Evaluation

I had huge problems creating the stop-motion effect I wanted for my film. Due to a lack of specialist software available for me to use I decided to use the moving film piece of the photo shoot for my main film instead. I sped up the film, removed the sound, and wanted to add the song as a soundtrack. However unfortunately due to various issues with the computers I was unable to add the sound.

I am quite disappointed with the final film, as it is not what I intended to create at all, however I did learn a lot during the process. I also do still have all of the stills from the photo shoot, so if I am able to use appropriate software for creating stop-motion film then this is something I can continue in future.

There are things that I like about the film, as the focus of our shoot was to take the photos for stop-motion film, the video camera was not our focus, which meant that everyone on camera was quite relaxed and acting normal throughout the film. It works quite well at demonstrating the behind the scenes going on of a photo shoot. I condensed around 5 hours of footage into a 5 minute film so it's quite amusing watching everyone move so quickly.

If I was to do this module again I would have started the filming far in advance of when I did, as the editing and trying to fix the various problems that came up took up a huge amount of our time, and left myself, and many other students behind schedule. I'd also have probably gone for writing on stationary objects instead of a person, as the photography for stop motion is very time consuming and it was hard work to get all of the photo shoot done in one go.

Final film

As my plan for my film is to have lyrics handwritten on to skin, I wanted a slightly scruffy looking, irregular font. This Jamie Reid typeface is a very close match to the style I would like to use for my project.

Influences

I thought about many different themes for my own film, but decided I definitely wanted it to be linked into whatever music I chose for the sound track. I came up with the idea of writing lyrics onto someones body  and photographing in such a way that the letters would seem to appear on the skin in a stop-motion style.

Whilst the video to "Subterrenean Homesick Blues" is a different style to the one I intend to make, the use of the lyrics in the video is similar to the idea I have for my own video.
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues


'La tour de pise' is a music video directed by Michel Gondry which uses imagery which either says or represents the lyrcis to the song.


The song I have chosen to use for my own film is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee. I like the song anyway, and I feel that the imagery and violence in the lyrics will work well with the fairly sparce effect I expect to acheive with the stop motion photography I will be doing.

These are the lyrics from the song:

It was back in '32 when times were hard
He had a Colt .45 and a deck of cards
Stagger Lee
He wore rat-drawn shoes and an old stetson hat
Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that
Stagger Lee
His woman threw him out in the ice and snow
And told him, "Never ever come back no more"
Stagger Lee
So he walked through the rain and he walked through the mud
Till he came to a place called The Bucket Of Blood
Stagger Lee
He said "Mr Motherfucker, you know who I am"
The barkeeper said, "No, and I don't give a good goddamn"
To Stagger Lee
He said, "Well bartender, it's plain to see
I'm that bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee"
Mr. Stagger Lee
Barkeep said, "Yeah, I've heard your name down the way
And I kick motherfucking asses like you every day"
Mr Stagger Lee
Well those were the last words that the barkeep said
'Cause Stag put four holes in his motherfucking head
Just then in came a broad called Nellie Brown
Was known to make more money than any bitch in town
She struts across the bar, hitching up her skirt
Over to Stagger Lee, she starts to flirt
With Stagger Lee
She saw the barkeep, said, "O God, he can't be dead!"
Stag said, "Well, just count the holes in the motherfucker's head"
She said, "You ain't look like you scored in quite a time.
Why not come to my pad? It won't cost you a dime"
Mr. Stagger Lee
"But there's something I have to say before you begin
You'll have to be gone before my man Billy Dilly comes in,
Mr. Stagger Lee"
"I'll stay here till Billy comes in, till time comes to pass
And furthermore I'll fuck Billy in his motherfucking ass"
Said Stagger Lee
"I'm a bad motherfucker, don't you know
And I'll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get one fat boy's asshole"
Said Stagger Lee
Just then Billy Dilly rolls in and he says, "You must be
That bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee"
Stagger Lee
"Yeah, I'm Stagger Lee and you better get down on your knees
And suck my dick, because If you don't you're gonna be dead"
Said Stagger Lee
Billy dropped down and slobbered on his head
And Stag filled him full of lead
Oh yeah.

Stop motion

Having researched the beginnings of film and various different types of experimental film making, I was keen to focus my research on stop motion films, as this was what I wanted to for my own experimental film.

During our research into the history of film we were shown 'La Jetée' directed by Chris Marker. It's a 28 minute sci-fi film consisting mostly of still photograhs with a voiceover.

One of my favourite short films from my childhood was the 1982 'Vincent' film made by Tim Burton. It's a six minute long stop motion based upon a poem written by Tim Burton himself. The film was narrated by Vincent Price who features in the poem as well.

As well as looking as well known film makers, I also looked at many smaller scale stop motion films, such as;

Autumn story, which is a stop motion film made with chalk drawings on a chalk board.

Post-it-note pixel art style stop motion film.

Paper horse stop motion short using cut out paper.

 

I also discovered a graffiti artist known as Blu who creates amazingly intricate graffiti based stop motion films.

History of film

History of film

The starting point of modern film is widely considered to be the zoetrope. It is a cylinder with slits in, with images on the inside. When the cylinder is spun the images appear to move. There were variations of zoetropes recorded from around 180 AD, but the creation of the modern zoetrope was in 1834 by British mathematician William George Horner.

Among the earliest film makers were French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière. Their father owned a photographic film company, which they both worked for. They began to experiment with moving pictures, creating their first moving pictures in 1895. The first film they publicly screened was 'La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon', or 'Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory'.

Film was such a new phenomenon that a film they made shortly after, named ' L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat' or 'Arrival of a Train at a Station' actually made the people in the theatre duck out of the way thinking that the train was going to come out of the screen into them.

Continuity editing
In 1905 Cecil Milton Hepworth made the film "Rescued by Rover" in which he experimented with continuity editing by ensuring that moving subjects re-entered the frame from the same direction that they left the last frame.

Kuleshov Effect

The Kuleshov effect is a way of using film editing to influence the viewers perception. It was first demonstrated by Russian film maker Lev Kuleshovin the 1920's, when he made a film showing an expressionless face followed by different clips. The content of the clips following the face influenced the emotion the viewer felt the face was showing.

Alfred Hitchcock made a short film demonstrating the Kuleshov effect in 1964.

The Kuleshov effect was implemented in Soviet propaganda films, such as The Battleship Potemkin, directed in 1925 by Sergei Eisenstein. It is hailed as being one of the most influencial propaganda films of all time, and even won the 'Greatest film of all time' award at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.