10/10/19 - 29/11/19 (Week 7 - Week 14)
Video and Sound Production
Final Project
INSTRUCTIONS
FINAL PROJECT - STOP MOTION
October 14th, 2019For our final project, we are required to compose a minute of stop motion animation video. I am partnered up with Alex for this project. As a relation to my first stop motion idea, which is to revive childhood memories or experiences using motion, my new idea was similar to that. I intended to create joy from the audience by choosing Action, Comedy as my stop motion animation genre.
Storyboards Proposal
During the first discussion with Alex, we quickly made progressions and lots of agreement points for the storyline planning. Through our quick drafts and sketches, we finally compiled our ideas and came up with a specific theme, that is the Western theme. Our main character is a cowboy, while the side characters are the ordinary people in a saloon. The story will take place in a saloon where the cowboy visits a new town and discovered that he's in a little troublesome situation. |
| Figure 1.1. Ideation process for storyline. |
As we quickly compiled our ideas and presented it to Mr. Martin, he was a little surprised by our unique Western theme and encouraged both of us to continue to the storyboard, while giving some tweaking improvements on the story. I decided to name our story "The Lost Horse."
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| Figure 1.2. First storyboard of the "Lost Horse." |
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| Figure 1.3. Improved storyboard of the "Lost Horse." |
Together with Alex, we planned through the storylines and resketch along with the storyboards repeatedly until we think it was ready for our first presentation with both the lecturers. The video below is the first trial in filming the last scene of our stop motion storyboard (see figure 1.3, shot 13).
Shooting test of shot 13 from the "Lost Horse" stop motion.
First animatics presentation:
To our misfortune, the results and feedback from the presentation did not go as we expected. The crowds were filled with doubt as the storylines did not appear as pleasing to everyone. It was sad to realize that we had to restart, but we quickly tapped each other on the back and made appointments for new meetups for a fresh discussion.
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| Figure 1.4. Feedback from Mr. Martin. |
Time was running faster than ever and we both felt the same pressure as deadlines are only getting closer. Through the new planning process, I recalled our initial objectives and intentions of the stop motion and jot down the new goals as received from Mr. Martin's feedback. We still intend to create some chuckles off from the audience but at the same time to explore the Western genre.
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| Figure 1.5. The new plan, with Alex. |
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| Figure 1.6. New script planning. |
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| Figure 1.7. Ideation phase 2. |
Again we found the common ground through our plannings and was able to come up with the new storyline as we incorporate more of the Western elements with more action scenes. We name the new story "The Trouble in the West."
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| Figure 1.8. Storyboard 1, "The Trouble in the West." |
With our new ready ideas sketched in the notebook, I made a new appointment with Mr. Martin to propose the new plan. This time, Mr. Martin recognized the improvement from earlier drafts and suggested even more crazy ideas to the storyline. Great ideas were suddenly born when he suggested us to compose the fighting scenes with elements from The Matrix popular moves and scenes, the dodge and the 360 camera view specifically.
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| Figure 1.9. Storyboard 2 of "The Trouble in the West." |
With an improved story, we felt more confident and began our first filming (see figure 1.0 for a reference to our props and camera setup). Again we came up with the new storyboard to further help us with our shots.
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| Figure 1.10. Final storyboard. |
Production
As the storyboards are ready, it is now time to implement the ideas alive. |
| Figure 2.1. My stop motion partner, Alex, setting my camera. |
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| Figure 2.2. That's me managing the props for our stop motion. |
Once done setting up the props, we spent half a way shooting the first few parts from the storyboard and made a quick rough cut in Adobe Premiere Pro for our first progression check.
"The Trouble in the West" rough cut 1 for progression check
Unfortunately, the rough cut didn't pass through Mr. Martin's approval. The way it was shot are still confusing. This was mainly because we didn't make much time for the character build-up as things were happening too fast as if we were rushing. To create a more Western feel to the overall story, the characters must confront each other and spend enough time staring at each other to create tension between them.
"The Trouble in the West" rough cut 2
We were not able to do much edit by then but we showed what we could by the time we had to present our new rough cut.
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