Lauren Rushton.

Unit 33 Stop Motion Animation: Treatment

Treatment
The brief for task 2 of this assignment is to generate ideas for the production you are planning to
develop for your stop-motion animation production. The aim for this unit is to create a 30 second
stop-animation production of our choice but must include pre-production, production and post-
production material. Throughout this treatment, I will be elaborating on the following things that
will be elements in my stop-motion animation:
Idea
Audience
Music
Colours
Settings
Iconography
Techniques
Genre
Inspirations
Narrative
Editing
Equipment
Lighting
Props
The idea that I have for my stop-motion animation is using Monster High dolls (made objects)
and the situation being where they have a friendly chat and create movement through arm
movements and changing direction of the heads on the dolls and eventually show movement where
they all walk away. The conversation between them being about an assignment that they have been
given where they both do not understand the nature of the brief and they are discussing their
confusion about it. I am going to create a linear narrative production consequently due to the target
audience that I have in mind and I intend to write up a script that supports the dialogue throughout
the 30 second long production, I have decided to focus on getting as much movement into the 30
seconds as possible and aim to use 24 shots a second in order to create an effective production and
one with a smooth flow to it. The intended genre of the production is classed as adventure due to it
being a surreal characters that is only real in mythology.
When talking about the techniques that is being used, this is the techniques of stop motion.
These range from Claymation, Sandmation, Puppetry, Papercut outs or found objects, these are all
considered as techniques of stop-motion animation. The technique that I am choosing to use are
found objects as it is the easiest and least time consuming of techniques there are, which gives me
more time to plan, film and edit the production. The found object that I have chosen to use are
Monster High dolls and this is because they are vampire dolls and are out of the ordinary in
comparison with other normal dolls. My inspiration for my technique and setting is based upon Tim
Burtons work which is notably unusual and unique which is what I aim to create.
The demographic for my production are typically the younger female generation as the
technique that is being used are the found object of dolls and they appeal to girls between the ages
of 6-12, and the psychographic being reformers. The reformers are classed as going against
stereotypes and this is what the setting and the visuals of the dolls fall into in terms of
psychographic analysis. This could be considered as a production that is suitable for families
Lauren Rushton. Unit 33 Stop Motion Animation: Treatment

although with parental guidance due to the nature of the dolls although not necessarily the context
and narrative behind the production.
The settings that I aim to use is also inspired by Tim Burton and the idea that the Monster High
dolls are vampires, very dark and mysterious settings consequently to tie in with the idea of the
nature of the dolls that I am using. Ideas that I currently have range from churches and graveyards,
castles and forests to capture the dark context within the production. I am aiming to try and create
these from cardboard due to the size of the dolls, although I could try it on-set locations but would
have to considering weather and lighting issues that I would be faced with if I decided to do it this
way.
I intend to use sound effects rather than music, this is because I would like to include dialect in
my production, if music was installed then it could be a bit too much in terms of what is included in
such a short piece of film. Sound effects that are used can be tweets from birds or the noises of bats
considering the basic nature of the characters that are being used. The sound effects that I want to
use should typically match with the nature and context of the elements within the production
otherwise they will be unnecessary for me to use them.
The colours that will be used throughout the production will be dark and dull, I am planning to
create the stop-motion animation in black and white in order to put emphasis on the amount of dark
shades of colour that is being used in it, this again is an inspiration of Tim Burton, although he didnt
use black and white obviously unlike what I plan to use, although he did put emphasis on the
amount of dark colours he used using artificial lighting.
In my production, I plan to use artificial lighting and this is in order to keep continuity a close to
one another as possible to create a smooth 30 second footage. If I used normal lighting, I have the
problem of the sun going and then being surrounded by darkness or if I was filming over the time of
a few days I would have to consider the weather and whether it could be raining with no sun at all.
Also, the sun changes brightness all the time and can be out and really bright but then could also be
out and the day still be a little dark, all of this must be taken into consideration if planning to shoot
their production outside and use the normal light, you do not have this problem if you are using
artificial lighting.
The only props that I am going to be using are the Monster High dolls and the man-made
setting on cardboard, there is no need to use any additional props as it only a short amount of time
to focus on one or two objects in order to create movement.
Unlike Tim Burton, I will not be using iconography in order to distinguish and associate certain
items with a certain object/persons work. Tim Burton uses skeletons and half made puppets and
that is his own unique iconography, whereas I am not aiming to create any iconography. I will only
be using the basics of what you would associate my characters with rather than within my work
itself.
The equipment that I aim to use will be a normal DSLR camera, in order to capture as many
shots as possible at my own pace and without showing any human characteristics/features in the
production which is what you would get if you were filming normally. After this is will then transfer
them onto an Apple Mac and edit using IMovie as it is easy and straight forward to use, and there
should not be much to edit apart from adding transitions and sound effects to piece the productions
all together.
Lauren Rushton. Unit 33 Stop Motion Animation: Treatment

To conclude, I have shown that I have generated ideas and considered: audience, ideas, music,
colours, iconography, techniques, genre, inspirations, narrative, editing, equipment, lighting, props
and settings. These are all main elements to consider when you are planning any production. I have
also compiled a comparison with using other elements where necessary to explain so and what the
cons are of using the opposite elements as opposed to what I have chosen to use.