Klaus Hoefs Pirates:
My compliments to Shay for composing the music, since I heard his music from films done by Jeff Sheer he has made big progress.
Shay continues to make music for Jeff's mood films for the New York Times online. I think it's a matter of direction, having to work for two different styles, rather than progress. But it was through Jeff's films that I found Shay Lynch because I liked his music so much in those tiny films (though not all; some don't work as well as others.)
It is both, modern and classic at the same time
This is what I admire about his work so much and what I have been asking every composer I've worked with to achieve. It was this quality of Shay's sound for which I abandoned my previous composer who began to sound too unimaginative to me and was beginning to bore me.
And to be more specific it is a joy to watch the sea and the motions of people and boats and listening to the music.
This is where I failed in Tulip, where I believed the contradiction of Plummer's King's English freely discussing scatological matters would be a joy to sit back to and listen. It made some people (too many) feel disturbed, not relaxed. It took me a long time of small successes and failures to get to this point, where I can depend on the match of music and motion for a minute or two to carry the enjoyment of absorbing a film and being able to afford to drop the importance of story driven action.
I think in particular the waves could be more dramatic. The shaking of the camera has more change of tempo (>15:00. + about15:20) than the waves.
This will change once we add appropriate sound effects; the screeching wind and roar of the sea. Mariners often refer to these terrifying moments as having the boat shake and rattle in all her timbers. These terrifying vibrations are caused more by the wind than the water.
...and climbing the big one looks to me like climbing the alps (15:40)
This is exactly what goes on in storms that produce huge waves -- there is nothing exaggerated in my drawings. The climb can be so steep that some boats will turn over and somersault backwards to total destruction and certain death of all aboard.
BTW I love your rich detailed ship in motion. Great !
Thanks; here I am a little smug and out to prove that imprecise, freehand drawing can achieve the same reactions in an audience as 3D perfection -- and perhaps even more so.
The pirates cliche style may identify them as a group but also it has a pale aftertaste,mhm ? Also with their beards they may be too close to Slocum's looks. But coloring may do it.
Coloring will take care of it, but amusingly enough, as I sift through endless lines of period photographs stretching across Cooliris walls, there is a striking sameness to all those bearded men of the past. One often comes across group portraits of men posing for a camera and they all look like brothers.
And who is that guy ? (about 14:43) Victor or the ghost, giving advices to Slocum - it must be the ghost. I wonder why are no comments or questions about this one here at the Forums, and I am curious who will identify this guy as what ever....
This is why I identified him on this thread. In the film it will be explained that Slocum ran away from home at the age of 13 because he couldn't bare the torments of his pedantic father. But ironically, in these scenes Slocum remembers his father's lessons and follows them to the letter which rescues Slocum and his boat from certain demise. The father will be dressed in civilian clothes and he will move about the boat as we would move about his house -- he will be animated with complete disconnect to the elements, which should make salient his supernatural status.
The coloring is now much more vivid, comparing it with Tulip and it shows that the target market is different.
Recently I read a review about Tulip (but can't remember which one by now) which was claiming that your drawing style was naive but very done by the heart. I don't think that Tulip's style was naive - au contraire I think they had the breath of an older and wiser (
) man in general. But Victor seems to me much more naive in its best meaning. From what I have seen it is brighter, less Shaw and more seen through the eyes of an astonished kid.
Great! Just what I am after!
---- I like it, but are you sure how a torpedo is fired ? (
)
Every torpedo boat was equipped with a small cannon. The torpedoes were fired under water. BTW, I found it astonishing that the British had a complete fleet of submaries and torpedo boats stationed at Gibraltar as far back as the 1880s.
