Test subject

A test frame using a 105mm lens

Being monday today, I had to return the 105mm lens I rented by 9am. To squeeze the most out of my rental fee I woke up early to shoot some more test shots. I've been toying (no pun intended) with the idea of making another animated short using the established Lego characters from my last movie, "Macho Baby!". All the lego people have been conveniently kept in a fishing tackle box along with their accessories (ie. the "Derek" lego with a lego camera, the "Derryl" lego with the fez).

Despite the fact that it only took two and a half days to do all the photography and compositing and that I made it up as I went along, it was still two and a half days of no sleep and a lot of work. It makes me tired just thinking about it. However a lot of time has passed and it has now been just over three years since MachoBaby! first played at the HLAP film festival.

I've had an idea for the sequel months after finishing the first movie but pushed it to the back burner of my brain since then. There's always the expectation that if the first film is good the following film has to be just as good or better. It's very rare that that happens as the audience has higher expectations for the next film. Some examples of good or better second films are Wallace and Gromit's Wrong Trousers, The Wrath of Khan, Empire Strikes back, Toy Story 2, Terminator 2, Aliens. Examples of bad sequels are Temple of Doom, Grease 2, Son of the Mask. I suppose there's a tinge of fear that the second film I make will bomb. Plus I don't like doing things half assed.


Hair and dust on the lens and "Darryl" lego

The rented lens had some hair on it. You can see it in the Darryl photo. And if I were to do another film I would have to invest in a air can to get rid of all the dust particles that cling to the lego figures. Overall I was pretty impressed with the sharpness of the photos. Now all I need to do is to start building the sets.