Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Stop Motion Audio

Posted: February 11, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

After many an annoyance, I finally managed to work out how to include audio with my stop motion videos. I still need to experiment with specific audio for speicific frames of the video, but I’m getting there. This time, I created the video, then recorded a small snippet hoping it would fit in time with the video. I know there is a more precise way of matching audio to specific frames, and I really want to experiment more using these techniques and refining the videos.

Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Skeletal Stop Motion

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

I started exploring stop motion with more relevant subject matter after the tutorial; beginning with skulls I had lying around the house, one of which being a skull from the previous project that was a found object from a charity shop.


I have not yet discovered how to add sound to the stop motion video using this particular piece of software, and so I have been narrating the video just with my own writing. The vintage black and white 1920s ‘silent film’ style subtitles would lend themselves well to a morbid humour video. I shall explore this.


Using a scanned image of a skeleton from the Victorian era anatomical drawings book, I created a quick stop motion of a rather happy waving skeleton. The next step will be to try and add sound into my videos, and also create more complex videos, perhaps using a mixture of layered collage with real objects.

Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Tutorial and Artist Influence

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

Going in to my tutorial, I felt very under-pared, as I had been unwell for quite a while, and felt that I had no direction in my project; much like the last project, it seemed to have turned into exploring lots of little ideas rather than one focused developing idea.

Post-tutorial, however, I felt much better. Amelia liked my ideas, and suggested looking at Jan Svankmajer, The Quay Brothers, and Terry Gilliam. She said she felt that collage and stop-motion worked well together, and I could explore this further possibly using the keywords ‘humour and horror’ as well as ‘cut and paste’.


Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Stop Motion

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

I decided to try my hand at stop-motion animation. It has always been one of my favourite forms of animation; modern CGI doesn’t hold a candle to the skill, effort and character of stop motion animation in my opinion.

Simply to experiment, I turned back to my trusty Russian doll.

I really enjoyed creating the animation, despite its fiddliness and my impatience with technology. I tried creating other stop motion videos just to experiment with the software.



I am considering exploring facial movements using stop-motion. In the second video for example, I sang along to a song, but only captured certain movements and motions. It was interesting to see the expressions your face pulls when you aren’t even aware. In the third video, I simply shut one eye and captured the frame, then the other, and kept alternating. This had a slightly ‘creepy’ vibe to it, I think because of the unnatural lack of time between the movement of each eye. Exploring time manipulation could be interesting here; slowing sections of film down, speeding others up, or removing time periods altogether.

Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Collage

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

As well as exploring the Russian doll and bone landscapes, I tried to create some more collages. James Green’s workshop on collage was quite inspiring, and I do think it is a quick but visually exciting method of capturing ideas.

I love old anatomical drawings and the strange, creative machinery and inventions of the Victorian era. I found an Anatomical book of permission-free Victorian era engravings and drawings of medical equipment, anatomical drawings and various other strange and wonderful implements. These related quite effectively to my ‘skull’ project from last term, and I liked the idea of juxtaposing old images with new photographs.

Equally, I am interested in the mordbid and macabre, yet also humour. I am trying to think of ways to ecorporate all of these elements together into a piece of dark humour. I think this may be achieved most effectively with a theme of ‘advertising’ as I have attempted with the ‘Ear Trumpet’ piece.

Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Bone

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

Having not been too inspired by the Russian doll, I started looking at other objects which related back to my Subject work. I still had two pieces of bone from the previous project which I hadn’t used, so I decided to photograph the bone from various angles and see if I could use these to create some form of narrative.

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As the bones had a variety of interesting textures, I tried using them as landscapes for stick figures. I liked the simplicity of these pieces; how just a few black silhouettes added into a photo can imply something entirely different to the original photograph. I may explore these further, but I’m not sure they have that much scope for development or adding new dimensions in mediums.

Term 2 Field: Beyond Fiction – Russian Doll

Posted: February 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Field | Leave a comment

Initially, I was quite lost as to where to take this project. I began by searching for and collecting found objects, receipts, lists etc, but still felt unsure of where to take the project. I found a little Russian doll figure that used to be a keyring but seemed to have its face scratched off.

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I thought I could use this blank face canvas to create some narrative story boards of simple things happening to the Russian doll.


I’m still unsure where to take this, or if I want to continue with the Russian doll at all. It doesn’t feel like it links to any of my other work in any way.