the same amount of time it took to write this post. You guys are so awesome and we're still eating your leftovers.
Devil's Dungeon
Two nights ago we found ourselves standing behind a warehouse in east nashville being spat on numerous times by a bloke guzzling mouthfuls of fake blood. for the folks at devil's dungeon haunted house this was not just the only way to apply realistic looking blood to their actors, but it also serves as a sort of initiation for newbies like us. fake blood is thick too. like mcdonalds hot cake syrup that drips in your mouth and sticks your eyelids to your forehead. after slicing our costumes to bits, dying our hair, and mooning the general jackson as it passed by on the cumberland, we were herded into our spots within the building where we spent the next five hours heaving ourselves into unrestrained insanity for the benefit of the paying customer. Tripp wielded a skill saw and flapped around on the floor like a madman, occasionally chopping off a fellow actresses legs whilst screaming. Jenna managed to stalk an entire room by herself often spinning a baby around on a rotating dartboard. We've always been connoisseurs of haunted houses, in a way they're like the ultimate art installation, where everyone involved gets a little dose of dementia. One day maybe we'll open one....
squish. squeesh. whatever.
you can eat this to lunch with a bottle of skunks. weeeeeyooooooop. deathray.
Well we've finally walked the old demo reel woefully out to the back tool shed, eased it against the outer wall and blown it to smithereens with a suppressed sob. However! Phantasmic now has a new parade of clips representing itself to future seekers of weird animation and quirky films. Let us know what you think, if you're reading this there's probably a good chance you made it into this thing somewhere (seeing as most of you who do are more than likely just our close friends.) anyway.... mmmm hot totties.
Summer is Dying
the pools we used to sneak into every night are slowly being covered. leaves are ever so subtly beginning to ease their way off the trees and take their first small flight to the decorate the once beaminginly green grass. we're even beginning to drink less iced coffee. enjoy this mix of music as your summer easily drifts to the southern hemisphere. we're most certainly looking forward to an exquisite fall. get it HERE.
SCREENING
OFFICIAL SCREENING PARTY:Friday
7pm
801 Katheridge Ct. - Brentwood
Call Tripp at 646-457-9844 for directions or details or anything else pleasant. We will also be playing a few surprise oddities as well leading up to the video.
Peace!
COMPLETION
beginning with a 2am phone call which lead to a 2:15am freezing conversation atop our apartment roof on 94th street in new york we've been plotting and scheming and sketching and twirling our hair erratically leading to what would eventually become this video. Our first idea for the thing involved a centralized stop motion figure which was supposed to be duplicated and animated to perform a sort of experimental dance segment amdist an alienish space station. From March until early April we storyboarded each shot for this idea to the exact frame and picture count required. We created concept art, mock ups and a fully functional central character. Three days from our shooting date we arrived to the studio to proceed with test shots and found that the spray paint we chose to cover our wonderful model in, munched straight through the armature wire, rendering him a stump.
tripp stamped on his hat a couple of times and we left the studio fuming about the aspect of rebuilding the thing. the next morning Tripp moped to Fido for a cup of coffee with his sketchbook and began doodling about with what could be done to fix the situation. four pages of scribbled nonsense later, a new idea was drawn out - we chucked out our previous plan and went with a new one that felt much more lightweight and exciting in a childish sort of way. we described the idea in one phone call to our friend and lead singer of the band as a hippy's Mr. Toad's wild ride, a kitsch confetti explosion of stop motion, classical, and motion designed animation scenes all sewn together into one long tunnel walt disney world dark ride. Tiger said he'd love whatever we made so we began shooting two weeks later.
returning to old sketchbooks from the days of new york and savannah and Tripp's childhood drawings, we began to gather as many ideas as we could muster to cram into 3 minutes 42 seconds. the original list of proposed shots spans six pages front and back. out of all of them probably only 15% made it completely into the video, most either got changed, 86ed, or couldn't be read from their original illegibly scrawled conception. because our studio was situated comfortably alongside the cumberland river it became annihilated by May 1st in the floods of Nashville. we managed to get most of the expensive stuff out but were left with nowhere to begin shooting.......until we hauled the rest of our junk to the basement of Tripp's father's house in the suburbs. From May to June we constructed, shot, animated, scouted, acted, casted, choreographed, painted, and designed all that would appear in the video.....all within Tripp's dad's basement. It became quite humbling....
The entire project was edited solely in After Effects CS5 and Final Cut Pro. Each scene was handled separately and then later carefully "sewn" together to form one seamless shot. Here are some stats for the finished video:
15,033 pictures taken
121 individual after effects save files
119 hours render time for Master file
669 layers created in the first comp of the finale in AE
All together equaling 511 gb of space total
This video has set a few records for us and we've learned an unfathomable amount while working on it. The ending scene turned out to be so confusing it required a few math equations to structure correctly. We are both very excited about how it all came together and look forward to showing it to all the people who helped us put it together. We will be screening the video in full quality this MONDAY NIGHT at 7pm in the projection room of our friend Reece Tucker's basement In Brentwood. The facebook event page can be found HERE or call Tripp at 646-457-9844 for directions/info. Hope to see you there!
Luggage has appeared underneath Tripp's eyes in the form of overstuffed suitcases packed for international travel. Sleeping schedule = reversed and shortened and dreaming is filled with mathematical equations plotting xyz values for creatures in a symmetrical circle. The finale scene for the Morning Teleportation video is ALMOST complete and has established itself as the apex of all that is absurdly and intricately confusing to edit. Assuming After Effects does not crash, we should have a finished version of the whole shebang around tomorrow evening. Now how exciting is that.....
Bohemian Paint
A Bohemian throws paint on a canvas in a grungy studio. Second to last shoot on the music video! crack editing days will soon be ending. Tripp's eyes are going to turn into squares!
CRACKIE DAY 4
arose at 1pm. drank refrigerated iced coffee for breakfast and skipped a shower to cruise around with my sister and car dance to sleigh bells, gunther, and morning teleportation. edited endless staircases, tunnels with curtains made of legos, plant cells, and a wobbling hillside manor. in the background played Hook, Roger Rabbit, Ponyo, High Fidelity and Ace Ventura interrupted continuously with music from Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Midnight Vultures. and its a venti americano to split with Jenna and sushi at the bar afterwards at Peters. Day 5 shall begin at approximately 2pm. welcome morning.
Crackie
Today commences the 5 Day Crack Editing session. Tripp is only taking bathroom and scooter ride breaks and will be eating at his computer for the next five days to try and bust out the Morning Teleportation music video. Jenna will be editing other projects and not so much like a crackie. There will be a lot of movie watching/listening and more coffee than usual this week and we can't wait!
Last Weekish
a recap of the last weekish or so:
*Rok and Twiggy DJed/VJed a miscellaneous party in the boro to a crowd of partially dressed up cult film characters, and many not so dressed up characters that could however have passed as anyone from Dazed and Confused.
*caught SLEIGH BELLS at the The End, which turned out to be one of the most explosively energizing shows we've seen in quite a while. After a week of solid after effects editing it felt more than liberating to heave ourselves freely into strangers whilst belting lyrics until our voices gave out--all while having beer poured on our heads by Alexis Krauss and the occasional crowd surfer tumble onto our foreheads. To sum up the evening we steal a perfect quote from a disheveled looking girl smoking a cigarette outside, post show: "I don't know if I was fucked or baptized!"
*about two weeks from now we'll be finishing the epic music video for MORNING TELEPORATION that has been unofficially in the works since a 2am phone call from the roof of our apartment in Manhattan in January.. a couple stills below:
*we will be adventuring to Chicago this weekend for the Pitchfork Music Festival (read "hipster fest 2010") where we will catch two of our favorite modern musicians Noah Lennox and James Murphy in the same evening.
*and in case you haven't heard it yet here is the first track off of Panda Bear's newest upcoming album in the Fall of this year. We highly recommend plopping on the headphones and going for a nightly stroll on the first listen. Highly ethreal....
*Rok and Twiggy DJed/VJed a miscellaneous party in the boro to a crowd of partially dressed up cult film characters, and many not so dressed up characters that could however have passed as anyone from Dazed and Confused.
*caught SLEIGH BELLS at the The End, which turned out to be one of the most explosively energizing shows we've seen in quite a while. After a week of solid after effects editing it felt more than liberating to heave ourselves freely into strangers whilst belting lyrics until our voices gave out--all while having beer poured on our heads by Alexis Krauss and the occasional crowd surfer tumble onto our foreheads. To sum up the evening we steal a perfect quote from a disheveled looking girl smoking a cigarette outside, post show: "I don't know if I was fucked or baptized!"
*about two weeks from now we'll be finishing the epic music video for MORNING TELEPORATION that has been unofficially in the works since a 2am phone call from the roof of our apartment in Manhattan in January.. a couple stills below:
*we will be adventuring to Chicago this weekend for the Pitchfork Music Festival (read "hipster fest 2010") where we will catch two of our favorite modern musicians Noah Lennox and James Murphy in the same evening.
*and in case you haven't heard it yet here is the first track off of Panda Bear's newest upcoming album in the Fall of this year. We highly recommend plopping on the headphones and going for a nightly stroll on the first listen. Highly ethreal....
DEADBEAT SUMMER
Here it is. Finally completed. The summer playlist brought to you with exquisite research and toil by us here at Toad Hall. Put on some waterproof headphones and crash lazily into the deep end of someone else's pool and vibe away with this warbley comforting haze.
Experimental Party in the Boro!
We'll be djing and vjing to an extraordinary party in the Murfreesboro tonight. Being that its the boro it will always be a whimsical hoot. this is an open invitation to everyone ready to come dress up as your favorite cult film character and dance to the soul energizing beats of ROKI and MAGE with live visuals by Twiggy and the AfriKan.
address = 1810 Jordan Ave, Murfreesboro, TN
time = tenish?
we call this one "those paint splotches"
address = 1810 Jordan Ave, Murfreesboro, TN
time = tenish?
we call this one "those paint splotches"
"Those Paint Splotches" from twiggy watt on Vimeo.
Exit through the gift shop
We just caught Banksy's first film "Exit through the Gift shop" at the Belcourt. We left the theatre struck with inspiration and wanted to head straight to Wally World, pick up a dozen cans of spray paint, cardboard boxes and a matte knife. We can't seem to go anywhere after the film without noticing would be brilliant spaces for a bit of street art. There is something fascinating and awe inspiring about street art. Some pieces only stay up for a matter of hours and usually the artist goes with little to no recognition. It is definitely art for art's sake.
The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit. - Banksy
The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit. - Banksy
XXXX Magazine Surrealism Premiere
Two of our more recent films, "Danse/Florae" and "The Spell", commissioned by fashion photographer Indira Cesarine, premiered at two different galas in New York City over the past couple weeks. XXXX Magazine held a launch party for it's second issue revolving around surrealism on June 23rd. We collaborated with Indira last April to put this short piece together, involving found objects (which we purchased in junk stores around Brooklyn) and some very friendly models from Ford Models. "The Spell" can be seen by clicking on our project tab to the right. Photos and videos from the event can be seen at the XXXX Magazine website.
Our other film "Danse/Florae", starring our very lovely sister, Erisy Watt, premiered at the Louve benefit gala "Soiree Au Louve" on the 25th. More to come with Indira in the near future--but be sure to check out the XXXX website which is filled with all sorts of amazing visual artwork.
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