Unit 33 Stop animation

1. Unit 33 Stop animation Jamie Parr

2. The early idea’s of stop motion the Frenchman Georges Méliès (1851-1938). Was the first person to discover that stop motion was possible by the camera stopping and starting and looking back at the footage he stated that “a bus of dancers turned into a horse and a funeral cart and men into woman” he saw the potential of this trick camera skill. He then turned this trick into a skill by using children’s alphabet blocks in short advertisement. He then named this stop action, which later became stop motion.

3. Stuart Blackton and Arthur Melbourne-Cooper • By 1898 Stop motion was rediscovered Stuart Blackton, after he filmed smoke something from a chimney, in-between shots they realized that the shape of the smoke appeared different. After looking closer they realized that the shape of the smoke changed in-between cuts. • 1899 in Britain Arthur Melbourne-Cooper was originally a two-dimension cartoon animator however saw the potential in three-dimension animation used. He created a “trick film” called Matches Appeal • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HD9NwzFNLY • This is the first ever recorded (what was known back then as stop start pictures) and was massively popular. It is off a match writing on the black board telling people to donate money to buy the soldiers matches

4. Ladislaw Starewitz and Joseph Leeland • Ladislaw Starewitz a Polish film maker, in 1910 started to create stop motion with live insects, this led to the creation of “Battle Of The Stag Beetle” where he used real beetles left them under light to make them lethargic and then killed the beetles. He then used the body off the beetles disassembled and then reassembled the bodys with wax and wire to make a accurate model of a beetle, this then lead to other short films such as the ant and the grass hoper from 1910 in my opinion this is something that really pushed the boundaries and inspired the big names in stop motion • Joseph Leeland does not have much information around his work other than he was the creature of the original top and Jerry (which was a boy named Tom and a mule named Jerry ) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvIvWkCBB4k

5. Willis o Brian • Willis o Brian was the creator of king kong, which was one of the first popular stop animation films (full length film). He created this all purely through playing with the toys that he created then realizing that I was possible to create this creators out of materials and then make them come to life. His fascination was with dinosaurs and with him already being aware of stop animation filmed created a short film called the dinosaur and the missing link (1915). Which the uniqueness off stop animation becoming increasingly popular Wills o Brain started working witg Sir Arthur Conan who had rights to the famous story the lost world (1925) and was known as the “block buster off its day” due to its popularity. • With the increasing popularity off stop motion still and the money that had been made through his previses films Willis. Willis started what I personally feel was his greatest creation. King Kong, Willis had already used elements off live footage with his stop animation so he was fully aware of how to achieve it ( by separately filming something in live action and making sure everything is to scale then projecting the live action frame by frame while the stop animation is created. • Willis never achieved that level of success ever again however it is stated that with out his incredible input to stop animation, stop animation would not be as it is today.

6. Jim Danforth • Jim Danforth was influenced by King Kong and had input into more modern popular films like Jack the Giant slayer and Clash of the titans, he created the fight scenes. Now we see that his work is being recreated in modern 2013 films. In my personal opinion the quality of Jim Danforths work was underestimated at the time that they were created, though popular they did not get enough attention and I feel only now are modern directors looking at Jim Danforths material and seeing the potential that this creatures and fight scenes had.

7. Ray Harryhausen • was debatably the biggest and most important name in stop animation history, the film he is most famous for is quite possibly his biggest film, his fight scenes with the undead warrior was the first choreographed fight scene to have both stop animation creature and real actors, he had attempted this once before in Sin bad however this was only with one skeleton. In the Jason and the Argonaughts he created seven skeletons fighting 3 actors. This was a legendary break through and film smashed he box office. In my personally opinion this primary comes down to this one fight scene. • Harry’s unique look at stop animation along with Willis O Brian are the reason why stop animation is still popular today and despite all of the latest technology people like Tim Burton were able to take that inspiration and keep it going from the 1880’s to present day

8. Tim Burton • Tim Burton spoke in his own words that stop motion feels more believable and more life like than the animation. Tim Burton dove straight into the idea of stop motion using characters off all different shapes and sizes and clashing colours to create a world that could not be achieved so successfully through CGI . With films like Corpse Bride and his classic and gothic Nightmare Before Christmas Tim Burton has clearly shown that stop animation is not out dated. He also stated in another interview that his “creatures” that he draws can not be created by CGI they need a human physically creating the models like a piece of art