And what did you learn today?

Way back in early 2010 I started to write a review of Schindler’s List but ended up with a brief stream-of-consciousness blog about WWII films in general. I think I was trying to make the same observations about the atrocities of that period that Richey Edwards made far more eloquently in the song The Intense Humming of Evil.

Richey’s notes from the Holy Bible Tour Book read:

The Intense Humming Of Evil"/"Mausoleum:
"Brother/sister songs. Visited Dachau and Hiroshima. What reflections should be for everyone. Otherwise we're all Edward Scissorhands Avon Lady. Winners dictate history. Holocaust one of the few examples where even truth is being questioned. Revisionist historians. Danger of Schindler's List - Portrayal of merely flawed man. Never question our own past - myth of Churchill. "An individual death means little - millions must mean something?"

Schindler’s List is the obvious example of a big Hollywood Movie dramatising the holocaust, but since then (and since Richey’s disappearance) there have been others. I always felt a little uncomfortable watching the WWII veterans speak at the beginning of Band of Brothers, and I always wondered how they reacted to watching their experiences recreated on screen. Was it really like that? I’d believe them if they said it was.

So anyway, here is a clip-heavy and probably too long animated short about films about the Second World War.

Chroma Key The Hard Way

After a month of sporadic filming and one mammoth editing session yesterday: Episode 2 – Robocop.



After the experience of making my first animated short I was slightly more ambitious with the second, specifically with my extended use of chroma keying aka green screen. I had grand ideas for the opening shot, and it took a lot more time and effort that I intended to make it work, as this ‘Making of’ shows:



(I can’t even spell ‘chroma’ correctly)

Hopefully the next episode will be less laborious. I find that actually animating the figures isn’t too tricky, it’s setting up the shot and the lighting that takes time. Using a green screen takes away a lot of that trouble and when done right allows the figures to be placed in a background that looks more real that the one behind them. As I get to grips with the software I’m using I’ll pay more attention to all the visual effects that are possible. I could probably do a lot more to improve the ambient light in post production, but I think the animation has an amateurish charm the way it is.

Creating professional looking video effects is literally child’s play in this day and age, as the young ‘Katsuhono’ proves:



There are a lot people making of impressive stop motion out there, but few of them are more than just showcases for their creator’s skills (and their lovely new Transformers toys). Narrative and story are still most important keys of all.

Strange New Places

After almost a year of blogging (if you include the facebook origins) I decided I'd like to have a go at editing together some footage of my own. Just a short story, something frivolous. And so, inspired by the Youtube videos of Patrick Boivin I present Spartan-II Review Episode 1



How whimsical. Here is a 'Making of'.



What I like about this Patrick Boivin fellow is that he makes incredibly professional stop motion animation using the resources available to anyone (anyone who can afford a digital camera and a computer). He's also kind enough to show us how he does it:



Flick through his Youtube channel and you'll find a lot of excellent animation, but all of them are missing something: narrative. The majority of Patrick's animated films involve fighting or dancing or skateboarding, but no story beyond the activity taking place. This is a petty criticism considering the quality of his work and bearing in mind they are just short films destined for Youtube, but it's a reminder that story is more important than spectacle - Aardman and Pixar don't win Oscars just for the quality of their animation.

As I have been discovering, shooting and editing footage in stop motion is tricky enough without having to worry about a coherent narrative. My story is simple enough: three toy Halo figures appear in my front room and start watching DVDs, the next few episodes will be a review of a film by each of the cast (I plan to make three more but we'll see how that goes). Animating the figures was straightforward enough but once I separated them from each other and they were no longer all in the same shot, it became problematic. I hope it makes sense that the yellow one climbs up onto the TV and then onto the DVD shelf. Animating it would not have been impossible, just very time consuming. Shooting against a green screen makes it easier but there's no way of knowing how it will tun out, and a lot of work can be for nothing. Ultimately, it's a question of how much time is worth putting in for the end result.

Hopefully I'll finish episode 2 sometime in January. Check out my Youtube channel.