Senor Gallo Va a la Biblioteca

                    Be Careful What Call Number You Get

                                                                                   With the automated glee of a true
                               bibliophile, Senor Gallo (aka Mr.
                                Rooster),scrambles for the moldering
                                bookshelves of an
eerily
                                  labyrinthine library,perhaps
                                 at some well known university.
                                Despite the library's size,
                                 it's easy for the bird to
                                 find his book, as it is the
                                 only one that glows. However
                               
it soon becomes clear to
                             the rooster that the shelf is out
                            of reach.  But ever the inventive
                          automaton, the mechanized fowl hatches
                         a plan to use his mechanical advantage to
                      retrieve the book.  This fails.  But the phone
                    next to the sign that says, "Pick up for
                 Assistance" looks tempting...until Mr. Rooster
         successfully uses it and gets his book.  For it is then
         the bird discovers the true moral of any trip to a
        scary old library: Having a book and possessing it are
        two entirely different things.


                      Copyright 2004 University of Southern California
                                                                           
                                                                            Scroll Down for More!






                       Production Details
                                  Animation, Direction, Music
                               Alyssa Barber
                                     Voice Characterizations
                                 Alyssa Barber as Senor Gallo
                                 Ramiro Cazaux as El Espectro

                                     Sound Recordist
                                 Juri Hwang    
                                     Sound Mixer
                                  Shawn Hinds  
                                     Line Producer
                                 Mar Elepano 
                                   Faculty Advisors
                              Lisa Mann and Joshua Harrell
                                 Special Thanks To
                             Midge Costin, James Berry,
                          Adriana Jaroszewicz
 
                              Color and Film Printing By
                       Fotokem   
                          Backgrounds Created In
               Adobe Photoshop 5.5
                      Sound Compiled In
          Adobe Premiere 6.0 on Intel Workstations Donated by Dell
                   Filmed In/Runtime/Date of Finish
              16 mm/Approx. 3 min: 20 sec/September 2003
                     
                     
                    Copyright 2004 University of Southern California
                                   All rights reserved
 

                                 
                                

                          
                                                               
                                                                                                                           
                             T
he Animator


                             Alyssa Rae Barber, having received her BFA
                             in Studio Arts from the University of Southern
                                California in 2002, decided that five years'
                                  study at the same school was simply not
                                   enough, and so she enrolled in the
                                    Division of Animation and Digital
                                   Arts (DADA) in the Cinema-
                                   Television Department to complete
                                   exhaustive studies in animation
                                    for a Master's Degree; she hopes
                                     to be finished in May of 2005,
                                     or at some other as yet
                                     undisclosed time. Originally
                                  hailing from Yorktown, New York,
                                 she now resides on the coast of
                                Southern California, where she can
                               exercise her propensity for collecting
                             cactus with abandon among the many fine
                             nurseries.  Her other hobbies include making
                          lists of words that interest her, in the
                       grand tradition of the hypergraphic lexicographer; 
                   caring for hermit crabs; talking to her mother about
              any little thing; discussing future plans for visiting New
             Jersey and London; drawing; painting; and planning future
           animations.  Besides art, she has extensive training in music,
          and once played French horn with the Westchester Youth Symphony
          at Carnegie Hall, and on another occasion at Lincoln
         Center.  It is some of the very same music she wrote while
         in high school that now appears at the beginning and end of
         "Senor Gallo," like bookends.    


                                                            Copyright 2004 University of Southern California
                                   All rights reserved





                                       
                                     
                                      Artist Statement

                             
Oddly enough, the first festival I entered
                                 "Senor Gallo" in (which shall remain
                                   nameless as I did not make the cut),
                                   insisted on calling the main
                                    character by his name,as translated
                                   in the credits as "Mr. Rooster."  
                                   I found this a little odd at
                                   first, but then I had a good
                                    laugh.  It seemed that the
                                     reviewers had perhaps been
                                     unable, by procedure or
                                    personal preference, to accept
                                 the character as I had named him.
                                 Their motives are hidden.  But if
                                I were to take that experience and
                               interpret it a bit, I'd say that it
                              might have been hard for the reviewers
                            to accept the linguistic randomness with
                         which they were confronted.  For no apparent
                       reason, an English-speaking wind-up chicken has
                   a Spanish name, and the resident Library Ghost (long
                rumored to be an actual inhabitant of one of USC's book-
            stacks) announces himself in Spanish, completely without the
          aid of subtitles.  Why?  Well, at the time, I was learning a
          little Spanish.  But why I feel the need to share my experience
          with everyone else and perhaps annoy them with my lack of
          English subtitles is another matter entirely.

          When I look at "Senor Gallo" with a few months' hindsight, I begin to see more
          clearly why I wanted to take my mainly English-speaking audience on a
           linguistic detour into Spanish and word puns ending in a one-liner about
              the only book in the library with an attached "sheet."







                        Artist Statement Continued
   
                               It bespeaks a personal obsession of mine with
                                language that I played with words in "Senor
                                  Gallo."  In a library, especially one
                                   as large as this, one can go for a
                                    walk, pick up five books, turn to
                                    any page, copy down a few words
                                    from each one, and end up with
                                   a list of phrases that seem to
                                    make no sense at first.  But
                                     from so motley and random a
                                     list, at least to me, a story
                                     always seems to emerge.  For
                                    instance, whenever I get one of
                                 those junk e-mails asking me to
                                buy Canadian generics, I always read
                               those, because I've noticed recently
                              that for some reason the anonymous authors
                            of those annoying little sales pitches are
                          inserting random word strings into the headers,
                        probably to create interest in their dubious
                   product.  Having no interest in specious medical offers,
           I do like to read those e-mails for their often very humorous
          or narrative collages of words.  I find them very inspiring, as
         many of my ideas for animation come out of sessions where I sit
         down and just brainstorm words until the right ones come out to
        describe a new concept.  Where else but in the chaotic stew of
        collage words could the idea for the "first sock automatic
        exchange structure" have been born? (That was a phrase sent to me
        in one of those e-mails.  I have since decided that the device it describes would
         exchange one's dirty socks for a clean pair.)  "Collage" is a good word to
           describe my creative process: going to the library of my mind, and coming out
            with floating ideas I had not thought of before I went in there. Then
                I'm free to paste them together in a new way.







                                  Artist Statement Continued
                                                                           
                                                                                 And "collage" is also the perfect word to describe
                                  the chicken's journey.  
The cutout
                                    animation and photo montage
                                    background are a literal collage of
                                    parts. The bird himself is an
                                   incongruous character, a
                                   nineteenth century automaton in a
                                    twenty-first century university
                                     library, where
he goes in
                                     search of a book, a prosaic
                                     task much like a mundane word
                                   taken at face value. He finds
                                 the book but is confronted by a
                                situation that makes little sense in
                               a rational way.  It is only when he
                              succumbs to the power of words in all
                            their nuances, that he is able to make sense
                           of his situation: the ghost takes the book
                        because he is the "attached sheet," an unscheduled
                    appendix that gives the bird quite a pain.  
                             
          There is something Freudian about the analysis of irrational
         dreamlike situations by using explanations provided by
         linguistics, like words with double meanings obscured by more
         common or polite ones.  A library is a perfect place for hidden
        words and meanings.  Given a lifetime, I don't think one
        could read every book.  And in a library as big as the one
        Senor Gallo goes to, one could easily get a case of Stendahl's syndrome just
         looking at one section of shelves.  So each book that you want and find is
          a piece of unexpected buried treasure, like the ghost, only less disturbing. I have
          a high regard for these places of learning, where even the most arcane little
             government statistic can be brought to light and used in a new way.







Artist Statement Continued

                               My personal regard for the library began at a
                                young age, as my mother was for years a
                                  school librarian first at a high school
                                   and then at a primary school. I
                                    have so many fond memories of
                                    the books she used to bring me,
                                   and the hours we used to spend
                                   learning how to take notes and do
                                    research.  It is no wonder I
                                     feel nostalgic whenever I'm
                                     at the library, most any one
                                     really.  It is to my mother I
                                   owe that debt of gratitude, for
                                 it was she who introduced me, and
                                all my characters, to the real spirit
                               of the library.

                             
                             Film Stills for "Senor Gallo"
                 
         1.
Book too high... Thinking  
2. Idea!! Ratchet                
         
         
         3.
Pesky overconfidence!! Pesky overconfidence!   4. Yee haw! Yee haw!  
                                   
       






                            F
ilm Stills Continued


                                                                                           
                                     5. Woooo!! Wooooo!!

                                                                                             
                         6. Menacing!! Menacing!!



                         
7. Of all the books...  Of all the books...


                           
                     Higher-dpi .tif's available upon request.

                     Please note these stills have been taken from
                     video and have been color adjusted and in some
                     cases artificially sharpened to recover some
                     lost resolution.











                                   
  Filmography

                                 Various Undergraduate Experiments
                                   Scratch Film with Blue Lamplight (2000)                                                                                      Kinestatic Film with Sink
                                    Abstract with Faux Glass
                                    Et Tu, Brute?
                                   Napouleon Awakens
                                   Billy

                                   Abstract Caramel Candy Adventures
                                    Icarus Rising
                                    Abstract Chevrons (2001)
                                    Doorbell Bird/Vacuum Bird
                                    Dennis Steersky Combing His Hair                           
                                   Man Eating Jam/The Money Fish
                                 Maya Jack-in-the-Box (2002)                          
                   
                              Undergraduate Final Project (Unfinished)
                                Lion Dreaming (2001-2002)


                           Graduate Shorts
                            Contrabasso (2002)
                        Tales from Fotohaus (2003)
                      Frog Film
                   Windowbird       
              Maya Test Reel:
Cheeseman
           Various Tests: Explosion, Crowd, Dialogue Sync Test


          Longer Graduate Films
          Senor Gallo Va a la Biblioteca (2003)
           Given (In Progress)
            Thesis, Working Title "Penny for Your Thoughts"
(In Progress)

                     





                              Screenings/Awards
               

                                  
Contrabasso
                                 Keyframe Animation Festival (Oct. 2003, USC)

                                               
Tales from Fotohaus
                                    Keyframe Animation Festival

                   
                                      Senor Gallo
                                    Keyframe Animation Festival
                            

                                                           

                                  Contact Info
                                        Alyssa Rae Barber
                                   
                                     E-mail: direwolf2r@aol.com

                                                                                                                                                            Department #: (+001) (213)-740-3986














                      
Copyright 2004 University of Southern California
                                   All rights reserved


 


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