Feedback on video

After collecting data from my survey, I also gathered some feedback from my peers in class. The comments seemed to pick up on the connection between my research and the project, so I'm really happy to get that feedback.

There were a few comments about the audio quality. On reflection, using a phone to record isn't going to have amazing quality. This is especially noticeable in the party scene, which (as picked up on in the feedback) has a few audio pops and is fairly unintelligible. However, I think the subtitles are the best way to combat this problem, as I can't go back and re-record it.

Ultimately, the feedback lets me know that I have successfully been able to capture the tone and narrative of being on a night out. I'm really glad of this, and wish that I had been able to capture slightly better audio quality at the party.

Survey responses

I conducted a survey for the viewers of my short film to fill out. I gave statements for respondents to agree or disagree with on a range of levels, to understand their reactions to the film.

The reason for this survey was that I couldn't rely on it going viral in order to provide data for my research. By gathering information from the people who watched it, I could get an idea about what the chances were of people sharing it, and their habits when it came to videos online.

The results that surprised me the most were the ones relating to how often people shared video content online. Only 35.42% said that they share videos on social media often / very often. 85% said they found my film entertaining, which was interesting seeing as only a third would share it online. It was also interesting to see how few people share videos from UNILAD and other meme websites, whereas a lot of the videos I see on Facebook are from these sources.

The information from this survey will help to influence my reflection of my practical piece in my essay.

Shooting and Editing

There were a couple of hiccups in setting up to shoot, which meant that I was delayed a little, but I was able to get back on track and shoot in time.

Shooting was fairly quick due to the fact I wanted to finish it as soon as possible so I could get feedback. I used the audio clips, imported into Dragonframe, in order to sync up the action to the words. I had never animated in this way before, but it felt very easy to pick up on. It was much quicker than using a dope sheet, especially since I wasn't doing any lip sync work.

Part of the edit was making sure to include subtitles, as I took from feedback from the audio that it was pretty unclear what was being said all the time, as it was natural conversation. Especially with the party, this was necessary, as there are a lot of other loud sounds going on at the same time.

It was a challenge trying to work out what was being said all the time during the conversations. I tried to layer the subtitles to reflect many conversations going on at once. I also colour graded the shots to make them feel more atmospheric, including adding changing colours during the party.

My final film is here, and I will put it online to be shared and reflected upon with a survey.

Academic Poster

I found putting together my academic poster challenging, as I had to decide what to include and what to leave out of it. Ultimately I feel like it does show my project in a concise way, though I would have liked to include a little less writing and made the writing that is there easier to read (ie. bigger!)

I also made this before I shot my practical piece so had no footage or photos to put in of my work, which would have been nice to include. For my 5 presentation boards I will make sure to include more visual aids to show my work.

Creating a Set

I have built the sets for this animation our of cardboard I found in the corridor by the recycling bins. This was useful, as I didn't need to buy the materials. As for other materials, such as glue, I owned them or could find them around university, so didn't need to invest in them.

I was going to paint the sets and decorate them further, however after peer review I have decided to leave them bare. This exemplifies my idea, as it ties into the theme of being on a limited budget. 

I plan to shoot on the following Monday, and it shouldn't take too long at all. I've put together some rough storyboards based off the audio clips I gathered, which are between 10-20 seconds each.

I've also decided to ditch the faces and arms for the bottles, as I think I can animate enough expression and body language without faces. Additionally, this means I free up time where I would have been having to draw up dope sheets, and focus on body language without needing the additional add-ons.

Concept Art

For my animations I will be using cans and bottles in order to represent students in different settings, which I have gathered sound clips for from real life.

My current ideas are a party, a walk through Woodhouse Moor, an evening in a pub, and a takeaway after a night out. However, I'm thinking about scrapping the walk through the park and sticking with the three that work best together, creating a kind of image of a night out. Starting off in the pub, it would move to the house party, and then the takeaway to finish it off. This would create a cohesive narrative.

Thinking about practical work

For my practical development, I have been experimenting with creating characters out of ordinary student objects. Part of this is spending as little as possible, and I am quite happy that I haven't spent any money on this yet. I collected leftover bottles from a house party and cleaned them out, before thinking about what kind of characters they would be. The ones I am proudest of are the gin and cider bottles, since I really like the way they seem to be interacting. I may not use the faces, but as a quick test it adds character to the bottles. I can incorporate character through animation, however. 

Getting replies!

The sources that have replied to me are Guldies and Kirsten Lepore, which has been really helpful in influencing my essay. They both have very different experiences with stop-motion, which has given their responses a range of perspectives. I will put the full conversations in the appendices of my essay, but here are some highlights.

Kirsten Lepore

“The only costs are generally spent on supplies - maybe a few hundred dollars max for each film. The real “cost” comes with the amount of time and skills required to create them. It sometimes takes years of time.

I should also say that Hi Stranger going viral in no way equated to a payday for me. Most of the views I received were actually on Facebook, which doesn’t offer any kind of ad revenue for creators. I don’t think going viral has really affected the way I make films, except that it helped me get representation at my production company.

I feel very lucky that my strange filmmaking sensibilities, which are very specific to each person - akin to handwriting, have attracted people and found an audience.”

Alexander Unger (Guldies)

“I started making small clay figurines and later I put my things out on the web. People liked what I did even if it was super childish, and I got more  motivated to sculpt. It was a wonderful feeling, and then I just kept on animating with my clay.”

I finance them myself, but they are almost free to make, except the time I have to put in. People tend to exaggerate the cost of stop motion. It can get expensive, but it can also be the cheapest thing ever. All you ever need is a camera and a workbench.

Lots of free time and a love for stop motion is the answer I guess.”

Contacting Relevant Sources

Guldies, PES, Kristen Lepore, Mark Cope and Carlo Moss, as well as studying A Town Called Panic.

In contacting these sources I need to identify some key questions to raise.

What inspired you to begin creating stop-motion animations?

How do you finance your stop-motion animations?

How did your animations (and your approach to creating them) change when you went viral?

How did you find your audience?

What do you think draws audiences to your work?

I think these questions cover a good range of the topics I want to focus on for this essay. I will use the answers given to help influence my ideas and what I will draw on.

500 word proposal - COP3: How does a limited budget drive a creator to explore alternative visual storytelling methods in stop-motion animation?

How does a limited budget drive a creator to explore alternative visual storytelling methods in stop-motion animation?

Stop-motion animation has always been one of the first methods of animated storytelling that many reach for in their infancy learning the craft. The tactile nature of it – puppets, clay, cardboard – is a compelling force that pulls the creator in, urging them to bring life to the (often crude) materials. However, in an industry that is growing quicker than ever, many of these simplistic animations are rejected by audiences in favour of high-budget, high-concept features, complete with 3D printed faces and digital compositing to build a fantastical world. In this landscape, how do smaller filmmakers with a much more modest budget create stop-motion animations that stand out and hold their own against the multi-million dollar productions that dominate the conversation surrounding the medium? What methods do they employ to create films that engage audiences and aren’t lacking visually? Importantly, how do they find those audiences without a dedicated marketing team?

This essay will explore these questions and delve into the world of amateur stop-motion production, looking at different filmmakers methods of creation, the process of the auteur, and the power of the Internet in finding an audience. The power of the viral, the influence of crowdfunding, and the niche for stop-motion animation are all areas that are worth exploring and researching, gathering first-hand accounts from creators who have been through the process.

Practically, the ideas of the budget being imitated intentionally in the produced work that stems from this essay will help to shape the reflections that come into the analysis. The idea currently centres around using typical student-associated products (Pot Noodle, beer bottles, coffee cups, birth control) as characters, and using paper cut out faces and pipe cleaner (or equally cheap, expressive material) limbs. Using soundbytes from real-life will add authenticity, while also keeping costs down (no need to use soundrooms, expensive equipment).

It’s worth exploring the privileges granted to filmmakers in other ways. Students are paying £9k a year for high end equipment, even the phone in our pockets cost something. There is no “free” film, there are always costs involved.

For case studies, there are a range of relevant practitioners and films for me to look at, and where possible, contact them to learn about their experience in this area. Currently I have identified: Guldies, PES, Kristen Lepore, Mark Cope and Carlo Moss, as well as studying A Town Called Panic. However, I want to continue finding new sources and discovering artists that work in this kind of way. I am especially interested in how many of these artists have at one point or another created a food-related stop motion animation, and the value of a cheap, accessible commodity as the focal point of stop-motion.

Here are some sources I have identifies so far:

Nahon, K. and Hemsley, J. (2013) Going Viral. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Purves, B. (2008) Stop Motion: Passion, Process, and Performance. Oxford: Focal Press.

Gasek, T. (2013) Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques. Oxford: Focus Press.

Bancroft, T. (2014) Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn’t Learn In Art School. Oxford: Focus Press.

Priebe, K. (2011) The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation. Boston: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.

Study Task 8 - Reflective Writing

 500 word piece of reflective writing - discussing the practical work undertaken - describing how and why - relating these steps directly to theories explored making explicit reference to them..

My practical piece began as a concept of a digital zine - using animation and moving image to create a visual guide for the internet usage of future generations. I was initially planning on drawing up multiple characters to represent different subcultures online, such as digital feminism, but I ended up having to narrow it down a lot more due to time, and how my ideas changed. When exploring cyberculture and digital behaviours, especially when I conducted a survey of other people me age, what struck me was how repetitive a lot of these behaviours are. People regularly visit the same social media pages and conduct the same few tasks online - shopping, messaging, watching videos - despite the vast wealth of possibilities that this digital access offers. I wanted to capture this within my practical piece, and if I were to be looking at future generations (simply based off predictions and research), it wouldn't be reflective of how we behave today, and would primarily be based around speculative ideas. I instead took photographs of my friends using their phones and laptops (based off information I gathered in my survey), as well as one with my friend using a VR headset. I created an initial collage from these photos, but it was very important to me that the images were in motion, to replicate the endless scrolling and constant bombardment of information that comes digitally. The collage, which consisted only of arranged screenshots, was far too static and didn't convey the mad mess of digital media. I switched to photoshop to create hand-made replicas of social media pages, which adds an element of fantasy to the zine, while still staying in the realm of realism. 

I ended up scrapping the last idea for my zine, going down from 6 pages to 4. The VR element didn't seem to fit with the rest of them - it was going to be highly speculative in comparison, and wouldn't have much to do with social media. Rather, it would have focused on the immersion in filmmaking, gaming, and television, and while those areas would have certainly been interesting to explore, it didn't seem the best use of my time and I would rather refine the other pages to make sure they were the best they could be. 

I feel like the practical pieces I created compliment my essay well - they reflect the current climate of internet usage and the overwhelming nature of digital use, as well as touching on how it is mostly the younger generation online, and the kinds of areas this generation spend their time perusing. As I created the piece, I noticed how much "negative space" there is on these social media platforms - mostly white space, with text and images within it - and also now much of it is based around video content. It is certainly interesting to notice how much of a Facebook feed is based around relatable videos, to appeal to a mass audience, while still feeling personalised to the individual. 

Sentient Object

My sentient object is a mobile phone coming on with a notification, with a little happy face. I created this false phone on a real photo to help the juxtaposition of the two - a very fake looking, almost fantastical object against a real background. I created this object because I am exploring our relationships with the internet and social media, and as a mobile phone is the most popular way of accessing the internet nowadays, it serves as a very valuable object to us. Our phones mean the world to us, so by giving it a personality with a little face, the item is brought to life in the same way we may view a friend or a pet - as a sentient being that matters to us.

Zine modifications

I have completed two pages of my zine, and while I originally intended to do three, I feel like the last one I had planned - of a VR environment - doesn't fit with the other two, so I'm just going to do two.

Creating the pages was a fantastic exercise in using After Effects and getting back to grips with keyframes. I created all the assets in Photoshop, which helped create a lovely handmade feel to the assets. Each page reflects the information I gathered from the survey I carried out - what people most use the internet for. This practical reflects the current climate of internet usage, as touched on in my essay, and how it can seem oversaturated and overwhelming - constantly engaging with multiple programs and tasks at once. Using real photos of people in natural environments adds to the realism - rather than being drawn, these individuals are in familiar situations, which contrasts to the fake-looking animations on the right.

Practical - Digital Zine

For the practical element of COP I've begun to create a digital zine. I created a mock up, using elements that I had collected from my survey about what people use their phones and computers for. I used screenshots from my phone and laptop to create the collages. I wanted the collages on the left to be animated though, and I wouldn't be able to do this in Indesign.

I took the photos I took of Christopher, Hattie, and Jane, into After Effects, where I knew I could get some more animation and movement into the pages.

I created the animated elements in Photoshop, using references and tracing screenshots to get accuracy. I wanted to add a handmade feel to the pages to create something that looks like a traditional handmade zine, rather than the cold screenshots in the initial mockup.

These hand-drawn elements do take a long time to create, but I feel like they are worth it, as they certainly look a lot softer and a lot more aesthetically pleasing.

Study Task 7 - Practical Planning

I have decided to create a digital zine for my practical piece, using information gathered from a survey as well as from the research I have cumulated for my essay, to create profiles of digital users in the near future. I think this is an interesting idea as it combines my interest in character design and cyberculture. I need to work out what kind of questions I want to ask, so I can create a profile for each character. I aim to create 5 of these profiles, to look at a wide range of identities and personalities.

I have created a rough mock-up of what a page of the zine may look like - an individual mirrored with some of their online habits, maybe fabricated screenshots of messaging and a bunch of their online presences - facebook, instagram, twitter, etc.

I am thinking about using real people for this, which could lead to some interesting outcomes, rather than creating characters for the future. I am not sure yet.

COP Session 8/2/18

Practical Project - What is your work about?

• Ideas around letters, postcards, old phones, emails, methods of communication
• Cameras / facial recognition / identity 
• Online banking / fraud / hacking
• Illegal streams of films
• Dating apps
• Gaming
• Celebrity / instagram / Youtube
• Self - deprecating memes
• Deep web / black market
• Physical interaction absent online 
• VR
• Anonymous
• Advertising 
• Students / business sharing online - work
• Gifs
• Catfishing
• Look at documentaries - tech increase
• Diagrams 
• News stories / personal stories of online experiences
• Loving the idea of someone

James Bridle: Something is Wrong on the Internet

Online essay from which I pulled key quotes. Discussing the nature of Youtube in regard to children's safety and what they are exposed to.

"The culture, politics, and interpersonal relationships which I consider to be central to my identity were shaped by the internet, in ways that I have always considered to be beneficial to me personally."

"One of the thus-far hypothetical questions I ask myself frequently is how I would feel about my own children having the same kind of access to the internet today. And I find the question increasingly difficult to answer."

"I’ve also been aware for some time of the increasingly symbiotic relationship between younger children and YouTube."

"Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level."

"On-demand video is catnip to both parents and to children, and thus to content creators and advertisers."

"I am simply illustrating how the structure of YouTube facilitates the delamination of content and author, and how this impacts on our awareness and trust of its source."

"As another blogger notes, one of the traditional roles of branded content is that it is a trusted source. Whether it’s Peppa Pig on children’s TV or a Disney movie, whatever one’s feelings about the industrial model of entertainment production, they are carefully produced and monitored so that kids are essentially safe watching them, and can be trusted as such. This no longer applies when brand and content are disassociated by the platform, and so known and trusted content provides a seamless gateway to unverified and potentially harmful content."

"What I find somewhat disturbing about the proliferation of even (relatively) normal kids videos is the impossibility of determining the degree of automation which is at work here; how to parse out the gap between human and machine."

Study Task 5: Practical Approaches - Creating a digital identity

I am interested in looking at how we craft our own identity when online. I want to take a survey and examine elements such as

• Why we choose the usernames that we do
• Which pictures we choose to represent us
• Who do we speak the most to online
• Who do we meet online

By curating this information, I hope to create a few profiles of what I imagine digital users in the future will be like. I want to incorporate elements of character design and curate a digital zine with this information, with an overview of different digital users in the future, and how they will be using the internet. I think this could be a really interesting way of presenting the idea of identity and communication online. 

From my essay I have gathered information from a range of theorists and examples to help me understand the scope of internet usage.

I think a survey will also help me get a good idea of what individuals are using the internet for. After the session today, I do want to explore how we use the internet outside of the obvious services and sites (Instagram, facebook, etc.). A survey would be biased, however, as I don't think I could access as wide a range of individuals as my essay examines, just due to the nature of internet reach in certain circles.