Theoretical Text

A mix-media animation project

‘Bathroom-Horror-event File’

 

Motive

My first idea about Graduation Thesis was a project for getting a job but I overthrow the idea during the summer of Year Three. “That might be the last chance for me to do something that I am not familiar with. “This kind of feeling occupied my mind. This was the last year of my school life, that I wanted to do something which could be unforgettable. I wanted to give myself a challenge and tried something crazy without thinking of the result. 

 

The freedom of choosing a course in SCM made me in touch with different category of art such as programming, game design, photography, experimental animation, 3D animation, etc. The wide range of learning experience let me always had a thought of making mix-media works. And stop-motion was a mix-media in nature. I think it was one of the animation types that were most difficult in production. It included painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, etc. I thought no one would make stop-motion as their GT. 

 

The only experience in doing stop-motion was the Final Year Project in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Though the part of stop-motion was limited and much simpler, it built my interest and confidence. However, I hesitated during the period of idea development as I did not have any professional experience or learning in stop-motion animation production, therefore, I prepared two projects which was a stop-motion animation proposal and a 3D mix 2D animation proposal. And it was surprising that my advisor used to teach stop-motion. It was a strange twist of fate. In the end, I chose to create stop-motion animation.

 

I loved watching stop-motion animation. The first stop-motion movie I watched was “Tim Burton's Corpse Bride” (2005). I found the movement of the characters are special and fun. “Coraline & the Secret Door” (2009) was stunning and that time I did research on that type of animation presentation and generated the interest about stop-motion. I thought “The Wolf House / La Casa Lobo” (2018) is special. It let me see the potential of stop-motion.

 

Creative concept

the learn a new type of animation, I decided to use half year doing research and building the props, and the next year I could concentrate on photo shooting and editing. Since the difficulty of stop-motion animation would be very high, I took the presentation method of Larva (TV series) which was produced by TUBA Entertainment in Seoul, South Korea, create serval short funny film and combined them into one. The benefit of that way of the present is high flexibility. I might produce two to four short films and organize the order freely, also, if I did not have enough time, I can cancel some of them so to keep the completeness and quality.

 

Story:

I should think of a topic that could be short and fun, and the most important thing was the set up did not need to change frequently. Just like the story always happened under a small part of sewer in Larva (TV series). Since the time of each story was limited. I needed to tell a story and drive the emotion of the audience in a short time, I decided to make horror films. Jumpscare could achieve that just by one loud bit and a scary picture. That kind of method was widely used in horror games and I found the effectiveness was proved.

 

Besides, I should think of what kind of frightening story could raise the audiences’ interest at a short time? Everyone has childhood trauma such as some people afraid of clown and most of us afraid of darkness. To raise the resonance of the audience toward the story, I used to plan to make a series of stories related to the bedroom. When the first time I slept by myself, I thought of the monster under the bed and the eyes that peeked outside the window. It was someway similar to the setup of ‘Monsters, Inc.’ (2001) – monster would appear at night and scares children. However, I afraid that the topic might be repeatedly used too much time. Audiences may feel aesthetic fatigue, so I changed the setup to the bathroom. The second reason for using a bathroom might be I was influenced by the movie ‘Psycho’ (1960). Then I started to collect ‘bathroom horror stories’ from my classmates and friends and sum up eleven ideas:

1. Showering, notice someone is sitting on the toilet

2. Showering, a monster is standing outside the door and waiting 

3. Showering, towel fly automatically

4. After showering, hand shower turns and look at you

5. Brushing teeth, your reflection has delay/stop moving/move itself/smiles

6. Combing hair, all hair drops

7. Drying hair, Bloody Mary comes out from the mirror

8. Something inside the toilet

 

I chose story1 mix story2 mix story3, story 4, story5 mix story7. And add a story about slime at the end.

 

The production

The stories were settled down quickly and I started my self-study in preparing equipment and props for stop-motion. With the help of my advisor, I borrowed some books and watch other people’s sharing from some websites which specialized in stop-motion. The first time I created stop-motion in PolyU, I shot with my smartphone and the lighting was the flashlight from another smartphone and the stage was built by serval thick books. This time, I can borrow equipment from school and make a more professional setting.

 

During the study, I received more knowledge about the materials for model making and the equipment for shooting. It was much more difficult than I thought. I learnt how to make an armature for the character; how they change the facial expression model for the character; how to let the character stand straight and jump in the air. Also, I needed to build the scene with high fixability which means the walls can be removed and did not block the camera. That was so many things I need to prepare. The budge for those materials is hardly estimated but I did not want to give up this last chance, so I look for the materials in Taobao, the biggest online shopping app in China. The products and services in Taobao were cheaper than I thought I could afford them and keep on my production. 

 

In the second meeting with my advisor, I finished the music and animatic of story01--“hand shower”; I also finished the floor plan for the shooting set up and the armature design. I thought I did enough and fast. I made a timetable for the stop-motion production and use story01 as a test stop-motion animation. The story01 was 12s3f long and I planed 3weeks for model making, 2 weeks for shooting and 3 weeks for editing. I was naïve that thinking I can finish them in just 5 weeks.

 

The first trouble came. As most of the important main character armature needed to buy from Taobao. I predicted the armature might arrive around 3 to 4 weeks after the payment. However, the seller not even started to make the armature 2 weeks after I paid. When I asked for the progress, he told me he was busy on took caring for his baby son. I was so angry and forced him to finish the product within one week. Later, he made the armature, but he did not send it to me until I asked. I asked the help from Taobao and found he write the wrong postcode. Then, I applied for a refund and change to another shop. I got my armature after one month and one week. That extremely affect my progress.

 

That was not just one unlucky thing. The social movement started, and transportation was stopped for a long time. I booked a room for my stop-motion project, but I could not go to CMC. There were too many materials such as the wood boards, serval rolls of wallpapers, clay, etc. I tried to take as much as possible and work at home. My home was small. It was impossible to do stop-motion and build a big scene model. I gave up the real scenes and made a 3D scene with Maya. I shot the character with greenscreen and place the 3D background at the end.

 

The social movement kept going during the semester break, I stopped the stop-motion production and went on to the development of other stories. With the experience from the test stop-motion animation. I thought I need to make a better model. Since I gave up the real scenes, I need to refine the 3D background and change the material of the main character to soft Silica gel so she would not be broken every time I move her. 

 

When I thought everything was on the right way, the third trouble came. The breakout of COVID-19 destroyed my plan. I bought the soft Silica gel, but it can only deliver to Shenzhen, China, but I could not leave Hong Kong to take the gel. I waited for one month and the epidemic turns worse. I notice it was impossible to solve in the half-year, so I gave up making stop-motion and change all of them to computer 2D animation.

 

Reflection

It is unfortunate. I used to feel frustrated but now when I look back. The half-year study and production are worthy and fun. If the problems did not happen, I do not think I can make a film more than one and a half minutes. The difficulty of making stop-motion animation is high. Half-year study is not enough. The use of the camera, camera movement, knowledge toward the software—'Dragon frame’, sculpting skill, animation knowledge, etc. I was too brave and careless. I even did not know the producer took two photos for each movement before I read the books. Every time I think of my enthusiasm toward stop-motion, I smile.

 

Though 2D animation is classic and traditional, it is not easy. The experience in making animation is so limited that I could not use the digitizer tablet well. Although my progress is slow, I see I am doing better and better each time. GT made me see my growth and I get the sense of accomplishment in the project. My next step is to keep on practising and accumulating experience and hope one day I can try making stop-motion animation again.