Competition 🐠
A stop-motion animation created in the kitchen in under 24 hours, using Stop Motion Studio with iPhone and iPad cameras.
My Role
Writer, storyboard artist, director, photographor
Tools Used
iPhone, iPad, tripod, cereals, cardboard, paper, scissors, Stop Motion Studio
Project
Individual project
Timeline
24 hrs (June 2022)
Overview
Linear Narrative
This is a project for SFU IAT313 Narrative and New Media. We are asked to write and direct a short film using a linear narrative structure, with no limitation in forms. I am individually responsible for writing, filming, and editing this project.
Narrative
Storyline
Linear Narrative Structure
Act 1: Two fish meet — Act 2: Compete for love — Act 3: Both lost
Storyboard (created in a time crunch just for myself to understand)
Preparation
Characters
I chose to use cereals as my animation characters not just because it is right in my kitchen but because they also have a large amount of variations and quantity. Cereals are also lightweight and easy to shift position which is crucial for stop-motion animation production. The only drawback is my hand would become sticky and I had to brush away the crumbs from time to time.
Production
Filming Setup
Since I didn’t have a camera or a standing tripod at home, I had to hack my kitchen setup and stick the handheld tripod half inside the cabinet to fix my phone camera’s position. I also ensured that the phone was being charged so it did not have to be moved in the next few hours, which turned out to be the smartest decision as the entire filming process took me around 10 hours.
Meanwhile, my iPhone camera was remotely connected to Stop Motion Studio on iPad so I could monitor what was within the scene real time and capture each frame one by one after moving the cereals bit by bit.
Post-production
Editing & Pacing
The entire film was captured and edited in Stop Motion Studio. Although stop-motion animation does not require as much editing compared to other forms of video, it is necessary to pay attention to the visual rhythm by pacing out each frame according to the music. Therefore, I ended up spending some time experimenting with different framerates until I reached a satisfactory result.
