2. I found YouTube videos were a great source of inspiration for stop motion ideas to
develop on which I did not think to use in AS. YouTube videos for example allowed
me to find it was conventional for the beat of the music to match the
movement/action in the stop motion.
From the practice stop motion, we thought it best to attach a Top Light to the
camera so that the artificial light would stay the same in each shot helping it run
more smoothly, while a natural light would change each shot too drastically and give
it an unprofessional finish which it did in the practice.
Would found also to hire an actress would be hugely beneficial and it meant me and
Demi could handle one piece of equipment individually and therefore more
efficiently, so Demi was not having to run back and forth from the camera to moving
the props like in the practice stop motion which we found was extremely time
consuming and stressful.
From the practice, which helped us familiarize ourselves with stop motion and Final
Cut Pro which much of our photos and videos were edited on, we were then able to
take on more and introduce more angle types and shots into the final. Final Cut Pro
offered us a vast collection of effects, transitions and music which we played around
with until we found ones that we thought went best with the final stop motion as well
as the videos in the planning stage. By familiarizing ourselves with Final Cut Prop
through the practice, completing the final stop motion was a lot less time consuming
as we had learnt how to do simple things such as select text, change font and
colour..and then as we developed our skills further, introduce transitions, effects such
as grayscale and rid of unwanted sounds and voices to be replaced with music.
Whilst a female actress was more reliable, she didn’t suit the name of the production.
There we know to plan more carefully and put methods into place e.g.
contracts, agreements with teachers, which will allow us to use male actors and
force them to be reliable!