59 Stop Motion Animation

Page 1 Stop Motion Animation.

     

Class SMA - It wasn't a thought out video and we had no initial plan as to what we were doing, it was more of a 'this is how you do it' introduction to stop Motion Animation where we were chucked right into the deep end.  We found out where the frame boundaries were so we knew where we could and couldn't go and our instructions were to just move inch by inch and to be weird, which ended up in what looks like a cluster of people bouncing off each other.  Nonetheless it was still great fun to film and was a great introduction into Stop Motion Animation.

Group SMA- This stop motion animation was created by me and three others in one small group (Jack, Tom and Morgan).  It was a surprisingly long process as we moved chairs bit by bit and had to try and get around them to move blinds without moving the chairs, and the pieces of paper on the chairs that were suppose to be the faces kept falling off.  But it was an enjoyable process.

Peter Gabriel research - Peter Gabriel’s video sledgehammer was released on the 25^th of April 1986.  It spent four weeks at number one in Canada on July the 26^th in 1986, number four in the UK, and number one in the US.  But the song got the majority of its’ fame from the video, after winning a record of nine MTV awards at the 1987 MTV VMA’s and best British video at the 1987 Brit awards, and being nominated for three Grammy awards: Best male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.  As of 2011 it was one of the most viewed music video in the history of MTV.

Gabriel, who was born in Surrey, had a helping hand from Aardman Animations who provided Claymation, pixilation and stop motion animation that bought the images used to life.  While filming, Gabriel led under a glass sheet for 16 hours, one frame at a time.  The scene with the two headless raw chickens is when Aardman Animation’s Nick Park, who was refining work in plasticine animation at the time, used stop motion animation.  The scene where he was wearing a Christmas tree suit and jerking around, he was actually being shocked.  The lyrics of the song are a collection of sexual innuendos with references to steam trains, bumper cars, roller coasters and fruit that are used as metaphors for the female and male sexual body parts.  In total, the video was shot in one week. 

Aardman Animations - Aardman Animations is a world wide known stop motion animations producers.  They have made many films, short films, tv series, music videos, adverts and many more including Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away, Creature Comforts, Morph, Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer', Chicken Run and Sean the Sheep.  They started out in 1972 with the creation of Morph for the children's programme Take Heart.  In 1993 Nick Park won an Oscar for The Wrong Trousers which was their first 30 minute film.  It has the become the most successful animated film ever made, winning over 30 awards.  In 1995 Nick Park won his third Oscar with A Close Shave which became an instant success and gave the studio it's reputation, as well as making Wallace and Gromit well know.  Chicken Run was their first full length film which was funded by Dreamworks and grossed over $220 million worldwide.  Directed by Nick Park and Peter Lord it was released in June 2000 to the UK and US to instantly good reviews.  Dreamworks also released Flushed Away, which is Aardman Animations first CG film in November 2006 and Curse of The Were-Rabbit in October 2005, which topped box office charts in both the UK and US.

My SMA - After my battery dying and then trying to get back in the same position and then my cat jumping up and moving everything, this video was both stressful and fun to shoot.  Also getting about four other people to help me balance the shoes as they were going out of the frame trying to not let them fall off the table.  I had to balance my tripod on a chair while standing on a stepladder to see through the veiw finder, which was irritating when I had to step up and down it to move the shoes.  I unfortunatly put the shoes out of frame, so for my next SMA I will have to make sure I take proper care to keep the object in the frame.  The thing I don't like about my SMA is the change in light and shadows and the change of frame, so again for my next SMA I will have to take care to not move the camera and to keep the lighting the same. 

Own research - The White Stripes.

The white stripes are a band formed in America consisting of Jack and Meg White.  They have done two stop motion animation videos, but the one I chose to research is the video for 'fell in love with a girl' which was released in 2002 and directed by Michel Gondry, mostly because it's made from Lego.  The White Stripes contacted Lego in hopes of having a small Lego set packaged with each single of the record, with which one could build a Lego version of Jack and Meg White. Lego Group refused, saying: "We don't market our product to people over the age of twelve." However, once the video became a hit, Lego contacted The White Stripes again and asked if they could reconstruct the deal to have Lego packaged with the single. This time, however, Jack White refused. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM