Brain shoot, first bit.

Shiny hubcaps for the new frames. Welding and grinding is ongoing. Shooting the brainstorm: we had extra.
This is the set-up for the first shot. We began with a wide-angle shot and then gradually zoomed through the window, opening it up as we went.
As we moved through the window, Grace and Kirsten moved the trees, slow and breezy. Storm clouds began to roll in and the trees began to move faster.
There are lots of contraptions on this set, for falling brains, a tornado, LED lights... it made moving the bits around tricky. Here Camille is shooting, Kirsten is moving trees, Grace, Thomas and Carlos are watching.
We shot up to the first stormy scenes, got tired, planned to come back for more in a few days.

Magnetic tornado

This is the brainstorm set, with trees and tornado. The first brain-sprinkles are visible towards the rear.



The History of Brainstorming includes a real tornado. It is made of fiberfill mounted on a wire which runs up to a slider that can move left to right across the set. The sliding mechanism has a crank so the tornado can be spun. The bottom is stuck down with a magnet glued to the bottom of the tornado - the magnet sticks to a metal ruler beneath the bottom paper.





The next frame is coming together. Here, a new bumper is welded in place, the axle is positioned on a new axle plate. Replacement outriggers are are recycled from bits of the original trailer. This is done with an angle grinder.The rear frame members have large holes drilled through. A pvc pipe will fit here and run the length of the trailer. The pipe will be used to hold long poles for project screens.The new axle plate and axle secured.

Summer cleanup and new projects

Scrap metal from the two trailers we are rebuilding went to the scrap-yard.

One of the full-sized frames was scrapped, the other cut in half to make two mini-frames for the new pods. Here is a bumper ready to be welded to one of the frames.
The studio get a scrub-down
Leftover bits from summer projects.
A new team: Thomas, Camille, Kirsten working on The History of Brainstorms.
The squirrel babies are huge. They started eating sunflower seeds today.

Folks, gather round.

After spending the summer more-or-less working on animations, it's back to thinking about the pod design. A running question: should each pod be a self-contained living space for the performers, or should one of the pods have cooking and bath spaces and the other pods function as work-spaces or display areas like the unit pictured above?

Flags

Stills from the glove history. It's ketchup, don't worry.

The Iowa tiny circus camp is winding down for the summer. Thanks to Sarah, Grace, and Jess, off to London and Minnesota.

Aleah is working on a circus flag based on a drawing by Greta. It is made of bits from her quilting bag.

New projects happening soon: animations with Grinnell College students, more work on the trailers.