Project 3 - Music Cutout Animation

Participants: Work in pairs or alone
Exercise: 45 second – 1 minute object animation
Films: Maya Erdelgi. Plume, Ourobouros 1-4, Rohtash Rao – Coffee and MTV VS CNN, Javanese Shadow Puppetry, Ivan Inavov-Vano & Yuri Norstein, The Battle at Kerzhenets
Reading: Malcolm Le Grice, “Reflections on My Practice and Media Specificity” from Experimental Film and Video, edited by Jackie Hatfield ,“The Semiotics of Music Videos” by Heidi Peeters , and “Audio Visual Poetry or Commercial Salad of Images,” by Sven Carlsson

Objectives: 1. To develop skills in working with cut paper for animation.
2. To develop a short animation using music as rhythm for movement.
3. To develop a short animation using music style for abstraction or visual storytelling.
4. To develop skills in working with paper objects for complex movement or visual storytelling based upon a musical score.
5. To develop skills in implying deep visual space and directional movement in simple paper animation.
6. To further develop formal skills in camera use, frame composition, and timing. Recalling the need to temper movement and change to allow the viewer to “catch up” to your action… in other words to SLOW DOWN.

For this project you will produce a 45 second to 1 minute film produced with cut paper. As we discussed in class, you may use a light box or one of the stop motion stands with a glass base and a light underneath. Keep the light below on the floor. You may choose to filter the light with paper, with colored Plexiglas or with painted onionskin paper or transparency paper. As we discussed you can use construction paper, magazine cutouts, cut paintings, or any other form of cut paper-ish materials (fabrics and fibers are also fine).

In this piece try to consider the space your objects inhabit. Is this space deep or shallow? Do you have a middle ground, foreground and background? Are there objects working as doors to an internal action, barricades to action (as in I am looking over a fence, beyond a shoulder, etc)? What part does gravity play in your film? Do objects float in space or do you have a ground plane? What is the visual weight of each of your objects?

Shots Again:

Close Up
Detail
Medium Shot
Long Shot
Over the Shoulder Shot
Slow Pan
Low Angle (looking up_
High Angle (looking down)
Appearance of layering
Objects start as miniature and expand, or large and contract

Action:
Fluid movement - slow graceful
Hard movement - rapid changes of action (ex jump cuts where you wipe out the entire sand drawing and begin your next shot with a different image entirely)
Subtle movement – leaf falling, hair blowing – usually while something else is happening
Spinning motion
Full screen movement - character or object moving onto screen from left then off screen right, or bottom to top, etc.
Depth movement – object or character moves up at an angle on the screen and gets smaller, less clear and lighter (indicating depth)
Bounce – if something falls does it have bounce; if it hits water does it splash?


PROCESS

THIS WEEK

1 – Choose a piece of music you might like to use.

2 – With your group (or alone) establish a format you might like to pursue – representational objects, figurative, abstract. Color or black & white silhouette

3 - Read the article “The Semiotics of Music Videos…”


FRIDAY OCTOBER 2nd

1 – Participate in class discussion. Evaluate your music. Develop a list of adjectives and verbs to describe your music.
Discuss the value of illustration vs. non-representational signing, syntagmatic vs. paradigmatic linking, and abstraction based upon rhythm.

2 - How much of your music clip will you use? Will you repeat the clip? Overlap this with multiple cuts? Montage your sound?

3 – Choose your materials. Decide whether you are lighting from the top down or from the back.

4 – Decide if you will need to green screen and prepare for this.

5 – If your film has more than one scene consider your transitions.

6 – Again: Best camera to check out is the Panasonic DVX – use on Stop Motion Stands or use the one in place in 136.

7 – Set your lighting. TURN OFF FLORESCENT LIGHTS

8 – Remember you might need to make several attempts at the film. So give yourself enough time.


THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 8

Final Cut Pro Labs will help you edit your sound and visuals.

THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 15

Project is due. Please have uploaded to YouTube AND have as a QuickTime movie on a DVD. (From IStopMotion you MUST go to Export> as a QuickTime Movie). The burn your DVD on DVD Pro or on iDVD.