Kickstarter

Hello.

Thank you for taking time to look at our project.

My name is Brock Scott. I am an Atlanta based artist / musician who lives for making cool things. I love using collaboration as a way to bring different artists and mediums together in creative ways. I studied sculpture in college and while there became really interested in artists who create unique kinetic systems in their work. i.e. Arthur Ganson and Theo Jansen who were artists that took the ideas of traditional mechanical engineering and adapted their own style to how we have perceived things to work. You could imagine how ecstatic I was to find that one of the most amazing kinetic sculptors I have ever seen lived just down the street! His name is Tom Haney.  Tom is an artist who creates beautiful automata vignettes depicting figures performing random and often beautifully mundane actions. The delicateness of the pieces mixed with Tom’s amazing craftsmanship and ingenuity creates a window into his intricate world.    

5 months ago, I approached artist Tom Haney with an idea for a unique project that was part puppet show, part kinetic sculpture, part musical performance and immortalized on film. I called it Boxcar Fair. The piece will follow a wandering explorer who stumbles upon a magical fair in the middle of a desert. 

The explorer interacts with many characters along his journey including a giant anglerfish a fortuneteller an ornate elephant an enchanted mouse and a high diving dame, each of whom is more fanciful and elaborate than the last.

The video will last the duration of one song (approx. 2:30) that my band, Little Tybee, will compose and record. The entire sequence will be shot in a single take, with no cuts, panning from left to right (Similar to the platform view of the Super Mario Brothers game). The set itself would be approximately 45 feet long. The camera will be mounted on a robotic motorized dolly fixed to a rail that allows filming the entire length of the set smoothly. Tom and I are extremely motivated and itching to bring our vision to life. We have hired an amazing artist from LA named Ram Bhat to paint the backdrop for the entire 45 foot long set. Ram Bhat is a truly incredible artist and has worked on many amazing projects collaborating with Bjork, Black Eyed Peas, Greenday, Ozzy Osborn and Nintendo just to name a few. Ram has a very unique style that will compliment Tom’s figures and our musical score perfectly.

We have received amazing support from the local puppet and artist community and from the center for puppetry arts here in Atlanta. We are getting incredibly close to finishing this project but are asking for your help in raising funds to make sure this project will reach the potential we think it deserves. The money that you donate will go towards materials needed to finish the set, supplies needed to make the puppets, paying all of the artists involved in making this vision come to life and reserving a space large enough to house our ambitions. With your help, lets make something beautiful together.

Thank you.

You can follow the progress of the project here: http://tomhaney.blogspot.com/

The following is a second to second description of the production

The Journey of Matthew Scott at The Boxcar Fair Setting: Ambiguous desert (Nevada, Sahara, Morocco-ish) The following proposal is in regards to a collaborative project between Brock Scott (Little Tybee) and Tom Haney. The video will last the duration of one song (approx. 2:30). The entire sequence will be shot in a single take, panning from left to right. The set will be approximately 45 feet wide, 6 ft deep and 10 ft tall (at certain parts). The camera will be mounted on a robotic motorized dolly fixed to a rail.  Artist Tom Haney (www.Tomhaney.com), with the help of a team of sculptors, will construct a series of puppets (self powered and marionette) as well as an elaborate set that transitions from a desert scene to a carnival to an underwater abyss to a lush oasis and lastly to a night time sky.  Artist Ram Bhat (www.rambhat.com) will paint the backdrop for the entire 45 ft. set and illustrate the above scenes. The first shot opens (0-15 sec.) with a dry and desolate landscape illustrating the warm tones of the Nevada desert. Rocks and other objects will be sculpted in the foreground as well as a textured ground. As the camera begins to strafe, The words (Little Tybee, Tom Haney Present) will come into the frame. The text will be sculpted and hanging at different depths in relation to the camera to give the viewer a sense of perspective. The shot will move past the text (16 sec.) and reveal our main character (A weathered explorer who seems to have been lost in this environment for a while) The explorer will already be walking when he comes into frame. He comes upon an ornately decorated gate (22 sec.) with an illuminated sign atop that reads “Boxcar Fair”. A small mouse sits beside the gate as if welcoming the explorer to this new world. The explorer ponders at this for a moment and then continues past as he enters the carnival. After a short distance, a circus tent becomes visible off in the distance (29 sec.) First out of focus, the explorer stops to admire the scene and the focus shifts from him to the tent. The tent then becomes illuminated (31 sec.) and the silhouettes of two trapeze artists become projected onto the tent from the inside. As they swing back and forth, they eventually lock hands and form the shape of a heart with their bodies. After this happens, the focus shifts back to the explorer as he walks deeper into the carnival. The camera continues to follow the explorer as he walks away from the tent. After a short distance he comes across a small swimming pool with a tall diving pole extending well above the frame of the shot. The explorer begins to follow the pole with his head and, as he looks up (43 sec.), the camera begins to pan up the length of the diving pole. When the shot reaches the end of the pole, a female diver is seen perched atop a diving platform. She is dressed in an early 1900’s swimsuit and cap. This puppet will be articulate enough to be able to go from a standing position to a diving position easily and fluidly. The camera pauses on her for a second (45 sec.) and then follows as she dives (46 sec.) from the platform into a tiny swimming pool below. She dives through the water (48 sec.) in the pool and in doing so reveals a magical underwater world. The camera follows her as she dives deeper into the abyss. As she reaches the bottom of the aquatic world she encounters a gigantic anglerfish (53 sec.) with a lantern illuminated in front of its head. The angler’s mouth opens and words come floating out encased in bubbles (57 sec.). The camera takes the rising bubbles as a cue to pan back to the surface. When the bubbles reach the surface, we are met once again by the explorer (1:02 sec.) who is now en route to his next magical encounter. As he walks, the lights begin to turn to a much cooler hue as the sun is beginning to go down and the setting changes to a more lush and fertile environment. The explorer comes to a tent (1:06 sec.) that is slightly more mysterious than the first. Lanterns and trinkets riddle the area surrounding the tent and an elaborate sign that read, “The Amazing Marsho Jint” sits illuminated over the entrance. As he enters (1:09 sec), the camera pans past the explorer and continues along the outside of the tent.  A flap peels back (1:16 sec.) to reveal a fortuneteller now seated across from our explorer. (this explorer puppet will not be marionette but rather motor driven to articulate in a predetermined manner) Between the two characters lay a crystal ball illuminated with premonition (1:19 sec.). The crystal ball will (in our reality) be a circular mirror deceivingly angled to reflect a video monitor located a few feet off set. Dry-ice fog will blanket the floor and dramatic lighting will help set the mystical mood of the scene. All the puppets in this scene will be mechanically powered and will lack the need for strings. The shot zooms in on the characters (who are now gazing into the crystal ball). The intensity of the light glowing from the ball grows and grows until it is met with an explosion of light that illuminates the room (1:30 sec.). The camera now shifts under the table where we see a small mouse that has become enchanted by the explosion and is now glowing a bright green. The camera follows the mouse as he dashes for a hole (1:34 sec.) in the floor and introduces the viewer to his underground world. As he runs through a series of tunnels, he illuminates hollowed out chambers that are laced in all directions. Each of these chambers are filled with artifacts and trinkets that were stolen from the above world by our little eradiated rodent. The Camera follows the mouse as he makes his way back to the surface but this time in a different location from which he entered. The mouse submerges (1:47 sec.) to find our explorer who is walking once again in a lush environment in what is now nighttime. The camera shifts to follow the explorer as he comes upon an ornately decorated elephant standing placidly. The explorer places his hand on the elephant’s reins and seems to find calmness in his presence. The camera is fixed on these two figures as the mouse hops back into frame. The elephant sees the mouse and begins to look ironically modified. Just when things couldn’t get any worse for the elephant, the mouse shoots his newly discovered magical essence at the explorer and the elephant (1:54 sec.) thus giving them the ability to fly. The two then begin to float into the nighttime sky (1:59 sec.) and up, up, up until the moon comes into frame in the background. After about 20 sec. or so, A tapestry on the elephants side unrolls (2:23 sec.) to display the closing credits. The camera slowly fades out, thus ending our magical adventure.

You can learn more about the band, Little Tybee, here:
littletybee.muxtape.com

Tom Haney here:
www.tomhaney.com

Ram Bhat here:
www.rambhat.com