I worked yesterday to get a shot of people voicing their opinions about the damp. Everyone likes to offer advice, and it all comes from a good place, but usually they’re repeating one of the very first things it’s logical to try.
The audio will sync with peoples’ appearance on the screen, eventually layering to create a confusing polyphony.
Things I like about the shot: I’m pleased with how the characters came out. I think they really sing, and they’re fun and graphic.
I like the pared-back green background, as it fits within the overall colour scheme, and I like the tonal difference between background and foreground (I chose this on purpose).
The boils are clean and crisp, and give it an organic feel.
Things that want improving:
The light is a bit fucky wucky. I only realised that my arm was getting in the light after a few shots (actually the final few shots), but it was such a labour intensive shot I just kept them in and did as much editing in post to get them close to the same gamma measure as possible.
The quality isn’t great. This was the only thing I’ve filmed in the Stop Motion app so far, and it has pretty well decimated the quality. It’s such a good program for keeping onion skins, but if I reshot this, I might have to sacrifice animation smoothness for crispness and just work with the regular camera on my phone, editing in post.
The two-rows-of-three was inspired by a few different animations that used this format of six effectively, but it came about in the tutorial that this shot might benefit from being more dynamic. I’m imagining a far more closely zoomed in shot, where people begin to fill the screen, perhaps with more motion. This would better reflect the stress involved in fielding lots of different opinions, or playing them back in your head in a moment of worry.
The resolution here is that I’m going to push with all my might to get the entire film finished, with a couple more shots today, then get the audio in. If I can get that sorted by about Monday, that will give me another day or so to refilm this shot. But if not – I will have had my priorities straight, have a finished film, and a bit of good critique.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 