A STOP MOTION ANIMATION BASED ON
BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE MODERN
DAY WITHIN ‘A CLOCKWORK ORANGE’
Emily Cross
The inspiration…
After going to see ‘Human Rights and
Human Wrongs’ exhibition, I was instantly
inspired, and knew I wanted to include this
into my final piece for Unit 7. The exhibition
looked at photojournalism, and explores the
impact of Human rights. It considers how
inhumane acts have been rendered
photographically, unpicks the process behind
the selection, deployment and circulation of
press images. The exhibition proposes a
global context for the major political
upheavals, conflict, war and struggles against
racism - I found this exhibition incredibly
helpful in the sense of context, and what
'Human Rights and Human Wrongs' are
about, what people think they are.
The inspiration…
SELMA
•
After going to the ‘Human Rights
and Human Wrongs’ exhibition, I
instantly wanted to find out
more about human rights,
specifically about racism, so I
went to see the film ‘Selma’. The
film is based on Martin Luther
King's campaign to secure equal
voting rights via an epic march
from Selma to Montgomery,
Alabama in 1965. This march is a
key turning point in history for
black civil rights towards voting.
The inspiration…
Based on ‘A Clockwork Orange’
Themes
•
Free Will in ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ in contrast to black civil
rights.. Black people of this time
didn’t have any rights, so I find it
interesting to look at the contrast.
•
Violence in ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ the violence in ‘A
Clockwork Orange’ is a clear theme,
however disturbing sometimes it is
interesting to compare this between
black civil rights.
Research
Stop-Motion Animation History
•
Stop motion animation has been around for a long time, almost as long as
traditional film-making. Originally stop motion involved animating objects which
included the animated movement of any "non-drawn" objects such as toys, blocks
or any rigid inanimate object .Then animators experimented with clay and puppet
animation which is what you may be familiar with in Wallace and Gromit and so
forth.
•
Some early examples of stop motion films and techniques can be seen in the "The
Humpty Dumpty Circus" (1898) and in "Fun in a Bakery Shop" (1902). In 1907
"The Haunted Hotel" was a very successful movie with the cinema audience of the
time. In 1912 one of the first clay animation movies using stop motion was released
to great critical acclaim. It was called "Modeling Extraordinary" In 1916, the first
woman animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop
motion. She released her first film in 1917, Romeo and Juliet. December of 1916,
brought the first of Willie Hopkin's 54 episodes of "Miracles in Mud" to the big
screen. •
Edwin Porter directed "The Teddy Bears," one of the earliest stop-motion
animation films. A short sequence of playing teddy bears, just over a minute in
length, takes over 50 hours to animate. Willis O'Brien's "The Lost World" included
49 prehistoric animals in stop-motion, which took a huge step in stop-motion
history.. Willis O'Brien directed another film called "Mighty Joe Young", a well-known
film in 1945, with the help of Ray Harryhausen, and stop-motion animator. Ray
Harryhausen received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for his technological contributions in 1991. •
Stop-motion has changed dramatically since the early 20th century. In fact, stopmotion is rarely used anymore, only in children's TV shows do you see such effects,
such as Gumby. With the development of digital 3D animation, animating a 3D
character in a film has become much easier and faster, which is favored by the
industry. 3D animation allows unreal characters to seem to be alive.
Why stop-motion animation?
Interest..
•
Wallace and Gromit has always been a
huge influence and because of this, I
became interested in the idea of
creating and trying out stop-motion
animation. I thought Unit 7 would give
me enough time to create a basic, but
(hopefully) successful animation out of
figures based on ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
Since specialising onto PDP, I feel like I
have found my real interest - that is Set
design. The idea of combining set design
with animation really excites me. I feel
that as long as I research enough
towards this topic, hopefully all will be
great, and I will love it.
Shooting Coraline
Shooting Wallace and Gromit
Books…
Stop-Motion Animation Skills
Creating Models…
Books…
Stop-Motion Animation Skills
Creating Models…
Stop-Motion Animation Inspiration…
Wallace and Gromit
•
Wallace and Gromit has always had a big impact on my life. Ever
since I was young I was captivated by the lengthy process of stopmotion animation. The idea of moving each model individually,
making sure you dont push them too far forwards or backwards as
precision is vital, it would be easily noticed. Quite often when i’ve
watched these films, I forget these are stop-motion because the
transitions between one frame to the next is so smooth, its amazing!
•
Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion comedy animation
series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series
consists of four short films and a feature-length film. The series
centres on Wallace, an absent-minded inventor and cheese
enthusiast, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet intelligent
anthropomorphic dog.
•
Because of their widespread popularity, the characters have been
described as positive international icons of both modern British
culture in particular and British people in general. BBC News has
called them "some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come
out of the UK”.
•
Icons has said they have done "more to improve the image of the
English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors”.
Wallace and Gromit has been translated into over 20 languages and
has a particularly big following in Japan, as well as in its native Britain
and across Europe and the United States.
Stop-Motion Animation Inspiration…
Willy McBean and his Magic Machine
•
This is a much older example of stop-motion
animation in comparison to Wallace and Gromit, but I
found when watching it to be so helpful, as stopmotion animation at this stage wasn’t too well known,
and it is clearly noted that these figures are moved
frame by frame when comparing to ‘Wallace and
Gromit’. The transitioning of each movement isn’t as
smooth, and it is more clear to realise that this is in
fact a stop-motion animation.
•
Willy McBean and his Magic Machine (1965) is a
Rankin/Bass full-length stop-motion puppet animation
film released in theaters. It was also the first stopmotion animated feature film in the United States.
•
Plot: Professor Rasputin Von Rotten builds a time
machine to travel into the past to all the important
accomplishments made in history to take credit for
them himself. It is up to Pablo, his talking pet monkey,
and boy genius Willy McBean to stop him.
My Idea…
•
To create a stop-motion
animation based on ‘A
Clockwork Orange’ with
influences from Dr. Martin
Luther King’s movement towards
black civil rights in 1965. I will
relate this by having the 3
‘drooges’ and the protagonist
Alex, as black men instead of
white, to provide a reaction.
Would they we treated the
same? Would Alex actually be
offered the treatment?
‘Coraline’
‘Wallace and Gromit’
What have I learnt from previous projects?
•
Time management. During my ‘Stor(Y)age project, I simply ran out of time.
Mainly because I was ill for a week (the vital making week!!) but this meant that I
was extremely pushed for time. This has made me realise that, I can’t afford to
take any time off, unless its vital, especially on the crucial making times, as this is
when we are expected to get the most work done.
•
Also being a perfectionist which counts towards time management. I have learnt
not to care as much towards certain aspects of my projects (e.g. drawings) as
really although they are important, its important to also spend time working
towards making your final outcome as otherwise you will run out of time!
•
Planning. I have learnt that planning a brief is key to have a well constructed
outcome. Planning my time accurately has enabled me to get more things done,
my outcome to a better quality and to be less stressed in myself.
•
Be ambitious. There is no point to be safe, I have learnt that you need to take
risks. Even if you’re not sure if something isn’t going to work, how are you going
to know if you dont try? Everyone makes mistakes, but you will never know
until you try it out. So be ambitious.