Kickstarter

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