My Stop Frame Animation

I chose to produce a stop frame animation on the book, ‘The Day of the Triffids’, by John Wyndham. It’s a Science fiction, set in London, which is attacked by menacing Triffid plants.

The book represents a sense of loneliness and isolation, which can relate to the cinema museum and its site in South London. The paragraph I studied particularly emphasises this where the people of London have deserted the area. After the attack of the Triffids London completely changes and feels lost and lonely to the characters who are left. The Cinema Museum can be related as a similar sense of a lost existence is apparent. Unknown to the world.

I have searched the book for a paragraph which represents this in the best way :

'We stood side by side leaning on the bar of the dingy pub, and listened. There was nothing to be heard - nothing but the rustle of a dirty newspaper blown down the empty street. Such a quietness held everything as cannot be known in those parts for a thousand years or more.'

Wyndham, J (1954) The day of the Trifids, Middlesex, Penguin books, pg 23

I started by analysing the paragraph to understand the concept:

• Main character and another man are the only ones around. They are in a bar looking out at the diserted City. It is silent and still apart from the newspaper blwing around by the wind. The atmosphere is strange as normally th area is busy and full of people.
• The book is based on the H.G Wells, 'War of the Worlds'
• A the time lysenkoism (poliitical and social campaigns in science and agriculture) was happening which is briefly picked upon throughout the book.
• Wyndham used several common themes throughout his work - depiction of the soviet union, a problem made worse by hamn annoyane links elements between his books.
• Loneliness, thought of something drastic happening to kill the world, survivors, braveness.
• It was adapted to radio readings by BBC 1953
• It was made a film, 1962
• It became a magazine by Marvel Cominc, 1975
• It was a tv series for BBC 1981
• There is talk of a new film to be written by Patrick Harbinson (ER/Law and Order)
• The film is a Sci-Fi horror, was a big impact at the time and very successful.

The isolation is a really important factor throughout the story, whic can realte to thee Cinema Museum as i mentioned before. From the paragraph a ' quietness held everything' stood out at me and i wanted to use this in my stop frame animation.

he set in the book was in London in a pub, so i used the streets around the site of the Museum as my setting. The scene is set in the 30s so I used street furniture to help depict an older feeling to the set. I was keen to use an old lampost found linign the streets and a bench. These were important as they could be moved throughout the film.

I started by sketching and storyboard-ing for possible ideas. I went back to the site and used my photographs to help study the location. I modeled the street scene based on the buildings around the site of the museum, where I found the building on the corner coincidentally used to be a pub the lamp post and bench using white card, so no true identification could be revealed of its exact place. I wanted the models to be able to move closer towards each other to show a sense of togetherness and being held by something invisible, such as slence. I experimented with the camera, magic arm, tripod, models and the story and started shooting my model from different angles, using a dolly, testing the speed the models were going to move.

The scene is quiet with no one around. Initially I used a dolly shot panning the street at eye level for the viewer to get a sense of the location and set as well as to show little life to the area, similar to the reality at the site. Everything stands still. After, the camera is moved continuously taking photos up to an overhead shot and into an aerial view to show the plan view. From here the camera zooms in and out to show the overall location expressing a sense of isolation with no surroundings. The buildings and street furniture start to move closer towards each other expressing the togetherness held by quietness. The street becomes entangled with silence and changes appearance. It’s still and soundless. The set moves 90 degrees to the right showing different angle. The end zooms into the bench, which has been forced into the confusion and pulled in with the set.

My storyboard:

My stop frame animation: