In this blog I would like to take the time fully evaluate my presentation and my final piece that I created for this module. There are many areas to discuss regarding the final project so I will put headings for each section.
Schedule
As this was an individual project, the scheduling for me was really just when I had the free time to do it because obviously I have many other projects to do and also two part time jobs that I work. I decided that I would start the presentation itself and add my research to that and the script as I was doing it; I found this quicker and easier and it gave me a path to go down on the actual Prezi. Of course, during a large project this wouldn't be the case but as this one was a small 2 week project I was able to do the research and work as I went along.
For the shooting, I gave myself 3 full days to do it and make sure I had every shot downloaded to my computer and sorted in to files ready for editing. I was going to shoot the whole thing and then edit it but because physically doing a stop motion can be tiring I started to edit the film as I went along. So after every scene would edit it in to the composition on After Effects.
I definitely could have started the shooting earlier in the 2 weeks than I did but I think I was procrastinating due to the fact that I knew what I was getting myself in to with the stop motion. However, once I was 'in the zone' I found that the hours would fly by and I was shooting the whole thing pretty quickly indeed.
Storyboarding
As I shown in the presentation, I created a rough storyboard mainly to give me an idea of how I would incorporate the triptych technique in to my stop motion. It was very messy but it really helped with the editing process because I was able to see what stage I was at at every turn. I am definitely going to use a storyboard for my final production project as I am doing a stop motion again but much longer. I really enjoy planning and so hopefully I will create storyboards with proper sketches and shot lists on them. I have learned from this storyboard that they are very beneficial for staying on track and also moving forward when you are stuck and can't remember the original plans.
Sound
In the planning stages I really thought about using sound effects as well as music to enhance what was happening on screen. However, I didn't leave myself enough time to do the sound effects because I would have had to record them myself. I instead just used music to accompany the short film and even so I think it worked out nicely. The music creates the mood I wanted which was the emotions of the lamp from sad to happy at the end. I think if I could have found a single song that did this that would have been better; but I stitched two tracks together in Premier to get the desired effect. I think that sound effects would have seriously improved the emotions given off by the lamp and so in my final production project I am going to make this a main priority. I know that sound has never been my strong suit so this is an area I wish to work on and improve for future projects.
Lighting
Lighting is important in a stop motion animation because you want it to be constant throughout. I was lucky that most scenes turned out similar because I shot everything from 11am til 4pm. However, we have had a lot of bad weather and this means dark days and earlier sunsets. 2 or 3 of the shots that I put in the final film are darker than I would have liked but there wasn't much I could do in post production because I honestly wouldn't know where to begin with colour grading. I have known about colour grading for a while and have tried to dip in to using it in various work but I find it very difficult. This issue is definitely an area for improvement because post has never been my favourite, or best skill in creating media.
On a whole I am happy with the way the lighting turned out, especially when you can see the lights turning on and off to show their emotion because they really do light up the space. I wanted to show how needed a light was for humans and I think I achieved this with some small errors that could be fixed with practice in the Adobe suite.
Photography
I am very interested in photography as a hobby and it has come in to play many times in university. I shot this whole project on my Canon 1100D because I am comfortable with using it and I learn new things about the camera every time I do. I didn't use a 7D from university because this project was so quick that I didn't want to have to add learning to use new equipment to my list of to do's. I enjoyed using my own camera but I can see that the quality of the 7D images would be better in the final outcome. I am going to bare this in mind and hopefully use a 7D for my production project.
The photographs themselves came out great, my only issue was that some of the image sequences are not as smooth as I would like. This is down to the fact that the very long angle shots were not possible to shoot on my tripod because I needed it lower than the tripods lowest setting. As it was mentioned in the presentation itself, a gorillapod would be perfect for this situation and I didn't even realise that I was able to lend one from university until presentation day. So of course I am going to make full use of this knowledge in the future or even invest in a gorillapod of my own.
Location
As I mentioned in my proposal for this project, using my own home is mainly for ease of use and I was able to shoot the stop motion any time I liked (with day light hours). Working in my own house had its downfalls because I would get distracted by other projects or even just procrastinate and do other things such as chores. However, I think that the more organised I am the more these factors won't effect me working at home. Having my own editing software on my personal laptop was great because I was shooting the stop motion in one room and then I could just go in to the other and edit straight away. This got rid of the hour journey back and forth to use the university facilities.
I think the house setting for the story I chose was the right place to do it. It gave the feelings and emotions more of a family feel because you could see other lamp that were loved and cared for in this house and so the lamp wanted to be loved and cared for by this family too. If I had shot this in an office for example, I don't think the emotion would be as poignant and so I would have had to go for something with a comedy feel in that case.
With larger projects you have more time to research and scout locations but because this was a small individual piece I was able to just choose the location and get on with the storyboards.
Objects
In my Prezi I mentioned the process that I went through when I was choosing the main character (which of course ended up being a black lamp). Before I even got to the lamp idea I was thinking of objects that could be manipulated to create movements and emotions using their joints, hinges, etc. I went for the lamp idea mainly because I was influenced by Pixar's Luxo Lamp (again as I mentioned in the presentation). I really think that the idea of a lamp moving around the house when nobody is home is a lovely thought because objects having a mind of their own and interacting out of sight of humans is a running theme with Pixar.
I chose to do object animation because computer animation would definitely take too long and I also do not yet have enough skills to make a full short film using only CGI. I enjoy doing the stop motion because its a real hand crafted piece of work at the end.
Editing
For the editing I decided to do it at home with the Adobe package that I have on my own laptop. This made the process easier as I didn't have to travel to use the university editing suites and also I find my laptop more reliable and quicker than the university computers.
Of course After Effects was the best choice for the whole editing of this stop motion because is the easiest software to re-size and frame the various triptych sequences that I used.
I had to first create image sequences in Photoshop and I found this time consuming but a straight forward process because we used this in our original stop motion that we created with the cups. I hope to find a software that is more specific to stop motion for my final production project so that the editing wasn't so tedious; I am currently looking in to stop motion software such as DragonFrame and iStopMotion which I could get trials for or either pay to use for my next project. I think Adobe is a great package because you can get a lot from the various programs, however because it isn't specifically made for stop motion there are some limitations that I came across. For example, there is no way of seeing the 'onion peel' of the stop motion to see how smooth the movement of the objects was which is an aspect to stop motion editing that is very much necessary.
Research
Usually for research I am meticulous and I like to know about a lot of different things before choosing an area to focus on. Because I knew about the triptych technique and had previously researched this in detail (see the 'Creative Media Practice' - Triptych' blog for this) I decided to research more in to object animation and stop motion. I mainly watched YouTube videos for this research because seeing other peoples ideas on what to do with objects interesting and gave me a lot of ideas of my own. Because this project was only 2 weeks in the making, I didn't want to dwell too much on the research process so I decided on the object and location fairly quickly so that I could start shooting. My research did help though and my knowledge of stop motion and Pixar's Luxo Lamp contributed to this which made the project easier. Being interested in the subject matter is always something I look for because if you aren't interested then you loose the passion for creating.
Prezi
I am happy with how my actual Prezi presentation turned out. It was another smooth process because I have used Prezi many times so it seemed logical to use it again. I like the themes that they allow you to use and so this time I went with the theme of a journey so that I could show the whole process of my work including original ideas and research right through to the final changes such as sound. I created the Prezi as I went along over the 2 weeks instead of doing it last minute. I just kept adding various aspects that I thought would be interesting to hear about my project and occasionally changed parts when the film itself changed. It was a very fluid process doing the presentation as I did the script as I went along as well. I found this way of working a pleasant change to the methodical scheduling I usually do; however I think for the final production project I will need to return to my methodical ways in order to stay on top of the large task.
Further Development
As I mentioned in my Prezi presentation, I think that this short film could be part of a series of films on my YouTube channel where the lamp is again animated doing other things with his life or even other objects in the same world that come to life. It also ties in nicely with my production project as I have mentioned because I will be using the same environment and techniques to develop that work. It has enabled me to develop my stop motion skills further and also my editing capabilities. I definitely love using stop motion even though it can be very difficult to do; I like the challenge and hopefully I will get better at it as I progress in to the second semester of my final year.
Speak Soon!
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