The Reluctant Blogger

A few months ago I was presented with the opportunity to create the storyboards for a student project at the University I had graduated from. Having always storyboarded my own projects, and used to drawing what I could see inside my own mind, I jumped at the chance to help visualise someone else's film. Everybody sees things differently. We imagine, we visualise in different ways. Maybe because our brains are wired differently, maybe because we all rely on different experiences or the things we've read. A wide shot to one person might be a close to another; or someone might prefer a high-angled birds eye view, whilst another a fish-eye lens effect. There are endless ways to visualise a story and we are all unique when it comes to this. So being tasked with aiding in the visualisation of someone else's film is by no means an easy feat. One must be able to see inside the director's mind, understand their vision and translate that into something that will reach and ...

To conclude: The style of stop-motion animation is extremely flexible. If the objects are being moved instead of being animated or manipulated it means that they can go anywhere within 2D space. The simple 2D drawings themselves are childlike in appearance but also in essence as they represent the most basic form of animation. Because of the physical involvement of having to use ones hands and fingertips to move every item bit by bit, frame by frame, it is like child's play. The animators hands set the tone of the film. Everything was done in a way that let the children steer the direction of the film by giving them open questions they were free to interpret as well as letting them express their ideas about the subject through art. The film depended entirely on their responses and the activities were carried out in a way that ensured they were comfortable and happy during the process. The initial audience for this film was children and the different animations, style and co...

For the main body of animation, extra drawings were created using both pen and paper and then digitally drawn in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. After the drawings were made, the images were scanned into a computer and drawn over and coloured. The fill tool was used for the main bulk of colour, and then shading added. The drawings on the left were for the 'What Do Aliens Eat?" part of the film. The original idea was that the food drawings would appear as a tally chart every time the item was mentioned in the interviews. A 'ping' sound would then accompany it. However after second thoughts, another idea was had: 'A trolley in a supermarket moving along and the items falling off the shelf into the basket - perhaps with an alien pushing it down the aisle?' So, a supermarket aisle was drawn on half an A3 piece of paper. A single food item was drawn on each shelf.  Once the image was scanned in and opened in Photoshop, each item was coloured in and the...

Testing and creating the title sequence: To achieve a childlike style many different drawing styles were looked at to see which would appeal most to children and young adults. The detailed ones were fascinating to look at, however placing too much detail into a stop motion animation would clutter the screen. Simpler drawings with black outlines - similar to the style of Rachel Ryle - were more suited. Sketches were made and the colouring was tested. Felt-tip pens created too harsh a tone, whilst colouring crayons provided a softer layout that was pleasing to the eye. The title sequence for 'Kids and UFO's was made up of 147 different photographs. The basic idea was this: A girl in a rocket is launched into space from her back garden, flying past stars, planets, aliens and ufo's. The rocket then flies away to reveal the title of the film: 'Kids and UFOs'. Drawings were created on paper, coloured in using crayons and cut out. These were then placed on a col...

The team decided to interview a range of children between the ages of 7 and 18 upon realising that a diverse choice would provide various answers and give more insight into a child's mind and imagination. The team went in expecting the younger children to be more imaginative and flamboyant than the older kids. But what happened in the interviews turned out to be something quite different. Each section was approached in a specific way: Boys Brigade    The Boys Brigade is a uniformed organisation that is made up of 4 sections: Anchor boys (5-8 years old) Junior (8-11 yrs) Company (11-15 yrs) Senior (15-18 yrs) To cover a more diverse range of children, the team decided to interview boys from the junior and company sections, along with two senior members. The boys seemed quite happy to be interviewed, though some were shyer than others. Since aliens and space is seen as a 'boys subject' it was thought that these kids would have much wilder and more imaginati...

All filmmakers are influenced by other people's ideas and creations. If one was to watch what everyone else was watching, then, in theory, one can only think what everyone else is thinking. This is why individual ideas and viewpoints are so important. A world where everyone has the same opinion would be a boring world indeed. My current influences are as follows: Film Directors: Peter Jackson J. J. Abrams Ridley Scott Georges Melies Tim Burton Photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson Dorothea Lange Joel Robinson Ansel Adams Artists: Oliver Jeffers Alan Lee Beatrix Potter E. H. Shepard Judith Kerr Authors: Jane Austen J. R. R. Tolkien Michael Morpurgo Noel Streatfield Suzanne Collins Agatha Christie Classical Music: The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Soundtrack (Howard Shore) The Kings Speech Soundtrack (Alexander Desplat) Raindrop Prelude (Frederik Chopin) Dance of the Cygnets (Tchaikovsky) Mars/Jupiter (Hols...