Tea Party

For my 18th Birthday I had a Tea Party and it is what inspired me to base my overall final animated short film on the fairy tale by Lewis Caroll Alice in Wonderland I will be taking inspiration from Jan Svankmajer who himself created a film based on the story. I would like to remain realistic by keeping it simple yet Alice in Wonderland is such an amazing story due to its great details seen in its previous films so I'd like to also include great detail. .

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer born in Prague had been majorly influenced by a christmas present he had recieved as a young boy of a puppet theatre. studying the college of applied arts and then the department of puppetry at the Prague Academy of performing arts. he began creating short films in 1964 and he had continued doing so for another 20 years he had gradually become some what of a surrealist filmmaker in 1988 he had created Alice which was based on the story of Alice in Wonderland written by Lewis Caroll in his film the only human character which had been used was the main character Alice the rest of the characters were animated clay, puppet and meat figurines. He had been nominated for the international fantasy film award in 1989 at the Fantasporto Film Festival. Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, who gained a reputation for his short subjects, makes his feature-film debut with Neco z Alenky, a grotesque look into the darkest, wildest recesses of a child's mind. A surreal adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's classic Alice in Wonderland, the film stars Kristyna Kohoutová as Alice, the only human character in the film. The other roles, which are voiced by Alice, are filled by an odd menagerie of animated clay, puppets, and meat. After falling asleep beside a stream, Alice follows a stuffed rabbit into a magical world where she encounters several grotesque-looking characters, including a caterpillar and The Mad Hatter. Also released under the title Alice, Neco Z Alenky was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1989 Fantasporto Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi After studying at the Institute of Industrial Arts and the Marionette Faculty of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, Jan Svankmajer started working as a theatre director, chiefly in association with the Theatre of Masks and the Black Theatre. He first experimented with film-making after becoming involved with the mixed-media productions of Prague's Lanterna Magika Theatre. He began making short films in 1964, and continued working in the same medium for over twenty years, when he finally achieved his long-held ambition to make a feature film based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (Alice (1988)). He has also exhibited his drawings, collages and 'tactile sculptures', many of which were produced in the mid-1970s, when he was temporarily banned from film-making by the Czech authorities. He has been a card-carrying member of the Prague Surrealist Group since 1969.

Ray harryhousen

Prior to the availability of technology such as CGI and camera motion control animators used various different ways to create animated special effects an example would be model animation which was used in films such as King Kong. Raymond Harryhousen created a new form of stop motion model animation which is known as Dynamation. Dynamation is an effective way to make actors and animated characters look as if they are in the same frame interacting with one another, to create this effect Harryhousen would use 3 layers the first layer being the background being projected onto a glass then in the middle as the second layer you would see the character which is being animated i.e. the dinasour and then the next layer would also be a piece of glass which the actual film which the actors are in would be relfected on to a section which would be outlined depending on where the actors and their background is with a black wax pen and then painted over with black matte paint all these layers combined created a realistic moving image. Ray Harryhausen awed Willis O'brien as a young boy as he watched King Kong in 1933 after watching O'briens work the 13 year old Harryhausen researched animation and how effects were created in films thoroughly and also learnt everything he could about O'brien. Ray Harryhausen went on to create films which remain popular till now such as Jason and the Argonauts and he also went on to work with his inspiration and pioneer Willis O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young.

Willis O Brien

King Kong 1993 - Empire State Building Known mainly for his work on King Kong Willis O Brien had played a massive part in the creative aspects of animation and had lenghtened the possibilities of stop motion animation majorly. The special effects artist was formerly a cartoonist for a newspaper and sculptor began creating short films in 1941. His work on the film version of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World in 1925 and King Kong had been one of his most astonishing works in his career they are considered classic examples of stop motion photography which a picture is taken for each frame and placed together to create a fluent movement. Through out his career Brien had spent a major part of his time attempting to get financed. Brien is now considered a legend in the animation and horror genres and also animation lovers he pathed the way for various different animators through out. He had also been the first person to win an oscar for special effects

Stop Motion Animation

This Blog is intended to note down and inform others of the progress of creating a animated short film and also what I am generally going to be doing through out the creative process and planning stages of my short film. As a class we will also be researching the history of animation mainly focusing on stop motion animation and the different variation of techniques used in the animation industry. Our aim is to create a video blog to speak about our finding, our Vlog is aimed at young people interested in animation themselves and will also help us understand the foundations of Animation. our aim is to create a short which is 15-20 seconds long for our final project individually or with a partner.

I may myself will be researching the key practitioners in animation which helped develop animation throughout the years 

Developers which include -

• Willis O Brien (King Kong)
• Ray Harryhousen
• Jan Svankmajer
• Phil Tippit

Yolanda Johnson