We have decided not to continue with the Lego stop motion idea. Instead, we will return to live action filming but incorporate a child playing with Lego to foreshadow the films eventual outcome. We chose to abandon the stopmotion technique because the result was not of the quality we had hoped for and it was taking a long time to complete.
However, we liked the idea of incorporating an aspect of childlike media into our film opening as it can be juxtaposed greatly with the horror and zombie theme. From this we developed our idea of playing out the original story with Lego, to a child's game of Lego reflecting the 'reality' of the live action elements of our first draft.
We are trying to find a child to play the part, and we plan to film on Friday 2nd and edit on Sunday 4th.
On Thursday 23rd February we began filming our stop motion opening using Lego. We filmed for around 3 hours after constructing a set out of Lego, which included building a Lego house to replace the pole in the original film and making zombie warning posters on the computer to add to the mise-en-scene (approximately 11mm by 8 mm). We also set up professional lighting softboxes and a green screen behind the set so we could include more mise-en-scene, relating to Western films.
After choosing the best Lego figures available of zombies and cowboys, we began to film using the original storyboard and taking around 600 frames in total for the session. We used a variety of shot angles and camera movement in combination with the stop motion technique, as we had done in our live action first draft.
This technique is not ideal, as it is very time consuming and we may not finish it by the deadline.
After researching Lego we decided to try to find some suitable lego figures to use. We looked in Boswells as it has a nice lego department, but there was only starwars and other models that weren't helpful for our project. We have decided to ask Rosie's sister (who lives within walking distance of an official lego shop) to look for some cowboy and/or zombie lego. If she can't find any for us we will construct our own using our own lego collections.
We need to use our research on the genres of horror and Westerns and the planning for our original film opening and apply it to our animation. Our original research relates to the mise-en-scene of our new project:
There are Lego settings of deserts which would be appropriate for our film opening. However, we will probably use a green screen to make the mise-en-scene more impacting and realistic.
There are a variety of Lego figures that are available, including zombie and cowboy versions which are appropriate for the characters from our original film opening. The different features of the figures will allow us to distinctly display each character e.g. the difference between the Little Guy and the Hero.
Before starting the new film opening, we researched into the most effective methods of animating. We chose to use Lego as it is the simplest way to animate, rather than making our own models.
There are many tutorials on Lego animation online:
There are also internet guides from Wikihow on stop motion:
Get objects and figures to use in your movie. Some good choices include clay, wire, Legos or similar building block figures. Be imaginative in the types of objects and figures that might work for your movie. For amateurs, it's best to use a toy rather than making a figure, as it is easier to animate.
Set up the figures (characters) in a particular position and within the "set."
Place your camera in front of the "set" that you are going to take photos of. Make sure that it can view the entire frame. It is very important to support the camera or place it so that it is sitting steadily and cannot shake as you take the photos. Otherwise, the end result will appear chaotic and lack continuity.
Set up a good source of lighting. It might be a lamp or a flashlight. If your light is flickering, you need to shut off other sources of light like blinds or curtains.
Take a single photo of the figure in the selected position.
Begin the movement sequence. Move the figure bit by bit, in very small movements each time. It may be the entire body if the figure is walking, or it may just be an arm, head or leg. If you are moving only one body part and you find that the figure is tilting or threatening to fall over, make use of poster tack under the feet or other area touching part of the set.
Repeat the movement sequence until your action step is completed, or your camera's memory is full.
Save the pictures on to your computer in an easy to remember place.
Use your movie-making software as instructed (or see two popular software methods below). There are a few key steps regardless of what movie-making software you use.
Import the pictures into the desired program. Make sure the pictures are at a very small duration so they flow fast. If you are disappointed by the speed at which your program can animate, try exporting the project as a video file (before adding audio), then importing it again and using a speed effect on it such as double speed (these effects only work on video clips).
Then, if the resulting speed is sufficient, you may add your audio. Add titles and credits if you would like. You can also add effects or transitions, if desired. Make sure you like the end result of your stop motion animation. Keep going if you need to complete more actions to create a story.
Save the video. If you plan on having multiple stop motion segments, save each segment as a separate movie. Once the entire group of segments is completed, you can import all the segments into the final movie. This will make it will look much better and it will be easier to finalize.
Because the hard-drive with all of our work on it broke we no longer have our original footage, first or second draft. We did download the 1st draft from Youtube, but it's gonna be really difficult to edit. So we're considering re-making the whole thing. We wondered if it would be ok for us to do it in stop-motion animation instead?
We probably wouldn't have enough time to re-film it in live-action because of mocks and difficulty getting people and what not, so we were thinking it may be alot easier to make a stop-motion using lego men. We have the resources for good mise-en-scene (we can actually use a desert now cause of chroma key and such) and we have good lighting and equipment so it wouldn't look shoddy. It would be much easier to re-make quicker, also we could easily cover all areas in the mark scheme. (Mise-en-scene, angles, shot distances, typography, etc.)
Would it be ok for us to do that instead? Are there any disadvantages?
Thanks
Rosie and Clara
From Mr. Wroe:
Dear Both,
Sorry to hear about the hard drive - blog about it! Copy your messages to the blogs to document what you're doing.
Have you tried a specialist computer place to retrieve the material? Computer Assistance on Oxford Road (very top of Cowley Road) are very good.
As regards the animation, fine in principle. Good that you're paying attention to the Mark Scheme. My advice to you would be to add research into lego animation on to your blogs - best to deal in rushes of 100 or so images at a time for example to avoid computers crashing. Also, I would be inclined to look at some examples from Art of the Title.com - particularly the work of Saul Bass, and pay a lot of attention to the typography and in animating that. Many films don't have actual footage for the titles, they use elaborate typography and transitions and title boards with the music over instead.
Good luck with it all and I hope that you can recover your original material after all.
Mr Wroe
As mentioned in the last post we lost everything. (We no longer have original footage, sound, 1st draft, 2nd draft, etc. Literally everything is gone.)
We downloaded the 1st draft from Youtube t try to re-edit that, but it is going to be very difficult given that it is in a non-editable format. (1 block of video rather than comprised of clips and sound files that we can move and change.)
We are considering re-making our opening in animation form. This would be much easier to re-build quickly and it would be easy to include mise-en-scene, camera movements, etc.
It would be very difficult to get our cast together again partly due to exams and partly due to time pressure, we would have to re-shoot our opening very soon, and that wouldn't be practical for most people. With stop-motion animation the lego men will always be available for us.
Anyway, we can apply the storyboard and script work to the new animation opening, so we would only have to re-make the actual piece.
The hard drive on which our work for this project was saved has broken.
We re-edited our film opening for the second draft and presentation, as described before, however the only way this could be retrievable would be in a format that can't be edited properly as we already saved it as a project on Power Director.
This will mean that we will have lost the progress from the first draft, including the new sound effects, improvement on editing, new typography etc. (if the first draft is recoverable at all).
