Yesterday This Was Home: We Have a Right To Be Here

Posted on by Thor

This is a view of shot 12 in Adobe Premiere Pro. The camera pulls back from the bus window as the bus pulls away. Sam is saying “We have a right to be here.” In the timeline you can see that this shot consists of a series of images stacked on top of each other. Audio is green. The main audio track is the narrator relating the story. The other audio in this shot is of a bus a it accelerates. The audio was supplied by a free online service called Zapsplat Sound Effects.  Other sounds included the sound of sneakers on pavement and the sound of someone settling into a comfy seat. Since I don’t have a quality audio recorder, the effect sounds were a lifeline to finishing the folly work on this project.

The visual elements included a painting of the bus. A painting of the bus interior and a layer for tinting on the windows. As the bus pulled away I darkened the windows. All the animation of the bus move was set up with the bus itself and then the animation key frames were copied and pasted onto the other layers so they all moved together. At first I tried to animated each element separately but the window tinting and bus kept getting out of alignment. The copy and paste trick was picked up on viewing a you tube video tutorial.

The exhibition is opening tonight for VIPs. I had to finish  up two other videos just today, and thankfully they worked out well. I figured out how to use green screen techniques to have two paintings animate as time lapse recordings at the same time. One painting was of the person who was speaking and then the background related to what they were saying.

These films will be on display at Yesterday This Was Home at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) from October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021. The exhibition is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history. It couldn’t be more timely with the election looming.

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.

Now that all this animation is complete, I feel a sense of relief, but also an exhaustion I have never experienced before.

Yesterday This Was Home: Don’t Move

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If we are asked to move, don’t move. I kept this dialogue scene simple to save time. Sam tilts his head ever so subtly as he speaks but there are not head turns to complicate matters. It is a single sentence of dialogue and the simplicity worked. Again I like the lady with the cat eye sun glasses and she stays perfectly still staring out the window.

I reused the Winter Park background multiple times blurring it outside the bus windows. At other times I let the bus windows blast out pure white.

This short film will be on display October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021 at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd, Orlando Fl). The exhibition 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.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. 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 after October 3, we 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.

Yesterday This was Home: Getting Seated

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The girl gets seated. As she does, the narrator is warming up to telling her about their possible predicament. I finished animation on this scene and some of the drawings of the girl have nailed her personality in my mind. The best way to find a character if by digging in an animating them. Many model sheets at Disney Feature Animation are simply drawings lifted from a scene that really worked. This is one of those scenes for me. The boys animation is limited to him tilting his heat to watch as she bounces down into the seat.

This film will be on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) from  October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021as part of Yesterday This Was Home an exhibition 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.

To promote safe distancing, the History Center has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. For the run of the exhibition, they will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays after October 3, the History Center will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours later until 7 p.m. On Thursdays, they will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets for timed entry are available online.

Upcoming events surrounding the exhibition:

AdVOTEcacy in Action
Saturday, October 3, 2020

Coffee with a Curator
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Saturday, January 9, 2021

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

Yesterday This Was Home: The Timeline

Posted on by Thor

The girl enters the bus. This is a view of the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline. Clips are stacked in the timeline along with the audio. The project started by editing the oral history. That is the base clip under all the animation clips. Some shots require multiple clips for the various elements, like the bus, backgrounds characters etc.

Red lettering in the upper left hand corner of the screen warn that I do not have enough processing power for the program. I am proceeding anyway. Playback of the scenes is often stuttered but the final render of the movie runs smoothly so I just have to live with the stutters for now. If I keep producing animated shorts, I will have to get a better computer. I have not been able to see some dialogue scenes straight through with out stuttering which makes it hard to judge if the lip sync is working smoothly.

I have about 4 large scenes left to animate and I wake up each morning excited to tackle something new.

This film will be shown as part of Yesterday This Was Home a new exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801). This special exhibition on display October 3, 2020 – February 14, 2021.

The exhibition 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.

Tickets are now available for timed entry.

Yesterday This Was Home: Animating

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This is one of three scenes I animated today. In this scene Sam looks out the window, sees the girl boarding in Winter Park and decides to switch seats so she can sit beside him. The scene is 68 frames or to seconds and 20 frames. I had to act out how you might switch seats and I decided on him leaning forward and hen thrusting himself up on both arms to swing his butt over. It is a classic squash and stretch scene. The squash being his lean forward and the stretch being his thrust upward. I had fun animating his hand move to the far seat. He pauses for six frames looking out the window and then swings across.

In this screen shot from Callipeg, you can see the different levels used in the animation. The bottom level is the background . Above that I put the storyboard so I could reference it for the values used when painting the character. The animation drawings are on a level above the character’s painting level. I am not hiding how the drawings were dome. Some of them are very rough while other inbetweens get cleaner since they are put in to simply slow down certain sections.

It turn out I miss animating. It has been fun getting back into the process without having piles of papers cluttering the desk.

This short film can be seen at the Orange C0unty Regional History Center in the special exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home on display October 3, 2020 – February 14, 2021, The exhibition 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.

Yesterday This Was Home: Winter Park

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When the bus arrived in Winter Park, a 16 year old girl boarded. She was heading to Detroit as well. Chatting with a fellow passenger always makes the trip more pleasant.

This was a surprisingly tricky scene which might need more work. The bus was pulled into Adobe Premier Pro as a PNG file which preserve transparency. That means I could move the bus in Premiere and the back ground would appear behind it.

The problem came when I animated the girl turning to watch the bus approach. The animation was simple enough, but compositing her over the bus in Premiere turned out to be a hustle since Callipeg, the animation program doesn’t allow for exporting an entire animation with transparency. If I imported as an MP4 then the background an bus were hidden by the white page the girl was animated on. I could export a PNG movie but only one frame was exported. I ultimately had to export as a JSON file which packed all the elements into a WinRar folder. I then had to import each drawing individually into Premiere Pro and reduce the clip size to 4 frames. This was way more work than it needed to be. On top of that the girl drawings were strangely washed out. I adjusted the brightness in Premiere to compensate but still lines have dropped out. I may need to find another solution. In the mean time I am pushing ahead with another scene.

This is just one example of the myriad of unforeseen issues that come up even on a small production like this.

This short film will be on exhibit at Yesterday This Was Home, at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801) This special exhibition will be on display October 3, 2020 – 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.

 

 

Yesterday This Was Home: The Bus

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The 1957 era bus. The numbers animate onto the windows and a line animates up the side of the bus as the narrator talks about deciding he will sit 4 seats from the rear of the bus. It is his battle line. I love the look of this old bus. It has an Art Deco smooth look. Some models have a gorgeous baby blue paint job and all the metal glistened. Some people are finding these rusted old buses and converting them into mobile homes. That seems like a noble ambition. I need to keep my writng short, I have lots of work to do.

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

The exhibit ia 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.

 

 

1920 Ocoee and Beyond

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An event was held at Valencia West building 8, Special Events Center (1800 South Kirkman Road, Orlando, Fl) in honor of the people who lost their lives in the Ocoee Massacre. On November 2, 1920 the day of the United States Presidential Election, a white mob attacked African-American residents in Ocoee, Florida. As many as 35 African Americans may have been killed during the
riot, and most African-American-owned buildings and residences in Ocoee were burned to the ground, while others were later killed or driven out on threat of more
violence. West Orange was incorporated in 1922, and Ocoee essentially became an all-white town. The riot has been
described as the “single bloodiest day in modern American political
history”.

Perhaps the most horrific thing about this event is that we concretely know so little. We do not actually know who started what, how many African-Americans were killed, who ran to where, and whose property was stolen versus later sold, and whether or not for a fair price. There are many many versions of the narrative surrounding the Ocoee Massacre/Riot and little verifiable source documentation to back it up. Generally, the story goes as follows.

Mose Norman, a prosperous African-American land owner, tried to vote but was turned away on Election Day for not having paid his poll tax. In anger and frustration, Norman returned to the to the polling place. allegedly with a gun and tyring to get the names of the people who were illegally trying to
keep him from voting. He was sent packing again. Norman took refuge in  the home of Julius “July” Perry, another prominent African American land owner.  

Colonel Sam Salisbury, a prominent white native New Yorker and a former chief of police of Orlando, led a group of white officers and other men to find and presumably punish Mose Norman. He later proudly lauded his part in the massacre that followed. Sam knocked on the door of July Perry and July came out. When July was grabbed, a shot rang out injuring one of the white officers.  Suddenly bullets were flying. It is unknown how many people were inside the house, how many were armed, and who actually was shooting, but in all, we do know that several white men were injured, 2 white men were killed, and only have any sort of proof that July Perry was seriously wounded along with his daughter Coretha. She escaped with her mother and children out the back door into a cane field.

The whites laid waste to
the African-American community in West Orange. Fires burned a reporeted 18 or more black homes, two churches, and a lodge.  July Perry was reportedly taken to the Orange General Hospital (now Orlando Health), then to be taken to the jail. It is unclear whether he was taken by a mob en route to the jail or whether he was pulled from his cell, the jailor overwhelmed by the mob. Accounts vary from his being drug behind a car, his body being riddled with bullets, and being hung from either a pole or a tree. The location of said hanging is also very unclear and ranges from Church Street to up near the Country Club.

Norman escaped and relocated to New York City, eventually selling all of his land in Ocoee. Hundreds of other African Americans
fled the town, leaving behind their homes and possessions.

Descendants of July Perry were in the audience of this Ocoee and Beyond event. Two of them are in my sketch seated at the table in front of me. They got up to talk a bit about their family’s experiences through the years. Being two or three generations removed, they didn’t have any direct commentary about July Perry. Their families fled Ocoee, moving to other states and the family continues to thrive. The evening was filled out with music and dance. Pam Schwartz of the Orange County Regional History Center was there because the museum plans to mount an exhibition about the Ocoee Massacre around the time of the 2020 elections. In front of the History Center, a historic marker was put up to remind modern residents about the Ocoee Election Day Massacre.

This event was not about placing blame or  anger at the past, but to find ways to heal and grow together as a community moving forward. It was a look at Central Florida’s past so that we do not repeat it.

The 1920 census listed the following African American land-owing families, though there were more than 250 African Americans living in Ocoee at the time.

Anderson, Garfield and Janey Bell; two children; eldest son Sidney

Battsey, Randolph and Annie; daughters Alice and Bessie; owned farm

Blackshear, Martin and Candyce; four children, oldest son Morgan

Blue, Sanborri and Lilly

Dennys, Thomas and Lavinia

Dighs, Edward and Willamina

Edwards, John and Genie; oldest son Usteen

Frank (or Franks), Daniel and Carrie; four children, oldest son Allen

Green, Sally; six children, oldest son, Jeremiah; owned farm

Hampton, Jackson and Anna; owned farm

Hightower, Valentine and Janie; three children; owned farm

Johnson, Stephen and Julia; three grandsons, oldest James

Langmede, James and Eva; son Starland

Lynch, Richard and Fanny

McRae, William and Doda

Penzer, Kerry and Elisa; three children, oldest son Edson

Moore, Rocky and Daisy; five children, oldest son William

Nelson, Stephen and Julia; two children, son Edward

Perry, Julius P. and Stella; five children, oldest son Charles; home listed as “contested”

Surrency, Jessie and Grace; four children, oldest son Damott

Slater, Victoria; son Mason

Warron, Wade and Rhina; five children, oldest son Porter