During my time in Sculpture as Making, I also worked on a collaborative stop motion video. It is typically easier to work on a stop motion video with a partner; one person takes pictures of the subject, while the other is manipulating the subject for each frame. This way, there is a lower chance of making a mistake between pictures. It is also beneficial to have a stable camera to take the pictures with for minimal movement.
Below is the video that my partner and I created, called Gallery Visit:
Our Process:
Since my partner has already done the stop motion process already, I chose to manipulate the figures in our video to get some practice with it. My partner knew that in order for the video to look less choppy and longer, she had to take more than one frame of the subject. So, each time she had to take a photo, she took two or three. She also explained to me that this helped the editing process if one of the photos she took did not look good or if my hand was in it from manipulating the figures.
We chose to use clay and wire because they were the easiest materials to manipulate with the most amount of detail. It was difficult to manipulate with precision when changing the figures positions without moving them too far--in order to make the figures move more smoothly, you have to make small changes so the camera can see the small details.
Lastly, we went through the frames and photos we had. Then we determined what kind of music and sound effects we wanted in the background. We thought that there should be a low song playing in the background while there was some sound effects playing when there was a major change in the video.
My Reflections:
Because my class was only taking place over the course of a few weeks, we did not have a long time to spend on every project. Our stop motion video was created in an afternoon during class. If I were to do it over again, I would have slowed down the process and done a storyboard that included the composition of what I wanted each frame to look like. During our process, we moved the figures based on intuition. I would have also liked to come up with multiple ideas instead of one. I am happy with the story that we told, but I would have liked to explore various kinds of ideas to see how they could have turned out as well.