Hi Guys - I'm new to this forum, hello!, but some of you might have seen my kites before. I've just finished another one, so I thought I'd join and
let you know about it.
If I've been quiet these last few weeks and months, this is why. This is the is the latest, and last, in my series of Calvin & Hobbes kites, and
it's taken me near on six months, on and off.
I'm not sure how to post a video directly, so here's the vimeo link:
Kite Making Two
At times I felt my spirits flagging, thinking I'd taken on too complex a design on too small a kite. I had this design in mind from the very start,
way back when I was building the kite featured in my first
kite making video but the complexity was daunting and I didn't feel able to tackle it back then. I'm glad I waited.
I learned a lot making those earlier Calvin & Hobbes kites; filming and writing about the process helped too - and so, back at the start of 2010 I
started work on this one. Strictly speaking it's not a Calvin & Hobbes kite, as Hobbes doesn't appear, and Calvin's appearance is a brief
daydream.
In typical Calvin fashion he's ignoring his teacher whilst sat as his school desk: instead of the tedious business of learning he's off traveling the
galaxy as his alter ego, Spaceman Spiff.
I've tried to tell a story with this kite. In much the same way as Bill Watterson used to in the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, this kite has a
distinct narrative; the three sections following on from each other. Foil kites can't be seen in the round when flying. The back presents one side or
the other, depending on the direction of flight, effectively separating imagery into two distinct halves; you never get to see both. Whereas the front
foreshortens images into one complete whole.
So with this one, Calvin daydreams his way through the school day on the first half of the back, and takes to his flying saucer as Spaceman Spiff on
the other. The front features the inevitable conclusion of his space-faring: being shot down by aliens (which usually coincides with a rude awakening
by his teacher).
The making of this kite fell into to two phases; prompted by the popularity of my first kite making film. There was the process of making the kite
itself, and that of documenting it. I decided very early on that I would make a special effort to improve on that first film.
I'd done the informative "this is how I do it" film, and written a very detailed blog of the process from start to finish. So this film takes a
different tack. I doubt very much that you'll be any the wiser about how exactly I go about making these kites after you've seen it. I hope instead
you'll begin to understand how it makes me feel, making and flying my own kites, and knowing that each one is unique (that's code for "heavy on drama,
light on information").
One of the other reasons this kite, and film, has taken much longer than I'd at first hoped, was that I switched from Final Cut Express to Final Cut
Pro, and invested Adobe After Effects, meaning that I faced an unpleasantly steep learning curve. It was worth it though. I finally feel like I know
exactly how to get the result I want; rather than trying to cobble together the footage I happen to have shot that day, I now know what I want before
the camera comes out of the bag. The downside? Well, I could always do with a better camera...
Hope you like the movie, and the kite: photos to follow...
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