Is stop motion becoming too clean?
Today during class the question came up of stop motion being too clean, making it too much like CGI. Many people in class agreed with the fact that what makes stop motion so special is because of the dirtiness of it and without it stop motion will not be so special anymore.
Although I do agree that there is an attraction to the rigidness and dirtiness of stop motion (which is why I think that the Lego Movie imitated stop motion), no matter how clean stop motion gets there is always going to be something special about this technique. It may not be through the actual film itself, but the whole process of making the film. Just knowing that a film is stop motion raises questions and I feel like the cleaner and more complex stop motion films get the bigger the questions and the more fascinated people will become. I feel like the question of how did they do that, and the discussion of figuring out how they did it is a part of the fun when it comes to stop motion.
In class we watched how the crew of Paranorman create the film. There was something attractive and eye catching when watching the crew put the film together. I can tell that my friends, myself included, were sucked into the process.
In my opinion, no matter how clean stop motion gets it's still going to have an appeal to it, and it's all because of the process of creating a stop motion film.
Although I do agree that there is an attraction to the rigidness and dirtiness of stop motion (which is why I think that the Lego Movie imitated stop motion), no matter how clean stop motion gets there is always going to be something special about this technique. It may not be through the actual film itself, but the whole process of making the film. Just knowing that a film is stop motion raises questions and I feel like the cleaner and more complex stop motion films get the bigger the questions and the more fascinated people will become. I feel like the question of how did they do that, and the discussion of figuring out how they did it is a part of the fun when it comes to stop motion.
In class we watched how the crew of Paranorman create the film. There was something attractive and eye catching when watching the crew put the film together. I can tell that my friends, myself included, were sucked into the process.
In my opinion, no matter how clean stop motion gets it's still going to have an appeal to it, and it's all because of the process of creating a stop motion film.
I agree. I find that the cleaner stop motion gets, the more I get to marvel at the ability of the animator to master that particular skill of getting a clean look. I also like the dirtier side of stop motion, but I think there's value in watching someone perfectly realize their vision, even if that vision might have been possible in another way.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to watch someone perform a really complicated musical piece on the piano, even though automated pianos exist that could play the same piece perfectly with computer generated movements. I think there's something fascinating about imitating the level of perfection a computer can get to, but still using human hands to get there.
To me, the beauty of an art form like stop motion is how accessible it's become, especially in today's world of social media. It seems like every day someone posts a LEGO stop motion skit or music video. This is what I think the key difference is between rougher, more 'amateurish' animation and the cleaner type we see in companies like Laika. Yes, mainstream stop motion companies are going to have a cleaner look due in large part to the budgets they're allocated, but this will not be true for those who are initially discovering the art form. Hell, I remember in 8th grade having to do stop motion for a project. Of course it looks incredibly janky, but that's kind of the beauty of it - anyone can do it with enough time and energy. So sure, Missing Link is gonna look a bajillion times better than any student film the average Joe will create, but that doesn't mean that you can't find any these initial works online.
ReplyDeleteAnd for some unintentional comedy, here's my 8th grade film I was talking about: https://youtu.be/L3PJX4-B8eE
I agree that maybe if you want something clean you should use a computer. However I also really enjoyed watching the artists create such a clean image. I think clean stop motion's appeal is similar to the appeal of a film make entirely of oil paintings. For me it is the craftsperson-ship and the pain-staking attention to detail that makes these films breath-taking so beautiful.
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