Episode 6 · THE KNOT

The experiment: hands that hold things

Here it is in order. Click a frame and the film plays from there.

You noticed that hands and held objects kept failing. Before this episode I rebuilt how a hand is drawn in the renderer (ody/toon.py):

• A held object is now drawn inside the grip: the palm first, then the object, then four fingers across the shaft and a thumb over it. Nothing floats beside a fist.
• Open hands, points, fists and flat palms are separate poses instead of one mitten.
• The object is drawn by the near hand. The far hand either draws its own end of the cord or draws nothing.

Every scene in this episode is built on something held: an oar, a stick, wax, a cord, a spear, a cup, a spit's crank, a knot. The theme is the knot. Each line is carried by one pair of hands closing on something.

Episodes 4 and 5 were not re-rendered with the new hands.

The structure carries on from Episodes 4 and 5. Each scene is built around one line:

• the camera goes tight only for that line;
• the score goes silent before it;
• one held gesture carries the line's meaning;
• there are no ink notes and no labels in the frame.

0:40 “And on the crown of the mound they planted his shapely oar, as the dead man had asked.”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

Cold open · the mound

The line

"And on the crown of the mound they planted his shapely oar, as the dead man had asked."

The gesture

The men heap the mound, one stone each. Odysseus sets the oar from Episode 5 in the crown with both hands, holds it there, then opens both hands and lets go. It stays standing.

scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

I · Circe's road

Sign

Ve 12, Vector

The line

"and bind you tighter when you beg."

The gesture

Circe scratches the three paths ahead in the sand with a stick, kneads the wax, winds a green cord round a pole. On the line both hands pull it tight and the pole leans toward her.

2:47 “But Perimedes and Eurylochus rose and lashed him tighter still,”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

II · the Sirens

Sign

Sn 34b, Sonsign

The line

"But Perimedes and Eurylochus rose and lashed him tighter still,"

The gesture

The song is offstage and nobody answers it. The crew press wax into their ears. On the line each man pulls one end of the cord across Odysseus's chest, leaning away from him, and they hold. The song cuts out two seconds before.

3:41 “Scylla's six heads strike, lifting six screaming men from the ship.”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

III · Scylla and Charybdis

Sign

Pl 16, Plastic figure

The line

"Scylla's six heads strike, lifting six screaming men from the ship."

The gesture

Odysseus takes the spear from the mast and shades his eyes. On the line he holds the spear and does not move while six heads take six men. When the last is up, his hand opens and the spear falls to the deck.

4:30 “I would keep you alive.”4:22 “Tiresias and Circe both warned me”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

IV · the island

Sign

Mk 31, Mark

The line

"I would keep you alive."

The gesture

From "Tiresias and Circe both warned me" the camera does not move: the same two-shot, three times. He holds a cup of water out to Eurylochus on the line and keeps it there. Eurylochus takes it only after the line is over.

5:14 “The hides crawl and the meat bellows on the spits.”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

V · the cattle

Sign

Wd 29, Weak destiny

The line

"The hides crawl and the meat bellows on the spits."

The gesture

Oak leaves stand in for barley and water for wine. Eurylochus turns the spit. On the line he stops, his hand stays on the crank, and the hide on the ground moves by itself.

6:07 “Odysseus lashes keel and mast together.”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

VI · the storm

Sign

Mi 13, Milieu

The line

"Odysseus lashes keel and mast together."

The gesture

Everything is seen from far off. The bolt, the ship coming apart and the crew going under are all small. On the line he bends over the floating joint of keel and mast, winds the cord and pulls the knot tight. The rain thins two seconds before.

6:42 the start of this part, just after its card

Part

After the credits

Sign

En 20, Figure of enfeeblement

The gesture

He hangs from the fig tree over the whirlpool until the timbers come up with the green knot still on them, drops onto them, and drifts away until he is a speck at the horizon.

The previously segment uses Episode 5's own line, "will you do this for me?": Elpenor holding out his oar. The mound is where that promise is kept.

line study line study line study line study

check frame Nm sheetcheck frame Episode 6 contact sheet

scene test Scene test, mother

Sound

This part is about the sound. Watch with it on.

• Each act has its own score, built from the series' lyre motif, quieter under the voices and silent before the line.
• Room tone follows the place: shore, deck, camp fire, open sea with rain.
• The Sirens' song is a thin voice over a lyre phrase, played offstage. It stops before the line and comes back faintly after it.
• The small sounds belong to the gestures:
• the stick in the sand and the wax between fingers;
• the cord tightening;
• the spear landing on the deck;
• the cup touching the hand;
• the crank, the cow lowing, the hide;
• thunder after the bolt, planks, the knot.

Observed and generated

This part separates what came from the archive from what was made here.

• Every spoken line comes from the Found Odyssey CALL tracks for Book 12. The words and their order are unchanged; only the selection and the pauses were chosen (ody/ep6/cut.py).
• The answers are The Found Odyssey's matches, shown as captions and small insets away from the line.
• The plates are from the cineosis-lab library:
• Vivid Sunrise 2 (2007): the mound;
• Lone Cedar (Wide Screen) (2007): Circe;
• Trading Centers of the Pacific Coast (1947): the Sirens;
• Dust Storm (1936): Scylla, the storm and the closing shot;
• an amateur film from the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939): the island;
• Western Cattle Sequence (1936): the cattle.
• Generated: all drawing and animation, the rebuilt hands, the sound effects, the score and the credits.
• New to the cast, in the same ink renderer: Circe's kit of stick, wax and cord; Perimedes and Eurylochus; Scylla's six heads; the cattle; the storm; the speck.

candidate plates

Files

The code, if you want to open it.

• Hands and held objects: ody/toon.py (hand, holdL, holdR).
• Props: ody/ep6/props6.py.
• Scenes: ody/ep6/s_*.py; rig worlds: crash/m_e6*.js.
• Cut list: ody/ep6/cut.py.
• Title, cards, credits and assembly: ody/ep6/furn6.py.