Yesterday, the amazing robot sculptor Tom Torrey sent me these images of the finished Ghost Birds sculpture.

The sculpture is based on the “Ghost Birds” header-illustration I use for this blog. The model is about 3lbs 4 oz, two feet long, with arms made out of flexible gas lines, and a wooden chassis tacked in copper and aluminum.

The birds are cut from “sanded plastic sheet”. The eyes and shoulders are steel.

For a bit of background on the sculpture, check out the initial paper-craft designs for the sculpture, photos of the wooden base here, and progress shots of the full-sized sculpture here.

Check out Tom’s “GammaRayBots” Etsy shop, where he sells his hand-made robot sculptures.

• Mailing out book orders and commissions. #

This is Takahashi Shin’s long-awaited follow-up to The Last Love Song on this Little Planet, which I read while living in Korea.

I bought the French edition of this book (I don’t think it’s been translated into English yet) published by Delcourt. Fragment, Shin’s first manga for children, tells the story of a young princess who’s snowy kingdom is about to be engulfed by a glacier.

The art in this comic is so sparse and so rushed – even by Manga standards – I think there are less than ten medium long shots in the whole book. The book is fun and whimsical, but a little too pat. I won’t be in any hurry to buy the succeeding volumes.

This week, the NFB Quebec Centre is holding its annual in-house film festival, where employees like myself get to skip meetings and watch this year’s crop of releases. There were some great films and I feel kind of compelled to write about them. So…

Here’s what I watched:

Citizen Sam

A documentary about the 2006 mayoral race in Vancouver. The film follows paraplegic, Sam Sullivan, in his underdog bid for City Hall.

The film presents all of Sam’s anger and his vulnerability, side by side, in alarming relief. In one scene, we listen as he metaphorically fantasizes about killing his adversary, and in another we see him struggle for an awkward duration, as he takes off his shirt before going to bed.

I was surprised when some of my peers expressed sympathy for Sullivan – who, in many ways, is a very unsympathetic character. For example, Sullivan’s municipal coalition is called the Non-Partisan Association, but, in spite of this, Sullivan constantly assails his opponent – a charming, bearish anachronism named Jim Green – with personal attacks composed with little political substance.

The film almost never deals with the issues of the campaign; nor does it delve too meaningfully into Sullivan’s personal life. Despite this, it’s a pretty fascinating film. It apparently hasn’t been released yet in Vancouver; I expect it will cause quite a stir when it is.

Cottonland

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia – In the late 90s, doctors over-prescribed oxycotin, a pain-killer with the addictive qualities of heroine, and a community is scourged with addiction. In one year alone, 22 people die from illnesses related to their addiction.

This is an amazing film; one of the the most moving documentaries I’ve seen in years. Through a former addict, Eddie Buchanan, the film-makers gained unprecedented access to other addicts in the community, so their honesty and pain comes through in vivid detail. It is at once a hopeful film and a hauntingly intimate portrait of addiction.

Radiant City

I’ve wanted to see this film for some time. It’s a film about the suburban sprawl that’s choking the Canadian landscape. Through the lens of one suburban family, we discover how we have made a series of compromises that have led us out of the city and into the horrifically unsustainable suburbs.

It is perhaps edited a little on the long side, but it’s still a very compelling look at the decline of urban planning in recent decades. It would work well as a companion piece to the excellent TVO doc from a couple years back, The End of Suburbia.

Whew! Okay, that’s my round-up.

Another book sketch.

I finally gave in and watched Pirates of the Carribean. I think I’m the last person on earth to see this film. It was obviously very entertaining. I found myself analyzing the way the film was written. They say you need conflict in every scene to drive the story forward and sometimes I’m astounded by how effectively this is employed. There is a disagreement between characters in every scene in this film – even where it makes absolutely no sense. But, almost magically, the viewer doesn’t care, because the conflict satisfies a basic story-telling need.

One of the most hilarious examples of this was when the Keira Knightley character was kidnapped by the pirates of the Black Pearl (I’m not good with names). Our hero (Orlando Bloom Guy) rushes to Keira’s father to petition him for a boat with which to rescue her. The father outright rejects the request.

Her father!

Sure, the man is characterized as a coward, but it’s preposterous that he wouldn’t give a boat to help find his daughter. But how boring would the scene have been if the father had said, “Yes, of course, Orlando Bloom Guy, how big of a boat would you like?”

I notice also that shows like Heroes and Lost employ this technique to the point of absurdity. Characters will completely change their goals from one scene to the next to satisfy the story’s need for conflict. No explanation is given or required because the viewer demands conflict in order to remain interested. Removing conflict – no matter how ridiculous – would mean putting the viewer to sleep.

Another book sketch. I coloured this one in Photoshop 4 kicks.

Working on the storyboards for the short film, Birthday Girl, written and directed by Erin Laing. The script won a major funding award and now Erin and her co-producer are neck-deep in location-scouting and casting.

Birthday Girl will be filmed in March – which is coming up fast – but Erin has the project in hand. She’s made a couple short films before and she’s worked on a few major productions (she was Aronofsky’s assistant on The Fountain). Also, she’s documenting the whole production process on her blog.

“Birthday Girl” started out as a working title for the script. We knew about the Nicole Kidman film and wanted to avoid using it; but now it’s kinda taken on a life of its own.

As for the storyboards, I’m jumping around a lot. There are about ninety shots, so they’re all very sketchy and quick. Not nearly as cool as Tonci Zonjic’s storyboards (oh, I notice he did a cellist too).

This book is mind-blowing. I’ve never read anything like it. Gipi‘s really making me look at comics in a different way, which is very exciting.

First Second is working on an English translation. People should read it.