Stop Frame Photography & BBC2 Ident Video Production: 2011

Monday, 5 December 2011

Research

Walt Disney - Extensive range of animated films from Steam Boat willy to Sleeping Beauty, etc..etc..

Hanna Barbera - Cartoons

Pixar - Cars, Toy Story, etc..

Nick Park - Wallace and Gromit Movies

Peppa Pig

Charlie and Lola

Zoetropes

Flip books

Art of the title - Google it

Motionographer - Google it

Stop frame photography has its origins all the way back to Eadweard Muybridge and his single capture images of the movement of horses, birds and humans. In this way the images were played as a moving image to see how these moved and how motion occurred, and thus the first moving images were born.

The titles above are some of the names throughout the evolution of stop frame imagery both in animation and stop frame photography, research these to help you to compare and contrast what you have produced on this course. And for some of you there is still time to produce stop frame photography or animation before the end of this course.

This may require you to book out a camera and go out on location, book the studio to shoot in there, or at home using people, objects or both together. Some of these animations or stop frame images can be fairly quick and easy to produce with simple household objects.

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Writing and evidencing your work

As a general rule after looking at your blogs most of you are not writing about what you do in each session, this is despite talking about it with you with the aid of the Design Cycle and diagram that was discussed the last time we had a session.

Can you all have a look at your own websites and ask yourself the honest question, where is all my written work and images about what we have done so far. Screen grabs of editing in final cut in different stages.

It is vital that you research the areas we look at long with detailed google and YouTube searches.Also you should be making use of the library to source and reference your work.
Can you go back over previous sessions and add this to all of the work you have done so far.
Reflective writing about thoughts and ideas based on research and the production of your own work should be happening all the time.

This has to be done during this session, at home and ready for next,then each of you will present you work to me to show all the improvements made.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Photography Studio Kit

1. Canon 5D
2. Cambo camera stand
3. Soft box wafers / striplight wafer
4. Sync lead
5. Bowens Pulsar Radio triggers
6. Bowens 500w lighting
7. Canon 24-105mm zoom lens

Can you google for images and load these onto your blogs, and write about what you did in the studio. Keep the images ready for next week when we will be looking at how you can make these into a video as we did with the outdoor stop frame photography you have done.

Compare and contrast what you have done to some similar research and evaluate how well you feel it has gone. what would you do differently next time to improve etc..etc..

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

What to blog...a bit like a diary

(Ok not quite Anne Frank but you get the idea).

When writing a blog you also need to explain what kit and equipment you used. It may be useful to put a blog together just about your complete camera kit. This often dictates what photography you are able to do.To help with this add some images from the web of the kit you have got and add these onto the blog as well.

As with any diary you need to make entries on a daily basis to add more detail and value to your work. At least in your cases you should be producing thoughts, ideas, research and photography away from college as well as at it.

You need to tell a story in your blog, after all it is an online diary. If you have gone to a location or did you work in the photography studio for example, then write about what you did, what kit you chose to take and use?. Did you have the right lens, could you of done with a better wide angle lens?...etc..etc...

Were the light conditions poor and did you need to alter the ISO settings on your camera?. Did you have a great success or a bit of a failure, What would you do next time to improve or alter your approach or technique?

Writing in this way will help you to explain what you did in a logical way. The way that you think about what you did will help you identify what you need to do next time to improve.

Design / Learning Cycle

The research that you do fits the ‘Design Cycle Model’ this is a cyclic event where continual evaluation takes place.

You may start with the ‘Design Stage’ and plan what you wish to explore based on inspirations from your research. Then the idea will enter the ‘Development Stage’ where the whole concept, theme, resources and equipment required will be considered.

The ‘Implementation Stage’ is where the actual photography will take place in a practical way. And the ‘Analysis Stage’ is where you can reflect back on how well the outcome has met the initial thoughts and ideas.

All the way through all of these stages you will be continually evaluating how well your project is evolving. This takes the form of a reflective process where you will consider what went well, what you think needs improving and what you would do differently next time. The areas identified can then be rectified, and so you will go round the cycle again repeating the same process hopefully in an upward spiral raising the level of your work each time.

You are also expected to compare your work against that of your research to see how well you have done and to help you final evaluate your work.

The whole point of research is to examine the images of photographers who are renowned in their own particular field or genre. The analysis or deconstruction of these images is very valuable and will enable you to add value to your own work.

The main key words you can use to identify the value from the photographs are;

Composition, Colour, Shapes, Patterns, Lines, Tonal Range, Frames, Rule of thirds, Texture, Form, Focal Point, Perspective, Scale, Denotation, Connotation, (literal and implied meanings).