COVID Dystopia: Till the Internet Went Down

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Animation in this shot form COVID Dystopia is limited to a depth map and camera move. You would think that this man would be out of the news by now but he still gets endless coverage due to his criminal trials and the fact that he is running for office again.

Now he sends out tweets during his trail claiming that thousands of his followers might invade the courthouse and he claims the judge isn’t qualified. It is just the usual rantings of a mad man. I should have put him in a straight jacked in this shot, but then he could not hold his precious phone.

Yesterday I finished the last two shot that I had correction notes for. I will go over the notes I wrote her over the past several weeks but I am feeling the film is complete.

No I face the challenge of what to do next. I can start designing the book, but I wold prefer to have a publisher rather than self publish. I would hate to print a whole lot of books that then say in boxes unsold.

H5N1 is also on the horizon with American cow herds being infected far more than previously suspected. One dairy farmer in Texas was infected from direct contact. Human to human transmission has not yet happened. At the start of the COVID outbreak in China all officials claimed the virus could not spread between humans as well. THey wanted to pacify the populace rather than warn them.If that does happen the h5N1 pandemic would be far worse than the COVID pandemic with a possible 56% mortality rate. The virus has been detected in commercially available milk but it is believed that those are viral fragments that can not cause infection. If this virus does spread we have the tools to stay safe but people have bee too well trained in denial and dark ages ignorance. People can not take precautions against something they can not see.

COVID Dystopia: No One Really Panicked

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This scene from COVID Dystopia of people running in the street of New York City was done at the height of the first COVID wave which hit the city hard. That first wave of the coronavirus pandemic remains one of the deadliest in the world, having killed almost 23,000 residents, in just three months.

During its worst 12 weeks, from March 19 to June 10, 2020, NYC reached a higher Covid-19 mortality rate than 85 percent of countries that have reported for the entire three-and-a-half years of the pandemic. The city’s peak 12-week mortality rate was the second highest of any city worldwide, just behind Mexico City.

Each person running in this scene had to be animated twice since I first animated the scene at too low a resolution. The mechanical virus is animated using puppet pins in After Effects. It crouches down while one arm moves on an arch.

For some reason I keep getting apartment walk through videos of apartments in Brooklyn which are cheaper that the rent I am now paying in Orlando. The places are surprisingly spacious. I am completely solo right now and wondering where I should live for the next chapter of my life.

Traveling to film festivals is offering me a chance to day dream of different cities. Chicago was decent but it must be bitter cold in the windy city, Berlin is out of the question, it was rainy and cold the whole time, Cleveland was very impressive, it is just a little bigger then downtown Orlando. I hope more festivals accept COVID Dystopia since I want to travel to their cities and day dream. I should travel to a city or country that has handled the COVID pandemic well. New Zealand is on that list but I haven’t found a film festival there yet.

COVID Dystopia: Breach the Grave to Claim the Crown

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Queen Elizabeth died after a bout of COVID 19. Her cause of death was listed as “Old Age”. She died 7 months after her initial COVID infection. She reported that the virus left her feeling very tired. Old Age is not a cause of death. It is a shame no better report is available.

One online gossip site, website Hollywood Unlocked, falsely reported in February of 2022 that the she had died at the age of 95 from COVID-19. The site didn’t credit any official royal sources, but Hollywood Unlocked CEO and founder Jason Lee took to his Twitter at the time to back up the outlet’s report. “We don’t post lies and I always stand by my sources,” he wrote at the time. After the palace reported that the Queen was still alive, Hollywood Unlocked issued a statement on social media apologizing for the incorrect story and blaming the report on an “intern journalist” who “published the draft post by mistake.

The queen did die 7 months later on September 8, 2022 at 96 years old. I am not saying the COVID infection killed the queen,  but it didn’t help her health. COVID attacks the heart, the brain and every organ that is a part of the vascular system. Even “Mild” cases of COVID damage the immune system and damage organs that can cause death months or years later.

In this shot from COVID Dystopia, I used Volumax Portrait to build a depth map of the queens face. She gently rotates for the duration of this one second shot. No other animation is needed since it is simply a portrait shot.

Today I am working on making a framework rural home explode. I have it worked out where I need to animate 14 frames of the building expanding and roof tile flying upwards.

The challenge is in deciding how much of the house I should hide behind the explosion and how much of the framework I should keep showing. I worked until I dropped last night and I hope to finish that today.

I have started getting to rehearsals to sketch, so those are being interspersed among the film I shots I am posting in order.

I looked back at a Facebook post from back at the beginning of the pandemic. Back then people loved what I was doing and suggested I should make a book of the work. Today, I am convinced people hate the work and wish it would quietly go away since they are pretending that life is back to normal, just with more sickness and death.

What SAG-AFTA can do for you.

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The Winter Park Public Library  hosted a talk about SAG-AFTA. I had not been to the new library building, so I decided to go.

There is a huge arched structure in front of the very modern building so I walked through those arches into one of two adjacent buildings that sweep outwards a precarious angles from the base.

I masked up and entered the building which turned out to be an events space. There were no books to be seen. I felt I was on the wrong track, so I exited and went to the other building which actually did have books inside. There were tow computer consoles inside the entrance instead of a receptionist. I would need to search around for the talk in question. Luckily it was right behind the computerized reception desk. Off to the left was a recesses staging area with chairs set up and two actors seated at a table center stage. Video cameras were set up at the top of the mini amphitheater taping. The event had started 15 minutes early, so I felt I would not have much time to sketch. I decided not to sketch the cameras and instead walked half way down the seating area. I wanted to show that there were a few people in the audience.

SAG-AFTA is an actors union. Carol Baily and Adam Vernier have both done lots of commercial work as actors. Much of their talk was about doing work as extras on sets. Adam was particularity upset since Florida once had incentives for film production companies to shoot in the state. Rick Scott then became governor of Florida and he killed those incentives. Georgia offers incentives and so they get all the film production work instead of Florida. Even if a film is supposed tp take place in Florida it is usually shot somewhere else.

Carol listed instances on a film set where a production company ignored guidelines by not offering breaks for actors for instance. She listed the infringements and called SAG-AFTA. A union representative then came out and quietly pulled the producer aside and made sure things were set right. She noted one instance where she was an extra but was then upgraded since she was in so many scenes. Once lines are delivered salaries can jump up to six figures. Royalties are offered any time a commercial is shown. Royalties are an actors bread and butter, but they can be just a fraction of a percent, meaning a check might arrive for just a few cents. But hey as an artist every penny counts.

A question came from someone in the audience. He said his daughter had caught the acting bug and wanted advice on how she might someday get her SAG-AFTA membership. Adam was blunt. He said she should  get out of acting while she can, but if she really has the bug there is no stopping her. Actors are born not made.

I looked up Carol and Adam on IMDB to see their credits. I had no luck finding information on Carol but found plenty on Adam. Adam Vernier was born in Manassas, Virginia. While living in Chicago at 5 years old, Vernier auditioned for and was the second choice for the part of “Danny” in the movie The Shining. Adam has worked for years on stage (Equity), television shows (SAG-AFTRA), feature films (SAG), straight to television movies (SAG-AFTRA), commercials (SAG), industrial training videos (SAG) and on and on. He is often cast as an officer or military guy. Now I am wondering if either of them are in one of the films being shown at the Florida Film Festival.

Danny Loyd who did play the roll of Danny in the Shining, retired from acting at the age of 10. In 2019, Lloyd appeared in a cameo role as a spectator at a baseball game in the Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, his first acting role in 36 years. I do not know if he was in SAG-AFTA.

Facebook for some reason has recently started flooding the social media site with photos of celebrities. Because of that I have started to ignore the platform.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf by Edward Albee was presented at the Le Petit Théâtre on the Seminole College Campus. Actor Stephen Lewis had suggested I sketch a performance. Stephen helped me find the sound technician who mixed a surround sound track for my film COVID Dystopia.

Who’s Afraid of Viginia Wolf won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1963, and is considered one of the most important American plays of the 20th Century. Martha and George, a middle-aged couple, have a complicated and contentious marriage. After a university faculty event, they invite a new biology professor and his wife over for a late night of entertainment.

Martha and George spar all evening like two seasoned gladiators taking endless jabs at one another and dragging the young couple into their unfolding drama.

Freshman year of college I was asked to read this play and it convinced me that I would never want to become a university professor with hopes of tenure. The play was three hours long with two intermissions, so there was plenty of time to sketch. I looked around to see if there was any HEPA filtration for the air in the small black box theater. Since I didn’t see anything, I was masked for the length of the performance. An online student told me just before I left for this performance that her friend had just caught COVID and she felt she might be coming down with it as well. She had been infected about three times so far. A couple in front of me were coughing off an on. They say the goal of a good performance is to keep the audience from coughing. It is hard to do that in a pandemic.

The performances in this production were stellar. The angst and a light spark of affection between George and Martha was palpable as they pushed each others buttons. The young and ambitious professor tried to keep up with George but he fell victim to the vicious mental acrobatics that ensued. I wish I could convince more people to go and see this production, but unfortunately the show run is over.

COVID Dystopia: Back to Normal

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I like the animation for this Maya sacrifice scene.I did a very fast hand swipe down into the chest cavity with a big smear frame for one of the hands. Once a hand rests on the victim it became a held cell. Even the animation of the blood drops came off pretty effortlessly. The skull mask was added to the animated scene. The original illustration did not have the mask.

There is depth added to the scene but it is hardly noticeable since only the temple in the background is affected. Head tilts on supporting characters finish off the animation.

Yesterday I reworked two of the early scenes in the film, adding a blink to the fortune teller scene and a blink to the guy turning his head n the rhino scene. The rhino scene is a bit low res, but I don’t think it is worth it to totally rework everything. I added a sharpen effect to the head turn animation and hope that improved the look a a bit.

Today I plan to animate some sea foam coming off the bow of a life boat. I also plan to animate the oars as well. As it is now it is very clear it is a held cell being moved. The extra animation should help bring the scene to life. I am also considering adding snap zoom effects back as a transition between each stanza of the lyrics. In the timeline seen above each stanza has a different color. I am not sure if I am committed to this idea but I want to play wit it as a possibility.

By the end of this week I want to consider the film complete. Most festivals refuse to show the film because they have embraced the idea that their festival has moved beyond the pandemic. No one wants to look back and certainly no one wants to be told the pandemic is ongoing. The film now has just a 16% acceptance rate. That seems insanely low to me, but perhaps that is normal. Who knows.

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.