01.March.1999
The Babbling Scotsman
During March the New Venue is the official online screening venue for the New York Underground Film Festival, bringing you subversive, twisted and underground films only available for viewing over the Internet.
"The Babbling Scotsman" kicks off the month-long series with an amusing look at destiny and television.
Animated by
Nigel McLaughlin
Stills from "The Babbling Scotsman"
McLaughlin resides in Canberra, Australia. He plays in an Irish/World Music band and creates experimental work for the web, often involving found materials on the Internet and, consequently, bodily taboos.
McLaughlin completed "The Babbling Scotsman" about a year ago as his first experiment with Macromedia Flash, loosely and uncoincidently based on a fellow who calls himself "Scrupy Jack" and frequents the local folk festivals. According to the animator, "It's strange how the ending is actually more relevant now than when it was written but I guess it had to [happen] sometime."
New Venue:
What is the appeal of digital filmmaking?
McLaughlin:
Freedom and low cost! Most of what I experiment with is comprised of still images that that are stretched and scaled to give the illusion of movement and depth (though the Babbling Scotsman doesn't really fall into this catagory) and it leads to more "accidents" than when I'm working with video footage.
New Venue:
How do you take into account the constraints of the Internet?
McLaughlin:
I like to add small introductions that give the viewer immediate content but provide some breathing space in which to download the next scene. A lot of times I re-use the same image scaled up to 400-500% and apply a colour transformation on them. Doing this in a package such as Flash I can create the effect of heaps of differemt textures while only adding 2-3k to the flick.
New Venue:
What technology did you use?
McLaughlin:
Flash 3, Photoshop, Sound Edit and my (t)rusty old Macintosh.
New Venue:
Your flick is interactive. You ask the viewer to choose a "path". Which is the correct path?
McLaughlin:
Scrumpy Jack Apple Cider! ... [The title character] is an endless source of amusement (when you can understand his grunts).
New Venue:
Where else can we see your work?
McLaughlin:
Two sites. Corridor and Underworlds - Experiments into Organic Architecture
View this movie.
You can find out about other digital flicks in the New Venue Archives.
