Trailer Shoot

Dear Reader,

Last minute prep is coming together for today's shoot. The trailer has been located and Alien One and I have cut fish for the curtains.

Which the Trouble and Strife helped me finish last night - that's the curtains on the floor :)

Oh, and Justus has the pink icing-ed cookies under control!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Felt Chain

Dear Reader,

I have for some time harbored the whimsical dream of turning my old wool socks into some wonderfully felted item. In need of a chain, I figured felted rings were the perfect implementation of that dream. Unfortunately my wool wouldn't felt.

As always though, there are other options, in this case, leftover felt from the side of the train we shot a couple of weeks ago! So Alien Two and I set to work.

With the train now a chain we're very close to ready for tomorrow's shoot :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Inspiration: A World of Wool

Dear Reader,

While out over the weekend a friend pointed me to a wonderfully wild music video that features a woolen world. By New Zealand band Steriogram, Walkie Talkie Man, is certainly louder than Squirrel King, but what a wonderful mix of knitted and live action!

Plenty to be inspired by!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Memorial Day

Dear Reader,

As we welcome in summer, we pause today in memory of loved ones past. At The Squirrel King we're also sparing a thought for Daisy, one of our less fortunate hummingbirds, who brought much happiness before her unseasoned gum nut head shriveled askew.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Stunt Squirrel in Action

Dear Reader,

Reviewing some footage from a shoot last December, I came across this wonderful piece. Not sure the squirrel has ever been quite the same, but what a trooper ... on fire, under the car!!


As you can see, Squirrel King shoots are always lively events! For those of you in LA and interested in joining the action one day, there's still a few shoots left, just drop me a line and we'll find something for you to do :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

P.S. To check out other clips, visit The Squirrel King Channel on Youtube.

Glittering Water

Dear Reader,

Inspired by the Alien's nails, we've added blue glitter nail polish to the map of Nesting.

A river never looked so grand!!

Stay tuned for more additions, notably shower stalls :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Community

Dear Reader,

Trust it will appear, and indeed it will! While helping in Alien One's school class over the last few months, I've been delighted to see their celebration of community.

Now, with the school year drawing to a close, they are culminating their study with the construction of an inspired town from old milk cartons adorned by all manner of magic.

As the final product crystalizes it has occurred to me that this might well be the town of Nesting!

Inquiries to Alien One's teacher have been met with a positive response ... and so the town of Nesting has arisen from the imaginations of a groups of kids!

Once the gardens have been completed the film crew will move in :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Knitted Briefs

Dear Reader,

With a big push by the Trouble and Strife, Robin's swimsuit is coming into focus.

The popping pink with black stripes should complement the coconut top perfectly! Stay tuned for the beach shoot sometime soon.


Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Backfired Acorn

Dear Reader,

Last Friday we mixed buckets of shredded-then-blended paper with buckets of water in a big tub and took another crack at the pulp paper acorns.

In the foreground on the left, in front of Alien One, you can see the moulds fashioned from sieves glue-gunned into bucket lids.

After an inauspicious start that included blowing, not sucking, with the vacuum cleaner, resulting in yours truly covered in pulp paper (I only wish the photo below better caught the mush all over my body) ... we had some mixed success that included a delightful acorn lid, but no accompanying acorn. I guess more tinkering is required :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

More Shoes

Dear Reader,

True to their heritage - the Trouble and Strife is a shoe fiend - the Aliens were back at cobbling again, reminding me of wonders of having open-ended construction ingredients lying about the house.


I still haven't figured out where to incorporate these wonderful items into The Squirrel King, but they must find a home; they're simply too good to leave out :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Hummingbirds Take Off

Dear Reader,

We love to recycle and reuse wherever possible!

With that in mind, those wonderful hummingbirds you saw outside Robin's window, have partnered up with some friends (who needed wings) and will shortly be wending their way to Australia to bring joy to the Aliens' younger cousins - flying around cribs on a mobile :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Nesting Town Map

Dear Reader,

A very Squirrel King map in under construction. Yesterday we laid the groundwork with paints ... very soon we'll add multimedia shower stalls :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

PS. This is obviously after the inauspicious event back in '96.

Make-Do

Dear Reader,

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of masking tape as a means of combining found objects and unlocking your creative imagination. Of course tape is by no means the unique to this function, there's glue, string and now Makedo a cool connector from a little company Down Under.

Here's a whole page of wonderful things that others have already put together with the little joiners!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Sieving Through Ideas

Dear Reader,

Following up our earlier effort at making pulp paper acorns -and the ideas that spurred - we've purchased sieves, dismantled them and are now sculpting them into acorns for this Friday's second pulp paper bonanza. Stay tuned, I'm optimistic we'll soon see some groovy acorns :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Lemondrops and Gumdrops

Dear Reader,

For those following Alien One's burgeoning music career, here's an old favorite she's now learnt to play on the guitar :)


Happy Mother's Day to the Trouble and Strife, and all the mums around the world this weekend!!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Inspiration: The Creative Haven

Dear Reader,

Trawling the web for inspiration I came across The Creative Haven, a wonderful collection of interviews with practioners of stop motion and things generally animated. Check it out, there's something fun for everyone :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

More Miniature Squirrels

Dear Reader,

The squirrels have been proliferating!

We now have over a dozen miniature squirrels - aka stunt squirrels. Their destiny this time? Ride a veritable tidal wave.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The Nesting Train Station

Dear Reader,

The Squirrel King's world of whimsy got a train station yesterday.

Comprised of the miniature forced perspective shot being set up on the right, and ...

A wonderful life sized replica of the miniature, being constructed here a couple of days ago with the aid of two creative genius.

I'll fish around to see if I can find an image of the final life-sized product, promise :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The Nesting Animal Control

Dear Reader,

The weekend saw a flurry of activity prepping our big train station shoot (life-size and miniatures required). The Aliens and I also had a delightful time creating the placard for the truck used by Nesting's one-man animal control.

Our first attempt was colorful! So colorful that the Trouble and Strife noted it was difficult to actually read the name. Still, so enamored with it am I, that I felt I should share both versions with you :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Trains and Animal Control

Dear Reader,

After a day of scouting Justus and I found the Nesting train station. Just a few more little pieces and we'll be ready for another day of shooting.

Alien One meanwhile has been hard at work starting the production design for the panel on the side of Nesting's Animal Control truck.

More of both soon.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Words of Wisdom from Terry Gilliam

Dear Reader,

While surfing the web for inspiration for the arrival of the gypsies, I came across this fantastic tutorial from a young Terry Gilliam. Wonderful stuff about stop motion cut-out animation from the days of Monty Python And The Holy Grail:


Inspiration abounds throughout the ages!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The Squirrels Get Eyes

Dear Reader,

Many thanks to Greg and Lex at Longlost Pictures who have done a fabulous job adding eyes to our squirrels!

Just wait til you see them animated! They're alive now!! I simply can't watch the raw footage anymore ;)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Paul on Location

Dear Reader,

A couple of candid shots of Bill Watterson from Sunday's shoot, in character as our Paul showing us around Ed's garden and simply relaxing.


Chin chin
Ruthless Whims