Making Your Movie See, think, make. Imagine intofilm.org Into Film is a trading name of Film Nation UK. Registered Charity number 1154030.
Session two Summary: In this session, students will learn about the animation process by watching the professionals at the Aardman Animations studio, create their own characters and set, and capture the images needed for their stop motion animation. Length: 90-120 mins Equipment needed: Making Your Movie teachers notes Making Your Movie PowerPoint presentation Description challenge worksheet A shoebox Materials such as cotton wool, pipe cleaners, modelling clay Stills camera, tablet or camera Paint and paintbrush Tissue paper Card Photographs or images of scenery Glue or sticky tack Learning outcomes: To use their storyboard as a guide to producing their film. Why is the setting important? (00:00-00:53) Display slide 2 and discuss what you would expect in a big city setting as a class. Look at slide 3 and ask students to work in pairs to complete the description challenge where they describe one of the settings on the Description Challenge work sheet on page 5 of this document. You may wish to cut up the work sheets in advance of the session and distribute them amongst the pairs. You may wish to watch the whole short film explaining the animation process before pausing to work through these questions with your class. Display slide 4 and ask, why is the setting important? Ask groups to remind the class about the setting within their story. Making your Movie (00:55-02:07) Ask your students to recap how the Aardman animators make the characters look realistic. Getting the Puppets Perfect (02:08-02:53) Watch the clip and see the Aardman animator explain the process. Slide 5 summarises the process. Ask students to think about how they can create the character for their film. What materials would they use? Is there anything in the classroom that they can use to help them animate their films? A 2
Display slide 7 of the accompanying presentation and ask if it takes the Aardman animators 12 weeks to make one puppet and there are 345 characters in the film, how long did it take them to create the all? You can extend this activity by asking for the answer in weeks and then days. Lights, Camera, Film! (02:55 end) How do the animators make Shaun and the other characters move? What does the animator find rewarding about making the film? Stop motion tips Using the storyboard created in the previous lesson, pupils are now going to create a set for their own film. You could also show your class some additional Behind the Scenes interviews featuring clips from The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists to give them more information on the filmmaking process: Aardman animator Jim Parkyn explains how animations are made: bit/ly/btsjimparkyn Behind the Scenes at Aardman Animations: http://www.filmclub.org/behind-the-scenes/details/258/behind-the-scenes-at-aardman-animations For more guidance on how to produce a stop motion animations please refer to the Into Film resource An introduction to stop motion animation: http://www.filmclub.org/resources/details/585/an-introduction-to-stop-motion-animation Crafting your character Use the materials provided to create your character. Ask your pupils to be as creative as possible and get them to give their models personality as they are unable to speak. You can show your pupils the winning film from the 2013 National Youth Film Festival Awards created by primary aged pupils: http://bit.ly/examplestopmotion Making the set Show pupils slides 8, 9 and 10 of the accompanying presentation. Can pupils deduce how they were created? Slide 11 shows an example of a set used by Aardman. How is the professional set different from the shoebox set? Ask pupils to stand the shoebox on its side, so that the bottom of the box is now the back wall of their set. The back and all the inside walls should be covered with paper, drawings and artwork to reflect the setting and colours of their story. For example, a set focusing on an ocean scene may have a blue back and sides with paper cut into wave shapes, whilst a jungle scene may have lots of green paper and leaf shapes attached to the box to represent the trees and vines. An alternative would be to take photographs of a real location and to resize it so that it fits to the dimensions of the box. Slide 12 has questions for students to consider before they create their shoebox set. Animating the action Put all the models and scenery in place for the first scene to begin. Instruct your students to take five establishing frames (photographs) at the beginning and end of every new scene. This will slow down the action and allow the viewer to take in the new surroundings. Carefully adjust the props and characters positions by a tiny amount before taking each new shot. Ask them to be vigilant that everyone in the group is ready before taking a photograph - this will help you to make sure there are no hands and fingers in shot! To slow down the action and speed up the animation process take two photographs every time characters are moved, this is called animating in two s A 3
Our downloadable resources are designed to be used with selected film titles, which are available free for clubs at www.filmclub.org A rule of thumb is that 12 adjustments (each one captured twice on camera) will add up to about one second of film. Ensure that your pupils only make small adjustments each time - the bigger the movements between the frames, the faster the action and jerkier the animation. You or your pupils can download the pictures into a program such as I Can Animate, imotion, istopmotion or Windows MovieMaker. An alternative option would be to create a stills film using a presentation package such as PowerPoint on your computer. You could differentiate this task by asking pupils to use a variety of camera shots interspersed with the wide shot of the box s interior. Plenary Ask pupils to fill in their copy of the Filmmaker progress chart explaining their role in the development of the film. When your films have been completed, why not: Hold a special screening for other classes and/ or parents. Host a Q&A after the screening and take questions from the audience. Create posters, leaflets and promotional goods. Record interviews with the cast and crew on the set. 4 A
Worksheet Description challenge A5