What I've Been Working On: Stop-Motion Tests:
In the 3rd Marking Period I've found an interest in Stop-Motion animation, specifically claymation. So, I made a few tests not using clay but different objects and items I found in room 172 to see what works and what doesn't in terms of FPS and making the animation move smoothly without it looking too choppy or stiff. They are some quick little tests but there's about 40-80 pictures in each one, it takes a good amount of pictures to make a stop-motion animation that is somewhat fluid.
Below are some of the tests I made:
After these tests, now I would want to start writing a script and/or concept for a stop-motion project using clay instead of objects, hopefully I can get the concepts and script writing for a larger project I could maybe get done in my senior year of digital portfolio. But, do some shorter projects during the 4th Marking period, or at the beginning of the following year of Digital Portfolio.
Aside from my interest in stop motion, I've also found a new enjoyment in reviewing music videos, having my first review done on rapper Joey Bada$$' music video for his song 'Land Of The Free'. I've found that reviewing and investigating music videos and their messages could be a way of combining my two favorite things into one, music and film. This is something i've always seen and enjoyed but now I want to take my enjoyment for it and turn it into something I can put into my blog posts. The next review will be on 'Let It Happen' by Tame Impala.
Below is the link to the first review, as well as the music video:
Yesterday, on 3/6/17, New York City Hip-Hop artist released a visual for his single Land of The Free from his upcoming album titled ALL AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ scheduled to drop on 4/7/17.
In the song itself, Joey tackles old and modern political and societal issues, primarily race and immigration, over a throwback type of beat produced by PRO ERA's own Kirk Knight. In the video, Joey does the same with the visual aspects to further his point and to accompany the song itself.
The video starts out with a Mad Max/New Americana type setting in a desert followed by titling, then a car drifts into the shot with the American Flag made up of bandana pattering on the top of the car. The flag resembling the cover to Joey's upcoming album, shown below.
The next shot in the music video shows Joey in the front lined up along a group of POC's, all chained up, then showing them walking in a circle around Joey, followed by shots of Joey with the bandana patterned American flag. Then Joey starts rapping, talking to a group of kids like a mentor and a teacher as they're all gathered up around him. Then we see more of the previous shots we've seen and then more shots of the kids gathered up around Joey, the future of the world then seen running happily through the fields innocently, while the adults are chained up and prosecuted. After more shots of Joey spitting knowledge to the kids, the chained up, and the audience, he brings up his resentfulness for our society and current events, rapping "Sorry America, but I will not be your soldier, Obama just wasn't enough, I need some more closure, And Donald Trump is not equipped to take this country over, Lets face facts 'cause we know what's the real motives."
After this he goes into the bridge going "And the land of the free is full of free loaders, Leave us dead in the street to be your organ donors, They disorganized my people, made us all loners, Still got the last names of our slave owners." The next highlight in the video shows a shot of all the chained up people in the previous shots of the video all lined up, standing in front of a line up of police officers and government officials, then proceeds to show the officers and officials shooting the people chained up dead. This song and video maybe one of Joey's most politically charged, recently reminding Hip Hop fans of the legendary late rapper Tupac Shakur and his activism in the 90's and being compared to him. The next shot shows the officers continuing to shoot at the folks chained up, but as Joey stands in front of them rapping and dancing, he has some sort of force shield blocking the bullets, preventing them to kill him and the people, maybe alluding to his consciousness saving himself and the people he's preaching to. The next scene of the video shows Joey standing in front of a burning cross, cutting to him lowering the officers guns, leaving the rest of the people to run away. then cutting back to the burning cross, now surrounded by 4 KKK members, then one of the next shots showing a silhouette of Joey hanging, then a shot of him dancing in the rain in front of the burning cross. After this the next shots show the KKK members removing their hoods, revealing themselves to be police officers. Then the final shots cut back to the fields, with the kids running around with Joey happily.
Since 2012 when PRO ERA's rise to fame started, following the tragic death of founder Capital STEEZ, Joey and the rest of PRO ERA have evolved as artists, people, and a voice for the youth and Hip Hop fans alike. Hopefully they will continue to progress, leaving the PRO ERA and it's movement to be unstoppable.
Lately, I've been getting back into my interest in films that are made using stop motion, claymation films. Films such as the Wallace and Gromit film series, or Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the many films produced by Laika Entertainment.
In the past stop motion was always something I had interest in when I was younger and now have found my interest again due to music videos such as Madvillian's Strange Ways music video and Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal music video.
So, now I'm interested in and considering making a stop motion short film using clay and other materials. I'm gonna start writing the script this week and then after that see what my limits are, what I can and cannot do, how I will do it, and go on from there.
Before I actually start on the short I want to make a couple of tests to see what works and what doesn't and how I can use the Adobe softwares as best as I can for it.
I've been thinking about concepts for the story of the short film and whether to take just a typical whimsical story approach or maybe make it political in a sense, I'm brainstorming different idea but we'll see what I come up with.
END OF THE MARKING PERIOD CHECKPOINT #2:
In the second marking period I focused more on writing scripts and coming up with short film ideas that would be practical to film within or outside of school. While it's bad to limit creativity and such, it's much easier to have your limits on script-writing when it comes to practicality. This is because alot of the time what ends up happening is that I write scripts that I usually end up never filming and "saving it for later" so it's much easier writing scripts you're sure you can be able to film without certain issues holding it back.
When brainstorming with scripts I still use the Plotagon software to make models of what I imagine characters looking like and dressing up like. As well as using it for makeshift storyboards for the time being as you can put the characters you make into scenes and type in dialogue and action for them, although only two characters are allowed to be in the scenes you can make which hinders some things, but like I said it's just a makeshift storyboard for the time being.
Besides script-writing I also have been working with Tommy and Brian acting in their films, and we filmed a fight scene for fun and for Brian to test out some motion tracking and lighting and it ended up turning out good.
I've also caught an interest in music video editing, specifically type of music videos that have scribble or art over the original shots taken from a camera and then drawn over frame by frame in post production. I've tried testing it out in After Effects but I need to practice a bit more because it didn't turn out that good but practice makes perfect. Here's an example of what I mean.
For the next marking period I definitely want to focus on actually shooting the scripts I write rather than just writing more scripts, or just filming even if it's just test footage for after effects and such.
