Research into Stop Motion Films

I found this film by just searching stop motion in YouTube, and was really intrigued by it. I looked into it, and found it took 3 months planning, 4 days shooting and over 6000 post-it notes! I found the dedication and effort quite inspiring and I will try to do that with my own work where possible.




I found this film again by searching stop motion in YouTube. I think they've used stop motion to create this music video in such an interesting way, and it has inspired parodies and many other similar videos. It was created using 2096 still photographs. It has become such a hit, they have now broke it down back into still images, and are selling and exhibiting them!



This film is really amusing to watch. I found it the same way as the others, and viewed all of the makers stop motion films to find a lot more like it. It was created with around 912 images, with an oil-based clay called Belgravia.







For this, the actors changed shirts over 100 times each, taking individual pictures of each unique shirt. The designs on the shirts are not photoshopped. They are real shirts for each frame of animation. The video was exported at 30fps, while the T-shirt animation moves at 6fps (with a few exceptions where it moves faster) So, for each shirt, they took 5 pictures, so the animation of them moves at 30fps, but the T-shirt animations move a bit slower. They used 222 T-shirts and it took 2 days to make!



This is an ebay stop motion viral, produced by Matt Keily. It took around 1000 images to make it. This is a very simple yet effective stop motion video, and goes to show you don't need fancy models and equipment to create such a good video.

Location Photography and first attempts at Stop Motion

Location Photography

Location photography is where you go to the subject, not bringing it into a studio. This can be taking pictures anyway, for anything, as long as you are going to a location to do it. We will experiment with location lighting sets, where we learn how to use the kit and how effective and useful it can be. For this we went downstairs in college, and asked passers by to have their portrait taken, and we did get quite a few people agree after a bit of persuasion! We chose an interesting background, and set up the lighting equipment with the camera straight in front of the model, and a light to the left of the camera. We experimented a lot with the strength, angle and softness of the light until we got an effect we were happy with for portraiture. In the end, the light had an umbrella on it so it was a bit softer, and it was on a high strength. The light was facing away from the subject so the reflection from the umbrella was directed to it. Overall I was happy with the effect given and all of the pictures turned out very well.

Health and Safety on location

There are a lot of things to remember while on location, because you may be in public places. The main points are as follows:

• Stay out of public walk ways
• Keep the equipment away from anything unstable
• Do not take the equipment out in the rain unless it is fully covered
• Be aware of the public and keep theirs and your safety in mind and all times
• Do not eat/drink around the equipment
• Be aware of the equipment (trip hazard)
• Keep the batteries away from any liquid
• Do not have more cables in than necessary

This stop motion film was created by moving m&ms between each shot to make them appear to be moving. They go from a smiley face, to a sad face, to swirling and then back to the original smiley face. I think it is very effective because it is fun to watch and does appear like the sweets are moving. We chose to put this sound to it, because it made it feel dramatic and magical, and this works well because sweets don't often move themselves! It took 18 shots to create this, each showing for 0.2 seconds. If we were to redo this I would add more frames in between so it appeared more smooth.

This film was created by moving a small toy along a wall, until it reached Katie where she looked shocked/scared by the toy howling. We added the howling noise by recording the howl of the toy in iMovie, then placing it half way through the 5th frame. It took 6 frames to create, with the first 5 frames showing for 0.4 seconds and the last frame 4 seconds. By having the last frame longer, it allowed the full howl to be played, and emphasised the main point in the film. If we were to redo this I would add a lot more frames so it was smoother, and add other things happening so it was more interesting.

This film was created by moving Haribo sweets, so it looked like a story. The original Jelly Baby gets his head knocked off by the other, who then gets eaten by the frogs who played a sideline role in the first half. The frogs appeared to change colour before they become a main part, which was done by switching frogs in each shot. It took 15 shots to create this film, but it could have done with more to make it more smooth. It also could have been more interesting if more happened within the story line, and if the pictures were more in focus and from a better angle. The shots each show for 0.2 seconds, however it would have looked better if this was faster, but this was the fastest setting. We added the sound of lively music to make the film seem more energetic and it went well with the bright colours.

This film was created by taking a picture everytime part of the McDonalds was eaten. It took 30 shots to create the film, and each is shown for 0.2 seconds. I think this amount of time works well so you can clearly see the food disappear with each image. If i was to redo this I would use a tripod so the camera was in the same place each time, it doesn't look very smooth and this takes away alot from the film. The sound was added to make the film seem like it was almost an adventure. I think it makes the film a lot more fun and interesting to watch.

Introduction to Stop Motion

Stop motion is a film/photography technique, where you take lots of images then play them really fast as a movie, so it appears the whole things was shot as a film, not as seperate images. You can create a lot of really interesting effects with the technique and I will research into previous stop motion films to find out more. I have been asked to experiment with stop motion, and I will then be making one final film.