Animated Reality - Film & TV Colab- Microcosm

Microcosm from ECA Animation on Vimeo.

In this collaboration we were given the task of finding an interesting person in an interesting place and creating an animated documentary about them. This could be based on anyone and anywhere around Edinburgh so the possibilities where limitless.

For this project we focused our attention towards a small square of run down houses on Lindsay Street which is situated quite close to Ocean Terminal. Our attraction to the place was its overall look, being very degraded and run down. These houses are also very small, box like in shape and were surrounded by a rather unfriendly looking concrete wall which segregates these houses from the newer flats and other buildings that surround the square.  Our character of interest was a man called Colin Wallace, whom Wayne has met and was happy for us to film him. He lives in the square and has a history with alcoholism, and apparently signed the lease to his house in the square when he was drunk. He seemed like an interesting character and indeed was willing to talk about the square, the people who live there and the things that go on around Hamilton Wynd.

Week 1

In the first week once given the brief, we were told to go off and decide where and who we would basing our film on. Once sitting down and having a discussion and and a think, we came up with a few ideas for possible things we could do. We thought about focusing on flesh market close and talking to the homeless people that live there and exploring the things they see day to day. We also had the idea of focusing on a homeless man that sleeps on a bench in Regent Road Park, the location being an interesting one as it looks over Holyrood and has a full view of Arthur’s Seat. And we also had the idea of basing our film on Colin Wallace a recovering alcoholic that lives in a small square of council houses near Ocean Terminal that Wayne knew from a past shoot that he had been on. We ended up going with the last one as Wayne had said that Colin was wiling and happy to be filmed, but we also wanted to ask the homeless man up at Regent Road Park and see if he would be interested also, possibly giving us something to fall back on if Collin ended up not wanting to. 

That week we had plans on the Thursday to go up to Lindsay Street at 4-5pm to go and have a look round at the square. However because it was getting dark very early now we decided against that idea, due to it possibly being dangerous and ourselves not really knowing the area all to well. We did however visit the homeless man up in Regent Road Park and asked him if we could base our documentary on him, he declined however so we knew that Colin was the one to go for. The next morning Wane went up to Hamilton Wynd and took some photos of the area so we could get an idea of what we possibly wanted to film in the square and get a feel for the location.

Once we knew what we were doing, we had the rough idea of getting Colin to show us round the square and as we do so get him to talk about the other people that live there and I could animate the people he describes. But again this was all dependant on what we got from him. However my main concern was that I didn't want to undermine these people in anyway with the animated characters so we needed to think of a way round that problem. We also want to explore Colin as a character himself, hopefully filming him in his own house. We ended up realizing that ultimately the incorporation of the animation for this documentary was going to be dependent on what we got from Colin and the footage we took at the location.

For the initial idea I had a play around with a character we could have animated in the film standing around smoking, possibly in one of the alleyways. I chose an astronaut as it does not have a person visible inside and keeps it from being undermining. However I knew we probably were not going to go with this idea but I had a play around with it before we moved on. 

Week 2 

This week was not as busy due to myself and Wayne having to focus on other projects. However on the Wednesday we did mange to get up and spend some time at Hamilton Wynd. While we were there we went round and took some b-roll footage that we could possibly use at a later stage. However it began to rain pretty hard and was really wet later on in the day so we didn't mange to get much. Being up at the location prior to meeting Colin was something that was surprisingly helpful as we were able to walk round and set up shots that we thought would be interesting. It also gave us time to have a think about the kinds of things we could show in this documentary and allowed us to plan what we wanted Colin to show us and talk about as there are loads of interesting things dotted around Hamilton Wynd. 

Wayne taking some B- roll footage

Sound equipment we used 

Week 3

On the Tuesday I actually met Colin for first time. He is definitely an interesting character and I knew as soon as he began to talk about himself and what has been happening in Hamilton Wynd that he was perfect for our film. We first off asked Colin if he was happy for us to film him walking around the area. Wayne wanted to get some slow motion shots of him doing this since we liked the look of the tests we did prior and thought it would be nice if we could use some in the film. While Wayne and Colin were doing that I just stood in the centre of Hamilton Wynd and recorded some ambient sounds of the area, again for the film in case we needed it later. Once this was done we asked Colin to show us round and talk about the experiences and memories he has about the place as we walk around. We did this a couple of times and we got some really nice footage and some good stories but unfortunately the sound got screwed up so we were unable to use them which was pretty annoying.

The next day, which was a reasonably dry day we went up and found Colin pottering about in the communal garden. It was a this point we got some shots of him doing this as various neighbours began to come out and talk to him, which was perfect and was exactly what we wanted. After talking to Tracy the Film and Television tutor who suggested we talk about the communal garden with Colin I decided to ask him about it as he walked about the garden, we got some nice shots but we again did not end up using the recordings, but we did like the idea of possibly centering the film around the garden. Later we continued to get more B-roll footage of the garden since the weather was decent.

Before we went up the next day we thought we should print out some documents to post round Hamilton Wynd, just telling the residents who we were and what we were doing. Posting these when we got there, we noticed that the weather was overcast but the sun was braking through the clouds creating nice shadows, so we decided to take more external shot while the weather was nice. We thought this would be a good way to spend our time since Colin ended up being busy that day.

 Week 4

Because the weather was really bad this week, we decided to take some shots of the interior of Colin's house. We knew we would be doing a recorded interview in here with Colin, so we wanted to get as many shots for the B-roll as we could. At this point we did not have proper lighting equipment however Wayne did have a small LED light that we could use at our disposal so I mainly held that for him while he focused the shots.

On the Thursday Colin arranged with us to meet him down at Stockbridge, so that we could go and film his new flat which he called "Gods waiting room" due to it being really nice and filled with old people. We planned to film him in his new flat and then go back to Hamilton Wynd and film an interview with him there later on. We needed to get the interview done that day as Colin was having to move the majority of his stuff over at the weekend meaning his flat would not look the same and we could not use the b-roll that we shot earlier in the week. Extra equipment like lights and stands were hired out also so that we could make the lighting a bit better in his house for the interview as it was very dark in there also. When we were at Colin's new flat we ended up getting shots of him looking out of the window and coming into his new flat with his boxes. By this point we had the idea that we could also convey his transition from Hamilton Wynd to his new home being something we could possibly use in our film. Once we were finished, Colin ended up needing to leave so we ended up not being able to the interview that day. We ended up planning to do it on Monday, and we were just hoping that there was enough stuff left at his house to make it look like it was in its original state. Colins house was an absolute mess however it was a beautiful mess and we wanted to capture it in that state.

The "Beautiful mess" of Colins house

Week 5

Finally we got round to doing the interview with Colin. By this point there was not much left in Colins house, but because we shot him close up and at a position were you could only see the pictures in the background this gave us a way to get around this problem. Before the interview I made up a series of questions for Colin to answer as a way to keep him on track as he tends to go of a bit. These questions consisted of things ranging from the communal garden, what are the people of Hamilton Wynd like and what he studied at university.

The whole interview lasted an hour and a half which wasn't to bad and we ended up getting some really personal and eye opening stuff from Colin which we knew was going to be "gold" in the film. While I would be interviewing Colin, Wayne would do the filming. We constantly had the problem of the SD cards for the black magic camera filling up with memory due to the size of the HD film files that it was recording. I would need to copy the files over every so often, which while was annoying actually gave us brakes during the interview on the plus side. Besides this the interview went really well and we had all the footage we needed to being editing.

Sound equipment we used to record Colin in interview

 The rest of the week was spent editing the film. We had a lot of footage to go through so the fist day was spent going through it and choosing the things we could use and wanted to have in the film. There was many different cuts of the film that we had came up with, due to what much of what Colin had said in his interview being things we wanted to include in the film. We actually even had a 10 minute version which with the amount of footage we had could have been done, but ultimately we wanted something that was not too long and was engaging. This meant we constantly had to get rid of stuff that we thought we didn't think we needed or didn't think we should include. Another thing we faced was creating a narrative out of all of this footage, however because some of the things Colin said linked we were able to tie it all together.

Because this was meant to be an animated documentary and we didn't want to add any animation at the risk of undermining the footage I decided I wanted title to be animated at least. I ended up Just writing the title in my handwriting, looping it bubbling at first and placing it on one of the walls we shot in Hamilton Wynd. I was not really happy with this one so I ended up creating another one copying a font of which again I bubbled, however this time I tested it on the wall but also did a few tests with some other B- roll footage we had taken, however we ended up putting it between two buildings in the final film.

For this project I feel that the overall outcome was quite good. I feel that to begin with we were a little slow in the begining coming up with an idea and a person to base our film on, but once we got going we knew what we wanted to do and I feel we ended up coming out with something we were happy with. I will admit I would have liked to do some animation but with the overall theme and the character of Colin, I feel that if animation was added it may seem a little out of place. My main concern was undermining the residents with it, which is something I think we have avoided. However the titles and credits are indeed animated due to the fact that I did at least want some animation to be in there keeping to the brief. For me at least working with Wane was really good experience. He is a really good person to collaborate with, any suggestions I had he would accommodate and take on board and indeed vice versa. He knew what shots he wanted to get and his skills with getting good looking ones are very impressive, and of course I helped him with setting things up recording e.c.t.  I also had the role of compiling questions to ask Collin and planning what shots we wanted to get over the course of the week and when it came to editing we both worked on putting our film together and again I added the animated titles. 

Overall I have enjoyed the experience, indeed there were ups and downs, but I think what we have produced is something that I am proud of and is something I think really captures Colin as a person and the community of Hamilton Wynd.