Binary Fable

New BAFTA nomination!

2010-03-03T09:37:00.002Z

The Lost Book has been nominated for a second BAFTA Scotland award. This time it's a New Talent award, in the Interactive category. Nominations were announced last night at a do in the newly-opened (and rather swanky) Blytheswood Square Hotel in Glasgow.

One of the great pleasures of the nomination event was meeting the competition - the multi-talented May Miles Thomas of Elemental Films. May's something of a legend - she swept the board at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent awards back in 2000 with the UK's first digital feature film One Life Stand, which also won a Scottish Screen Outstanding Achievement Award.

May's 2009 interactive project is The Devil's Plantation:

The idea: to explore the Secret Geometry of Glasgow and find magic in ordinary places... Dear green place or derelict dystopia?

I'm planning to spend time this week properly exploring The Devil's Plantation as it looks fantastic - why don't you head over there and take a look?

Here're some fuzzy snapshots of the evening (my mobile phone camera isn't getting any better!). Left to right, there's me with May, Elemental Films' producer Owen with Lost Book sound designer Stephen, and me with Stephen.

This post can also be found on The Lost Book website: New BAFTA nomination!

Carry a Poem

2010-02-26T10:43:00.002Z

I've been blogging about making the Carry a Poem animation for the past few weeks, but I realise I haven't embedded the film itself into this blog. So, here it is!

If you're in Edinburgh or Glasgow you'll also see it in libraries and schools, on buses, and on the BBC Big Screen in Edinburgh's Festival Square during February 2010.

Carry a Poem trailer #7 - post

2010-02-26T10:24:00.004Z

The last stage in making a film is post-production. For the Carry a Poem animation, post was all about putting together different layers. We "rendered" each part of the animation separately and then composited them in post. (Rendering is the last stage in creating CGI animation footage and the one stage that the computers do for us. The computers take all the information we’ve given them, and generate one or more finished images for each frame of the animation.)

So, for example, each frame where the poetry cloud is pulsing through the headphones...

...is made up of four layers: the street background, the headphones, the poetry cloud, and the Carry a Poem logo:

It's even more complex at the points where the poetry cloud is transforming the street. This image...

... has two street backgrounds, not just one: one without the poetry murals, and one with. These are combined using a mask which shows the splats where the poetry cloud has hit the walls, so identifies the areas in which the murals should be revealed:

This creates a combined background onto which we add: the poetry cloud (in two layers because the number of particles in the cloud was too high for them all to be rendered together) plus the Carry a Poem logo (tiny, but still there):

As you can imagine, the biggest challenge in all this is keeping everything organised. Until all the layers are put together it's very hard to check the renders, so it's crucial that the whole process is planned and managed carefully. This involves lots of thinking things through at the beginning plus many diagrams charting what will go where.

It's worth all the hard work, though. The moment when everything comes together to produce a finished film is brilliant!

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #7 - post

Carry a Poem trailer #6 - music

2010-02-19T10:10:00.003Z

The music for the Carry a Poem trailer was composed by Adam Brewster, the other half of Binary Fable. I'm going to ask him a few questions about how he went about writing it.

Helen: You wrote the music after the animation was complete. Why's that?

Adam: So that I knew where the significant points needed to be in the music, and I was sure they wouldn't change.

Helen: Can you tell me a little about how you got started?

Adam: The first thing was to think of a tune (this usually happens in the shower, but in this case I woke up in the middle of the night with the tune in my head. I could still remember it in the morning, so I wrote it down). Then I embellished the tune in my mind and started to think about what instruments would give the effects I wanted.

After that, I sat down at the computer and worked out the timings. I needed to make sure that all the "hit points" in the action were matched by hit points in the music.

Helen: Did you have a particular style of music in mind, or did the style develop as you worked?

Adam: I felt very strongly that a dance/electronica piece would work best with the visuals.

Helen: The music's very catchy (my favourite characterisation was from reading champion Colm who described it as an "earworm"!). Was that one of your main aims?

Adam: No.

I'm glad it turned out that way, though!

Helen: Finally, tell me about that vocoder...

Adam: If you listen very carefully, there are moments when the music seems to be saying "carry a poem". This is, in fact, me, saying "carry a poem" - modulated through the synthesiser software to give a slightly ghostly, robotic singing effect (in a way that hasn't been heard since Mr Blue Sky...!).

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #6 - music

Carry a Poem trailer #5 - animation

2010-02-12T08:30:00.003Z

Although there aren't any characters in the Carry a Poem trailer, there were plenty of things to animate. The biggie was the poetry cloud - thousands of particles that needed to be wrangled into position. Then, the camera movements had to be created, the Carry a Poem logo had to dance down the street and the poetry-carrying objects needed some spin.

The animation technique we use here at Binary Fable is 3D CGI – three dimensional computer-generated imagery. We use software called 3DS Max to build and animate computer models. It allows "particle systems" to be created, which made the poetry cloud possible. A particle system lets the animator control a large number of objects at the same time – by setting up rules and then adding a bit of randomness – rather than animating each object separately. This is what the interface looks like:

Here’s a "rough" of the short teaser film. The rough shows all the animation, but the visuals don’t yet look polished. It’s important to agree an animation freeze based on the rough so that work on the soundtrack can begin. The composer and sound designer need to know that the timings of the action aren’t going to change.

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #5 - animation

Carry a Poem trailer #4 - storyboards

2010-02-05T08:30:00.002Z

Late November 2009: we had a street design, we had poetry selections, we’d started the mural designs. Next up: we needed storyboards. We needed to work out what story we were telling, and how we were going to use the visuals to tell it.

We put together a very rough computer model of the street and used that as the basis for the storyboards. Everything apart from the buildings – the poem-carrying objects and the poetry cloud – was drawn on afterwards. We created picture tubes for the letters and paint splodges so that we could draw the cloud directly.

The storyboards are our chance to explore camera angles and get a feel for the action. They're also a great way of communicating our ideas to the rest of the team. Click on the thumbnails to see the full PDF storyboards.

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #4 - storyboards

Carry a Poem trailer #3 - concept art

2010-01-29T08:30:00.002Z

Previous instalment: Making the animated trailer #2 - the pitch

Once we'd pitched our idea to City of Literature things started to happen very fast. The first task was to create a project programme, so everyone knew what needed to happen when. We had nine weeks to complete the trailer – including the Christmas break!

Next job: try not to panic.

Next: design. We needed a street that would be Edinburgh-esque, but it couldn't be a real street. We wanted to have more different buildings (a school, a library, a bank, some shops, some houses) than you'd normally get in a single road. Adam's first sketch (in ballpoint on the back of a printout) made us realise we also needed to play around with the scale – Edinburgh’s wide streets and tall buildings wouldn't quite work:

After much thought and drawing, Adam produced concept artwork to go to City of Literature for approval:

The response was joyful but thoughtful – the sketches kicked off a huge discussion about which poems should be included. Were we allowed to include swearwords? (The eventual decision: no). What tone was needed – inspiration or angst? Should the poems be familiar or new?

Three cheers for the Scottish Poetry Library, and Peggy in particular, who took on the poetry selection and came up with a list of extracts that everyone was happy with... which meant that we could start having a lot of fun designing the murals!

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #3 - concept art

Carry a Poem trailer #2 - the pitch

2010-01-22T08:30:00.000Z

In early November 2009 we received the first Carry a Poem sketches by illustrator Emily Isles – showing the logo design, sample page layouts, and a series of Emily’s lovely illustrations. The branding came across very clearly, so we could see exactly what we needed to work with. We had two days to come up with a concept to pitch.

The illustrations immediately started us thinking about a hand-drawn look and feel to the animation, with plenty of white space. The letters and paint splodges (which we started calling the poetry cloud) looked dynamic, so we could imagine them floating around, and maybe spelling out poems... wouldn’t that be pretty?

And, there was the problem. Prettiness wasn’t what we needed. The brief had identified that the animation needed to be playful and a bit subversive. We needed to break away from the obvious.

We agonised.

Adam and I had some very robust discussions. Well, arguments. We couldn’t come up with the right approach, and we had very different ideas.

We agonised some more.

Then... Eureka!

We started thinking about urban art as a visually rich way of presenting words. Supposing, we thought to ourselves, someone carried a poem down the street but the poetry broke out in letters and paint splodges – where would that poetry cloud go? Could it splash the walls and leave murals behind?

We liked the idea of creating a literal interpretation of the effect of someone carrying a poem – showing that it could change the world around them. We also thought it would look great to take the poetry cloud from the book illustrations and put it into the real world.

Our pitch to the City of Literature went down well. We all got terribly excited about places that could be transformed, ways of carrying poems, and poetry that would make great murals. Next step: concept art and poetry selection.

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #2 - the pitch

Carry a Poem trailer #1 - the brief

2010-01-15T08:30:00.003Z

Here at Binary Fable we started thinking about the Carry a Poem animation back in October 2009, when Ali and Anna at EUCL first briefed us. My scrawly notes highlight that the trailer should promote the campaign and should get the poem-carrying message across.

One of the big issues we talked about was branding – learning from last year's reading campaign, we were all keen to make sure that the branding of every element of Carry a Poem was consistent.

The other big issue was the target audience. The trailer is aimed at a secondary school audience and we talked a lot about how to engage young people with poetry. I wrote down words like "fun", "playful", "subversive = good" and "undermine po-faced-ness"!

This post can also be found on the Carry a Poem website: Making the animated trailer #1 - the brief

Carry a Poem viral

2010-01-08T17:11:00.003Z

We've nearly finished the Carry a Poem animation. In the meantime, here's a sneaky preview:

poetry rough

2009-12-18T11:12:00.004Z

It's been a busy week. We've been working hard to finish animation on the Carry a Poem trailer so that we could get the rough over to City of Literature. We're now waiting nervously for their comments so that we can either start rendering or get going on the amendments!

I still don't want to give too much away, but I can tell you that one of the big challenges has been wrangling a poetry cloud - a swarm of paint splashes and letters inspired by Emily Isles' gorgeous illustrations for the Carry a Poem campaign.

Here's a quick glimpse of a snippet of poetry caused by the cloud. The extract is from "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W.B. Yeats.

a fetching concept

2009-12-10T17:39:00.006Z

We've been working on a short film outline with Edinburgh-based writer Andrew J. Wilson. Andrew did a brilliant spot of guest writing for The Lost Book and as we all enjoyed working together we decided to continue the collaboration.

The short's working title is "The Fetch"; it's a dark fairy-tale for adults. Today Adam finished drawing concept artwork to go with Andrew's outline. Here's a sneaky preview of the first sketch, showing the opening scene. You won't get to see any more unless we get funding to make the film...

Relative dimensions in space

2009-12-07T10:57:00.006Z

We've finished building the 3D model of our set for the Carry a Poem animation. My favourite element of the Edinburgh-ish street is the police box.

Edinburgh's police boxes aren't quite TARDISes, but they have a quirky charm of their own. They were designed in the 1930s by city architect E. J. MacRae, are built out of cast iron, and apparently each weighs about 2 tonnes. Take look at the brilliant Flickr set Great Edinburgh TARDIS quest to see all of the remaining police boxes.

storyboard a poem

2009-11-27T11:20:00.001Z

The news is out! Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust has announced their 2010 reading campaign: Carry a Poem. In February 2010 we'll all be challenged to carry a poem, with the help of free books, events, activities and the Scottish Poetry Library.

All very exciting! And, it means I can finally tell you what we're working on. EUCL have commissioned us to produce an animated trailer for the campaign. The trailer will show what might happen when poems are carried around the city and will be released in January.

We finished the storyboards yesterday - here are a couple that don't give too much away:

The bag is inspired by ee cummings' "i carry your heart with me".

@FableHelen

2009-11-26T19:40:00.006Z

I've finally set up my own Twitter account, @FableHelen, after tweeting for quite a while on behalf of Watson the Dog. Watson hasn't gone into retirement, but if you want to know what I'm up to and what's going on here at Binary Fable Towers, @FableHelen is the twitterer for you.

setting the (street) scene

2009-11-23T15:06:00.006Z

I still can’t tell you much about our new project, but here are a few sketches of the set. It’s designed to be an Edinburgh-esque street, without actually being a real location. Adam spent a lot of time sketching different elements and working out what made them look like Edinburgh. It turns out the style of the street lamps is quite important (Narnia-style lamps in the early sketches didn't work at all) and the distinctive Edinburgh police box is helpful.

To complicate things, the scale is intentionally more intimate than most of the New Town. We want to keep things quite personal, so we’ve gone with a little cobbled street that in real life would probably be a mews.

From the sketches, we’ve developed production drawings. I’ll be using these to build the 3D computer model of the set this week.

the joys of not knowing

2009-11-11T12:07:00.003Z

I'm clearing pinboard space for our next project (of which more anon), so I've been taking down some of my Lost Book related notes and scraps. These are a couple of quotes that I found reassuring during the collaborative writing process:

"I had sent my heroine down a rabbit-hole without the idea what was to happen next."

(Lewis Carroll speaking about Alice. I felt rather the same about Aileen - I'd set her up in episode 1 and hadn't a scoobie where she'd go from there.)

"Taking a leap but not knowing where you're going to land is a really respectable way to write."

(Shameless writer Paul Abbott, scrawled down as a I watched a programme about screenwriting. It was inspiring to know that great writing sometimes results when a writer doesn't map out all the details in advance.)

BAFTA night

2009-11-10T11:42:00.007Z

Wow, BAFTA night was fun! It was quite some party - here we are arriving with Lost Book composer Michael Ferguson, just about to head up to the champagne reception (well, actually, it was more of a whisky reception).

The big winner of the night was Armando Ianucci and In the Loop, bagging best director, best writing, and best film actor for Peter Capaldi. The person we were all most excited to see was Bill Forsyth, who got a well-deserved "Outstanding Contribution to Film" gong. Our biggest cheer was reserved for Mick Cooke and Gili Dolev who collected best animated short for The Happy Duckling.

And, commiserations to both us (Cybraphon pipped The Lost Book in the interactive category) and David Tennant (who was beaten to best TV actor by Robert Carlyle).

BAFTA Scotland nomination

2009-11-02T11:00:00.005Z

It's lovely to have news so big and exciting that you're still bouncing around two weeks later! The Lost Book has been nominated in the Interactive category of the BAFTA Scotland Awards 2009.

The award ceremony is this Sunday, 8th November, so please keep your fingers crossed for us. Not just to win (although that would be nice), but to get down the red carpet in one piece despite the insanely vertiginous new shoes I've bought for the occasion.

Congratulations go to everyone involved - including the global team of storywriters who took part - for getting the nomination. Well done, all of us!

a girl named sue

2009-10-14T08:44:00.004+01:00

We've been working on a different challenge recently at Binary Fable. Instead of animation, we decided to turn our hands to a graphic short story - just for the fun! Jonathan Cape, Comica and The Observer are running their graphic short story competition for the third year and we thought we'd enter. After all, it's just like a storyboard, isn't it?!

Well, no. It was good practice in visual storytelling, but the need to lay out each page beautifully and the knowledge that there would be no movement in the finished version made this a very different discipline to storyboarding. Entertaining, though!

Here's our first panel as a teaser:

St Thenaw - the ballet

2009-09-16T14:54:00.005+01:00

I've been chatting to Mary at performing arts company Visual Statement, based at The Bridge in Easterhouse, Glasgow. They're putting on a contemporary ballet called St Theneu this weekend and have asked if they can screen our St Thenaw animation before the performance.

We're delighted to be involved, it looks like a great production. Here's all the info from the Visual Statement website, including details of how to book your tickets:

Visual Statement have teamed up with Doors Open and Platform this year in order to mark our 30th Anniversay with this lastest showcase performance called "St Thenue". A modern dance production which will be on Saturday 19th September 2009 and Sunday 20th September 2009 at 7.30pm.

This original ballet looks at the life and struggle of the mother of Glasgow’s patron Saint, from her upbringing as a princess of pagan king, and finding herself with child out of wedlock, was thrown over a cliff. After surviving the ordeal she gave birth to a baby boy who was then raised by a monastic order. This production is devised, produced and directed by Danny Dobbie.

To get tickets contact Platform box Office on 0141 276 9696 (opt1).

historic Glasgow event

2009-09-11T10:03:00.002+01:00

Our wee film about St Thenaw and her son St Mungo is being screened at an event next Wednesday, 16th September, as part of Doors Open Week in Glasgow. The Historic Glasgow event has a theme of "Local Filmed History, Stories and Trails". It's at The Parish Hall, 266 George Street, Glasgow from 11:30 to 15:15 and sounds quite fun!

lost and forgotten books

2009-08-17T12:10:00.003+01:00

Ginger Gorman has blogged over at the ABC Canberra site about her "Afternoons" show on 6th August, which featured Adam talking about The Lost Book.

There's an extract from Adam's interview plus Ginger's summary of the other lost book stories she uncovered for the show. BookCrossers and book sharers will be particularly interested to learn about the Footpath Library and there's a great tale from the National Library of Australia.

Thanks, Ginger, for the shout-out!

[Cross-posted from The Lost Book: Lost and forgotten books.]

BookCrossing UK UnConvention

2009-08-11T11:34:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure what I'm trying to explain here, but it clearly needed lots of hand-waving! The BookCrossing 2009 UK UnConvention took place in Edinburgh on the first weekend of July. The Saturday was packed full of talks and workshops, given by authors such as Aline Templeton and Linda Gillard... and The Lost Book team.

Kirsten Hunter of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and I did a double-act. A lot of the audience were familiar with the project, so after a quick intro we talked about characterisation and how we develop a character - in terms of visual design, personality, sound effects and music. We focused on Watson (everyone's favourite!) and showed how he developed from the first concept models.

Many thanks to audience-member Kirstin for the photo.

the lost book episode 6

2009-08-10T10:38:00.000+01:00

The sixth and final episode of The Lost Book launched at the end of July. As always, the story contained some surprises suggested by the audience. It tied up all sorts of loose ends and showed what happened to the characters after their adventure.

Aileen has taken up two invitations - she's joined Invisible Inc. and gone on a date with Kyle! Watson is happier about the former...

The Lost Book blog is still up and running, and will continue to feature updates about the project, "making of..." posts, and other things of interest to the audience. At the moment you can win original artwork from The Lost Book plus an autographed SCO CD in our prize draw - simply complete our ten-minute feedback survey.