Yesterday This Was Home: Sam Looks Up

Sam Looks up at the driver. The animation involved an anticipation where Sam lowers his chin a bit and blinks and then raised his head up. This is his chance t make a stand. The background and characters were reused from two shots prior. I isolated Sam’s head so I could animate it in Callipeg. The shot only last for several seconds as the Narrator says, “I looked up at him and I said,”. By this time I was animating up to three scenes a day. I was on a roll and realized that the steps I had taken to organize the short were paying off. The storyboards were developed enough so they doubled as backgrounds and I had worked n layers meaning I could turn off character layers if they needed to be redrawn for animation. In this case I just had to isolate Sam’s head to animate it.

In the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline you can see that the original Oral History video is under all of my storyboard and animation clips. It was edited a bit to cut out conversation and laughter that is interspersed in the oral history. I needed to keep the animation and story tight and concise.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. 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 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 moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Evolution of Music
Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Legacy of Ocoee: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, October 29, 2020

Lunch & Learn: Crafting the Ocoee Exhibition
Friday, November 6, 2020

The Destruction of Rosewood
Sunday, November 15, 2020

Family Days: Growing a Better Tomorrow
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Saturday, February 6, 2021

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Storytelling & Poetry

Thursday, February 11, 2021