Final short (Grandma)
'The Early Bird', my final animated sequence. The brief asked for a slice-of-life scene, mainly concerning authentic movement rather than a full story, considering the minimum time for our films was 20 seconds. I tried to introduce some sense of storytelling though, with the limited time available.
Using the warm interior light and cool blue lights for the exterior, I was able to suggest a specific time of day. It's a quiet interlude in the early morning, at first light, when the world hasn't quite woken up yet. The interaction with the bird is typical of Grandma and the sound of birds chirping is true to the atmosphere of dawn.
I was interested to see how character could be conveyed without any movement on the face. Despite the clay head being fixed with one expression, it was fascinating to see how the supporting movements can compensate to bring it all to life. The timing of the reactions and cutting from one shot to another also help to show that sense of aliveness.
Here are a few shots showing how the stage was set, with a lamp from home and two borrowed lights acting as exterior 'daylight'. The lights were adjustable according to intensity, hue and saturation; I exaggerated the saturation of the blue to give that particular early morning effect. Also shown here is the detachable third wall Emily made for the shot looking in through the window from the outside.
Challenges
-
Speed...
I learned from the test footage to slow the actions right down. In the tests, the most successful moments showed a pause or deliberate pace, implying some thinking time. Even when working on this series of shots, I had a couple of unused takes where the movement still felt rushed. The shot of Grandma walking with the zimmer frame needed to take its time, which is easier said than done with animation. It took a long time to shoot this one shot so inevitably I had to do it in parts. My first attempt had to be disregarded as I needed to step away to sleep and then the curtains had moved when I returned to the set.
Unused take: still too fast on the turning spin.
-
Interrupted takes
It was often necessary to stop a flow of filming simply because the lights I had borrowed would soon be out of charge. Sometimes this wasn't too much of a problem, I just had to wait until they were recharged and continue exactly where I left off. Other times, I would revisit the scene to find something had noticeably changed i.e. the curtains had moved, or the light was inexplicably different despite being on the same settings. I worked through the nights so sometimes I just needed a break to rest for a bit. Coming back to the set to find an inconsistency was incredibly frustrating. It often caused me to lose motivation if it seemed I had to keep scrapping takes even if I liked the animation because of continuity issues.
Unused take: I knocked the tripod during this and lost concentration. The simplicity of the final shot works better anyway I think.
-
Inconsistent light
Unfortunately, on the zimmer frame walking shot, there is an issue of flickering light in the scene. It wasn't clear to me in the moment exactly why this was happening and I just needed to finish the shot while I figured it out. I had thought the issue was with one of the lights I was using, yet it was too late to change them. In retrospect, I believe the issue was my shadow inconsistently reflecting back onto the set from the wall behind me. I wore black clothes during shooting to minimise reflected light but the walls themselves are bright, so I think the blue-ish light spilled around the set and affected the room. It's a frustrating one but lesson learned, I will make sure next time to account for this.
-
Adapting when facing obstacles
It's difficult to see in the moment when something isn't going according to plan that the plan itself isn't necessarily the only way to go. When I was overtired and hit by an unforeseen problem, I got really annoyed at myself for not being able to stick to the shots I plotted out in my sketchbook. It doesn't necessarily show in the final edit though, and sometimes taking a simpler approach is for the best. In editing, I could dissolve one shot into another, rather than having every action exactly follow the previous one in real time. Initially, I had Grandma reach for her camera in-between the zimmer frame and her chest, which I attempted to film before I just decided the fiddly nature of all this (trying to avoid nudging anything) was completely unnecessary. Instead, I cut to a shot where she is already close to the window without her zimmer frame, and I could just concentrate on convincing movement - it ended up being my favourite shot.
Unused take versus the final shot, with unnecessary obstacle out of the way.
​Looking back...
It has been a complicated mix of feelings trying to do Grandma justice in this short project. In some ways, having a fairly short window of time to realise it made me have to say 'good enough' despite any discomfort about how I was representing her. Whether or not it shows in the final product, the process of revisiting and investigating some defining memories of my childhood has been a really rewarding trip.
​
It's funny what stirs up fresh recollections - the sound mix had a particular resonance of bringing me back to old times. The rhythm of the zimmer frame clattering reminded me of hearing Grandma coming into the room, and then the plasticky sounds of the camera felt distinctly of the 1990s.
​
After filming, I needed to take some reference photos of the puppet. This simple set of photos unexpectedly gave me the sense of really interacting with Grandma, as if asking her to pose for me. It was easy to imagine her reacting to the ask, similar to that first test footage where it was clear to me how she might perform for the camera.
I will be keeping hold of the puppet and little extra props, though I don't know if I will be animating with them again.
​
What I am certain of is I definitely intend to make another puppet using this method, either based on a real person or a fictional character. It's exciting to think how I might combine my experience with sculpture and now animation. I'm already eager to try new kinds of modelling clay over the summer, since the Sculpey was relatively easy to use. Finding a medium I feel comfortable with is always incredibly thrilling and fills my mind with endless possibilities.
