Narratives in Motion
Project 3
This project requires us to create a “short moving image piece” (i.e. stop motion) that communicates our chosen text. The purpose of this project is not to create a professional stop motion/film but to explore and play around with telling our own version of the short text, looking at theme, lighting, atmosphere and sound. I have looked at stop motion before and have enjoyed it but I would like to challenge myself in this project and create a stop motion/film that involves a puppet or 3D objects rather than a 2D drawing.
I began by playing around with the stop motion app and making this short stop motion of a mouth smiling. I drew the different mouth movements in my sketchbook with coloured pencil and fine liner and then went into the stop motion app and took a picture of each mouth. I used the onion skin layer to see the previous drawing so I could try and line it up as best as I can. I also played around with the settings and managed to change the aspect ratio to square so that I could fit just the lips into my layer. It was a very simple stop motion to start off with but gave me an idea of how to use the app and what settings I could use already.
I wanted to look at creating a simple stop motion using an object so that I have an idea of what it is like to use a 3D object rather than a drawing. I used a lego vespa I made a while ago and a small rubber duck I had in my room and created a silly stop motion of the duck getting onto the moped and driving off. It took me less than five minutes to create this stop motion but it still shows the whole purpose of the film which was the the beginning – the duck going to the bike, the middle – the duck getting on the bike and the end – driving off. Such a simple stop motion yet it still shows the journey.
Research
I researched a little about different stop motions and what is the most well known stop motions. A lot I have seen and have watched the behind the scenes for and its interesting to see how they create the characters and the design process for these puppets as well as the sets they made. These stop motions take a very long time to make as each puppet is moved slowly and individually to create smooth movements.
Writing Workshop
We then had a writing workshop that was aiming to help us decided what direction/storyline we would want to use for our stop motion. We started off in small groups and were each given a piece of blank paper. On this paper we had to write the beginning of a story, we could make up absolutely anything. After writing a few sentences we had to fold the paper over leaving only the last sentence showing for the next person as they would then carry on the story until the whole page was filled. It was so interesting to read each story back and see how it started off in one place and ends in a completely different one. This exercise was a great way to collaborate with others as well as a really amusing way to write a script for our stop motions. The second task was to get into pairs and write a new story using our text that we were working with as a starting point and rewrite the story with a theme we were given. Milly and I were given “Romance” and we had both previously worked on A short stay in Hell so we used this text as a base for our new story. We weren’t sure how to start the story so we decided to use the same method of folding the paper and writing a few sentences each just like we did previously as we both enjoyed that exercise. It was interesting to see “A short stay in hell” with a new theme, romance, and made me think about a new way of creating a story line for my stop motion, which I had a few ideas for but this workshop definitely helped me figure out another way to narrow down my ideas.
sound workshop
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We were asked to have around 10 pre-recorded sounds to bring into our workshop, these sounds could vary from outside noises to our own sounds we created at home. Above I linked a select few of the sounds I had recorded, mainly outside. As I have the idea of my stop motion being set around the theme of a club I wanted to mainly record near bars to capture the sound of people talking and the noise of muffled music.
In the sound workshop we were shown how to edit our sounds as well as how to overlay clips and examples of stop motions. We were shown how to use garage band to edit our imported sounds using plug ins and a different pedal boards, this is one of the simpler ways to edit your sounds as you can change pitch, tempo and volume as well as a variety of other things. We were also shown how to overlay videos on premier to add our sound on top of to experiment with combining videos and sounds. As well as being shown how to edit sounds we were shown examples of stop motions that were made for music videos, one being Grizzly Bear – Ready Able which consisted of a small plasticine puppet and a forest set. When watching this video I made a lot of notes as It filled me with ideas. One part of the music video there was a shot of the camera panning around a spaceship she had made from plastic and this one part in particular really drew me in as I was so interested in how she had created this pan around the spaceship with stop motion and it gave me the idea of using the same camera movement but in the theme of my stop motion. Another example we looked at was Animal Collective – Strung with Everything, their music video was also a stop motion but this time it was 2D using a lot of coloured paper. Seeing two different types of stop motion and how sound is really important definitely helped me delve into new ideas and has made more sure of what I want to do for my stop motion.
Above are some pages from my note book showing the ideas I was jotting down during the workshop.
Heart Model
videos of heart – exploring lighting
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I had the idea of the heart hanging freely whilst It either spins or I move around it with the camera. I got this idea from the grizzly bear music video we were shown, when the camera pans around the spaceship. When watching the video I had the idea of doing something similar and when making the heart I thought that the movement could work really well. I used some black sugar paper as my background and attached it under my desk so that I could stick the string to the underneath of my desk, allowing the heart to freely hang.
I started off by using the stop motion app to create a sequence of images of the heart spinning whilst the light is moving around it, I began with a bright white light as I wanted to highlight parts of the heart. I wasn’t too pleased with the way these turned out, I feel that they are too “jumpy” and I wanted more of a smooth spin around the heart and as I didn’t have the room to physically move around the heart I had to let it spin itself. I also tired to move the light around whilst taking the pictures but that was quite difficult so i had to ask my friend to move it for me, thinking that It would make the stop motion a lot more smooth as I was only focusing on taking the pictures but I still wasn’t happy with the outcome.I decided to then look at just filming the heart spin rather than taking multiple pictures.
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Above I have attached the video links to my lighting experiments with the heart model. I am much more pleased with the way these turned out as it shows the heart moving around smoothly. I decided that I was more pleased with the outcome when the light was underneath the model, rather than moving around. I also played around with using a red light to show a change in “mood” as I would like to use the videos of the heart a few times throughout the film. I am very happy with how these videos turned out and it has made me more motivated to create this film, I have also discovered a love for clay.
Eyes Animation
One of my ideas was to have a lot of eyes looking at Orlando when she is rejected from the club. At first I thought of taking pictures of eyes and having real images but I decided to look at creating a quick animation digitally as I really enjoyed creating the animations in the last project. I knew I wanted to keep these really simple as it’s not about creating a realistic image/animation of glaring eyes but to have the idea of people looking at Orlando.
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I wanted to keep the dark theme so I used a black background and drew the eyes in white, especially to reenforce the fact that it is night time. I drew the basic eye shape and simply moved the eyes to make it look as though they are watching Orlando. I played around the layers per second and wether or not to make a loop or ping pong shot and I decided that I was more drawn to the ping pong effect because of how it looks as though these eyes can’t stop watching Orlando.
Set Design
add sketches
I wanted to make a set that I would use for multiple different scenes by making a background set and also making parts I can add to such as the door for the club and signs. I began by opening up a cereal box I had in my house, I then used clay to create a bumpy uneven path to add to this rough outdoor aesthetic. Which I then painted using acrylics, as they dry faster, and I am more than happy with the way it turned out. I stuck with using grey, brown, green black to make the path look very old and broken. As for the wall I wanted to make a rough texture and I remembered that there is a technique using sand and paint but I unfortunately didn’t have any sand on hand or the money to buy any so I used sugar which worked exactly the same. I applied the mixture to the card board and left it to dry.
lighting of set
Once I had created my set I wanted to figure out how I was going to light it. As my stop motion is set outside at night I knew I had to create some sort of street lighting so I looked at using a variety of lights including a candle, a digital light I created on procreate and my lamp which I covered in black sugar paper so it wasn’t as bright. I want to use my lamp as it brightens up the set enough that the puppets will be seen as well as creating some interesting to shadows. Looking back at some of these images I could see that the other lights, mainly the candle (as seen in the bottom right) could have worked as it doesn’t brighten the background up too much creating a subtle light but I knew that when creating my stop motion it would be very bad quality so using a bright light was the best direction to go in.
Character Design
The brief wanted us to Include a puppet or puppets into our film. I knew I wanted two characters to be involved in this stop motion, one being Orlando and the other being the security guard. I had the idea of what I wanted my security guard puppet to look like and rather than plan and sketch out what he would look like I just wanted to make him whilst the idea was fresh in my head. My puppets were going to be made out of clay and my hope was to make them stand freely. I began by using a bendy wire to make the base of my puppets body, a sort of frame. Rather than using a lot of clay to make the body and head, I used tinfoil to make a rough shape which I then applied clay to. I started with a round head shape which I then moulded into a funny head shape as I didn’t want my puppets to look realistic but funny looking. I then used acrylic paint to add some fleshy tones to my clay once it had dried. I used the acrylic paint as it dries quicker which helped with the fact I didn’t have long to make this. I then made my security guard an outfit out of an old jumper. In the process of making this I did in fact ended up breaking his hands which was very annoying but I wasn’t too fussed on fixing them as I wanted the focus to be on the upper part of my puppets body, which is also the reason I didn’t make any feet.
I used the same exact process to make my second puppet, Orlando. I didn’t have any sort of reference to base what Orlando would look like off, so when making this puppet I felt I could play with it a little more. Again, using some scrap material I made an outfit for Orlando and as you can see from the images I focused more on the top half. I am very pleased with how both puppets turned out and thought it was an enjoyable experience making them as I have never made clay puppets before, from doing so I have found something that I would be interested in developing in the future.
Props
I also made some props for my set so that I can make the same set be two different places rather than creating another set. I made a club door out of clay as well as two different club signs, one being for outside the club and the other for the first scene of Orlando walking. I also made a barrier for the club scene out of my bendy wire. I made a small hand out of clay so that I could shoot a close up scene of the security guard holding an Id I made out of paper. I also made a larger version so that I could show a close up of that hoping to explain the plot of the story more, which is that Orlando is being rejected because her ID says male.
Making the drum pattern
I used garage band to create a drum loop for the stop motion. I played around with different patterns but this is the one i settled on. When thinking about what sound I wanted to create for this, I kept thinking back to the heart i created and what ideas I had for the heart to be included so I thought that creating a heartbeat sound would be interesting to be playing on repeat throughout the stop motion as it would be representing the heart beat sound and how anxious Orlando is.
RPReplay_Final1669255460 – recorded sound
Final stop motion storyboard
I then planned out my story board as a rough sketch. I wanted a reference to look at whilst filming my stop motion, I wasn’t so sure if I would stick to it exactly but I wanted a rough plan to follow when filming and editing.
Final Stopmotion
My stop motion was filmed on the app “Stop motion” and edited it on imovie. I am very pleased with the way my stop motion turned out, I stuck to my rough plan but also added two animations that wasn’t shown previously. I created these whilst making my stop motion as I felt that story line needed a little more context as I feel my story line wasn’t as clear. I repeated a lot of the clips, especially the clips of the heart beat spinning to re-enforce the fact that Orlando is anxious as well as repeating the drum loop continuously throughout the stop motion. I am very pleased with the final outcome and enjoyed the process of creating my stop motion, I would definitely like to look at stop motion again and maybe creating something similar or more detailed later on.
Stop motion -https://youtu.be/sz7kkNdJvHs