Twelve Years in Film

I have been celebrating various anniversaries in 2020. One of the ones I nearly forgot about was that it is twelve years since I made my first home made DVD featuring my home made movies. Recently, because of the Covid19 Lockdown, my life has become a bit more virtual and my interest in making movies and DVDs has returned. The first DVD I made in 2008 was called Teacup Typhoons and features many of the animations that can still be found on the LornaJHart YouTube Channel. Other titles in my homemade DVD collection include Pictures at an Exhibition, ALFA Fantasia, Showcase and Moving Pictures. My latest DVD is called Tales from Three Cities and features videos based on my special visits around London from 2010 to 2020 and trips to Paris in 2008 and New York in 2017.

There's something about Edgar ...

I thought I might never get to see the animated version of 'The Fall of the House of Usher' by Edgar Allan Poe narrated by Christopher Lee and directed by Raul Garcia. I was revisiting the very tempting trailer on YouTube (see above) when, after reading a few of the comments, I noticed that it has actually been released. It was released in October 2015 and is one of the animated films featured in an animated Poe movie anthology called 'Extraordinary Tales'. After hunting around a bit I found an online version and have now seen the entire film.

Extraordinary Tales by Raul Garcia : a film review

Edgar Allan Poe has long been one of my favourite authors, if not my absolute favourite, and this animated film, written and directed by Raul Garcia, I feel is a wonderful homage to him and his stories. The beginning and connecting sequences of the portmanteau film feature Poe in the form of a raven who visits a graveyard full of feminine statues and speaks to death in the form of a woman. The first conversation between them leads neatly into the first of Poe's tales.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Christopher Lee's narration is mesmerising in this and perfectly complements the stylishly drawn characters. Roderick and Madeline are as they should be; angular, striking and really creepy. The narrator, Roderick's boyhood friend, is rotund and spooked out by what has become of his childhood companion and the house he remembers as being magical. In Poe's tale it is not only Madeline who is ill, Roderick and the house are also falling apart at the seams and I think this is portrayed very well.

A conversation about redemption and justice leads to the second of Poe's tales.

The Tell Tale Heart

This story is told in striking black and white pictures, with a touch of red here and there. I have heard this story told many times. My English teacher read it out in an O'level lesson and managed to scare the life out of a bunch of rowdy teenagers. Here it is told by Bela Lugosi, who does a good job on it. The stark pictures are good company for the chilling story of a man who only kills because he doesn't like the look of the old man with the 'vulture eye'. I love that Bela Lugosi  made it into the film, he was born in the same century as Edgar Allan Poe, so it feels like an extra connection there.

After a talk about cheating death we come to the film's centrepiece.

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

I find this is a really creepy story even by Poe's standards. It is about a man hypnotised into an uncertain state, before dying, and hovering on the brink, suspended between life and death. It is another starkly illustrated and animated piece, but this time there is colour and a satisfying comic book or graphic novel feel about the short film. The doctor looks suspiciously like Vincent Price and it is narrated by Julian Sands, which ticks another couple of vintage horror boxes quite nicely.

The next story, we are told, is about a man's contemplation of unknown torments.

The Pit and the Pendulum

It took me a while to get into and appreciate this story and this animation also took me a little more time to get to grips with. The animation is modern and realistic, smooth and appealing. It is voiced by the director Guilermo del Toro, the story is about the Spanish Inquisition, so I think this was a very thoughtful choice. Good narration, I feel, is so vital in this, we see that horrible things might happen, but what is going on in the mind of the prisoner is where the true horror lies. I think I need to read this story again to get all I can out of it.

Having really enjoyed the first four stories, I was sure the fifth one would be just as satisfying.

The Masque of the Red Death

There is very little speaking in this piece, so the amazing music, which has been running throughout the film, really comes to the fore. The paintings in this story are a kind of oily water colour, the characters look similar to the illustrations drawn by Harry Clarke, a 20th century illustrator famous for illustrating Poe. This is another touch that I feel makes this film such a treat, especially for big Poe fans like myself. I have read this story several times, and was eager to see how the animation would take on the many coloured rooms of Prince Prospero's palace. They were done exquisitely, each with their own decadent character. I wouldn't say any of these short films were too scary, but I did find this film a little scarier than the others.

At the end of the film we are left to ponder the legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, which I think is pretty great. Gorgeous animation, five Poe stories, a little of Poe's poetry, the portmanteau horror film format; exquisite music, illustration and narration; this film combines so many of my favourite things, I can't help but love it.

Flight of the Phoenix Fairy

While I was demoing my song 'Phoenix' I was imagining the sort of journey video that could accompany it. I had always been fascinated by animation and with the advent of home computers, inspired by a visit to the Museum of Childhood and becoming more skilled with the use of Paint Shop Pro, Gif Animator and Movie Maker, I was very pleased to put together my own small animated films. 'Flight of the Phoenix Fairy' is one of my most elaborate animations and is featured in the larger ALF Creations film 'Pictures at an Exhibition'.

Making friends with YouTube

I've been wondering what to do about my old YouTube account for a while, I've been adding videos to it, on and off, since 2008. It's been a bit hit and miss over the years, but I thought, on the whole, it's worth keeping. My teenage daughter's very keen on YouTube, too keen probably, but I felt there is more I could be getting out of the service so I decided to adopt a new strategy.

I had a few videos I wanted to upload, a couple of old animations, a more recent montage of old ALF pictures and an idea for a new video. I uploaded my old videos and thought I would have a go at the new idea.

The new idea is The Antique Junk Shop, which is a montage of new pictures I have drawn, inspired by one of my poems and accompanied by one of my songs. The new video has been created using the new Movie Maker, I preferred the old one, but have a new computer, so now have the new Movie Maker as well, I'm still quite pleased with the result. After uploading my videos, I thought more deeply about what to do.

My old YouTube account has always been for uploading my 'ALF Pictures' videos, it's its raison d'etre, but I wanted somewhere I could go to search what other people are doing and keep track of that rather than somewhere I go to upload my own efforts. So I came up with the idea of having two accounts.

My old account, LornaJHart, is still for uploading my videos, when I feel the need, I think of it as my 'experimental' account. My new accout, Amilo Finn, is where I am mostly going to collect playlists of other people's videos that I find inspiring, I think of it as my 'inspirational' account. To keep them linked AmiloFinn has subscribed to LornaJHart and vice versa.

While I was at it I also added The Antique Junk Shop to my Vimeo channel. The LornaJHart channel and my Vimeo channel are listed on the side links of my blog and the new AmiloFinn YouTube channel is here. I have 'fave ' playlists on both my YouTube accounts which I hope people will enjoy.

Rainbow Ballet

Rainbow Ballet is based on one of my earliest animations, Ballet Class, which has been on my LornaJHart YouTube channel since 2008. It is set to a song I wrote in the early nineties called Jazz. I recently updated some of the images from Rainbow Ballet to use at the start of a new ALF Creations compilation film, Showcase, which is available on the AmiloFinn Vimeo WebPage. Below is a picture of my original rainbow ballerinas from my Webflowers Webgraphic project.

In the cafe

Amy and I discovered the fun of animation after a visit to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in 2007 and having a go on the magic lantern, creating a mermaid swimming and a girl eating soup. I translated these moving images onto the computer using GIF animator and then put the images together using movie maker, adding my songs in the soundtrack. The mermaid swimming formed the basis of 'Gone Swimming' featuring 'River Child' and Amy's 'girl eating soup' features in the above short film 'In the Cafe' which is set to my song 'Island of Happiness'.

Gone Swimming

Ballet and swimming have been important activities while Amy has been growing up. When Amy was in primary school swimming pool parties were all the rage. 'Gone swimming' features pictures Amy drew inspired by swimming lessons and swimming parties and also pictures by Amy and me of mermaids and underwater scenes. 'River child' was written and recorded by me on my old tape recorder portastudio.

Halloween Party

The first version of Halloween Party went up on YouTube in 2008, it was set to Saint Saens' Danse Macabre and is still available on the LornaJHart channel. I was very pleased with the pictures drawn by Amy and me and with the animation and was very keen to use the ideas for one of my songs. It took me a while to work out an arrangement of the moving images for my Halloween song 'Scorpio Eyes', but I was pleased with the result when I finally got to grips with it.

AmiloFinn on Vimeo

AmiloFinn now has a channel on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/amilofinn. I am hoping to put videos of ALF Creations books and DVDS on there, as shown in the picture below. I'm only allowed 500MB a week, so it's going to take some time.

Pictures at an Exhibition

'A little girl and her mother visit a magical art gallery where pictures come to life and take you on fabulous adventures. 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is inspired by the work of Modest Mussorgsky.'

I developed the 'Pictures at an Exhibition' idea into a short illustrated story and a DVD film which I sell on my craft stall. The pictures the little girl, Grace, visits, include a lot of stories and pictures by Amy and are divided into different coloured rooms as follows.

In the Blue Room: The Planets, The Puzzle, Gone Swimming

In the Green Room: The Tudors, The Legend of the Dream Box, Phoenix

In the Red Room: Through the seasons, Snow White, In the Garden

Details about these individual short films and the short films themselves are available on the LornaJHart YouTube page and the Lorna Finnigan Facebook page.

LornaJHart on YouTube

Before I became AmiloFinn I was LornaJHart. The LornaJHart Channel on YouTube has been going since 2008. The first two videos I uploaded were Ballet Class (2008) and Halloween Party (2009). I now have a playlist of ten ALF Pictures, animations and movies I have produced with Amy, and also a favourites list which includes other people's animations that I have loved since I was a child; The Selfish Giant and A Christmas Carol from 1971.

On The Ice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyvF4RnpFgM

'On the ice' is an ALF animation featuring pictures based on a set of Amy's drawings inspired by the 'Dancing on Ice' TV show as well as a few precarious experiences with ice skating in real life. The backgrounds are based on photographs of the Northern Lights. The animation is set to one of my songs called 'Alive at Last'. The song came to me on one singers night at the Cabbage Patch, Twickenham and was once used at a friend's baptism service.