No Film School: I have been working as a Director of Photography for over 10 years in live-action and stop motion. Stop motion is a special niche, and there is not a lot of information on how much detail, time, and work go into it. Even a tiny change can take you out of the story!
8 comments:
I absolutely have to start this news comment off by saying how much I love the tiny chef. I always stumble upon their videos and they bring so much joy to my day. The amount of details that have to be considered when planning for stop motion was something I had never considered. I knew in the back of my mind that animation is obviously a very tedious process, but my imagination stopped at the actual figure that moves in stop motion. The part that tiny chef mentions about temperature was especially surprising, because I had not imagined that something so small could impact the final product in such a noticeable way. I wish they had discussed what kick plates were in more depth, though, because I am curious about ways in which stop motion animators ensure that their own movements do not impact the final product. Especially with all of the lights around, I would most definitely trip while moving back and forth from the scene to the camera.
In other classes, I have been following other cases of artistic censorship at the hands of museums, which is extremely disheartening, and of course seeing this doesn't help in the slightest. In this specific case, a higher up at Pepperdine visited the exhibit only to send in a request for two pieces to be removed for being ‘overly political’ in nature, which clashes with the school's truly ridiculous policy that avoids political ideas as a whole. This is truly dumbfounding to me, because what is the point of artwork if not to reflect upon the world around us? Especially at a tumultuous time like the one we are in right now. I am utterly shocked at this behavior from a university of all places, where innovation of artwork should be not only tolerated by the staff, but encouraged. Really, the act of censorship here really points to where the school stands, and politically what they support.
I have been following the Tiny Chef Show well before it made its way onto the air in a national television context. I am a huge fan of animation and have a particular soft spot and admiration for stop motion animation, so it is no surprise that the tiny chef found its way onto my for you page multiple times. I was so excited to see the announcement of their tv show on a national network as I think that skilled animation and more soft and thoughtful childrens media are hard to come by these days, and was disheartened to hear when it got cancelled. Though, I am glad he is still in the public sphere and he brightens my day a little bit every time he comes up randomly for me. I am so interested and delighted to see how a one person stop motion animation morphed into something brilliant with a team behind it.
I LOVE the Tiny Chef show. It is so satisfying for the brain, like most stop motion media. I am currently in a film class but I have never had to make or engage with the filming process of a stop motion. The things that I didn't even think about, but makes sense none the less, is the not using a soft floor. Even in standard film it is important to make sure that the cuts you take are continuous (ie, lighting and positioning), this is so that when the editor goes to cut the shots they don't have to adjusting in post-production. I can imagine how important this is for stop motion as if literally one frame is off the illusion of the piece is broken. I also found it was super interesting that they tested the white balance on all of the cameras to ensure they were the same.
Stop motion is one of my favorite mediums, and I always love seeing "The Tiny Chef" appear on my For You Page on TikTok. It's such an expressive and interesting way to do a film. My mind always goes right to Isle of Dogs or Fantastic Mr. Fox when I think of Stop-Motion Animation, and those are some of the best movies I've ever watched. I think it needs to come back, and I'm absolutely ECSTATIC that Laika, the best Stop-Motion studio left, is creating a new film to bring the medium back into the limelight. It's called something along the lines of Wildwood, and that's all I know about it. I read another article a while ago, and it sounded very fun. I love to see that people are still interested in the minutiae and want to make art with their hands and lots of time-consuming, repetitive actions.
Okay I’m obsessed with this. I have never heard of The Tiny Chef Show but these pictures are sooooo cute. I really love how thorough and detailed this article is about this show too. I truly know nothing about stop motion or how it works at all what so ever, and I low key thought it went hand in hand with animation but I guess not. I haven’t designed lights very many times in a full size theater but I do have a basic understanding and I thought reading about it in the smaller scale and in a completely different style was so cool. The precision and attention to detail it must take to record something in stop motion is crazy, I would feel so much pressure knowing that if even one thing moved a tiny little bit then the whole scene could be messed up. Looking at all of the details of that image is mind blowing to me because there's so many details I would’ve never even thought of like funny blackouting the room.
I have seen many clips and shorts of this stop motion, and I always really enjoy it. The art style is so warm and comforting, and it always makes me smile. I have always been fascinated by stop motion pictures and animation I have always known that it takes an eminence amount of work, and after reading through this article I was not off base. The amount of tech, preparation, thought, and skills that are necessary to make a stop motion picture is insane. One trick from this article that really surprised me was the use of flooring to change locations. This is such a simple concept, but I did not consider how it would present itself in a stop motion picture, and it is 100% true a change in flooring will change the location dramatically on such a small scale. Another aspect or trick that really impressed me is the practical lighting especially on such a small scale it is truly incredible to see working light fixtures. It really dose bring life to the world and the scene that is being created.
I’ve never know very much about stop motion, so this was a pretty interesting read. The article pretty much specified everything that theater isn’t. Shooting a stop motion animation on our stage would probably be the worst possible place to choose to shoot, with lights swaying in the air and a trapped wooden floor. Personally, I would never be able to do stop motion; I have no patience and I move around too heavily anyways. I love to read about other forms of art media, and how they compare and contrast to what we do in theater. For example, the article’s mention of practical lights is the same use as practicals in theater, just in stop motion they’re tiny. The article makes me wonder how many animations have been ruined by someone bumping into a table, or a camera stand, or a lighting stand. I can’t imagine holding that much precision in a set like that.
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