The Reluctant Blogger

Finally, after what feels like decades of waiting, it is finally here... After the epicness of The Force Awakens , and then the Episode 4 prequel Rogue One, who knew that it was possible to get even more excited about Star Wars? Following on from Episode 7, The Last Jedi promises more adventure, more action, and could possibly (just like The Empire Strikes Back ) be overshadowed by the dark side of the force - hence the red typeface perhaps? There were so many unanswered questions left after the last film: Who are Rey's parents? Who is Snoke? Has Luke already turned to the dark side? Will Finn survive? What is Snoke planning next? Will Kylo Ren eventually turn to the light, and be reunited with his mother? Will Leia be reunited with Luke? Who knows? But the teaser trailer does offer enough sneak peeks to let the entire Star Wars fandom start speculating and anticipating the movie's plot.  Besides, we've all watched it a million times now, right? WARNING: TEAS...

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...

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: Guides: GirlGuides are a uniformed organisation for girls only, aged 10-14.    The guides were a little shy at first, but after the introductions were made they were quite happy to sit down with the team and have a chat whilst doing the first activity.    They enjoyed creating the drawings of various UFO's and aliens, and discussed the topic in depth with their group. This allowed the team to get to know the girls more before the interviews took place.    Each girl was interviewed individually - which after further ...

How to interview children and young adults Introduction: There is much taboo about working with children in film. As W.C. Fields once said: “Never work with children or animals.” Sometimes they are too lively or energetic for a director to cope with; they may have short attention spans; they are unpredictable. "The audience always looks for the adorable young child or animal - they steal every scene. "many stars will never appear with animals or children in the belief that no adult can compete" has been cited in print since 1931, in a newspaer article indicating that this film tradition carried over from the stage."        - Barry Popik (2012), "Never work with children or animals" (Show Business Adage) But something special happens when you place a child in front of the camera, when you let them take centre stage and unleash their imagination. In taking away the pressure and the script, a filmmaker can use that unpredictability to cre...