The Alternate Extras of Halesowen

Pixil Perfect

With their number down to four, things had been a bit quiet recently. They'd seen Michael when he had come down when his family had to wait to move into their house owing to the emergency that had happened nearby, and had spoken once since through text.

All five had lived in the same neighbourhood forever, attended the same schools together, and been hanging out for plenty of years both in and out of education. It wasn't the fact they couldn't talk that had been hurting them, but the reduced amount of time they'd be hanging out with him.

Yesterday, Carl had mentioned to the others that he'd be taking his camera to the Clent Hills for a day of photography, and if they wanted to join him, he'd be waiting for the bus at the usual stop around nine.

Vector and Nathan had joined him, and so they were out on the hills, walking around. Carl was looking to capture plenty of shots as he always liked to, with them talking as they walked between locations he snapped.

For quite a few years, he had enjoyed taking photos of places they had been, making sure to get the best shots possible of various landscapes. He usually avoided taking any pictures with people involved, but made exceptions for family and friends. It wasn't that he didn't want to deal with people, but he preferred things to look natural rather than staged.

"What else do you want to take a picture of again?" Nathan asked as Carl knelt to get a photo of a stream. "You've done at least two of these."

Carl lined the shot up, with his camera as close as possible to the water, then took the photo. As he hopped back up, he looked over at Nathan with a slightly stern look.

"I'm just saying!" Nathan exclaimed, with a look that told Carl he hadn't been complaining.

"Any differences I can see, I'll take a shot. No matter how similar things might look," Carl said, unable to stop a slight bit of annoyance creeping into his voice. "Sometimes similar places hold unique differences." He then lightened his tone to make it sound as though he wasn't serious, aware that he sounded like he was giving a lecture. "At least, that's what the professionals say."

"But you're not a professional, so you're doing this to annoy me." Nathan still had the jokey look to his face, unable to go back to being serious.

"But you could go professional with it, right?" Vector chipped in, ever the sincere one.

"I don't claim that's where I want to be," Carl informed, looking over to Vector. "But it's something I have an interest in seeing where it could take me."

Vector stepped back over the stream to where the other two were. "Well, how about taking the art in a more interesting direction?"

Carl looked confused at that, but it was Nathan who asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Have you ever heard of something called Pixilation?"

"Isn't that just a censorship tool?"

"That's the word with an 'e' instead of a second 'i', and there's more to that than what you said. But I'm talking Pixilation." Carl heard the exaggeration placed on the 'il' to make sure they heard the difference between the two words. "What I'm talking of is an animation technique using live actors rather than inanimate objects."

"So why not just film it?" Nathan asked, but Carl understood.

Vector looked to Nathan as though he was being obtuse on purpose. "It's not about bringing something to life as you would stop-motion. It's a way to be expressive and unique, and get away with things you wouldn't otherwise be able to by just filming."

"As in..?"

Vector gave a sigh and looked to explain some more, but Carl beat him to words. "Let's just set something up and we'll see how it goes." He looked to Nathan with a grin on his face. "And then we can see what Mister Modern thinks about it."