Charley Rowe: September 2011

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

My First Stop Movie Project

We were allowed to go out and take photo's to produce a stop motion video. We took photo's of us walking as it was quite easy but it also looks effective. We also downloaded songs to our computers so we could add it into the video. I chose Walk this way by Run DMC and Aerosmith as it links in with the song, as the two people are walking towards the camera.

So far.....

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Sammy

This shows Sammy trying to walk. The suitcase was placed on top of her to show that it was by her side whilst she was walking. George helped move the suitcase around as it was quiet heavy to move.

The suitcase was placed behind Sammy to show that she had movement in her arms and that she was swinging the suitcase with the swing of her arms, also we moved her legs to show her walking.

We moved Sammys arms to be opposite to show how she would walk normally with her arms swinging and her feet moving.

George

This shows George trying to swim. This was made effective by between each shot moving the blue (sea) to represent him moving in the water. But this was also difficult as George found it hard to move properly.

Each shot George had to move slightly each time to prevent to bigger movements to be made between shots.

It was easier for George to move the arm which was further away from the floor, but it was effective that he tried to move all together to show his movement

Dylan's Shoot

This is a photo showing Dylan moving both himself and the skateboard in the air. This look effective as it looks like Dylan is jumping in the air with his skateboard.

This shows that Dylan is flipping his skateboard whilst still being in the air. This could of been made more dramatic if we had some material to represent the sky to show he is actually in the air.

This is also a photo showing Dylan flipping his skateboard around, and whilst playing all these pictures together it would show a full rotation of Dylans skateboard in the air.

Canon 5D, Canbo Studio Camera Stand, Bowen Lighting

Stop Motion Practice in the Studio

Camera - Canon 5D. Lights - Bowen. Material - yellow, blue, purple, red, orange, white, grey. Skateboard. Suitcase. Canbo Camera stand.

In todays lesson we had our first short tour of the use of the Darkroom. Steve showed us the difference uses of the lights, and what effects they have on a stop motion video, and the way we need to take photographs whilst creating a stop motion film. He showed us that we need to use a step ladder to be able to take the photographs from a birds eye view. This meant that the person we were taking photos of had to lie on the floor with a background. We used many different materials for the background that were all different colours to represent different aspects in the video (such as blue for the sea or sky).

Video 1 - George swimming
George was apart of the first video and we made it out that he was in the sea trying to swim. As this was our first time we only had a vague idea of how he had to move and that the material had to be moved as well as him each shoot. This could of been made better by adding more objects in with the photographs so it wasn't just George in the photograph, the use of more props would of improved this video further.

Video 2 - Dylan Skating
For the second video, we tried to manipulate the idea of a Skate park. We used this by using a yellow/orange skate ramp, red main background and purple sky. We also used Dylan in this video as he owned a skate board. We moved the skateboard in each scene to try and show that he was moving down the skate ramp. At the end of the shoot we made it to look like he fell off his skate board by moving the skate board and making Dylan look as if he was falling. This could of been made better if we had a lot more space so we could of expanded on the fact he was traveling on his skate board.

Video 3 - Sammy walking
The final video we tried to show someone walking down a path with a suitcase. We used Sammy to show someone walking. We used a grey path, blue sky and whiteish material to represent clouds. We moved the clouds each shot and George helped Sammy move herself and the suitcase each time. This could of been made better if we used something different than the suitcase as it was quite difficult to move each time which caused problems whilst shooting.

To make shooting more safe we had one person on the step ladders taking the photos, whilst another held the step ladder to prevent movement. We also had about 4/5 people around the set to move the materials efficiently. Also, we had someone helping move equipment to save the person in the shoot moving the equipment themself and the equipment was quite heavy.

Overall, I enjoyed my first experience in the darkroom as it shows us how much we can use to produce our final stop motion film and we could base it around any idea we want too. It also gave us the chance to be able to change the lighting to create more an effect of what we are basing our stop motion video on. However, it has also showed me how hard it is to produce a stop motion video and I would need extra support when producing my stop motion video due to the movement on material and taking of the pictures.