In the last few months I’ve seen a proliferation of really great stop motion films using every day household objects to tell their story. Perhaps this has something to do with the economy – a fully armatured puppet can cost several thousand pounds – forcing people to become more creative, or perhaps it is just another example of more people having the opportunity to showcase their talents through youtube and the like.
Here at Slurpy, it has always been our belief that it is vitally important to find a style of expression that fits the story that you want to tell; that’s why we’re proud not to have a ‘house style’ to limit us. Below are several examples of people thinking outside the box to find a way of saying what they want to say – and challenging conventional wisdom about how animation should be made, and how certain items should be used!
In Your Arms – Kina Grannis
This video was made over 2 years, using a total of 288,000 jelly beans. Personally, I can’t even begin to imagine how they did it without eating them all!
There’s a ‘making of’ documentary that’s well worth watching here. What’s interesting, is that they chose not to use green screen for the girl, when they very easily could have done. Some will say this is due to wanting that very real, visceral feeling that can only be achieved in camera, but I am slightly more cynical and have to wonder if the video would have had nearly as much attention if it hadn’t been such an incredibly arduous shoot.
Hudson – Against the Grain
As a somewhat obsessive stationary lover, this film appealed to me more than I should probably confess to. Animated pencils? All in perfect colour order and beautifully sharpened to a point? Swoon!
Inspiration from Emptiness
Director Chris Butcher made this short for the Red Bull ‘Canimation’ competition, and we think it’s easily one of the best entries. A fantastic idea and very well executed – we met Chris last week, and will be monitoring his work very closely!
Western Spaghetti
Of course, no post about ‘found objects animation’ would be complete without showing the Master; PEZ. The man walks around his house and sees life in everything – this is a masterclass in the limitless possibilities of animation.
