Our Stop-Motion Animation...

Ceri making a tree

In our group there are three people, I wrote the script with the notes on the scene with input from the others in my group. Ceri designed the people and background scenery, both Ceri and I took photos and did the scenes. Cari sorted out the audio and will be putting it together with the pictures. 

The concept for the animation is about bulling and standing up for yourself and not taking it in silence! 

Background

The background will be the meadow background with green tissue paper to be the grass and we will use a yellow piece of card to carry on the path with a tree that Ceri made in the background as a prop. All characters were made out of plasticine.  

Below is is the planed story board with script:

·Opening  scene– *Little Timmy playing ball, looks up and waves at camera* (Birds Singing, hear the ball)

o Zooms Out *Orange and Blue hiding behind tree*

o *Orange and Blue walk over* *Little Timmy continues to play*(Danger music)

· Blue: “Hey Pinkie, what you got there. Speak up Titch!” (Silence)

· Little Timmy: *Silence*

· Orange: “Yeah, speak up!”

· Blue: “That’s a nice new ball you’ve got there”

· Orange: “Yeah, it’s nice”

· Blue: “Too good for a Titch like you”

· Orange: “Yeah, too good”

· Blue: “ I think we should have a ball so good”

· Orange: “Yeah Titch, we should have it”

· Blue: “Gimmie Titch! *Snatches Ball* “Bye Titch, thanks for the new ball”

· Orange: “Yeah, thanks Titch” *Both walk off and play ball in the distance*

· Little Timmy: *Tear on cheek* (Sad Music)

· Farmer Jay: *Walks over* “Hey Little Timmy, are you okay? What is wrong?”

· Little Timmy: *Looks over at Orange and Blue playing with his ball then looks down*

· Farmer Jay: *Looks over at Orange and Blue playing with his ball* “Ahhh, I see, you know Little Timmy you don’t have to take this in silence let them hear you speak” 

·Little Timmy: *Looks at Farmer Jay and then at Orange and Blue, takes a deep breath and walks over**Squeaks*”Give me my ball back!” 

·Orange and Blue: *Laugh at Little Timmy*

·Little Timmy: *Gets Bigger* “Stop picking on me, I don’t have to listen to you, you are not the boss of me” *Gets Bigger* *ROARS* “GIVE ME MY BALL BACK!!” *takes ball back and grows to medium*

·* Orange and Blue run away* (Seen in distance)

·Zoom in – Little Timmy: *playing with ball* “Speak up”

·(Happy by Pharrell)

·THE END

Characters

  Blue and Orange are the bullies and as such they are bigger than Timmy through most of the animation to show that they have power over him. Actions are shown in stared italics with Timmy being small and then growing in size to show him gaining confidence and confronting his bullies who had made him feel small and helpless. It is also to show that he is not the same person as he was before, his actions make him grow as a person which we thought would be interesting to have him grow physically. 

Farmer Jim and Little Timmy's

Farmer Jim is an adult who had saw Timmy get bullied and gives advice to help Timmy to gain confidence and feel better about himself. Farmer Jim is bigger than the rest of the characters as he is an adult and to show he is an important figure in Timmy's life, he helps Timmy discover himself. 

Timmy's conflict with the bullies is resolved when he gains the confidence to stand up for himself and confront the bullies who had taken his ball. He showed he was not weak and small like they had made him feel in control of himself and able to fight back. 

Voices and sound 

The music and sound-effects are shown in the brackets in bold. We put in bird sounds at the beginning to show that the characters were in a meadow that was away from other adults except Farmer Jim. Danger music is to show that the two walking over are not friends of little Timmy and mean to cause him emotional harm. The idea to keep Timmy silent to the end is to show that Timmy feels like he has no voice and he can not stop the bullies from taking what they want as he has no confidence in stopping them. This changes when Farmer Jim shows him that even though he is small he can still make a difference which shows in the volume of his voice. The sad music is too show that though they didn't physically hurt Timmy he is still upset. Finally we used Happy by Pharrell as the song is about being happy even when the situation seems dire and there seems to be nothing to be happy about, you should always find something to be happy about. 

Animation on screen

We will try and avoid it being too disorganized and a too complicated story line that we will not be able to successfully convey. We hope to keep the animation simple but with a 
powerful message. 

Audio and Sound... 

Michel Dougherty says:
“A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track.”

Our teacher gave us this statement and asked us to write at whether we agree or disagree. In my opinion the statement above is true especially in films such as horrors and thrillers were music is essentially to the anticipation of the events in the movie. 

Music adds to the effect and the emotion, it can show sadness, anger, happiness and impact upon the audience what the scene is trying to convey and if a soundtrack is effective individuals can listen to the soundtrack and link it to the movie. Some soundtracks are as famous as their movies. For example some of Disney animations music is recognisable even to those who have never even seen the films. 

Without sound behind the animation there is little interest. If you watched your favorite animation without any sound you would probably not enjoy it as much unless you can remember it well enough to hear the music in your head. The music behind the scenes brings characters their emotions and their actions to life! 

Later in the lesson we were put into pairs and told to create an podcast using the Audacity, we did a Christmas Special news report using the news that Russia are now employing reindeer to patrol with police in snowy areas. This used running jokes linked to films and songs for an example penguins escaping a New York zoo (Madagascar) and Rudolf being arrested for manslaughter, see song below... 

  

The Podcast will hopefully be uploaded at this moment in time...