Confessions of a budding filmmaker

(A rough draft of this post, composed by Peter, and eventually typed by me.)

I became interested in making stop motion shorts, when I first asked my dad how to make a movie without showing my hand holding on to Luke Skywalker. And dad said to try taking a picture, then moving Luke Skywalker a little bit, taking a picture again, etc. etc. Kind of like a flip book.

On a scale of 1 to 10, dad helped me 1, and mom helped me 1/8 of one.Dad told me that to make an aircraft fly, you need some thread. You tie it around some kind of flying object and you hold the string. While your hand is out of the photo, you take your shot. Mom just told me where I can make my movies.
Basically, she got me started by helping me find a place that had instructions for making stop motion shorts. Mom also showed me iPhoto, iMovie and Photoshop Elements on our computer, but she really didn't know how to use them. So after that no one helped me. It was trial and error. But eventually, it was more like trial and success!

I can't wait to make more stop motion shorts! Usually, I can spend 30 minutes to a few hours making stop motion. With a couple of breaks, I can watch the day slip by.

Although in the early days I've made movies of dog-eating socks, and clay, and Badger muscle rub containers moving across the table, my all-time favorite actors are Lego Star Wars minifigures and vehicles.  I started with simple elements, such as clay for laser, or my hand holding a part of a ship that was  not in the photo, so that you couldn't see my hand. Later I experimented with new strategies, such as using Photoshop to add lasers, and using invisible string instead of my hand.

At first, I didn't know how much I had to move my Legos to get the effect of motion from one photo to another. But with practice I learned that you should move them about 4 millimeters to no more than an inch. When I first started to make stop motion, I didn't know that I had to keep the camera in one position. I moved it around, and when I put the photos together into a movie, the picture jiggled all over the screen like there was and earthquake, which would only be good if you wanted to make a movie of an earthquake. Another mistake I made was when I tried to make a droid explode. I used some red-and-orange clay, and connected a disassembled droid. It didn't look like and exploded droid; it looked like an exploded tomato!

I learned to add lasers using Photoshop Elements. I figured out that I had to open the photos in Photoshop, and then I could doctor them any way I wanted. I started by looking at the toolbar, and using trial and error. Then I tried reading the instructions, but I gave up and went back to trial and error until I got it. But I am still looking for the perfect way to add lasers. I've seen other stop motion with perfect laser-like things (it's a little long, but funny).

It took me a while to figure out how to add sound. It's a lot of fun. My favorite sound effect is what I like to call "gun shot". It's really the sound of a camera shutter, which makes the action seem funny, not violent.

A stop-motion short requires about a thousand photos, though a very short one can be made with about 30 photos. I've never made a movie-length stop-motion, like Wallace and Grommit, but I'll bet they have something like a million photos!

It may seem boring to an outsider but to me, making stop-motion is like playing an involved game. When someone interrupts me, it's like "let me finish this scene" or "QUIET!" And after three or four days, I get a pretty good movie.

From making stop-motion movies, I learned a lot about cameras, computers, patience, duration, ideas, endless possibilities... and, um, let's see, what else? You figure it out.

Comments

[christine]

WOW!!!
That was awesome and a very well written post. We had to watch Star Wars over and over. What a good sense of humor too!

[Meg L]

LOL - What a chuckle you gave me. Boy did this about 5 or 6 years ago and set the video to music and all.

It's a pity it was before we went to digital, or I'd share it.

[don]

Very impressive. That's awesome how much he is learning just by diving in and doing what interests him.

[Justyna]

Believe it or not, it actually took a long time to persuade myself he was learning. When he began to create jokes and situations that make adults laugh, I started to be convinced. That's when I also began noticing all the other ways he was learning. Sometimes our own prejudices are the strongest...

[Elizabeth]

Wow! Nathan just got up, so I can share it with him. He's really excited. I guess we know what he'll be doing today...

[Anna]

I'm new here, from the carnival.
I like how he says nobody helped him. Someone reading that might assume he was pouting, but I know what he means! He did it h.i.m.s.e.l.f.
Good for him, and what a great job he's done, too!

[TheBlueDudes]

These shorts are awesome! I am definitely interested in seeing more work from this up-and-coming filmmaker!

[Christa]

That was a great post, and I learned a lot from reading it and from seeing the differences between the two films. Maybe we will give it a try.

[kim]

Cool Peter. I've enjoyed your films and I especially enjoy how you took the time to explain the process to us. Thanks.

[Lori]

my 8-year-old son saved his money and bought a flip video camera and he has been making movies. i showed him and his 11yo brother this & they absolutely loved it - now they are going to try some stop-motion shorts of their own! :^)

[nancy Machaj]

amazing! love the movies and the tutorial.

[Lynn]

My daughter and I loved the films and are convinced that we must learn to do this first thing tomorrow morning! Of course, I know absolutely nothing about any of this technology and expect to be 1/8th of 1/8th of 1 helpful. LOL. What a cutie!

[Peter]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments! And for watching my movies. Expect more of them, soon!

[SprmeCmndrGrievous]

I know this is very late, but I am SprmeCmndrGrievous on YouTube, the original creator of Jedi Hunters, which you linked to as "The other stop motion with perfect laser-like things" Lol. If you want, I would be more than happy to show you how I created the lightsaber and blaster effects (or laser-like things) using Photoshop 7. If you're interested, feel free to shoot me an E-Mail at:

SprmeCmndrGrievous@gmail.com

I would be glad to answer as many questions as you have.

[Alisa23Blankenship]

I guess that to get the mortgage loans from banks you ought to have a great motivation. However, one time I have got a financial loan, because I wanted to buy a car.