Ambidextrous Illustrating for T-Mobile

The commercial I worked on came out last week and I'm pretty happy with it. The production company, Pedri Animation, a stop motion animation studio outside of Amsterdam, were really cool to work with and did a great job. The team there was awesome and I wish my trip was longer so I could have picked up some animation techniques from them.

Quite unexpectedly, I am actually in the finished commercial. It was supposed to be just my hands but the ad agency melded the stop motion footage with footage that they shot of me for the making-of video. At the end of the day, that is fine, but for the record, neither myself nor my business, Two Hands Two Crowns has any opinion of T-Mobile's products or services.



The ad agency found me because of the videos I posted of myself doing ambidextrous illustrations on vimeo three years ago. All that ambidextrous training that I did just for fun has definitely paid off. Just goes to show that you never know what a hobby will turn into!

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

"Everything" Animation!

Everything from Meags Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

I shot the photos for this animation back in November during my visit to Auto-Photo's warehouse. You can see the "behind the scenes" photos here. 

If you enjoy the film, please share it!

Field Trip to Auto-Photo!

On Thursday this past week I took a day off from working on my book and made a field trip to Auto-Photo's warehouse! I've visited twice before and I'm continually blown away by how friendly and helpful the staff are. And by chance, Brian Meacham of Photobooth.net was visiting Auto-Photo that day too! I hadn't seen him since the 2012 Int. Photobooth Convention. It felt like a little reunion.

Auto-Photo had a colour booth set up for me to use all day. The purpose of this trip was to shoot my next stop motion animation. This one will be short (about 35 seconds) and I'll share it online (unlike others I've made which can't be shared online because of terms set by film festivals.) The photo taking couldn't have gone better, we got all the shots I need and I think it will look really great once it's animated. I was assisted all day by my selfless friend Solomon.

The field trip was a wonderful break from my book work and reminded me of why I love the photobooth community so much. Editing and animating the little film will take many hours so I probably won't finish the piece until March, when my schedule opens up a bit.

Setting up the props- photos by my friend and assistant for the day, Solomon Krueger.

Inside the booth, outside the booth and my strips drying on my storyboard.

Over the Moon!

Last week was the week of good news!

Firstly, I found out that five of my works are runner-ups in Creative Quarterly most recent (33rd) competition in the student/ recent graduate illustration category. As a runner-up my pieces will be featured on their online gallery for four months in the winter.  

Secondly, on September 29th my  film LaCuna screened at the Edmonton International Film Festival and won the Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Film. This project was a huge time investment and is more experimental than most of my works, so the recognition means more to me than most accolades.

And thirdly, two professional creatives, who's work I deeply admire have written quotes in support of my book, Photobooth: A Biography. Illustrator & comicbook artist, Jillian Tamaki and author & CBC's host of Wiretap, Jonathan Goldstein both wrote some kind words for me. 

“Photobooth: A Biography is an impressive and ambitious project. A deep exploration of an unexpected topic that is in turn historical, journalistic, and personal.”
— Jillian Tamaki

“Fitzgerald has created something that’s more than candid personal memoire, more than carefully researched cultural history — she’s created a work brimming with that rarest of things: love. That I should use such a word to explain a young woman’s feelings for photobooths certainly sounds improbable and maybe even a little crazy. And that’s precisely why this book is so wonderful.”
— Jonathan Goldstein

Up top is my "author's portrait" and below is the book cover. More information can be found at my publisher's website. 

Tauro Tauro Animation

In February of 2010 I was drawing a lot of mystical bulls. I was doing a self-made residency of sorts in Northern Saskatchewan and I came up with an idea for a stop motion photobooth animation using the imagery. Fast forward to May 2012, I shot the photos for the animation at the Auto-Photo Warehouse during a visit to Montreal.  Over the last year I edited it in my free time, and finally two months ago I asked Aaron Read, an incredible multi-disciplinary artist, to score the animation with his dreamy sounds. 

It's been four years in the making and Tauro Tauro is finally finished! I've submitted it to a couple of film festivals, but honestly, I don't know if that's the best route for it. (It is a very experimental and niche little film.) So, pending on the success or failure of those submissions, I may just post the full video online for anyone to enjoy. For now, here's the poster!

And for anyone in Edmonton, my animation LaCuna is playing at the Edmonton International Film Festival this Sunday at 1pm at Empire Theatres downtown.

Couple Tidbits

Wow, it's been a while since I have updated my blog, which is definitely a reflection of how busy I've been lately. I've got lots of news that I'll be able to share at the end of August/ start of September. For now, here are a couple tidbits.

I'm really excited to say that my animation LaCuna is an Official Selection of the Edmonton International Film Festival and will be screened on Sunday September 29th, as part of their "In Our Own Backyard" programming. I made a simple website for LaCuna, www.lacunaanimation.com, and this short video on the Making Of LaCuna. Personally, I love to see behind the scenes stuff.

The Making of LaCuna from Meags Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

Right now, I'm putting the finishing touches on some material for my publisher, Conundrum Press' catalog, which is a preview of their upcoming books and recent backlist. For the catalog, I drew this "author's portrait" of myself.

LaCuna Trailer

Here's the trailer for LaCuna, which I've submitted to some film festivals and hopefully it will be screened a few times this summer and fall. The music is by Jason Michael MacIsaac of the Heavy Blinkers.

TRAILER - LaCuna from Meags Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

Desk Aerobics

I've been busy juggling three separate artistic endeavours lately, they are as follows:

1. LaCuna: My stop motion animation made of photobooth pictures is FINALLY FINISHED! I have officially applied to my first Film Festivals, it will be a few months until I know if my submissions were successful or not. To maintain exclusivity rights for festivals, I won't be sharing the animation online until next year, in the mean time I'm working on a trailer and I've made these two posters. I owe a mountain-sized thank you to Jason Michael MacIsaac of the Heavy Blinkers who composed LaCuna's original soundtrack.

2. Editorial Illustration and Promotion: It seems that trying to book illustration jobs is a full time job in itself. I've worked hard to revamp my portfolio and have been regularly sending it out to art departments. And I've had some success! Though that work is many months away from being share-able. I've also for the first time applied to illustration competitions. The objective is to be included in an awards annual or illustrator directory that is then distributed and used by art directors and other creative professionals. It will be a while still until I hear back about any of those, but my fingers are crossed.

3. Photobooth, A Biography: I'm working on my graphic novel around the clock, and I've finally got into a nice rhythm with it. Of all the things on my to-do list, its the one I'm most excited about. I've been sharing work with two friends, one who gives me feedback on the writing and another who critiques the artwork, but I won't be sharing any of it publicly, everyone will just have to wait a year for it to come out.

I know what you're thinking after reading that:

She must sit at a desk a lot.

You're right, I do! But fortunately for me I found a set of  light aerobics videos. They're keeping my joints alive. 

Given that I'm working hard on three things that I can't really share, my blog may be a little dry for material.  So! I'm going to switch up the content here a little; posting more old work that I haven't shared before, more photos of my collections and lists of my favourite people/things. 

Tiny Secrets

I've got a few projects on the go that I'm keeping quiet about until they're finished. Or trying to at least.

One of the projects is editing my black and white photobooth animation, which is nothing short of a painstaking process.  I've finished animating one sixth of it, once it's finished I'm having a musician friend compose a soundtrack and then I'll use it to apply to animation film festivals this spring.

I have the finished portion online but you need the link and the password to view it. If you'd like to give me feedback or you're just curious, leave your name here in a comment and I'll send you the details.

Shooting the B&W Photobooth Animation

A couple weeks before leaving Chicago I shot a stop motion animation in the Model 11 photobooth at A&A Studios.  Leading up to the big day I shot some of the simpler sequences by myself and saved the more complex sequences (which required me in costume and make-up) for that day. Two wonderful friends, Elizabeth Archer and Rachel Winslow helped me immensely with the slow and time consuming process. This post here shows some of the test shots and gives you an idea of the imagery I was working with.

Here are some tests and out-takes from the big shoot. I'm really happy with how the final images look and I'm excited to work on it. Next I have to sit at my computer for a couple hundred hours to scan, align, crop and put the one thousand or so images in sequence. Fortunately I'll have lots of time post-surgery to do just that.



















 

  

B&W Photobooth Animation

I shot a stop-motion animation in a photobooth at Auto-Photo's warehouse in Montreal this May. (You can see details about this here and watch my first two animations here.) I've been slowly chipping away at the huge task of editing it over the last few months. And even though I'm not finished editing, I decided to take advantage of my situation here in Chicago and shoot another.

At A&A Studios there's a beautiful Model 11 photobooth that I use almost daily. I have access to the interior of the booth so it allows me a lot of control over things like paper type, filters, exposure, chemical temperature and strength, which all significantly impact the photos. The booth can run on both black & white and colour chemistry but I chose to shoot this one in b&w, as my others have all been in colour.
 
In preparation of the animation, today I spent two hours removing the old chemistry, troubleshooting problems from the last batch and mixing new chemicals. I won't lie - this is disgusting and potentially very hazardous work. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about this task, I will equate it to changing a baby's diaper. You love that baby but it doesn't mean that you love handling their poop.

Another advantage to shooting this animation at A&A is that I'm not rushed to shoot it all at once. So I've already started on the simpler parts that I can do without assistants. I'm about 10% finished the shooting and probably 2% finished the overall work that will go into it.

Here are some frames from the first strips I've taken. Some are tests and others will be in the finished film.  

A Visit to Auto Photo

The second part to my Photobooth Expedition was a visit to Auto Photo in Montreal, they’re one of the few companies left in the world that are working with chemical photobooths. Everyone there was amazingly helpful and put up with me for hours while I asked question after question. I conducted a few interviews as research for my book but some of the questions were just about things I had been wondering a long time…. like the real names of the people in the sample strips on booths, and the difference between a Model 17C and a 17P. It was also neat to have years’ worth of assumptions confirmed for me, Jeff  (the Vice President and grandson of the founder) knows the other half to stories about booths that I had speculated about. Generally, during my trips in Los Angeles and Montreal it felt great to talk to people who understand the photobooth world. For almost a decade I had no one (in person) to have a dialogue with about this passion that consumes a good chunk of my life. I don’t think I knew how starved I was for conversation.

This is a treasure chest of photos from many different booth models that date back to the 1960s.This box was one of several filled to the brim with old photos.

Jeff was kind and generous enough to let me take photos for my next animation in one of their booths at the warehouse. My sister, Eryn and her friend Perryn were my loyal assistants for one of the days of shooting. I’m a real lucky duck to have had their help. Here are some photos of us working on the animation.  I also seized the opportunity to take some more experimental photos and I have added new work to my flickr.
 
I have lots of material for my book and many hours of editing photobooth frames together ahead of me. I also have THREE pieces of exciting photobooth related news, none of which are confirmed yet, so I will keep them under wraps until they’re ready to share. Stay posted!

Animation Preparation

I leave on my Photobooth Expedition in 17 days, on top of getting things ready for the convention and mailing out the donor’s perks, I’m also finishing the props for the stop motion animation I’ll be shooting in the Auto Photo warehouse. (For more info about this you can see this blog post.)

Yesterday I made three paper masks and I tested them out in a booth today. I’m happy with how they turned out. These paper masks are secondary characters in the storyline, with the silkscreened fabric and crocheted heads below as the central characters. Those mask photos were taken by Lindsay Duncan.

I still have many smaller puppets to make. I've been doing a lot of illustrations lately so having something physical to work on has been a nice break.

Next Photobooth Animation in the Works

In 2010 myself and friend, Pamela Norrish made Coast to Coast to Coast, a stop motion animation shot entirely in a photobooth. Ever since then I’ve been planning my next photobooth animation and very slowly working away on it.

Shooting a short film in a photobooth has many challenges, among them include the space issue (you have to fit a couple people, puppets and props into a small booth), the timing issue (with 2.5 seconds between frames), the cost issue (it works out to a $1 per shot) and the public issue (using a booth in a mall or bus depot means you’re dealing with curious passer-bys.)

Additionally, Halifax only has three photobooths and they’re serviced by the owner of the booths himself so the quality of the photos are often inconsistent or they’re just plain out-of-order. So, for this next animation I dream of going to Montreal and shooting in the city with the most photobooths per capita.

I’ve just finished the main costumes for the animation. The Whyte Bull head is constructed from fabric I silkscreened and the Commonplace Bull head is entirely crocheted, I also silkscreened a celestial background. I took a set of test strips with both heads and I’m pretty happy with the results. I still have to make a few more puppets and props but the bulk of the construction work is done. I hope to shoot the animation this summer!

Femme Avec Un Chapeau Rouge Update and Other Photobooth Projects

I have been slowly amassing more Femme Avec Un Chapeau Rouge photobooth pictures and thought that I would post an update. (Click to enlarge the image.) If you’re curious about the project please read the post I wrote for it back in April and it will make more sense. Here’s a selection of the photos I’ve taken with the mask, it includes photos from Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, Paris and Berlin.

And now’s as good as a time as any to announce that in January I’m moving to Halifax! I'm excited for the move for many reasons that I'll go more in depth about in a later post. Though specifically I am excited to take the mask with me to new East Coast towns and also to find new booth locations for Photobooth.net’s Locator feature.

I’m generally anti-digital photobooth but while travelling I’ve made a few rare exceptions to my own rule. In countries where photobooth pictures can still be used for passports, the digital booths are taken more seriously, ie. you can’t overlay a flowery border or a Wanted sign on your picture. I like differences between the French, German and Japanese borders in these supposed passport pictures.

I still have plans to make the short narrative into a photobooth animation, it’s all storyboarded and ready to go but I’m waiting until I have a free weekend, a pal who can donate their time and a whole lot of loonies.

In the meanwhile you can watch the (very) short film I made the first time I experimented with photobooth animation in 2008, The Birth of a Genius. There aren’t many frames so the transitions are quite choppy, though I think its decent considering it was shot during rush hour in the infamously tiny booth in the Bloor-Yonge Subway Station in Toronto.

Stay tuned to the blog as next week I'll be announcing a new photobooth project that you can participate in!