I uploaded a film today to Instagram, my first ever cinematic piece and my second ever completed project. (My first was a documentary.)
Today’s film is my first ever stop-motion piece. It’s the 7th episode in a comic series called Colories. Check out the whole series on my Instagram feed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj6_b_HhzDJ/?hl=sv&taken-by=minadimyan
This incredibly simple tutorial got me from raw footage to finished clip in about 45 minutes.
Concept
I was given a little rubber duck at a recent hackathon. Leaving it on my desk at work for a few days brought about some ideas. What if I could do something with this duck? Just anything?
I started taking single photos of the duck in different scenes. Much inspiration and debt is owed to my friend and consummate artist Morne’s Putdownness series.
Last week, I noticed some other figures on my coworker’s desk. I had been exploring the themes of loneliness, solitude, and mental health in recent episodes of Colories.
Shot over last night and this morning at my kitchen table, I used my Nikon DSLR on a monopod. No editing or post-production was performed on the shots.
Notes
I used the camera flash as a way to convey what was happening in the duck when he saw the figure. I thought it was a simple way of expressing something visceral and powerful.
The hollow and vacant look on the duck’s face is rather haunting. It would be interesting to expand on this further in a later film.
I wanted to make this film quickly. Should I had more time, I would have figured out ways to manipulate the figure’s arms.
Reflection
This is such a powerful medium. So much can be expressed with so little. It’s all about simple ideas and equally simple execution.
