Cloudbusting Video
I am currently working on a short stop motion video as a project. I have used stop motion once before (see video below) but am now looking to tackle more complex stop motion techniques and visuals.
This video was a response to a task set thats stimulus was a blank piece of paper. With the concept of abstraction in mind I wanted to see how I could transform this piece of paper. I decided to recycle and reuse the piece of paper, creating paper from paper. I documented this using a video by creating a 'spoof' tutorial. In it i combine elements of stop motion experimenting with frame by frame text and movement sequences . |
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My stimulus was a song entitled 'Cloudbusting' by my musical heroine Kate Bush.
This is a lyrical extract from the song which I used in my cover version.
"I still dream of orgonon
I wake up crying
You're making rain
And you're just in reach
When you and sleep escape me
But every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen
And I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen"
I wanted to use these lyrics as prompts for certain animations/sequences in the short film.
This is the original music video for 'Cloudbusting'. The song is about the very close relationship between psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and his young son (played by Kate Bush herself in the video). It describes the boy's memories of his life on their family farm, called Orgonon, where the two spent time "cloudbusting", a rain-making process which involved pointing at the sky a machine called a 'cloud buster''. Released just over 30 years ago, the now dated style of this video is something I feel I will be able to contrast with more of a modern approach to my own film. |
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This is my first time using a green screen and more complex styles and techniques of stop motion. |
I handcrafted the clouds out of cotton wool and hung them from transparent string to give the illusion of flotation. I was inspired to create the clouds myself by French film director Michel Gondry, particularly as seen in his film 'The Science Of Sleep'.
I felt It gave a unqiue craft by attempting to resemble these to then use in my own movie.
With the addition of a colour edit, I could use it to create a sky as a backdrop. I wanted to show myself 'falling' through the clouds. To create my body moments I covered a pillar in green screen material and sat on top; I could therefore be more manipulative with my leg and arm movements. I felt this was more effective in portraying the illusion of falling. |
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Although have only been working on short parts at a time it already gives a better falling motion. I used the 'ken burns' effect on iMovie to create the upward movement of the clouds so there was a seemingly downward motion to my fall. In terms of stop motion two animation companies I am drawn to are BLU and PES. Here is a BLU video. |
The use of paint and objects amazes me when bringing these narratives to life whilst moving through and across locations. The complex arrangements and creative use of movement is a stylistic feature of this company which I find incredible. Alongside this it is also the ambition to create such complex art across vast locations. Although I won't be working on such a large scale their videos bear great influence and can give me ideas to add more drawn/painted elements in my resulting outcome.
PES uses objects to create their stop motion sequences. I am drawn to the imagination and creativity of all their videos. It also is the unexpected that I feel is the most fun and playful showing me the scope of this genre of filmmaking. As it is created picture by picture it allows for the unpredictable to occur which I find adds a comedic element to their videos. It inspires me to allow something more peculiar to emerge from my work. |
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I have been working on some paper stop motion experiments. This is to go alongside the lyric "I wake up crying". The use of magazine cut outs for tears enabled me to playfully tackle the crying. Linking back to the work of PES I could insert the unexpected, which in this scenario is a piece of broccoli. |
Another recent stop motion experiment of mine has been a response to the lyrics "every time it rains your here in my head".
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I feel this is a successful stop motion sequence. The biggest challenge I found was emulating the effect of water filling up a shape. I had to think about the viscosity of water and how it moves. Although my priority isn't realism, movement is key in stop motion in order to make the clip flow effectively. |
This is a another more complex paper stop motion experiment as an attempt to make a night time sky as a backdrop.
I feel this turned out well, the use of a flash photography gave more vivid tones of colour amongst the dark back of the paper behind. I used different sized stars to create the shooting star that travels across the page. This gave a sense of shape and scale; with the star becoming bigger to show it's increase in energy. I moved the white dots by small rotations each time as an attempt to emulate stars and the motion of them twinkling in the sky. |
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This is the combination of the backdrop and the previously shown head which fills up with water. I simply combined both sequences together in iMovie to create this short scene. I feel the two sequences fit in well together; the differing textures here are a visual affordance. |
Next was an attempt to make a paper stop motion emulate a sunrise in a response to the lyric "like the sun coming out". |
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I was overall pleased with the outcome, through using the glow of a studio light it allowed the bright colours of the paper to be shown with strong reds, yellows and oranges. Through choosing to move them around on a black background it again allowed more contrast. Although it seems raw with the uneven cut pieces of paper this is an effect I want include in my short film. Capturing a fluid movement to represent the rise was my biggest challenge, considering how the different colours would feature. I therefore chose to start with red for it would represent the hottest colour, followed by a warm orange and ending on the lighter tone of yellow.
I feel the rotation of this head combined with the stop motion movement of the clouds creates an interesting identity to the polystyrene head. To see this in full effect I introduced the sun animation as a background in iMovie. |
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I used scraps of paper at the end as an attempt to create a moving collage. There was natural sunlight on the pieces giving a glow and warmth to the colours which I wanted to involve. This clip will be played after the night sky to create the full sequence.
PART 2: Alternative Cloudbusting
After several more stop motion experiments such as these:
https://vimeo.com/199651309
I felt the content was not effective enough for a video which only uses stop motion. Furthermore due to the constraints of time I felt it was hard to construct a narrative for my clips didn't have much flow or consistency. With a lack of inspiration or motivation from my original track and video I felt it was necessary to create a new film, simple yet still inclusive of some original experiments.
There was a 2 week holiday in which I had time to recollect and rethink some ideas. I had new idea to completely change the audio to be a stimulus for the video.
https://vimeo.com/199651309
I felt the content was not effective enough for a video which only uses stop motion. Furthermore due to the constraints of time I felt it was hard to construct a narrative for my clips didn't have much flow or consistency. With a lack of inspiration or motivation from my original track and video I felt it was necessary to create a new film, simple yet still inclusive of some original experiments.
There was a 2 week holiday in which I had time to recollect and rethink some ideas. I had new idea to completely change the audio to be a stimulus for the video.
With links back to director Michel Gondry I looked at some music videos he created to gain some more inspiration. 'Around the World' by Daft Punk gave me the start of an idea to create more of an electronic piece of music with minalistc drum rhythms. From this also came to idea to compose more of a snappy, colourful short film. |
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With another favourite female artist of mine being Bjork, I found her videos all the more interesting when I realised Gondry had such a leading part to play directing some of them. As seen in the video there are many different types of lights and patterns glowing and moving across her face. This gave me the idea to use a colour chaining LED mood lighting and hold it in front of my face to emulate a similar effect. |
Through research of more ideas and concepts I came across photographer Nicolas Coulomb. Although more fashion based some of his photography involving bright glows of colour gave me the idea of paint, glitter and colour to incorporate into the film.
These are a few screen shots from the my video that were influenced from some of Coulomb's photos.
Furthermore, I felt the use paint could add an abstract element to the video so played around with the idea in the experiments below.
I shot a lot of the video at home through using a white sheet, 2 light boxes, gel filters and multicoloured changing lights. By creating a home studio it meant I could have more time to experiment and piece together ideas. However due to not being able to have a full studio set up with clean paper backgrounds it did mean my camera had struggles with ISO settings. This resulted in some grainier shots due to the surrounding colour changes and sheet backdrop. However due to the nature of it being more of an abstract video I feel the short clips can work once placed together in a sequence.
Through experimenting with more ideas it began to become less about the stop motion and more about combining video clips. In order to show more of a narrative to my film I wanted to show a recurring character throughout the film. To show this I used the same hairstyle throughout meaning I could use my stop motion 'girl crying' clip to link into the character. |
I had always had the idea to incorporate drawn animation (especially after watching some BLU videos). To do so I drew multiple self portraits which I would attempt to flick between frame by frame. |
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To shoot this I simply used different gel coloured filters in front of the light for each frame. However with cropping becoming an issue in iMovie and the filters not visually looking as striking as I had imagined, I decided to recreate these pictures on a smaller scale. I used an ink pen for drawing as it was a preferable texture to draw with.
Through using the same hairstyle it meant I could show it was the same character throughout the film when combining stop motion and video clips. I selected colours to add in photoshop, putting them as a background to the pictures with a different colour to each frame.
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I felt this was a lot more successful moreover my original drawings. The changing of colours rhythmically fits the song and through using the cropping tool in iMovie it enabled me to bring the drawing closer to the foreground as the clip progressed. |
This was another music video where I found inspiration: 'M.T.M.E' by Alexandra Savior. |
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Evident in the introduction particularly but also throughout is the use of hands and shadows/reflections. This was the main influence on the use of my hand gestures and shadows in my film and it encouraged me to experiment with overlaying clips through altering the opacity. Furthermore the vibrant colour changes throughout were also an impact on my own colour choices through using gel filters and coloured bulbs. Below are some experiments influenced by her music video exploring shadows and overlaying techniques.
I feel these were effective in abstracting some of my video clips. Created through the cropping the photos to different sizes and then fading them into one another with the tools in IMovie .
Amongst the short abstracted clips I wanted to incorporate shots of myself singing to give it more of a music video style. I used clean shots just of my face which I then used a black and white filter over. I felt this would break up the constant changing in colours throughout.
I also experimented with my silhouette and shapes on a window ledge. The morning light had given a warm glow to the blinds showing a clear contrast with the lines of the window panes and my body shape. The challenge was not trying to add to much additional studio lighting and just using sunlight whilst still achieving sharp high contrast video clips.
This whole video making process has made me more aware of the technicalities that are required for film making and editing. Through being able to access the tools on iMovie I have noticed a development of my editing skills and being more accurate with transitions between clips. My biggest ambition was the stop-motion element of the video. I set out with this being the main feature of the film and soon realised the difficulty this would entail. Nevertheless I am content with the range of clips I have gathered for I have still been able to incorporate frame by frame animation. I also feel it is successful in the context of a music video meaning I could set more of a mood and have more control of a narrative by using myself as the central focus.
The marriage of music and film is one that never fails to entertain, move and inspire me. By creating the music and video myself it gave me a lot of creative control and opportunity to explore a range of forms of film-making. Here is the final outcome for my video 'Cloudbusting':