Stop motion video is an animation technique where a series of photographs are taken and manipulated to create an impression of an inanimate object moving on its own. The object is moved in small increments each time a new photograph is taken, and consequently edited in sequence to give the impression of movement.
History of Stop Motion Animation
Stop motion animation has a long history in film production, the first instance of stop motion was occurred in "The Humpty Dumpty Circus", created in 1898 by Albert J. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton. Since then many successful stop motion motion pictures have been produced, ranging from 'Clay stop motion' to computer animated stop motion using photographs and flash. Famous film makers such as Disney originally experimented in stop motion animation in 1978, and created a short clip called "Mouse Mania", which included the movement of Mickey Mouse toys.
Stop Motion animation has not only been used in film, it is also popular in other media texts such as television and music videos. Successful television programmes such as 'Pingu' and 'South Park' have been globally broadcast, whilst music videos such as OK Go's "End Love" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2fpgpanZAw) and Kate Nash's "Foundations" (bellow) incorporate this technique successfully.
Our chosen song for our music video project belongs to the genre 'Indie/Alternative', therefore for music video research we have looked at videos also belonging to this genre. Kate Nash's "Foundations" belongs to the Indie genre and throughout the video stop motion animation is used to give the video an 'unpolished' look. The use of stop motion animation also gives the video an extra sense of entropy, as it's not a common feature in conventional music videos and therefore the audience aren't expecting to see it. Entropy is often used in Indie/Alternative videos as it stops them belonging to the stereotypical and redundant images often portrayed in mainstream music videos. The use of this stop motion animation also stops the video being completely narrative and literal, making it amplifying and more interesting. Additionally, the stop motion adds more meaning and emotion to the song as the movement in the inanimate objects is used to help demonstrate the lyrics in the song. It personifies the objects by bringing them to life, therefore whilst the song is not being completely narrated through miming of the lyrics, the stop motion allows the lyrics to be illustrated in more entropic ways.
Film Grain
Film grain is an optical effect, and originally occurred in early filming due to small particles of metallic silver present in the photographic film. It is often replicated in Indie/Alternative videos nowadays as it removes the 'polished' effect often portrayed in mainstream music videos. In our music video we wish to employ various techniques utilised in Indie videos, therefore this technique will be incorporated as it is simple to apply but looks effective.
In the music video for 'The Kooks - Ooh La', the Film Grain effect is applied at various points in the video, which helps demonstrate the 'Indie/Alternative' genre, therefore fitting in with the bands persona. Alongside the black and white filter which has either been applied during filming or added after with post production effects, the film grain gives the music video an 'old' look. It could be argued that this helps amplify the lyrics, as it gives the impression of 'memories' which are discussed in the lyrics ("ooh la, she was such a good girl to me. ooh la, the world just chewed her up and spat her out")
As we found both these techniques very interesting and effective, we created a short clip containing video effects such as stop motion animation, film grain and sepia tone to gain a better idea on how to effectively apply these techniques.
No comments:
Post a Comment