Stop Motion film - first attempt!

[lightbox]

I thought I should post this video as I received a lot of helpful (and confusing!!! ) advice from guys on here and in particular Midnight Blue. We think it looks OK-ish but still confused ourselves with the rendering.

Looking back we would probably have done it very differently but it really was a learning curve beyond our capabilities. It's also pretty long so feel free to fast forward!

Please be pretty gentle with the comments if pos. as my daughter is only 11 and it will be good if she can read them too.

Thanks

[Midnight Blue]

I thought you did a good job with it. I'm sure you learned a lot making it. I think it would have been better is it was broken up in to three or four different, shorter videos for general viewing but I don't know your purpose in making it.

Nice one.

[Stripe]

That was great fun to watch, and some nice comedic 'toppers'. I liked the boy having to climb the wall and then not getting through the locked gate - sometimes it was so fast I missed the wall climb until I looked again. The skateboard scenes were great too, although I missed the message about the skateboard being broke at first. The bike scenes were a little too long and I would have been happy if this video had finished before any of the tiled floor scenes.

An inspiring piece, I may have to try some of this myself for the effects that can be acheived. Although if this is what they acheive at school at age 11, I may quit right now lol.

Nice work Georgia

[Camera Jan]

Did your 11 year old daughter make that? Very good. Two remarks though: the bicyle part would have been better if the legs were in a different (natural) positing every frame.
And the tiles background is filmd in a way, that the camera seems to be 'under the ground'. The effect would be nicer i.m.h.o. if the camera was in a 90 degrees angle with the tiled floor.
But it was fun to watch, my compliment to your daughter. Jan (from The Netherlands). www.videohobby.tk

[Rembrandt Rob]

A lot of work has gone into this video and it shows. I really like it and your daughter is an absolute star.

Personally, I would have liked the camera to have been a bit more steady on many of the sequences. Maybe make more use of the tripod next time. Also be careful that you don't nudge or move the camera, even slightly, between the exposures (maybe think about getting a more solid tripod?).

All in all though, you and your daughter should be really proud of this attempt.

[Midnight Blue]

Also be careful that you don't nudge or move the camera, even slightly

If you have a remote control this would help.

[Underground.Media.Kings]

Outstanding!!! The tile scene might have been a bit too long but I got over it!! The entire production was extremely entertaining to me! GREAT JOB!!!! Wow! Very inspiring work!!!! There were even a few comedic bits in there that had be absolutely cracking up!!! This is great work!! I'd give you 5 thumbs up .. but I've only got two hands!! Would two thumbs and two big toes do? Great job on this one!

[lightbox]

Thank you for all the nice comments.

It was good fun making the animation but pretty tiring too.

It is a bit long but I wanted it to have all my hobbies in it.

We made a few bad mistakes like cutting off legs by being too close up on the camera.

The reason the bike part look wrong is it was on a balcony and dad would have fallen off if he had leaned out more.

My dad should have been better at filming because one of his best friends when he was a boy was Nick Park who makes Wallace and Grommit. But he worked very hard and says Nick was always a genius and he wasn't.

[TimStannard]

Fantastic!
Come on, spill the beans...
How many shots? How long filming? How long editing it all together?
Did you storyboard or make it up as you went along?

Does teh whole family really have that much patience?

[lightbox]

Hi Tim

Neil ( dad) here!

Georgia got the idea from watching a pop vdeo called Morning Glory which is incredible but very professionally done. Despite trying to get her to do something else for her project she loved the idea and I relented as it seemed like a decent way of spending a weekend.

Georgia decided what she wanted including and drew a very rough series of stick men/ girls! Lots more was done on the spur of the moment depending on weather ( it started raining) and location - we were thrown off the railway station!

She had lots and lots of ideas most of which were impossible to film.

We spent almost a full day filming - there are about 3300 photos which is more than we usually take in a year or two at home.

Practically all editting was done in camera only a few white blank frames were added for fades.

We should have done more editting and cut the time down a lot as it does go on for a long time.

We had no idea how to use the video software so couldn't do anything spectacular with that.

It was a good weekend project but probably our last foray into film

Thanks, Neil