Video essay script

Stop motion animation is a popular form of animation that involves moving a

physical object to make a viewer believe the object is moving by itself. This is
done by the creator moving the objects in small increments between
photographed frames that have been taken individually. Stop motion animation
uses the technique of persistence of vision. This is a type of optical illusion where
a viewer may see multiple images blend together into one single image. It
means that whatever you just saw is a subtle blend of what is happening now as
well as what happened a fraction of a second ago. This theory helps to explain
that the world doesnt go completely black every time we blink. This is how in
stop motion, the objects appear to move due to the viewer seeing many frames
in one second.
The first known use of this technique can be traced back to 1898 by Albert E
Smith and J. Stuart Blackton in their film: The Humpty Dumpty Circus. The film
showed acrobats and animals come to life in a toy circus. Other stop motion films
include The Haunted Hotel, Segundo de Chomon and El Hotel Electrico. Although
these older films appear to be less fluid compared to modern stop motion films,
the use of newer materials used has also changed the way in which we see this
style of animation today. Nowadays, animators tend to use more flexible and
buildable materials for animating such as clay, plasticine and even wood.
Aardman Animators are best known for their Wallace and Gromit series as well as
other successful productions like Chicken Run, Shawn the Sheep and Flushed
Away.
Stop motion uses a variety of techniques such as persistence of vision, stop
frames, frame rates and movements of models. These techniques were
developed by pioneers of stop motion; The Lumiere Brothers and George Pal.
The persistence of vision is a technique required by all stop motion animators
and must be used in order audiences to be convinced that the manipulated
objects are moving on their own.

The Lumiere brothers are known to be the main pioneers of film as well as being
involved with animation. Auguste and Louis Lumiere were French brothers born in
the 1860s had originally worked for their fathers photography company. They
invented the cinematographe in the 1890s and used it to film their first film
which featured workers leaving a factory which was recorded in 1895. The
amount of frames shown per second made the viewer think the whole film was in
motion. The Lumiere brothers used the technique of stop- frame in order to make
the images appear to blend into one. The film they used only had a speed of 16
frames per second and although it may be considered to be very slow in todays
standards, during that period of time it was a revolution. Due to the frame rate
being quite short, the film appears to be quite jumpy. The invention of the
cinematographe also meant that audiences could watch the images
simultaneously as the images could be projected. With the movement of models,
in the Lumiere brothers films, humans were used in order to create the films. In
Arrival of a Train, you can see the people move in small increments which made
them appear to move. They appear jumpy as they are moving extremely slowly
but due to low amount of frame rates, they are recorded to move much faster.

George Pal was also another revolutionary pioneer in the stop motion animation
industry. Originally born in Hungary, 1908 then immigrating to the USA, Pal was
known for his interpretation of stop motion animation. Pal was seen as the
master mind behind the use of puppets for creating cartoons and adverts. He
realised that you had no limit to the content of what you could create with
puppets. Pal used puppets that had been hand carved out of wood with different
heads and humanoid limbs to change the expressions of the puppets. During the
1930s Pal had created several cartoons named the Puppetoons which featured
the stop motion technique that helped to give expression to the puppet
characters as well as to create the illusion of them moving. One film required
9,000 individually carved and machined wooden parts and figures. The popular
technique of movement of models mainly discovered by Pal helped to influence
future contemporary stop motion artists. In Pal, work you can also see the
development of stop-frame and frame rates. Due to Pals animation being much
more fluid and convincing compared to the work of the Lumiere brothers, it
meant that Pal would have greatly increased the amount of frames per second.
The majority of Puppetoon films lasted around 8 minutes long. These films also
required at least 24 or more different changes of facial expression for each
second of action. The process was painfully long and took at least a month and a
half for only 8 minutes of footage to be released once edited. The movement of
models also appear to look much more realistic as they Pal and his team took a
lot more time to make their films appear more convincing. Pal moved his puppets
in very small increments in order to change their position, Pal had to carefully
move the puppets ever so slightly in order to make the puppets appear to move.
It had been averaged that around 30,000 single frames were required for just
one film. Although the frame rates had greatly increased, the fluidity of the films
still appeared jumpy compared to todays standards. Not only has the technology
been modernized but also the puppets themselves are made out of more flexible
materials in order for the films to look more realistic.
From the pioneers of stop motion came the developers of the technique. Willis O
Brien, was an American born in 1886 who spent years developing innovative
techniques. Before being a developer of stop motion, O Brien was previously a
newspaper cartoonist but was then hired by The Edison Company in the early
1900s to make short films based on prehistoric creatures. It was in 1925 when
worked on his feature film, The Lost World that stop motion began to rise to
cinema screens. In the film, audiences can see a combination of both stop
motion and live action on one screen. OBrien made the dinosaurs seen on
screen out of clay which made them more detailed and realistic. Being the first
film to feature both stop motion and live-action together using the split screen
technique for special effects, it gave rise for OBrien to make an even more
successful film; King Kong .OBrien used many different materials including latex,
fur, foam rubber and aluminium in order to create models for the film. When
creating King Kong itself, bendable wires were used to create several facial
expressions for the character. He also had to film the stop motion sequences
using miniatures that were rear- projected to use along with the live-action
footage.
Ray Harryhausen became a helper of OBrien who carried on the rise of stop
motion animation. Harryhausen was another American stop motion developer,
born in 1920, he became interested in stop motion films after seeing King Kong.
After working on several stop motion films including George Pals Puppetoons
franchise, Harryhausen was hired by Willis OBrien for the film; Mighty Joe Young.

The film wasnt as financially successful as King Kong but still won an Academy
Award for Special Effects. Harryhausen then went onto being completely in
charge of technical effects for the 1953 box office hit, The Beast from 20,000
Fathoms. It was in this film, that Harryhausen earned his title of being a
developer in stop motion animation. He was the first to use the self-made
technique called Dynamation which was a huge development in the stop motion
animation world. It is also known as the spilt- screen process due to the way in
which the screen appears to split whilst the animation is still being enacted in
the middle layer. It combined both background and foreground footage together
by individually photographing miniatures in front of a rear- projection screen. The
live footage would then be superimposed on a masked portion of the frame
which would then make the creatures appear to exist in the human action
recorded. What was unique about the Dynamation technique was that it required
a model that needed to be placed between a foreground matte which is pretty
much a glass screen that conceals certain parts of the background image. The
model would not only have to be placed between the matte but also the
background image to create a three layered image. The technique required
animators to plan out the characters movements in detail and then film the live
action sequences. The technique helped to advance the special effects used in
todays stop motion era by bringing in a more a realistic approach to the form of
animation. Dynamation has been used in several films of the era in which it was
introduced including It Came from Beneath and Clash of The Titans.
Over the decades, stop motion has become more popular and more convincing
for audiences and more convincing for audiences. For example, the well-known
Aardman Animations are known for their interpretation on the stop motion
animation technique. Founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972,
Aardman is known for using the clay and plasticine animation techniques.
Aarmand has developed the claymation technique by creating armatures. The
clay is fitted around a wire Skelton which is made into an armature. These
armatures are commonly seen throughout aardman productions including films
such as chicken run and flushed away. These armatures appear to move more
realistically as they are more flexible and convincing. You can see this through
the way the models are moved. Aardman has created several productions using
the Claymation technique and are known for personifying their models. Aardman
are known for making their models appear to be animals including dogs, pigs and
sheep, yet a lot of these models are often given human characteristics and
mannerisms which make them appear to be. For example, within the Wallace and
Gromit franchise, Wallace despite being the human and the owner of Gromit is
seen as the less intelligent of the two main characters and we can see this
through his mannerisms and poor decision making. However Gromit who is seen
as the intelligent of the two even though he is seen as the pet. Gromit is often
seen as nodding his head in disbelief as he doesnt appear to understand
Wallaces choices. This gives a humorous approach to the production as Aardman
often plays around with role reversal.
Another well-known contemporary stop motion animator who has seem success
is none other than Tim Burton. Burton is known for his unique interpretation on
the technique by incorporating dark fantasy elements into his work. In films such
as corpse bride and frankenweenie, burton has since carried on George pal's
work by using puppets in his work which has created realism and this is
especially seen in the nightmare before Christmas in which the characters have

facial expressions and body language which gives them human qualities and
characteristics thus making them appear to have life breathed into them. Burton
wanted his audience to feel empathetic for certain characters. Similar to the
brother's quay, burton uses materials such as dolls to create his puppets. Burton
is known for being a top animator in modern animation as he had given life to
the characters that he has created. Despite the rise of CGI (computer generated
imagery) being the most used technique in animation, Burton and Aardman have
still revived the stop motion technique by giving the models human
characteristics and qualities and therefore personifying them.
Animation can be seen a variety of genres and forms in the media, this can
include, TV programmes, film, channel idents, advertising and music videos. For
example, the children's fantasy film, Coraline is entirely filmed using stop motion
animation, and the animation is done so well, audiences can sympathize with
characters within the narrative. Furthermore, stop motion is used as a technique
to tell a story in TV as well as film such as Postman Pat. Stop motion isn't just
used to tell a story and bring characters to life but also inanimate objects such as
sofas or glass bottles. This animation can take on a fresh way of creating adverts
such as Mccoy's Crisps as well as Kina Grannis' In your arms video which took 2
years to make as well as using 288,000 jelly beans. Overall, it appears in modern
stop motion animation, models are often known the be giving human abilities
and characteristics and companies often use more flexible materials to create
their models as they have been developed over time. Despite CGI being the main
technique in animation, stop motion is still a major technique that will carry on
for years to come.