Monica Mistry

Building narrative.

Did you find this difficult?Thinking of an idea for this task was a challenge as it was

difficult because of the wide boundaries of how many ideas I

could have used for my story line. I looked at various stop motion

animation clips on YouTube to look for inspiration and also looked

at a variety of different ideas but mostly were games such as

‘Snake’ and ‘Pacman’.

I found that I was better at being set a brief and working to

targets as I did in my previous stop motion animation as it was

easier to come up with an idea and follow it. However, I found it

easier working on my own as I knew exactly how and what I

wanted to do where as there are disagreements in a group and

people have different ideas.

As my final idea I chose a simple idea of a chick hatching

out of an egg to make my final stop motion animation. I thought

that it would have been an easy idea to follow through and would

look effective to.

Deciding what to use.

How did you decide what to use?I wanted to use materials that were easy to move around

and would stay in their place so decided to use coloured card for

the basic shapes such as the egg and the chick. This also looked

effective as the objects were all strong colours and just needed

cutting out from card and drawing on. For the crack in the egg I

just used a black pen to create the crack and just added a line on

every time I took another shot. To keep the pieces in place I used

blu tac and stuck the parts of the egg and chick on the wall so

they also stayed in place.

To take the pictures I used a digital camera but don’t own

a tripod to hold my camera steady in one place. Instead I placed

my camera on a used a box on a table to keep my camera in the

same place while I took the pictures and moved the coloured card

shapes. I found this was a good substitute but would have

preferred having a tripod as I accidently nudged the camera a few

times.

I substituted a tripod using a shoes box on a desk.

This helped me keep my tripod in place.

The equipment used to create my stop motion

animation.

Drafting.

How many ideas did you have?I found coming up with ideas alone was difficult and would

have much preferred to be in a group to know other people’s ideas

which I think would have come out with a much more creative

outcome. I felt that I could have come up with more creative ideas

after watching more clips on YouTube after completing my task but

thought my idea was easier to go through with.

The ideas I thought of were a daffodil growing and a chick

coming out of a cracking egg which were both similar. The chick idea

appealed to me more as I had the coloured card that I needed and

thought I could have made it look better overall because I thought an

egg would be easier to make than a bulb. Furthermore, I think that

the idea of sticking the paper on the wall and using blu-tac was

helpful as they stayed on the wall when I needed to take the picture

as I was working alone.

Working with others.

Did you work with others?

I didn’t work with anyone like I did in my previous task

using a stop motion animation which had both positives and

negatives.

Working in a group was easier because we all came up

with an idea and also could tell each other how to improve our

ideas. We also took turns and did different scenes then put them

together to make the whole process a lot more quicker.

However I enjoyed working alone because despite not

having help I went through with an idea that I wanted to do and

did it the way I wanted to do it which I may have not been able to

do in a group as others may have not liked my idea. Although, it

was difficult getting the shots right because I couldn’t keep the

shot steady like I would have preferred.

Limits.

Were there any limits in terms of

resources, time, location?

In terms of time and location I was not limited because I

was given a long period of time to complete this task. However, I

spent more time thinking about an idea for my stop motion

animation which I found the most difficult part of this task. The

location was in my bedroom where I have white walls so stuck the

paper shapes I’d made onto the walls with blu-tac.

The majority of the resources were easy for me to access

but I do not own a tripod for my camera. To keep my camera

steady I used a shoe box on my desk and used blu-tac under the

camera to make sure it stayed in it’s place. I would have preferred

to have had a tripod but I found the way I weaved round it was a

quick solution and the next best alternative.