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How Dare Wright Did It
©Dare Wright Media, LLCDare Wright's Lona, a Fairy Tale, is, for me, the most artistically beautiful achievement in the history of man. Too much? No. It was an original story written and photographed...
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Main Set Building Is In Progress
Our 110-year-old home's master bedroom serves as the room to set up the Halfland Main Cottage and landscape set. Its ceiling, as does its floor, needs redoing, so I'm further superficially abusing the...
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DONE! Cottage Interior Ready to Shoot Scenes
Using the new camera/lens setup and getting used to framing the scenes around the furnishing gives a nice preview of how the film is ideally supposed to look. This is a wide-angle phone snap of the...
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Taking Every Shot
Friends of this blog and project have said some marvelous things about it. And This particular post really illustrates what they were reacting to as professional animated photography artists."Every...
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Ooooo, The cottage at night!
Snapped this BTS shot of the main set in progress and was surprised and delighted at how the work lights illuminated the cottage and Answer Tree. It never occurred to me that the cottage could look so...
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What's in Rana's Pocket?
What gets collected and left in the pockets of her apron as she potters about the garden? Well, special seeds, pearls of Wisdom (naturally), and an ancient Grecian cameo portrait (of whom, we wonder?)...
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SHOT PREVIEW: Mouse in Pocket
When I saw the Writing Mouse like this, for the first time ever, tucked inside the pocket of Rana's cloak, my jaw dropped with a big smile on my face. PURE STORY MAGIC!!It was like seeing the story...
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Branching Out
As soon as I realized it was Autumn inside Rana's cottage, I converted the Answer Tree branch over her bed to the right season. This detail branch is removable to stay out of the way for certain...
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Preview of Cottage Interior at Dusk
I have been paying very close attention to light, how it falls at various times of day, and the quality of each season. I noticed the evening sunlight hitting the cottage as I was shooting the new...
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Hooked On You
Once I knew the mouse needed to shimmy into the cloak pocket when trouble hits, I knew I needed a strong hook made to scale to hang it on. Here it is finished with me pressing down with force on it on...
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Just Hanging Around
Made new memory journals for the large mouse puppet, and got him rigged up inside a reinforced cloak pocket, all shot with a new experimental addition to my favorite lens. It's a 13mm extension tube...
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Seven For The Books
The mouse's original main journal• is still missing. It was bothering me. I'm sure I put it somewhere safe and logical, but after searching too long, I just sat down with all the "mouse journal making"...
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Get the Details
Straight from the camera, I can get a glimpse of the storybook poetry Halfland props and sets can provide. Here, the little tea tray settled on a cushette in the window seat set at Dusk, features the...
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Why Spiders Hide
Now that the Window Seat set is finally finished, I started blocking the Lacemaking Spider's shots as a director. Even though the puppet wasn't fully dressed, He was installed for his scene in the...
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Lands Edge
Kyelynn is helping me each week for two to three hours to construct the maximum landscape around the main cottage set. We use salvaged cardboard boxes attached to either the wall on the left or the...
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One Wall = THREE Scenes!
The refurbished Bay Windowseat Wall for the Main Set Cottage is complete and not only completes the Cottage Set, it is actually also the stages forTHREE separate Halfland scenes inside the cottage:1....
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Halfland in the Wild!
Here, we see a fully transparent frog from underneath. I had no idea such a creature existed when I made Halfland's Timefrog's transparent clockwork and organ belly!These frames were grabbed from John...
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Lona Study + Dick Kaneshiro Visit!
Dick checks out the complete book spreads of Lona: A Fairy Tale spread out on my attic floor.Halfland Hero Dick Kaneshiro agreed to come for a socially distanced visit the other day. It was fantastic...
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Backdrop Artistry
Just came across these images of English actress Y Fitzroy taken by portraitist Alexander Bassano. The backdrop in them is EXACTLY my ideal for the Halfland set. Everything, the foreground dimensional...
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S.T.U.P.I.D. projects: Bug Party Flower Lanterns
Shot with my magical shooting setup, the S5, with a tilt plane lens and 13mm extension magnifier ring.So much of what has been built in Halfland has been done in between. Between work projects, between...
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S.T.U.P.I.D. PROJECT: Goldfish Disco Ball for Bug Party
I made his tiny eyes look dizzy because he'll be spinning and wiggling his tail to the beat.(Doesn't the soft, pretty bokeh of the party lanterns look magical in the background?! I love my new...
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DIY Distortion Mirror
1" dia x 48" L Round Poplar Dowel $55mm x 4' x 8' Poplar Sanded Luan Plywood $301" x 12" x 8' Unfinished #2 Pine Board $231" x 6" Woodboring Spade Drill Bit $61" x 2" x 8" Unfinished #2 Pine Trim Board...
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Instant Insect Intricacy
While making more Quick Bug puppets and organizing the workroom, I came across an unused giant fly puppet I'd built for a book illustration and thought it might make a better cicada peeking at everyone...
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More Party Bugs!
After making more attendees for Halfland's Bug Party, a large extra crystal bead spontaneously turned into a Honeypot ant, similar to the ones shown above.They're looking soiree-ready with tiny flowers...
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The Burden of Our Memories
The Writing Mouse character carries his journals on his back wherever he goes. These are his memories.Sometimes, things come together in Halfland as I watch. I have to keep paying attention to...
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