Thy Will Be Done
This project brought many new experiences for me which were nerve-racking and overwhelming at times – however it was an invaluable experience from which I gained knowledge and confidence. It was my first experience of directing, working for a client, working with a group, leading a team, building a set and creating a stop motion film. I have always generally struggled with self-doubt, especially as an artist, so having my pitch chosen by the LIAF panel was a really validating moment for me. I was excited and passionate about making my project, but very quickly learned that being clever and realistic about what is achievable in a given amount of time is just as important as having a great idea. I had to compromise a lot of my ideas, particularly with materials and aesthetic, and even with these creative sacrifices the project required a huge amount of work and hours because of the choices I had made for my story and pitch. This taught me to be conscious of time and practicality right from the start of a project.
I took on many roles during this production, my responsibilities as director included:
- Story concept, character and set design
- Storyboarding
- Modelling and painting of puppets heads
- Set building and dressing
- Puppet animation
- Supervising animation
- Keyframing 2D animation to pass onto team members and fully animating some 2D sequences
- Post-production effects and editing
- Sourcing support for set building, technical assistance, costume making and sound
- Directing a musician, sound designer and mastering engineer
Although this was a lot of work to take on it allowed me to try out many aspects of stop motion production and understand what I enjoy the most about it. I found that my absolute favourite part of the process was making the heads for the puppet and especially painting them. I also liked animating the puppet, although it was quite difficult and frustrating because of the way it had been built. I enjoyed putting the set together and finding ways of creating practical effects like rain, and seeing the payoff when it all came together. Although the 2D animation felt like a bit of a nuisance and had to be rushed, I still loved figuring out how the elements would move and drawing them frame by frame. I find that one of my most useful traits which will lend me well to being an animator is my patience when it comes to these processes – I am always willing to put in the time that is required. In contrast, I learned that script writing, storyboarding, producing and post-production are not areas I would like to progress in. I found that I like to bring ideas to life more than create them myself, so maybe being a director is not the ideal route for me.
This film encouraged me to continue exploring analogue techniques of film making, and my enjoyment of painting is what lead me to creating my Reflections on Reality project.
Flounder
After deciding to work with paint and exploring the possible techniques I could use for animation, I have chosen to try out oil-on-glass for the second project of this unit. I have once again found myself not enjoying the process of pre-visualisation and struggled to come up with imagery for this narrative, but now I have been able to get stuck into the technique I could paint for hours on end. This again has solidified my patience for animating and my enjoyment of painting and frame-by-frame animation. Sourcing references and examples of this technique has allowed me to see what kind of projects oil-on-glass is used for and how it is applied to different areas and genres. I have been able to learn how I might apply this skill by looking at what other artists who work in the medium have done. It is definitely a technique I would consider doing again in addition to other methods.