Hi, we had a crazy but great last month in Cicada town. It was our first time out at two new stages, we shot the Princess scene in Lagunitas at Fonco and picked up the ballroom dancers in San Francisco at the Bonfire Labs stage.

Due to a costume hiccup last year we didn't get to shoot the dancers on the same weekend as the ballroom shoot. The ballroom set is very small at about 22" tall, to get dancers with costumes in there it took some engineering and some planning on how to work at different scales. If you see the reference plate of the ballroom, the 2.5" ping pong dancers were used so we could see how the light would fall on the dancers. We then built a larger blue platform at Bonfire with stand-ins made from cardboard and balloons. Once Ray generally matched the lights on the those, we pulled them out and shot a real puppet couple one at a time to be put into the scene later. It was a long afternoon of 30 different marked positions but in the end it's the only way we could've done it. It took a year to come back to these dancers, when it was all done I really enjoyed a cold beer and carrots.

At Fonco we shot the Princess at dawn, this was our largest puppet to date and a very ambitious set. The crew worked really hard on the set and it came out just right. Robert was up late sculpting little flowers while I slept on their couch with the sounds of dance music bleeding up through the cushions from the shop down below. The artists in this Lagunitas crazy place are absolutely great and lovely to work with. 

The last sets are coming up. These next couple months will probably be the hardest with the remaining three weekends of photography, please send us all your good thoughts. 

I own one pair of shoes but I also own a tiny castle... and a little bridge. I hope to be back here with more news soon. A princess for you

Warmly,

Mauchi

Dear Cicada fans,

As we enter into 2012 I wanted to drop a note and let you know what is going on in Cicada land. One of the most exciting events to date happened on the project a couple months back and I am now able to talk about it.

On November 17th, the amazing Stephen Fry joined the project as the narrator for Cicada Princess!!

I had seen Stephen in "V for Vendetta" years ago, his performance was so somber and genuine that it stuck with me for all this time. When I started Cicada I knew I wanted him to narrate it but had no idea how to make that happen or that it could even be possible.

It was through my awesome and resourceful friend Nick over in London that we made contact with his agent starting in February of 2011. In November, a small window of opportunity suddenly opened to do the recording and it was a mad dash to make it all happen. Nick put the session together at the fantastically great studio 720mph in London, and I patched through San Francisco with the help of another fantastic studio, One Union.

My day started at 4am that morning to coordinate the final details with London, our composer Jesse picked me up and drove us to San Francisco ( He was well aware that left to my own devices I was likely to get lost and miss this most important session ). I still wasn't sure this would even happen as we parked and walked over to One Union... It wasn't until we all sat down in the studio when I heard the most welcome and endearing (insert British accent here), "Hello San Francisco" through the monitors that it was all suddenly real and all happening.

Needless to say the narration is absolutely perfect, it totally glows. Mr.Fry is a complete gentlemen and so humbling in his craft. I am so very grateful to him and all the folks that helped make this impossible possible.

Stay warm and cozy on this cold January. We are about to put some new sets in front of camera, expect some images very soon... These days are totally crazy!

Best,

Mauchi

Hi friends,

[ we're building! ]

I'm writing to let you know we are starting to build sets again. With the 3d layouts in place and flushed out for building, we are tackling the remaining six sets in tandem between two studios and a new stage in San Francisco. The re-edit / anxiety attack that I went through is over, the current plan is to focus on builds then shoot the remaining scenes back to back after the new year. It blows the original schedule but if we can be wrapped with post and audio by March, we will be in excellent shape for the festivals.

Currently on the plate is the castle exterior, one castle interior, and a very ambitious molting scene. Basically we need to hatch a flying puppet from a breaking husk. The husk is somewhat transparent and needs to be able to break over and over again for each take. I've scheduled the molting to be our last scene to shoot, I imagine there will be quite a bit of trial and error until we figure out the perfect materials and technique. 

For the castle interior, we have a close-up of the princess and she is being made at a much larger scale than we've worked at before, the puppet is around 16" tall which makes it easier to work with fingers and allows for more detailed fabric. 

I'll keep you posted on our experiments and sets with stills of the dust settles. I'm posting here a rough un-edited time lapse of the last build and the finished princess dolls (they are missing arms).

[ fonco ]

Joining Cicada on the Marin side of the bay is Fon Davis and Robert Barnes at Fonco. Fon was a set builder on Nightmare Before Xmas and James and the Giant Peach and is a bay area legend when it comes to sets and miniatures. His studio is amazing and humbling as is Robert's awesome sculpting portfolio. Fon has a project here on kickstarter, if you're into giant robot stuff then definitely check it out: morav. 

[ kickstarter rewards ]

I have all the bridge bug requests and we will begin shipping those out after the New Year. They are still needed in one more scene then they will be heading to their new homes with the other doll rewards. Books and dvds are going to take somewhat longer and will depend on where they end up being published. Thank you for your patience!

[ reach me ] 

I am stretched pretty thin between all the loose ends on Cicada. Every time I try and whittle down my list of messages here I get bogged down using their web interface. If I have missed you or not responded to an introduction, please find me here instead: mauchi99 [at] gmail [dot] com. Come January I will need all the friends I can get.

...

I got to spend my day yesterday picking out window frames and miniature wallpapers at the local dollhouse store. If you have never been the only male at a dollhouse store on a rainy afternoon... well, it's an experience.

Humbly and of course, thank you

Mauchi

Hi friends of Cicada!

A brief update on what is going on with the project. Russel and I went back into editorial to flush out the remaining scenes in 3d animatic format. After the last set build I got some anxiety as to whether the book panels would flow together as well in moving picture. I stopped the builds so we could revisit those panels and essentially make all the remaining sets virtually and cut them together. 

We discovered a few bumps here and there so some adjustments are being made to make sure the film fits with itself absolutely perfect. The 3d layouts that we make for editorial serve the dual purpose in that they can be printed out as blueprints for the actual builds. Normally we have done this one panel at a time but having all the plans done at the same time will make it that more efficient in materials and time. We should be back sawing, glueing, and snacking / fighting in the coming weeks. I am glad we took the time to re-work some of the problem areas and I am excited to get back to the studio.

Here are a couple examples of what a 3d layout looks like. Working this way we can try different materials and color combinations very fast.

On other news I visited with my best friend from childhood this past saturday. It has been seventeen years since we last saw each other, just before he joined the monastery. Fresh from being a Monk, he has acquired excellent carpenter skills. It just so happens I am in need of a carpenter so he will be joining us at the studio this fall.

Talk soon,

Mauchi

Hello Cicada friends,

The last time I posted an update there was furry of foam, candy, and angry men at the studio. Since then, we have finished the street scene and put it in front of camera. The candy is gone but the angry men still remain... 

This set came out just right and I wanted you to see how far it has come along. This street will eventually have six pairs of dancers which we also shot last weekend. Those will be composited in the footage later as welll as the city and fireworks. I'm not sure what fireworks made by cicadas look like...

For me, I didn't get to spend as much time at the actual stage gluing or breaking things (and then re-gluing them). My day job kept me working nights and away from studio, I really missed that time with the crew who really hammered down to keep us on schedule. 

I finally got off the job and rolled into the studio midnight on thursday before the shoot. Jose was welding tiny lights and Steve had just called it a night. The fog was rolling in and there was a cold breeze. Jose turned on all the miniature city lights and we sat there in the dark listening to the set breathe for a couple hours with the fog and the breeze coming through the doors.

Each scene has a particular meaning for me, whether in the performance, or in the final picture... I usually find my peace with each before letting go. For the street scene it was enjoying my friend's company with this special piece that everyone ran up a mountain to make. That was my sweet spot this go around.

if you want to look at a hires image of this set, it lives here.

Thanks for all the support and positive thoughts,

Mauchi