I love DIY weddings where all of your creative friends and family get together to make the day really unique and special.
I got a chance to hang out with Darbie and Justin last October at the Woodstock Film Festival; James, Arthur, Joy and I had worked on 2009 Signal Film and Justin had starred in Harmony and Me, a wonderfully funny film about a broken heart, directed by Bob Byington.
from the left: Darbie, Justin, Me, Joy, James
Darbie and Justin are also in one of my favorite bands, Bishop Allen. If you haven’t heard their music, go get their albums and your life will be happy.
At the festival we could tell they had just gotten married because Justin kept playing with his wedding band. Boys are so cute when they get their new hardware aren’t they? Darbie told us a little bit about their recent summer camp wedding and my heart was captured.
A year later, on their anniversary, Darbie posted a link to the wedding photos on her blog, field guide 35 and described their day. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind me sharing them here and she was delighted:
“The whole thing was a real DIY family affair. I handmade all of the invitations, table numbers, seating cards, maps of the campgrounds, and boutonnieres for the boys.
My dad made all of the signs and hand-built the chuppah out of branches from the backyard. My mom sewed the tablecloths and a zillion feet of pennant flag bunting. Both of our families got together to decorate the dining hall with all kinds of lights and lanterns and more tissue paper decorations than imaginable.
My wedding dress (a stunning 1920′s beaded beauty) was from my mom’s best friend Susie.
Our friends and bandmates played the ceremony music (Chapel of Love, Sea of Love, and Then he kissed me — on marimba, ukulele, glockenspiel, guitar, drums, alto horn, and kazoos. SO BEST.)
Every year the Woodstock Film Festival gets better and better. Last week we attended the 2010 festival with some seriously cool highlights.
1. From the left, my fiance flew to NY from England that morning to surprise me. BONUS!
2. The Woodstock 2010 Festival trailer Joy, James and I created was a huge hit and got a great response from the audience. Click here to watch and see how it was made.
3. Saw a brilliant film called “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” produced by John Loar and Adrian Grenier. It’s about a band, The Good Listeners (Nathan Khyber & Clark Stiles) as they road trip through America recording their third album. Go out and buy it immediately and while you are at it, check out their other albums.
4. The Animation Screening was sold out BOTH days! The psychedelic and sexy films were very well received by the hippies. In the photo from the left: Signe Baumane, Peter Ahern, James Buran, Bill Plympton, Noelle Vaccese, Joy Vaccese and Dustin Grella.
5. We saw Luke Matheny, director of a short called, “God of Love.” It’s a great film we caught at the Martha’s Vineyard festival a few weeks ago.
6. We recognized Nathan and Clark from the Good Listeners at the after party. They are really cool guys and got us on the guest list for a show they were playing at Levon Helm’s Barn.
7. Concert at Levon Helm’s. It was a rad experience, The Good Listeners opened and played a mind-blowing show and Levon Helm’s Band was incredible.
8. We had to leave to get to the Awards ceremony. Got there late to find that Peter won Honorable Mention for his animated short, Down to the Bone. He wasn’t there to accept his award because we were at the coolest concert ever. Congrats anyway, Peter!
9. Oh yeah! And Keanu Reeves won the Best Actor Award. WHOA!
To see more photos of the Woodstock Film Festival 2010, click here.
After an 8 hour flight home from the UK last night, I had big plans for sleeping. But then my friend James had an extra ticket for The Tallest Man on Earth at Webster Hall. Oh, the sacrifice.
The Tallest Man on Earth, Webster Hall - Sept. 27 2010
It was a great show and by our second shot of Jameson, he played “The Gardener.” This is always the highlight for me, the tippy top favorite of my many favorite songs of his.
I made the trip across the big blue ocean for the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival. Joy, James and I worked on a music video, Golem, for The Maladies and it’s screening in the Animation Program this weekend.
We were also asked to make the Festival Signal Film again. Keep reading to find out how we made it:
There were two rules to making the film.
One – it had to be based on the 2010 poster by Portia Munson, which was created using flowers from Munson’s Catskill garden.
2010 Woodstock Film Festival Poster by Portia Munson
Second rule – the film had to be done using pixilation.
I was still in England so Joy and James called me on video chat to discuss. As James explained their concept, I could see Joy in the background, putting on too much makeup and wearing a funny costume. They said they would handle the live action while I animated the flowers which I’d send to them to put to music.
We got started. Joy and James dressed up as mime gardeners, a fairy and a rooster and took about 2,000 pictures of each other in their backyard. I watched classic Sesame Street stop motion for inspiration and spent hours digitally cutting out 105 flowers and 1 insect from the poster. I think I counted about 340 flowers in total but I could be wrong because I got dizzy.
You can imagine my excitement when they sent me a link to the finished movie. Their part was so fun and well done for two animators who work almost exclusively in hand drawn and computer animation. The live action seamlessly melts into my dancing flowers to The Tallest Man on Earth’s “The Gardener.”
We’ve been making the Woodstock Signal Films for three years now – here’s 2008 which Joy and I did together and here’s 2009, which we made with James and Arthur Metcalf.
There are going to be a few signal films in the festival this year for variety, two others were created by Aaron Hughes and Ivan Joy. I can’t wait to see what they came up with!
