some kind of explanation of cakeman

cakeman is a one and a half minute 'animated' 'film' which i made

i am tim drage by the way

in 1999 i was at the so called 'university of wales college newport' studying animation

we had a 'sound project' during 2nd term
i spent some time making some wierd collagy silly thing about red mercury and other nuclear type stuff.
was almost good
but i got bored and it got unfinished
anyway soundproject had no sound

then!
my friend Chi had been randomly recording bits of our very very odd conversations on his dictaphone
plus!
his little brother Joshi* had written a poem entitled cakeman
Chi discovered that reading this out recording and speeding up with tinny scratchy dictaphonic sound was scary and funny

by reading it very slowly and speeding up t'was very very very scary

lent me the dictaphone and so i suddenly actully had sounds for soundproject

made it entirely in a weekend
filmed it using a revolutionary and groundbreaking animation technique of hand-held stop motion
the reasons for this are twofold

  1. i wanted to cause distress and wobbliness and Shinya Tsukamotoness**
  2. i lost an important bit of my tripod

the entire film was made on my old mac performa and its lo rez tv card
all on adobe premiere***
filming and editing were as one
which was a very interesting way to work

made the whole thing hardly leaving my chair
filmed things on my walls and in my room with my hi-8 camcorder
digital zoom stretched just beyond limit of usefulness
starred two m.u.s.c.l.e. figures from my collection on the mantlepiece
guest appearences from photos of my friends Jaron and Jody
and from Andre the Giant

buying cake and cherries was the total research and development done
cost of cake and cherries was the total budget spent

my tutors and fellow students where somewhat surprised by the finished film
but they liked it
got a mark of A14
hope you like too

i like films a bit rough around the edges
this ones rough right to the core

*Joshi is also inspirator of one of Chi's fonts
** the wobbliness of the whole thing was inspired by the scene in Shinya Tsukamoto's film Tokyo Fist when he is walking down the street and the traffic noise is loud and the camera is a angry shakey
*** interesting fact adobe premiere is not programmed as is customary but instead is as the name suggests made entirely from a kind of mud wattle and daub usually reserved for huts

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