Graveyard views

Carlos, Grace and Holen filming in the graveyard at midnight last night.



Holen cutting out a skeleton.



A scary rat with Grace.



Dancing skeleton.



The grim reaper gets ready for battle (and Carlos)



Holen setting the scene with a mixture of earth and fruit loops.



Jess and the bone factory.

Stills from the Ocean

Plate Tectonics

Today, the ocean: earth, venus, mars, birds, water, stars, salt, hydrogen, oxygen, water, a boat.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to Greta, she is headed back to Florida to teach. We give many thanks for her ideas and making and cooking and hard work. Thanks Greta!

Greta running a bee factory for the history of maps.
Other bees.The hive.
A still from the animation.Baby squirrels fell out of a tree that blew over in a storm. We have plans for circus squirrels.Yum. If they live a week, we'll name them.

Work in Progress

Lisa on the camera, Holen, Susan, Jin.
Lisa, Janelle, Susan, Greta, Jin. Kumbaya.
Jin + volcano
Janelle, Camille, Nick, Amy: making puffs of smoke.
Amy and Carlos, an extended staring contest.



Janelle, Lisa, Jin, and Susan trucked back west to Omaha today, they will head back to NYC in the next few days. Tiny Circus misses them!


We've been working to experiment and expand the kinds of animations we are making while still holding to a "histories of" concept, with each piece figuring the first time for whatever our subject happens to be. We add to our pool of possibilities each time we meet and then select one more or less at random to illustrate. So far, The History Of: rain, popcorn, staring contests, the lover's knot, loss, smiling, constellations. Some stills from the results below.

Iowa State Fair & New Projects

Over the past couple of days, we said goodbye to friends and welcomed a few new ones and attended the Iowa State Fair. There, we paid a visit to the glorious cow made out of butter and gorged on anything and everything you could imagine on a stick (preferably deep fat fried). We also took in the lights.




















Janelle (left) and Lisa (right) munching on a chicken on a stick.









In the studio, we began a project called the History of Love and embark on the production of another on the smile.
















Marie on the set of our new video on the smile.

Laura (pictured here) and Jen stop in to lend a hand and provide the team with a tasty enchilada dinner.

General Circus Report

Some pictures from the last few days.

Lisa, sanding.

Lisa, drilling.
Ben and Ryan, History of Popcorn shoot.

After dinner.

Greta, cutting torch.

Jenn and Carlos, growing corn. 

Jin, grinding.  
A storyboarding session in the screen-tent: Ben, Greta, Holen, Amy, Ryan, Aleah.
Corn-maker Jess.
Corn-maker Amy

Larger Circus

We worked 'til 12:30 a.m. or so to finish up The History of Popcorn. This process has been a great experiment in collaboration - figuring how to make something with 12 authors that feels concise, meaningful.

Here is a rough version of our first animation, The History of Rain. Sarah in London is working on some text that we will fit in somehow, silent film style, or a narrator...