WEEK 1:
Within the first week of the stop motion rotation we were asked to work in small groups to create a sequence of shapes from ripped up pieces of paper. I worked in a group of 4 to create this, the instructions from the brief are below:
Cut-out Animation
(Manipulation / Replacement / Transformation)
In your groups chose a film (live action) from the IMDB list in the references column on the padlet.
Your task is to create a short animated sequence or clip in response to your chosen film.
However: avoid a simple re-telling the story.
Take ownership of it, subvert the narrative, re-invent it, collide characters and their relationships.
You can be irreverent, tongue-in-cheek, absurd, who really owns the story anyway?…
Before you start:
Put down your phones! You may not use your phones to look up reference shots or images from the film – this is your group’s version of the film afterall.
1.1 (10 mins)
Each group member: on an A1 sheet of paper create a charcoal drawing of a shot from the film. This should be a quick, energetic drawing from memory making use of the entire sheet of paper.
Don’t be precious!
1.2 (10 mins)
As a group review drawings and select elements from each drawing that you could reconstruct in the form of:
– cut out puppets
– setting
– props
…make a list.
Each group member should be in charge of animating at least one element that you choose to include.
You may continue with a direct animation approach (See above William Kentridge, ‘Mine’), but now also introduce layers, cut-out characters, props and settings’.
1.3 (10-15 mins)
Put together a brief thumbnail storyboard with your team so that you can plan your sequence.
1.4 (90-120 mins)
Now begin to cut out and construct your assests and shoot your sequence.
Work fast, use your intuition – energy is key.
Refer back to Monday’s session:
how might you incorporate the notion of on-screen and off-screen space and create depth in your sequence?
Material:
Work with Layers of Paper, Charcoal and keep to a monochrome visual approach (stick to black and white imagery). Concentrate on tonal values and areas of contrast.
We were also shown a film to use as inspiration, this is linked below:
WEEK 2:
On the last day of the first week of the stop motion rotation we were asked to watch a live action movie from the IMBD list given to us. For this my group chose to watch the film Interstellar.
As in last weeks session, work with a monochrome visual approach (black and white imagery)- concentrate on tonal values and areas of contrast throughout.
Your animated response should make use of the stop motion approaches you have explored in the first weeks and avoid using any digital tools and processes as before. Using the direct animation approach consider how you may include all or some of the following:
- pixilation
- abstract animation
- transformation
- manipulation
- replacement animation
Spend the weekend conducting some research independently to take back to your group on Monday. Initially, this can be seen as quite a playful subject, but perhaps it also engages with current political, ecological, scientific discourses that you can in begin to integrate and respond to. The resources section on the padlet will give you some examples, but there are many others. Think of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Programme or the conspiracy theories surrounding the moon landings or scientific expeditions in search of extra-terrestrial resources. Can you arrive at a perspective on this brief by incorporating contemporary media accounts, news clippings and research? See how far you can adapt the brief to your own interests or findings within this subject?
All approaches must consider the following: a journey (storytelling through change and contrast), lighting and texture, timing, repetition and rhythm.
- Outcomes from week two must be submitted as MP4 files, which can be embedded onto your MyBlog or put onto YouTube by Friday (week 2).
Below is the film my group made for the project, all of us contributed creating the characters and visuals for this film. We all collaborated on how we wanted the characters to look, this being the characters from the film ‘Interstellar’. The music was chosen by one of my team mates to create more of a comedic tone for the short. Overall, I am happy with this project, however, I found that stop motion was not a medium I enjoyed as much as other rotations.
FINAL PROJECT:
For the project for the second week we were again asked to work in groups to create short stop motion film about a ‘trip to the moon’. Below is the final outcome of our project, using charcoal and black and white paper to animate. The narrative of this was influenced by the folk tale of the rabbit on the moon, we wanted to take a twist on this by creating a character, taking a substance and metaphorically ‘flying to the moon’ and seeing the rabbit. Overall, I greatly enjoyed creating this project, while the process was great, I feel we could have made a clearer and more understandable narrative.
Below is the original film, ‘a trip to the moon’ as used for both reference and inspiration.