"Deconstruction" Stop Motion
Remember our artist reference studies? The one where we had to copy one of their drawings and whilst absorbing their skills? Well, our next challenge involved destroying that copy. Truth be told, destruction is an expertise of mine, and unlike my classmates, I was actually looking forward to demolishing my sketch. For one, it never really felt mine---it was, after all, only a copy of one of Da Vinci's sketches. It didn't feel me, nor did it feel original (insert argument that nothing is original anyway, yes, do move on). Secondly, I haven't done stop motion animation in well over a year and a half, and it's time to brush up those skills!
Or not. It's a very different kind of stop motion. Instead of drawing on whiteboard, or using softwares, we are drawing and erasing right on plain paper. This technique is inspired by William Kentridge, who creates stop motion using charcoal on paper, drawing scenes from everyday life, erasing and redrawing as objects are "moved" on paper. The result is raw, because every single stroke is visible even when erased.
An example of his work:
FELIX IN EXILE
AUTOMATIC WRITING
I will bookmark this video for future Typography classes. It could come in handy.
William Kentridge talking about his process and technique:
Of course, we each had to make our own stop motion videos. Mine took approximately two days (not including the time we spent in-class). It was about destruction, or deconstruction, to be precise. In this video, I deconstructed Da Vinci's hand until it was nothing but pieces of dust. Motion and rhythm were my top priorities here, after the plot of course. I wanted to create something that felt endless and infinite. The first scene shows the hand breaking apart, resulting in two creatures: a Man and a Monster. The Monster proceeds to chase the Man, and I deliberately did not erase the Monster's ascent, as I felt its previous figures would lend it a more horrifying, centipede-like look. The Man proceeds to jump into a hole in the ground (down the rabbithole we go!)
He ends up in a completely new place, this time with a different law of physics: he stands on a line that rotates on its axis, and when Man steps on one end of it, he creates an imbalance. He then proceeds to be thrown about, all while losing parts, chunks and pieces of him along the way, shedding like a dog in hibernation. Except dogs don't hibernate. Unless they're like, polar-bear-mutant-dogs or something.
The third part of the video consists of him running, running, constantly shedding pieces of himself, deconstructing, you may say. He then falls and breaks apart, much like Da Vinci's hand does in the beginning, and turns into dust.
But enough explaining, here's the video itself:
It's actually only 0:47 long, but I couldn't get the audio to stop somehow, so for now that's how it is.
Overall, I think this may be one of my favourite assignments so far. Our lecturer made us do this because he thought it would be an interesting technique for our final assignment... while it seems very interesting, if I am going to make a stop motion, you know I'll figure out some way to top it off with a bigger bang. Maybe a live, in-class deconstruction? Just a thought :)
Oh, and if you're curious, here's the stop motion I made a year and a half ago for History class. It's an artistic take on the Spanish Flu, and it damn took me a week, approximately six hours each day. Now that's commitment.