Cinematography in Stop motion animation

Cinematography is the artistic use of photography within film-making and is vitally important in the creation of films. It largely contributes to the atmosphere being created, and can be used to help develop the narrative. It consists of framing and positioning the shot, supported by the lighting. A skilled cinematographer can make each shot in a film look like a piece of art.

Cinematography is something that was going to be very difficult for us to do well, as it being an animation set in a living room, there are obvious difficulties with trying to make the shots look impressive. We had to use numerous household objects, quite often a fruit bowl to try and create depth with the shots, this to try and exaggerate the scale of things like height and distance when necessary. We also relied heavily on the lighting to support the quality and aesthetic of shots, achieved primarily through minor light tints, most commonly blue in our short film.


Aardman Animations:

Aardman animations is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. Aardman is known for films made using stop motion animation techniques, often achieved with clay, with one of their most famous and popular pieces being "Wallace and Gromit". Aardman have also created films with the use of computer animation, first in 2006 with the release of "Flushed Away". Aardman films are some of the highest grossing animations of all time, on average earning $163 million per film, with their highest grossing film being "Chicken Run".

We researched Aardman and tried to take influence from their work to help us improve our stop-frame animation, as neither of us previously had much experience in it. I particularly looked at Dave Alex Riddett, a prominent English cinematographer mostly known for his work at Aardman animations. From him, I learnt the importance of trying to light the set as if it were life-size, meaning we needed to position the lights where they would be if they were from a natural source. For example, if are set is suppose to be lit as if it were midday, we would put the light almost directly above the set, this to emulate where the natural lighting of the sun would be.