There are a great many positive things about working in an analogue way, but also a few negatives: one of the greatest being how much stuff you create in the process. The Last Belle now lives in small drive that can fit in the palm of my hand, but the artwork that went into it's creation takes up some 75 boxes, plus several oversize folders.
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| A small section of Mount Lastbelle |
And it's not just 35,000 cels and 35,000 drawings clogging up my life. There are endless...
A while back I had a fantasy that I'd like to take all this artwork into a field, pile it up high, and create a huge bonfire out of it, around which friends and family could party into the twilight. Not that I particularly enjoy destroying artwork, but ultimately all that counts is the final film -- what you used to get you there becomes irrelevant.
But then it occurred to me that burning 35,000 sheets of triacetate cel would probably create a noxious toxic cloud large enough to wipe out a small town. And that's not the kind of publicity anyone would want attached to their film. So we're being a bit more environmentally aware and disposing of most of this stuff in a more friendly, but sadly less spectacular, way.
Over the next few weeks/months I'll post any interesting artwork as I stumble across it. We'll keep a couple of boxes of goodies for posterity, but the rest of it can go to the great animation graveyard in the sky.
And while we're on the subject, if your appetite for 'Spring-Cleaning-Artwork-Blogs' has been whetted by reading this, let me alert you to another blog: it turns out that just a few miles up the road from me Terry Gilliam's youngest daughter Holly is also crawling through a pile of her Dad's old artwork and is posting it on her lovely blog 'Discovering Dad'.
Enjoy! It's strangley comforting to know I'm not the only one wading through paper mountains and imbibing litres of dust...
Well I hope you don't plan on Destroying any piece of artwork. In my opinion, you should consider holding a Auction. So here's hoping that your decision on what to do with your Last Belle Memorabillia will be wise. Take Care Mr. Boyle!
ReplyDeleteRest assured we will keep a few boxes of the nicest images, and we'll keep all the background artwork. It's going to take a few months to get everything sorted but your idea of an auction is interesting -- perhaps when we have collected some of the nicest cels and drawings together we will put a few pieces up on ebay, or somewhere similar..? I'm very happy for some of this artwork to find a new home on someone else's wall! Thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteI love that you used bar sheets, old school! did you putter around your studio counting beats with your metronome? I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI do have a metronome! When I was a teenager my Mum bought one in an antique shop that (allegedly) previously belonged to the composer Eric Coates. It's amazingly useful to this day! And bar sheets are wonderful too - this is an area of personal taste, but I prefer analogue breakdown of the soundtrack because the sound is recorded onto 35mm mag stock and can rocked and rolled backwards and forwards at any speed you like, meaning you can really analyse how the speech is formed in a very intuitive way. Other people prefer the digital method where you can see peaks and troughs of noise in graph form. As with everything, it probably comes down to who is operating the technology, rather than the technology itself -- The Last Belle voice breakdowns were done by Rod Howick, who is now retired, but who edited animated films and commercials for decades in London and who is incredibly experienced at analysing speech at getting it accurately onto bar sheets. He's a real craftsman... and the joy of collaborative film making for me is being surrounded by all these amazing craftspeople and absorbing how they work their magic.
DeleteThanks for writing, Aaron!
i was going to say you should give away or sell the old artwork! but I see someone already mentioned an auction....
ReplyDeleteMaybe this crazy analogue way of working could have another upside: if enough people want to buy a reasonably priced piece of artwork it could help fund another film..!
DeleteTo Neil Boyle,
ReplyDeleteI dont mean to sound very blunt or very straight, but is it possible if I can have some of your boxes? just so it makes you life abit easier :)
Pretty please? I would be really really greatful! :D
Don't worry - I like straight talking people! What we've decided to do is to gather together some of the nicest pieces of artwork and put them up for sale at a future date - probably once the film has finished it's festival run. (Stay tuned to this blog for more information when the time comes.) In this way the artwork can find nice homes to live in, and we might be able to raise just a little cash towards the next film... the ultimate in recycling.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
ReplyDeleteThis stuff could be used for educational purposes! I can guarantee one of the hundreds of animation schools and colleges would love to get hold of this stuff to teach! Especially as its the last of its kind.
Steve
P.S If you throw any of Roy Naisbitts stuff away you deserve a lengthy prison sentence.
Oh my goodness no! I wouldn't throw out anything of Roy Naisbitt's - that's sacrosanct as far as I'm concerned. It's my own scribbles I'm happy to give the heave-ho to. But you make an interesting point about eductational purposes... and I'll be mindful of it. As I've mentioned in previous comments, I'll keep various bits and bobs from the film for sure, a good cross section of stuff covering all the main techniques, but the great, vast and huge bulk of it has to be whittled down or else I won't be able to breathe - either 'artistically' or literally! Great to speak with you again Steve. Cheers, Neil.
DeleteHi Neil, Sorry, I'm a bit late to this film, I only just saw it yesterday but think it's truly great and would love to buy some cels from it if possible? After all it could be the last film made this way and so would mean owning a piece of history as well as a great piece of art. However, it seems like you may have got rid of everything you don't want for yourself but please let me know if this is still a possibility. Thanks and well done on great film, Brendan
ReplyDeleteHi Brendan, and thanks for your kind words about the film! We did have to get rid of the vast bulk of the artwork because of lack of storage space, but we kept some really nice pieces which we thought would look good on the wall. We've definitely thought about offering some of these for sale, but in all honesty, because of pressure of work and other projects we haven't got ourselves organised yet..! But your interest, and the interest of others, means we will take another look at framing up a few pieces... Please check in with this blog every so often for updates on Last Belle news. Thanks so much for your interest, and your support Brendan, stay tuned..! Best, Neil.
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