Lucia Di Lammermoor

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I attended a final dress rehearsal for Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia Di Lammermoor in the Steinmetz Theater in the Dr. Phillips Center for the Preforming Arts. (445 S. Magnolia Avenue
Orlando, FL). Presented by Opera Orlando, this was an impressive production.

Music is by Gaetano Donizetti with libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. The opera is Sung in Italian with English and Spanish super-titles. Since I was sketching I didn’t have time to read the super-titles.

What is particularly interesting about the show is that they styled it to resemble Game of Thrones. It is a tale of love, betrayal, and madness, Lucia is torn between allegiance to her family and her love for Edgardo–her brother Enrico’s sworn enemy. A forced marriage leads to tragic ends for all involved in this gorgeous operatic treatment of Sir Walter Scott’s gothic romance The Bride of Lammermoor.

Particularly impressive were the large celebrations with crowds of guests in gothic attire. At one such celebration the partners turned and gasped when they saw Lucia stumble down the steps in a white dress holding knife covered in blood. Her disruption took center stage as she sang her sorrowful aria. Again I didn’t read the translation, but read the meaning in every guests reaction of horror and bewilderment.

I started a second sketch towards the end of the production. Time was short, this was the final moments of the opera. Singers stood around a funeral pyre.

I was among several dozen people who were in the second tier of the theater. The rest of the theater was empty. In the pit were members of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. choreographer Mila Makarova, had dancers from the Orlando Ballet performing some sinister dance moves around Lucia as she went mad.

Next time I sketch a production from so far away, I plan to bring opera glasses. I used them in the courtroom for the Pulse Nightclub shooting case, but realize now I need them when seeing a theater production from afar.

Performances are on Friday | April 19 at 7:30 p.m. and  Sunday | April 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $29.

COVID Dystopia screened at Cleveland International Film Festival

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The Cleveland International Film Festival was impressive. Granted COVID Dystopia didn’t win any awards, but it was an honor just to get to show it there.

There were some amazing shorts in the After Hours Short Film block that COVID Dystopia was shown in. Bounce House by Callie Bloem and Christopher J. Ewing won the award for the best After Hours Short. It featured a post apocalyptic world with giant sloths and of course a bounce house.

I think my favorite was The Looming by Marsha Ko. It features a stellar actor who is truly haggard in his look. He lives alone and occasionally talks to his Alexa device. Alexa failed several times in different horror films, usually turning off the lights when the character desperately needs the light on. I can identify since I now live alone and occasionally open the front door just to listen to the security system say, “Front door open.” She isn’t a great conversationalist but its what I got.

There was a talk back after the screening and I was surprised that there were a bunch of questions about COVID Dystopia. I of course talked about the beginning of the project in March of 2020 when I started doing a painting a day about the pandemic.

One woman wanted to know if there would be a longer form of the project. My answer to her was that the long form project would be a book which I felt no one actually would want to see but I feel it needs to to be made for people 100 years from now. She raised her hand and said she would certainly get a copy. Now that I have a potential sale, it is time to create the book.

Someone else asked about the music and I got to promote Andy Matchett and the Post Apocalyptic Rock musical, Key of E. I couldn’t believe that the mic kept being handed off to me. I got flummoxed by a multi point question but think I answered it in the end. While COVID Dystopia was being shown a large group of people in the row in front of me started waving in friends. By the time they were all settled the film was over. Perhaps COVID Dystopia presents too much too fast. Next time around I need to make something with a straight forward narrative structure.

While doing the sketch above of the Allen Lobby, I had to swing my filmmaker lanyard behind my back since it got in the way of my sketching. As I was finishing up, an usher walked up behind me and asked if I wanted my lanyard scanned. It turned out a long line had formed all around me, and the audience were about to go into a screening. I asked what film was being shown and one of the ushers laughed. The film was, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. The title probably sounds better in French. It sounded good to me, so I went in. I sat way in the back of the theater, away from the crush of the crowd. As the lights went out, my glasses fell to the floor. I got on my hands and knees to find them using the faint light from my iPhone but with no luck. I sat through the whole film wondering where the glasses could be. Reading the captions was a challenge but the message of the film was not lost on me. I loved it. At the end of the film, when the lights came back up, I found my glasses which had bounced one seat over. I later saw the vampire actress walking in the lobby. I couldn’t help but stare, her porcelain face was as white and frail as in the movie. If only I knew French.

At the Shorts Jury Awards and the Shorts Audience Choice Awards, I got to see all the winning films. The winner for best animation was Anita Lost in the News, a film about a failed emigration of a family out of Iraq. It seemed to be stop motion animation with the family being created out of newspaper clippings. I don’t think there were many animated films. All the films I saw in the tow days I was at the Film Festival were live action documentaries or narrative films.

COVID Dystopia: Iceberg

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The Iceberg scene in COVID Dystopia just had the whale animated.A whale moves rather slow since it is so large but the scene is just a second long. The tail only animates downward. I wish there was more time to also animate it on the upstroke.

Now that the snap zooms were cut from the film there are 6 more frames in the scene.  I might consider some added animation for an upstroke.

I had a scare this morning. When I went to open the Premiere Pro file I got a warning box that said, It appears the file is broken it can not be opened. Good God. I navigated to the file another way and managed to get it to open. I better save what I have and get it onto the one drive.

My biggest fear is that I will get the film to a finished sate and then it will completely crash. If something bad can happen, it will happen to me.

I tried to render the film with all the snap zooms removed yesterday and the render failed. I used all the same settings I used on past renders. It seemed to freeze on a scene with an asteroid about to crash into the earth. I will check that scene to day and see if there is anything that might cause the render to stop. Why can’t anything digital just work?

COVID Dystopia: As the Scientists Stared in Horror

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This NYC tsunami scene is based on 9/11. The black steeple is Saint Paul’s Chapel downtown which was just a few blocks from the collapsing towers but miraculously was unscathed.

In the early height of the pandemic NYC was ground zero for the unchecked spread of the virus in America. The Republican president at the time offered little help since NYC is known to be a Democratic stronghold. The thought was to let the Democrats die. The policy of denial and minimization however backfired since Republicans began taking no precautions and died like flies. We have surpassed 1.5 million deaths from COVID in America and that number continues to rise. America leads the world in weekly confirmed COVID deaths. According to Our World in Data 890 Americans are dying every week from COVID as of the start of March. On average airlines carry 300 passengers per flight. In terms of the number of deaths,  COVID is still resulting in about 3 airline crashes a week. Yet this is no longer news worthy as the economy is the priority. With an election coming up it is better to ignore the virus, claiming victory than to clean the air in schools and public buildings.

This scene was reanimated to be sure the resolution was high enough for a large movie screen. When I started animating I thought 1920 by 1080 would be a high enough resolution for each scene but I was wrong. Many scenes needed reworking so they are double that resolution.

COVID Balast

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America has surpasses 1.5 Million dead due to COVID. That number is likely much higher since COVID causes brain, heart and other vascular issues that result in death long after the initial infection. Those deaths are not attributed to COVID.

Politicians are satisfied with the number of deaths. These people will not need social security. Politicians are promoting mass infection in the hope that herd immunity will set in and eventually stop the cull. Politicians are presenting the vulnerable at less than the average American. The problem is that every American becomes vulnerable after repeat infections with COVID. The number of disabled Americans due to COVID continues to grow. On Long COVID awareness day the media promoted the idea that we should no longer use the term Long COVID. The first social group the Nazis murdered on mass during WWII were the disabled. Care wards were emptied and the Nazis experimented on killing the disabled using carbon monoxide from auto exhaust. This next election cycle we have a former president who fancies himself becoming a dictator.

For minimizers Long COVID is not a problem until is has seized a member of their own family. For them COVID is not a problem unless they see bodies piling up in the streets. America is however very efficient at disposing of bodies. The government has done an excellent job of convincing people that they should not care about the vulnerable. The vulnerable are to be discarded so the nation can “return to Normal”.

 

Vida at Fringe Art Space

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Vida at Fringe Art Space is an original Production by Open Scene. The choreographer is Ana Cuellar whose work I have admired for years. The show features cellist Jamie Clark. The cellos somber tones resonated throughout. A rear projection screen offered quick changes of scenery. The program noted that the show is a mesmerizing musical journey with a tag line of Embrace your Emotions.

Theresa Bejarano and Marie Saad built the show around the advice of a mental health counselor Victoria Henry. I liked the beginning moments of the show, where a voice over stated most stories begin in darkness. The Birth scrolled across the screen in elegant Victorian handwriting. A female dance curled up on stage in the fetal position. I felt there might be enough time to sketch her so I jumped right in.

What followed were flashes of childhood joy. Learning to walk and then learning to tumble then learning to love. When the backlight projector was too bright in my eyes, I used my baseball cap to block the light so I could focus on sketching members of the audience. I noticed Fringe Marketing Director Desiree Montes bobbing her head to the beat of the music. This is something I invariably do while I am sketching. It is part of the reason I sit rather far back in an audience because I don’t want to distract with my involuntary movement as I sketch. It makes any drawing flow out of my hand much faster.

This was a very bilingual production which I liked. I studied Spanish using Duolingo after the Pulse Nightclub tragedy but I didn’t keep up my studies after oral histories became rare. There were about six or seven video testimonials that were projected after the initial dance performance. Since I was sketching I didn’t try and read the captions in English. On occasion I would recognize a word but never enough to get full context of what was being said. My primary objective through that section of the show was to get the audience that I had sketched to fall back into darkness.

First love had a danger illuminated in red with a long bolt of fabric. When the stage was illuminated red I burst into action. Up until them the show had been very dark with greys and blues. There were two redheads in the front row so I let the reds seep into the audience. Illustrations form Lisa Aisato were projected to help forward the emotions of the moment. The show didn’t have a linear story line but it certainly featured life moments from birth through love through the last scene which had the dancer curled up again this time holding a solitary candle.

At the end I felt like I wanted more. I checked my program thinking there might be an intermission. I was the last to leave, still hoping there might be more. Having missed the video testimonials I must have missed some of the heart of the show. I liked the interdisciplinary aspect of the show. I love that the visual arts got to play a part in the grand experiment.

COVID Dystopia: Scientists Stared in Horror

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This scene from COVID Dystopia has wave animation and depth added. I am just noticing that the wall of China rises up above the grey land mass. This will have to be adjusted. I need to slip the wall downward of raise up the grey land mass. It will probably be easier to raise up the gray mass. Though the scene is fast, someone might notice that the wall is floating up in the sky.

This isn’t adding new animation but is a blunt compositing mistake that needs fixing. I will actually make these adjustments today. Film adjustments have been on hold since I am painting Shakespeare Theater posters but I am in a holding pattern waiting for an approval session. This fix will be done as I wait.

I could add some fractal noise to the wave to add more random movement but that will have to wait.

Just one more week before I have to move my studio. Then all will be on hold. I will have to get my Disney Desk set up first so that I can immediately start painting on poster revisions. I had hoped that I might be done with the posters before the move, but I don’t think that will happen.

Berlin Short Film Festival: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was a stop I felt Pam had to see. This maze of grey granite blocks are hip height at the outer edges but get taller as the ground sinks down in the center of this multiple city block memorial.

Pam wandered off to explore the information center while I sketched. The information center was one of the most impressive exhibition we had seen in Berlin.

It was a grey day and it had been raining all morning. Groups of tourists would gather at the outer periphery of the memorial before walking into the stone maze. Green moss has already started to grow on the shady side of the blocks. I limited my view to maybe one eighth of the memorial. When My sketch was done, I texted Pam multiple times but she wasn’t getting reception since she was under ground.

I decided to wander inside the memorial. It was fairly bright as I walked down a single row. I limited myself to the single row so I could walk back and sit under the pine tree which is where Pam would know I was sketching.

Deeper down the row it grew darker. The morning rain left long streaks of moisture dripping down each column. The drops slid downward like tears. Some tourists had run their fingers through the moisture creating horizontal meandering trails. You couldn’t see it others were walking perpendicular to your path so I would pause at each corner and glance down the rows that ran east and west. When I returned to my sketching spot, a family sat beside me. The children ran up and down the aisles playing hide and seek.

Pam found a spot with reception and she suggested I meet her at the information center. The exhibits were brutal and overwhelming. One room was full of the storied of families. A large photo should show the whole family and then there was a panel that showed what happened to each person in the photo. More often than not, the epitaph would read murdered in Treblinka or Dachau or any number of other death camps. A few did survive in hiding or by escaping the country. Their stories were also corroborated with primary sources. The Nazi’s kept precise documentation.

One small boy lost both his parents to disease in a ghetto and then his three brothers and sister were deported and murdered at death camps. The boy had to endure medical experiments but he ultimately survived the torture.

Berlin Short Film Festival: Belushi’s

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Pam and I traveled to Berlin for the Berlin Short Film Festival. Our first stop after a grueling 12 hour flight was the Saint Christopher Hostel which is just a block from the historic Babylon Theater. On the ground floor of the hostel is Belushi’s bar. Several hostel residents were finishing breakfast as we arrived. We wanted to check our bags in early and start exploring the city. There are lockers for bags but the lockers were coin operated and we didn’t have any European currency yet. Pam found a Deutche bank on Google maps and left me in Belushi’s to watch the bags. She was doing me a favor because it was rainy and miserable 0utside.

This became my first opportunity to sketch in Germany. I managed to finish this sketch before Pam got back. International flags lined the walls and a Kansas City neon sign was hidden behind several flags. The Super Bowl would be happening in a couple of days and the bartender was lining the bar with American flags for the occasion. Every night Beluchi’s was packed with drinkers watching large screen TVs that mostly featured soccer matches.

Pam and I went to the DDR Museum on day one. This museum shows what life was like in Eastern Berlin when the Berlin wall was in place. My biggest take away was that they had some very loud wallpaper back in those days. On attraction was a huge elevator that lurched and flickered dark when the button was pushed. Maybe it was just a faulty elevator but it was terrifying. Far worse than the tower of terror. There as also a jail cell, office and basic apartment settings. In the kitchen Pam found that she could print out several recipes, so she might be experimenting with some eastern block food in the coming weeks.

It was raining and cold for every day of our stay. Naked tree limbs were cut, off and the rain made the cold seep deep under every layer of our winter clothes.

COVID Dystopia: Mass Grave, Closed Captions

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COVID Dystopia has been accepted into a prestigious film festival that is Oscar qualifying. When I read the e-mail, I thought it was a prank. I can’t name the festival until March 8 when the film festival program is fully lined up. On a tight deadline, I need to add closed captions to the film and make a 2K DCP file that is used for the high quality theater projectors. Once I have the DCP file, I can use it for future film festivals. The problem is that I keep refining scenes. Those refinements are very small at this point however.

Another film festival near Ukraine expressed interest in the film, saying the already viewed it and wanted it for their program. There is no guarantee that the judges will put it in the program however, and I am wondering if it is an excuse to get me to pay the 30% reduced application fee.

I had created captions on youTube once, and the process was pretty easy, but I pulled that version of the film down so that COVID Dystopia can only be seen at film festivals. Now I need to create captions in Premiere Pro so that the film can be shown with captions or without. I think the closed captions can be exported as a separate file from the movie file itself. Since I have never done this before I have a steep learning curve over the next couple of days.

I have seen closes captions that have a dark field behind them on youTube. I am wondering if that is needed for my captions. In the scene above the captions are easy to read when they are in front of the casket shadows, but harder to read in front of the hazmat suit.

I am also wondering if I am supposed to type out sound effects in closed captions. I need to do a Google search to find the best solution. I have seen cations animate on as the words are said and that might be a solution. I just need to figure out how to do that.

Pam said she would help me create the DCP file. It is apparently an expensive file to create. I read once that it coast about $200, but again I am not sure.