Teddy Bear Wars - Synopsis

Alex, Ted, and Imala, a group of spirited teddy bears, have been proudly owned and loved by a special little girl for years now. There's only one problem. A few soldier bears from her father's collection have managed to escape, and are looking for love. The battle for her room and a place on her bed continues every time she leaves the house, and only one group can come out the victor. When the people return, however, the girl might have other ideas about who is really victorious.

Talent Photos - For Teddy Bear Wars

Jason Hunt as Captain Paddington

Neville Williams as Lieutenant Becket

Devin Taylor as Lieutenant Kline

Timothy F. Joyner Jr. as Alex

Ken as Ted

Caroline Huss as Imala

Superstar Review

I think the lighting and voice acting, as well as the camera angles were really the strongest aspects of this film. I especially liked how the sound became distorted and the light got darker in the beginning scene with the record company man. The stage lighting was also superb. Haynes makes great use of panning to add movement to the scene. It was interesting how he weaved real clips of the times and meshed them with the materials he made himself--especially the clips relating to food and anorexia. Overall, an interesting (and slightly creepy) movie.

People as Props & Props as People Pitch (Teddy Bear Wars)

For this assignment, I've had a past idea crop back up into my head. This idea originated in an IPC project relating to progression in relation to materialism (China versus U.S.A.). It then progressed and was recycled as an idea for a Photoshop project in design systems.

I propose taking this idea and recycling it yet again, but putting a new spin on it. These teddy bears remain still and toy-like when a person is around, but when the people leave, they resume war with one another. There will be two groups. One group consists of identical white teddy bears with military uniforms. The other will have more variety. The second will likely be different kinds and colors of teddy bears to show a less carbon-copy army. These two groups battle ever time the humans leave the house. In fact, they have been battling for control of the house for so long, that they have forgotten why they are fighting each other or why they even want control of the house, which apparently has to do with which group gets to stay in the youngest member of the human family's bedroom.

The following is test footage from how I attempted to get the bear to move without touching him with my hands. I used wire to give myself better control over the bear's moments, but fishing line or thread, if attached to two separate places on the bear, would probably also give a fairly wide range of mobility.

Inspirations include:

Toy Story

The Hundred Year's War

One Piece: Episode 71: "Huge Duel! The Giants Dorry and Broggy!" <- Two giants who have been fighting each other for so long that they don't remember why they are fighting.

Filming Sock of Love

So, this whole process was really stressful. There was a lot of miscommunication back and forth. Stephanie bailed 2 days before we needed to shoot, so we had to get a replacement for Victoria. Being ready at the time we designated to start didn't always happen. For instance, we wasted a good hour on Saturday because the first thing we had to shoot required us to use the camera battery. Whoever had the camera forgot to charge the batteries the night before, so that added a lot of stress. Another thing we took away from this is just how important it is to keep some snacks & water on hand. Keeping your actors happy is a big part of getting the shot. If they're not happy, your job becomes harder and every is just in a bad mood.

Saturday was just one of those days where no one was really getting what they wanted and tempers were running high. We all had different ideas, little battery to film with for about half the day, and overall, it was just really difficult to get anyone on the same page. Another problem was the fact that the sock was never long enough. We just kept capturing his arm in almost every take. We had to get so close to our actress's face that it was bordering cheesy.

In the evening, strangely enough, things got better. One of the more grouchy actors was finally allowed to leave, and we had another batch of fresh actors waiting in the wings to do the next scenes, so everything went a lot faster. I also think the fact that we had a larger span of time to work in DA Media took a lot of Friday's pressure off.

Again, when I was on camera, I'm not particularly happy with the shots I made. I think I need a lot more practice before I'm going to be a good camera person.

By Sunday, I was really glad we weren't filming much. We were all really tired, so it seemed fitting that our actress got to lay around a lot in her shots.

For the house shots, there was one thing that really made me unhappy. There was a series of shots where she is sitting in front of the TV... and the TV is supposed to be lighting her face. But to be honest, the TV really doesn't give off much light when the room you're working in isn't completely dark. I kept being told not to bother lighting the shot, but it just doesn't look right when I play it back on screen.

All in all, this was a frustrating to film to shoot. I'm really glad we're at the editing stage.

Maya Deren - Meshes of the Afternoon

Deren appeared to use repeating objects and patterns like the flower, the knife, the figure with no face, and even the main woman of the film. In fact there is one particular scene where the woman is in two different places at the same time. Then there are scenes that don't appear to have much to do with the sequence (like suddenly appearing near an ocean), but the nature of the film to have no definite time or space seems to fix any issue of feeling like one has left the space created by Deren. This film uses a different approach to something that might seem completely natural, or even boring if it were simply captured on film.

I think this film was interesting in it's repetition. I personally probably wouldn't use experimental film as my own approach, but the ideas she had were a pleasant kind of different. She used a lot of imagery in relation to shadow, light, and space overall. Her sense of space is something I might take away from this for perhaps future use in my own films.

Just thinking

So I've been thinking. Deciding to be a Digital Cinema major there are two things I would really like to see happen before I graduate.

The 1st is: It would be awesome to have a set design class. Somewhere where you learn to really build that room into what you want it to look like, perhaps even learn to build stage props and backgrounds out of various materials. (Me and my roommate agree that we would both like to take this class...)

The 2nd is: My roommate is a illustration major, so I hear all the time about how they have to do a Junior project with a photo student & a graphic design student. Now, I know I'm insane for wanting this, but I think it would be amazing for 3D Animation (or Motion Capture) and Digital Cinema to get to do a project together. After all, that kind of thing happens in the real world a lot.

I'll have to run it by the right people and see what they think. I don't mind people saying no, but I have to at least ask...