This afternoon I popped in to Uni to take a little trip to the library. My plan was to look for books that could be of use to my dissertation topic but instead I found some books that will help with my animations.
The first one I came across was ‘Designing Sound for Animation’ by Robin Beauchamp. from this I found some useful, quite obvious, tips that I had not really thought about such as the recording rates and how sound influences an audience’s perception of time and emotion. ‘Many of the Disney animations use a narrator to deliver the opening prolog, establishing a storybook quality of the film’.
I also found a useful list of the things to look out for when recording dialogue, as I will be for my narration. I have chosen to make note of it as I will be recording my story within the next month.
- Sibilance creates hissing sounds and can detract from reading when emphasised. Using the microphone above or to the side can reduce this effect.
- Plosives produce a rapid release of air and can produce wind distortion. Can be avoided by backing away from the microphone.
- Proximity Effect from being to close to the microphone. This can emphasise the bass of the voice and creates a boom that is lacking in clarity.
- Nerve Related Problems. Anxiety signs including exaggerated breathing, hurried reading and glottal shocks can affect the quality of the read.
- Lip and Tongue Clacks occur when the mouth is dry whilst reading and will create a harsh and unpleasant sound.
- Cloth and Jewellery Sounds will occur as the voice actor shifts their weight, it is best to avoid wearing jewellery altogether as some microphones can also pick up the sound of a watch ticking.
- Phase Issues. When the voice reflects off of the script or a stand it creates a hollow or synthetic sounding voice.
- Handling Noise is when the reader is allowed to hold the microphone, slight sounds can occur when the holder repositions their hand or fidgets slightly.
I will ensure that I keep these things in mind when I am recording my story, and explain them to my narrator as well to try and avoid them as much as possible. This will mean that my recording is clear and concise without having to cause too much editing. I also need to record ambient sounds for the different animations as these will help to establish realism for the audience and make it a little more interesting for the younger children.
I then had a flick through Barry J. C. Purves’ ‘Stop Motion Passion, Process and Performance’. I found a useful quote within this that stop motion needs to have ‘texture, richness, space, depth, movement, shadow, lighting and physicality’. I also found a few of the influences for his own work and had a look into those.
The first is Lotte Reiniger, a German silhouette animator. Her work is comprised of silhouette puppets, there is a great deal of detail within her work and I like the vast contrast between the foreground and the background. I think that this is something I will experiment with when making my stop motions; having the fore- and midground stages fully visible but the backgrounds slightly ‘washed out’. I will try it out on a selection of shots but it may not work on all of them so it may not be something that I use.
Hansel and Gretel – Lotte Reiniger
Whilst reading up on Reiniger I came across Georges Melies, a French filmmaker who was known to be quite innovative in special effects. When I looked up his work I came across the reason why I recognised his name, a short film called ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune’ (A Trip To The Moon), which I have come across when doing research for previous college projects.
Les Voyage Dans La Lune – Georges Melies
The other influence of Purves’ that I looked into was Michel Ocelot and in particular I looked at his short film (made using stop motion techniques) ‘Les Trois Inventeurs’ (The Three Inventors). The intricate style of the paper is something that I find very interesting, it makes me want to replan my whole project and do it with paper (although I won’t, I’m not very good with scissors so will probably make it look hideous). It would be fun to experiment with but I think it may be too complex a style to fit in with everything else that I am making for this project.
Les Trois Inventeurs – Michel Ocelot
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