Yesterday This Was Home: Getting Seated

A slow zoom in as the boy makes his way up the aisle to his seat four rows from the back.

Today I have been animating the bus driver’s dialogue. I designed his face to look a bit like a stop sign. The octagonal pattern is pronounces in his jaw and eye lids mostly. Even his eyes are octagons though softened a bit. The animation is going well but I had to stop because my Apple pencil needs to recharge. Such lags in technology are an excuse for me to multi task, in this case, to write a brief article here. My pencil is now 97% charged so I might not write much more. I also have an animation student in a bout an hour, so I may need to work late into the night to finish the scene I started.

The scene I am animating has a large hand gesture and I decided to animate it on a separate level. My thought is to have it pop up hen the driver says, “Pleeeese.” I might slide it forward or backward in the timeline however when I see it play back with the audio dialogue. Callipeg doesn’t have the ability to import audio, so I am just using video reference to find when the mouth shaped hit on which frame numbers. Once I see it play with the audio in Adobe Premiere Pro then I often decided to change timing on mouth shapes to they read clearer. I try not to fuss too long since there are plenty of other shots to get done.

This short film will be on display at Yesterday This Was Home, an exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801) from October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021.

The exhibit is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition by the Orange County Regional History Center will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire for moving forward