Year 2 FMP Research

Existing Product: Jason and the Argonauts
Jason and the Argonauts is a 1963 Fantasy Adventure film produced by Columbia Pictures. The plot involves
the orphan Jason and his Greek crew, the Argonauts, setting out on a mission to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
This was to overthrow the evil Pelias who killed his father many years before. However, on the way to the
Fleece, the group face many creatures who attempt to stop them advancing.
The story has a constant tempo so you always feel the characters are progressing as much as they can,
despite the difficulties they face. It shows the determination the heroic protagonists are meant to express
upon an audience, especially in a sixties’ cinema where simple good versus evil was a common occurrence
like Captain Sinbad’s El Kerim, Batman, with four of his famous villains, and perhaps even 2001: A Space
Odyssey’s monoliths.
As the audience sees each triumph for the heroes, their excitement for Jason to achieve his goal heightens,
therefore making the fantasy film more engrossing.

Jason and the Argonauts:
Dynamation/Stop-Motion Creatures
Of course the stop-motion effects are a major aspect of this film’s production, created using the new
technique at the time, Dynamation from famous animator Ray Harryhausen.
Before the technique, implementing creatures like King Kong for example had been difficult for for the
film makers as they had to build expensive, elaborate sets for the models to move around in and
splicing the creature into the same shot as the live action parts was very difficult.
However, Harryhausen’s Dynamation cleared up both of these issues, which he used first in The Beast
from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953 all the way to his last film, Clash of the Titans in 1981. The technique was
made using a split screen, with rear projection. Split screen had been around as a special effect for
nearly as long as film has existed. Honestly, the concept is quite hard to get my head around despite it
being around for almost seventy years at this point, which makes it all the more impressive that it was
created! From what I understand, the camera films the scene with the live action actors doing their
scene without the model in the area. This film is developed and put in a projector back in the studio.
The film is projected onto a back-projection screen which, unlike a regular screen, appears on the front.
Another camera captures this piece of projected film and will be used to film the new action as well. A
piece of glass is painted black in the area where the stop-motion will take place and put between the
screen and camera. You could think of this black area as a green screen in modern terms. In between
the glass and projector, a table is placed where the stop-motion model, and whatever it may interact
with, will moved upon. The model is placed so its size and position correlate with the image it is in front
of when viewed through the camera. From that point, the average stop-motion technique takes place,
with the projector moving one frame of the live action film and the model moving a little with it. The
camera captures the motion of the frame and so on. The frame is now the background image, the
model in front of it, and the painted glass portions. After the scene has been done, both projector and
camera are rewound to the start. The model is removed, and the glass is replaced by one inverting the
painted parts. After re-shooting the footage with the new glass, once the film has been developed, it
would look as though the model is appearing between the foreground and background.

Jason and the Argonauts:
Dynamation/Stop-Motion Creatures
That is a technically demanding process, but its results are worth the wait.
Harryhausen only needed what was on the table as a part of the model’s
set which was much cheaper than creating elaborate sets for its
environment. The interaction between the models and actors was also far
more genuine in this style as the models could be easily matched to the
live action motions. A key example of this can be seen with Jason’s fight
against the skeleton army where the combat appears very real, almost to
the point where the viewer, me at least, forgets that it's impossible for the
skeletons to be there on set!
The technique did have its limitations as things like lighting or colouration
which often difficult to translate convincingly between the filming on set
and the room where the stop-motion took place. Another complication
with Dynamation was that Actors couldn’t appear in front of the models,
except for the separate technique, back projection, that was occasionally
used. But despite these issues, Ray Harryhausen certainly got the most
out of his technique, making all his creatures, for he didn’t like calling his
creations monsters, come to life.

Jason and the Argonauts: Ray Harryhausen’s Art
As I believe Jason and the Argonauts is, despite its obvious adventure fantasy
roots, a very unique film. I decided I wanted to look at Ray Harryhausen’s
influences for how he approached the mythical adventures of Jason as, while
not acting as Director, since his wonderous creations would take centre stage in
the film, he clearly had a lot of control on the narrative. My curiosity began
after coming across a highly detailed piece of art based on the Skeleton Army
scene by Harryhausen himself.
I further read that art was a huge part of the animator’s inspiration throughout
his career, especially the works of Gustave Doré who originally inspired Ray’s
idol, King Kong creator, Willis O’Brien. As Harryhausen was an avid follower of
O’Brien, he naturally took to attempt emulating Doré’s style. Harryhausen said
“His imagination and his talent for dramatic composition is typified by his
unique way of focusing light onto the centre of the picture… The effect is almost
cinematic”. This description clearly shows the Artist’s impact on Ray
Harryhausen’s vision for visuals. This carried through the war, where, while
situated in New York as a part of a film crew, Harryhausen tried to find as many
first edition books by Doré as he could.
Along with Doré, Ray found the 19th century Artist John Martin to be of great
importance to his approach on the fantastical parts of his work. Harryhausen
was fascinated by the almost apocalyptic settings of his art, saying “his
imaginative and romantic visions not only attracted me because of their style,
but also engaged my imagination”.

Jason and the Argonauts: Ray Harryhausen’s Art
From the 1957, Ray drew vivid art as a sort of composition to
show film makers how he envisioned the scene in which his
animations would take place. This was first seen with a combat
scene against a skeleton for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. And of
course he made art for Jason and the Argonauts, for each time
his creatures made an appearance against the heroes. His
drawings use light very effectively to consider the depth of the
characters which must have been inspired by Doré, as well as it
obviously being useful to show how the model would be
effected by the lights. Impressively, despite expecting
Harryhausen’s drawing to be much more impressive than the
film versions, as no amount of budget is required to display
imagination, when compared, the versions match up
surprisingly well. I think this truly shows Ray Harryhausen’s
impressive ability as an animator and film maker to translate
his dynamic ideas so splendidly onto screen.

Jason and the Argonauts: Stop-Motion Creatures
Of course, the main attraction for many audiences would be the creatures who oppose the main cast
of heroes. The spectacle of seeing such monsters, even if Harryhausen didn't call them that, must
have been truly inspiring in 1963. Along with the use of Dynamation, the already lively models had a
greater sense of realism in the world of the film as they interacted with the live-action segments
seamlessly.
The first Stop-Motion character the protagonists come across is Talos the gigantic metal man. By
having such an impressive opponent as the opening confrontation, it sets the mood and intensity for
the film to come. The characters and audience realise at that point, the mission will not be as simple
as they'd hope. The design of the goliath is imposing, with the build of a gladiator matching his height
in portraying the pure strength he possesses. Talos features blank eyes which I believe adds to his
menace, especially in his first motion as he stares at Hercules. The blank stare gives us no suggestion
of his emotions or his aims which distances the audience from his human figure. Speaking of Hercules,
Talos' awakening only happens because he decides to seek trouble for fortune. This suggests to the
audience that the Argonauts have their faults and that could lead to serious danger for the future. I'd
also like to add that unlike the rest of the beasts in the film, Talos is stiffer, with a rusty sound
accompanying this, which makes the figure appear even less human and perhaps an ancient feeling.
The next foe are the Harpies who appear almost as a foil to the mighty look of Talos, being small,
skinny creatures who pick on the old man for his food which shows they cruelty. The bat like
appearance makes them visually scary and the fast movement they done through the air adds to the
juxtaposition of the prior giant. The way they almost play with the man when they could easily throw
him aside, as well as the cackling screeches, depicts the Harpies as knowingly evil whereas with Talos
it was hard to tell his true intentions. Their defeat at the hands of Jason and his Argonauts shows true
crew's cunning as they plan the trap to capture the Harpies. This tells the audience that Jason has
more than just heart or strength, but also has smarts about any situation.

The penultimate beast is the protector of the Golden Fleece, the Hydra. As it has such a vital role
in protecting the prize from Jason, its appearance certainly gives it a menacing aura. The many
heads constantly jabbing outwards in anger with the hissing, snake like sound shows the audience
it isn't afraid to go in for attack. The size is also much larger than Jason so the same notion of
dominance from Talos is felt from the Hydra. One thing to note is that the blue of the beast
contrasts to the more orange background so it has a far more prominent appearance in the
viewer's eye. The threat and power of the creature is shown clearly by its crushing of Acastus for
the viewer and Jason to see, making us panic about the hero's fate. This worry is heightened
when Jason is caught by the Hydra's tail like its previous victim so we fear the same death could
happen to him. The defeat of the Hydra therefore gives the characters and viewers an immense
sigh of relief, as well as showing us the determination the lead character has to defeat such a
menace.
The final opponent for Jason and a couple of his Argonauts are the fearsome skeleton army. The
design of these creatures isn't far from an actual skeleton and so their expressionless faces can be
disturbing. However, it can be perceived that, as the jaw connects upward, it seems to be almost
smiling which certainly adds to the unsettling nature of the undead. The way they rise from the
ground and remain standing and in a way, staring makes the protagonists and audience feel
uneasy. This uneasiness increases as they slowly creep toward the heroes, before they let out a
scream and run to attack. This unnatural scream expresses how manic these skeletons are and
the Dynamation of the film truly shines in the combat. Despite them clearly not being there,
Harryhausen manages to match the fighting of the actors and models so well, the fight sequence
goes seamlessly in each clash. This realism makes the army feel far more threatening as their
movements do feel real and with consequence rather than knowing the model can't actually do
anything in the moment. The fact they killed two of the Argonauts, with Jason having to escape
the onslaught makes them a memorable and formidable final foe for the film.
Jason and the Argonauts: Stop-Motion Creatures

Jason and the Argonauts: Ray Harryhausen’s Process
Now that we know how Harryhausen implemented his creations into the film, and
what he did to envision his creatures, I want to look at a Guardian article he wrote
in 2003 about the overall production of Jason and the Argonauts and what
involvement he had in its making.
At school, Ray said “Greek and Roman mythology had never been my favourite
subject at school” but he began to appreciate the tales behind the legends as they
allowed to envision vivid worlds with heroes, villains and most importantly,
fantastical creatures to roam. In the late 50s, Harryhausen discussed the idea of a
film set in Greek legend with producer Charles H Schneer. In all of the fables, the
pair found that Jason and his search for the Golden Fleece was the most appealing
to create as it allowed for more flexible story-telling in adventure and fantasy. With
that, Jason and the Argonauts was born and Harryhausen makes quick mention
that, “of all the films that I have been connected with, it continues to please me
most”.
When looking for locations to shoot in, Harryhausen remarked that Greece was the
obvious choice, and yet he found it was far too bleak and miserable looking, and
the ancient ruins like the Parthenon being so decayed they wouldn’t even work for
the film’s ruined temple. Instead, the production team found Italy had the perfect
Greek ruins with which he noted the Greeks had colonised before the rise of Rome.
Italy’s abundance of ocean would also be useful for filming Jason’s ship, the Argo.
However, Harryhausen discovered they were not the only crew filming in Italy in
quite the humorous fashion. While expecting the Argo to come around a corner, a
far more modern vessel with engines crept into shot much faster than theirs.

Jason and the Argonauts: Ray Harryhausen’s ProcessIn November of 1961, Harryhausen actively involved his father in the production of his creatures. He sent the
designs for the armatures he needed for the stop-motion with Talos, and much bigger versions of his hands and
feet, the Hydra and Harpies, skeletons and the humans in shots they would be interacting with the Hydra’s tail.
His Dad sent him the finished armatures four months later which allowed Harryhausen four months to completely
model and paint every single part before animating, an impressive feat.
The first Dynamation Harryhausen worked on was Talos, the bronze titan. Ray does mention that Talos was in the
original Jason myth but how he appeared was quite different, only being around eight foot and when coming
across strangers, he would set aflame to incinerate intruders. They decided to alter this image, replacing the fiery
inferno with a 100 foot adversary, based on the Colossus of Rhodes who was a statue the size of the Statue of
Liberty based off the sun-god Helios, who was erected in Rhodes obviously. Harryhausen thought they has a
similarity as the collapsed Colossus of Rhodes was located at harbour looking out to sea, while Talos remains
close to the island’s coast and does not allow escape from its borders. As Harryhausen said, “A Colossus in
reverse”.
Harryhausen found amusement in the animation of Talos. This is because he suggests how it seems ironic that
through his career, the man had refined his technique so that his animations were perfectly smooth, and yet for
the giant, it was necessary to keep him deliberately stiff. Harryhausen said it served narrative purpose, “in
keeping with the bronze statue sprung to life”. When Talos appears from behind a large cliff face after destroying
the Argo, Ray said the shot’s intention was to be impressive as possible. As for Jason’s defeat of the goliath, they
built an entire full sized foot and ankle to be interacted with in Italy, and the life blood that leaks out of Talos was
the result of many experiments. The end result was a concoction of oatmeal and coloured water. For Talos' final
fall, Harryhausen replaced the original model with one of fibreglass with which he cut the cracked sections that
would form on the iron giant once he was bled dry. To create the effect of the cracks gradually appearing around
the body, Ray filled the cracks with clay which he took more and more out of with each frame.
Harryhausen didn't have as much to say about the next foe of the Harpies. He did describe that in the legends,
the Harpies had the face of a woman planted on the body of a vulture with sharp, claw-like nails on the hands and
feet. However Harryhausen took liberties at adapting this mythical beast by making them far more bat-like so that
"they had a more practical and menacing appearance". I couldn't imagine how many feathers he would have to
add if he stuck to the vulture design.
I decided upon this
image of the
Harpies as it was
drawn by Gustave
Doré, whom I
mentioned to be an
idol of Harryhausen.
I thought the
coincidence was too
good to miss up on.

The next part of the story Harryhausen worked on had nothing to do with model monsters. Instead, it was the scene where
Triton protect the Argo from the falling rocks that hail down towards them. He explains that the crew searched for months
to find the right actor for the role as, of the things, they were required to have long arms. This was because, even though
the set was in miniature, the distance between the cliffs he had to hold up was considerable. The actor that was eventually
chosen was a swimmer and so could submerge himself so that his grand entrance was harder to see coming. Harryhausen
did feel bad for the actor's role since the filming of it was quite the toll. They had to wear an uncomfortable fish tail corset
the entire scene, while avoiding any of its complex mechanisms that allowed the technical team to operate it, and the wig
that the actor wore was heavily lacquered so that it could resist the water and become "wet noodles". Harryhausen
directed Triton to let his lower lip stick out a bit like the Royal Habsburgs of the Austrian Empire, who ruled over a lot of
Europe over five centuries. This "House" often inbred and so deformities like an extended jaw or an outward lip were likely
to form. Harryhausen thought he looked far too normal on the first take and thought the small change in appearance would
make him more majestic and menacing.
The sequence was all filmed inside Shepperton Studios, where Harryhausen and his crew had built a water tank with a
special wave creating device. They went on to create the falling rocks out of Styrofoam, covering them with plaster
afterwards. However, Harryhausen hadn't realised until the day filming that the "clashing rocks" would simply float so
overnight, the entire construction shop made replacement pure plaster rocks. Along with the cinematographer Wilkie
Cooper, Harryhausen made it so that the rocks had far more impact. They did this by using a highspeed camera to capture
the footage which they could slow down to make each hit into the water feel much larger in scale and add a "dreamlike
quality" that matched the subject matter of the god in the heroes' midst.
When it came time for the climax of the film, Harryhausen came to the guardian of the Golden Fleece. Interestingly, the
original beast that protected the fleece was a Dragon, but Harryhausen thought that the creature was far too embued in
Medieval mythology for this story and researched other Greek legends that would better suit the protector. He ended up
choosing the Hydra, of which Hercules originally slays as one of his labours. In this case however, Hercules has been
deserted on an island to look for his friend despite the entire crew being told he is dead by the Goddess Hela... how cruel I
must say. In the original mythology, the Hydra is often depicted having 100 or 50 heads, with two heads growing in place of
one. The only way it would die was by applying burning iron to the wounds but Harryhausen understood that this
endeavour would be far too extreme to even attempt in stop-motion. Because of this, he gave the Hydra seven heads and
made it so that it was killed by stabbing it through the heart, a far simpler but still effective perspective. Its design was
adapted from Greek vases as Talos was but took many interations before Harryhausne decided upon the more serpent
orientated look came about, with the forked toungues and distinctive tail end. The heads were meant to resemble
"dinosaur-like birds" with curved beaks and ear-like curving crests, to show the audience of the beast's prehistoric origin.

The final foe Jason comes up agaisnt is the seven skeletons of the Hydra's fangs. In the original legend, these
victims of the beast were reaminated as rotting corpses which I believe would make them some of the first
"zombie" stories ever. However, Harryhausen and the producer thought this would give the film a rating high
enough to where children couldn't watch it as the gore would be quite disturbing. The models were around ten
inches tall and six of them were produced, with the final one being a repainted skeleton from "The Seventh
Voyage of Sinbad", a smart way of using what's at your disposal. Once the army is sent to attack, what follows is a
scene Harryhausen is very proud of, being the samless fight between the models and the humans. Each skeleton
had five apendages that all needed to move with every single frame of the film and synced up to the actor's
movements, no easy feat. Because of the extreme complexity, Harryhausen spent some days doing less than a
second of animation; in the end, the entire sequence took four and a half months to produce. Humorously,
Harryhausen and the whole team didn't know how you actually kill the undead. This puzzled them for some time
until they finally opted to just have Jason jump into the sea, with the skeletons falling in behind him. The film
crew just assumed that the army wouldn't know how to swim and would just fall to the bottom of the ocean in
disarray. When the stuntman jumped fro the cliffside, the propmen dropped seven plaster skeletons after him.
However, they onlty had one chance to do this shot as it would be impossible to retrieve the bones from the sea
so it's a good thing they did! Harryhausen remarks that those props are probably still there to this day.
Harryhausen then tells us that the film took two years to create and, for the time, the budget was insane at three
million dollars. The title was originally meant to be Jason and the Golden Fleece, but the producing company
discovered there had already been a film under the name, of all the names to find a copy of! The publicity
department produced a bunch of alternatives but they decided on the name you see today. The film received
generally good reviews, although Time Magazine mocked the simplicity of Talos, mocking that he had "a drain
plug in his heel". Harryhausen defended this fact, describing how liberties had to be made so that the genral
audience could graps the concepts being shown, without going into an intricate amount of detail. Its release was
also at the point US audiences were becoming bored of Italian Muscle Epics, or Sword-and-sandal films, which
the fiml's makers tried hard to avoid being associated with. Finally, Harryhausen descibes how the film wasn't
even nominated for Best Special Effects at the Oscars, when Paramount submitted it to the Academy. In later
years, Harryhausen was told that certain Academy members didn't see the film as any particularly extraordinary.
Harryhausen leaves the article by asking how that's possible, when nothing like it had been seen on screen
before?

Existing Product: The Wrong Trousers
The Wrong Trousers is an Aardman produced stop-motion short film from 1993, featuring the
characters of Wallace and Gromit. This comedy, which has film noir influences, begins with Wallace’s
new invention of the Techno Trousers which were built to take Gromit for walks. However, as the
costly invention puts the Inventor into debt, Wallace decides to lodge a suspicious penguin whom
Gromit has foil.
The plot for the short film is a very quirky one, where it seems everything an audience would think
the characters or settings would be have a twist to make the ordinary fantastical. This is notable with
Wallace, despite appearing and acting daftly, being able to invent technologically advanced trousers,
Gromit being able to act almost human in thought and body language, and of course a penguin in the
north of England who happens to be a villainous thief. This would certainly keep audiences from
guessing what could possibly happen next and therefore keep them on the edge of their seat.

The Wrong Trousers: Music
The music of The Wrong Trousers plays a pivotal role in its story-
telling. This is due to Wallace being the only character to have a
voice and ironically having the least to do in terms of moving the
plot except for inventing the titles' namesake and naïvely bringing
in the Penguin. The main focus comes with the rivalry between
Gromit and Feathers McGraw who do not speak at all during the
film’s run time.
There is a clear distinction in the music of Wallace and Gromit’s
screen time and the beginning and end of the film, which features
their trademark orchestrated soundtrack with the prominent
brass front and wind instrument giving the duo a whimsical and
elating tune.
However, when it comes to Gromit’s reaction to the Penguin, the
music takes a far more different approach. When they first meet,
the music contains a continuing dull droning sound, perhaps to
make the audience feel uncomfortable throughout its duration as
Gromit does about the lodger. This is only broken by the
ominously faster tempo string instruments which only increases
the tension making the viewer feel as though something is about
to happen, only for the Penguin to stare.

The Wrong Trousers: Music
The next piece commences as Gromit decides to snoop out
the unwanted guest, so he hides under a box and watches
the Penguin’s sinister movements. This piece only contains
string instruments, except for the very occasional drum beat,
beginning with a sharp, shifting pitch to show the anxiety of
Gromit’s situation, before slowly adding a deep, steady
segment as the Penguin comes into the shot. The difference
in mood between the instruments represents the confidence
and control each of the characters have in their current
situation. Gromit’s higher pitch and faster instrument
progressively matches the Penguin’s as he watches its
movement, perhaps to give the notion that Gromit is
understanding more and more about his adversary. The
music increases its tempo throughout as the tension rises,
with the Penguin almost spotting Gromit, as well as our
faithful companion discovering the sinister Penguin’s plans.
As the film has plot points reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock,
with the Penguin acting as the stranger who comes to stay as
seen in 1927's The Lodger, it’s no wonder the sound design
on these tense thriller type scenes have a similar mood to
Vertigo from 1958.

The Wrong Trousers: The Train Sequence
A key moment of the film is its climax, where the title characters, but mostly
Gromit, chase the Penguin on a model train set through their house to stop its
criminal antiques. While scene is fun without the context of the film, being a
high thrills chase, I want to go through it and describe why certain points are
so effective to the plot and for the audience watching.
The narrative is set up with the Penguin in control of the situation, holding the
weapon and Wallace & Gromit contained in the cupboard. However, as Gromit
tumbles out of the door and the music begins to play in a frantically, does the
chase begin. We as the audience understand every character's motivation as
escapee or catcher, so all we have to focus on is what happens on the scene.
When the Penguin shoots toward Gromit, breaking the wire on the light, it is
made clear that it intends to kill which makes the climax all the more tense.
The use of the train set is in tone with Wallace & Gromit's ideologies in giving
something mundane a far more elaborate and absurd purpose. As well as this,
the train chase is reminiscent of the Western genre of film with the Penguin
acting as the criminal who's stolen a valuable object, while Gromit acts as the
Sheriff tracking him down on the train's roof. However, in this case it just so
happens to be on a toy model in a house! The next section shows Feathers and
Gromit's quick thinking, as after realising it cannot kill Gromit in time, the
Penguin shoots off the penguin flap on the door for a quick getaway. However,
Gromit realises this and changes the tracks to keep the adversary in the house,
showing their matching wit.

The Wrong Trousers: The Train Sequence
Wallace comes into the scene, adding comedy through his juxtaposition the
serious tone the climax has. His bumbling presence draws attention without
being obnoxious and he manages to take the gun from the Penguin, so
provides a purpose to the chase that isn't just for laughs. His introduction to
the chase also wraps up the plot point of the title characters relationship with
the Penguin's introduction, by unifying them against the threat that tried to
tear them apart. After Wallace is flung out of the Techno-Trousers and holding
on to the back of the train, the Penguin splits the track. This leads into the
most ridiculous gag of the film, Gromit's rail building. This segment is so
outlandish but never overdoes it. Even Peter Sallis, Wallace's voice actor, had
his doubts about the use of the joke but audience reception showed
appreciation for it. It shows Gromit's quick thinking once again and increases
the intensity of the chase as the audience hopes he can catch up to the
Penguin with added difficulty. Gromit weaves through the table with Wallace
providing humour in his panic, finally catching up to Feathers who ironically
gets hit by the Techno-Trousers, the very device it used to steal the diamond in
the first place. There is a certain intensity in the lack of music as the Penguin
flies through the air and the pair chase it from below. Finally, Gromit manages
to contain the Penguin in a milk bottle after he runs out of track. For me, this is
funny as the Penguin was designed to "glide across the room like a bottle",
so serves as dramatic irony. To end the chase, Wallace slides into the shot,
giddy about their success and allowing the audience to calm down.

Existing Product: The Nightmare Before Christmas' Cover
I've decided I want to look at the composition of the cover for "The Nightmare Before
Christmas" and how it functions to interest an audience.
I'll start off my analysis with the logo used for the film. It strikes a very gothic feel which
goes in line with the general look of the film and feels oddly reminiscent of The Christmas
Carol in its style. I suppose this makes sense as the title implies the festive aspect of the film
as well as the story having gothic parts to the story in its ghosts and otherworldly parts. It is
placed in a more barren area of the image, and is notably vivid with the juxtaposing yellow
font against the deep blue cliff.
Speaking of colours, the use of the opposite sides of the colour wheel make the setting very
dynamic, with the previously mentioned text along with the lights inside the pumpkins and
most notably, the Moon. The Moon is positioned centrally at the top of the frame which
draws much of the attention. Not only does it make the overall composition more
appealing, but it makes the character of Jack Skellington distinct in the image. His darker
figure cuts through the brightness of the Moon and so the viewer is left interested in who
this mysterious character is. The fact he isn't very focused on in the cover, only appearing as
a smaller model in the entire piece, adds to this curiosity about the leading role.
The final aspect I want to remark upon is the setting. To begin with, the hill Skellington
resides on ends with a twirl, expressing the surreal look of this world as well as having a
visually pleasing shape against the yellow Moon. The pumpkins are placed below Jack and
describe the current location with the attitude cut across their faces. Each one has a manic
grin which encompasses the insane town and residents of Skellington's world. As
mentioned before, the colour of their lights, and even orange skin are dynamically different
from the cold colours the majority of the shot in comprised of. With the pumpkins
representing Skellington's old life on the floor, the Moon almost represents where he wants
to be in signifying hope. It is placed above all the other objects while Jack looks up toward it
and his future.

Existing Product: LAIKA's Website
Another product I thought I would look at that related to animation without being a film or
some form is the Laika website. Laika is the studio who created Coraline, ParaNorman and,
as seen in the images, Kubo and the Two Strings. This particular part of the website is more
of a focus on the actual films created by the studio, as I thought that was the most
important part that would relate to my product.
To begin with, I want to look at the layout of the selection bar on the right-hand side. The
selectable sections are easy to understand, with the film titles being the first option while
the sub-categories are revealed when the film is selected. The font that is used on the site
matches the studio's logo and as a result, both fits the theming of the website and is
coincidentally clear to read for the user. The colouring used is beneficial to the UI, as
different gradients are used to highlight sections and make it easier to see what is grouped
where. The colour also matches the film it is linked to, and a symbol is emblazoned below
the text to make the bar far more visually pleasing. Therefore, the part of the website that is
just meant to transfer you around, which is integral to the flow of the site of course, blends
well with its surroundings.
Now, onto the first of three sections that can be scrolled through for a film. The part that is
seen first is a striking image from the film, either being a part of the story or simply, in the
case shown, the central character splashed across the entire screen. The image's
implementation provides the viewer with a first impression of the film, and so by being bold
and in your face as soon as you click to learn about the animation, it makes the film more
memorable. The image also incorporates a trailer into it, as you are able to change it into
the trailer, making the section very dynamic. Along with this image, a small paragraph is
placed in a non-intrusive area of the section. While the title of the film is larger and given
the bold colouring of the film's aesthetic, the text below remains in simple but pronounced
white. The text gives a brief overview of the film's plot so that the viewer can grasp what
they should expect upon watching it. The synopsis therefore helps ease new audiences to
each of the studio's movies, and easily understand the story's progress.

The next section is dedicated to not the plot of the film, but the
intricacies to forming it in animation in the Trivia. With each film, the
background, box and image within are altered to make the theming
between them is clearly known to the audience. Each of these unique
designs gives the presentation of the page an individual feel that intrigue
the viewer far more than a repetitive style throughout. As for the facts
themselves, each one offers a new chunk of information which remains
concise but still provides a fulfilling and understandable amount to
interest the viewer.
The final segment of the film part of the Laika website is the News,
which details, as you could probably presume, the latest stories involving
the chosen film. The same style and tone differences are set between
the movies as with the Trivia section, furthering each animation's
independence. The title is in the bold colour of the film, with the
example showing Kubo's deep red, which briefly describes what
happened in a past event to catch the reader's eye. The text below is in
black which serves the same purpose as the white text for the premise.
The font itself is clear to read and provides more context beyond the
title's description which intrigues the reader to click on the link to find
even more information on the subject shown.
Existing Product: LAIKA's Website

Bibliography Could Add1. Aardman Animations. (2009). 20 Questions With Nick Park. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jwp-0oEoJM. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
2. Abbott, K. (2014). How we made Wallace and Gromit . Available: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/mar/03/how-we-made-wallace-and-gromit. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
3. Anon. Vertigo OST. Available: https://www.banquetrecords.com/vertigo-ost/bernard-herrmann/VP90019. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
4. Anon. (1963). YEAR: 1963. Available: https://time.com/vault/year/1963/. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
5. Anon. (2017). M13.3 HYDRA & HERACLES. Available: https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/M13.3.html. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
6. Burton, T. (1993). The Nightmare Before Christmas. Touchstone Pictures.
7. C. Cooper, M. (1933). King Kong. RKO Radio Productions.
8. Chaffey, D. (1963). Jason and the Argonauts. Charles H. Schneer Productions.
9. Dickens, C (1843). A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman & Hall.
10. Dimuro, G. (2018). The Habsburg Jaw And The Cost Of Royal Inbreeding. Available: https://allthatsinteresting.com/habsburg-jaw. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
11. Fandor. (2017). Rear Projection: How It Works. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwe4Fan41Is. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
12. H. Martinson, L. (1966). Batman. William Dozier Productions.
13. Harryhausen, R. (2003). Model heroes . Available: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/dec/20/featuresreviews.guardianreview16. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
14. Haskin, B. (1963). Captain Sinbad. King Brothers Productions.
15. Heaney, C. (2019). The cinematic and artistic genius of Ray Harryhausen. Available: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-cinematic-and-artistic-genius-of-ray-harryhausen#. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
16. Hitchcock, A. (1927). The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Gainsborough Pictures.
17. Hitchcock, A. (1958). Vertigo. Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions.
18. Juran, N. (1958). The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Morningside Productions.
19. King, S. (2003). Musclemen heroes of Italian cinema . Available: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-27-et-king27-story.html. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
20. Krystek, L. (1999). Harryhausen's Dynamation. Available: http://www.unmuseum.org/dyna.htm. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
21. Laika. (2009). Laika. Available: https://www.laika.com/. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
22. Nott, J. (2016). Wallace and Gromit The Wrong Trousers Soundtrack Suite. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJJ_pQ0lfK4. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
23. OttawaAnimationFest. (2016). Nick Park on THE WRONG TROUSERS. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFsBg4md-U4&list=PLukIC8jbPeYyrZLc4n7Lr7K0c_l3OdmmU&index=53. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
24. Park, N (1993). The Wrong Trousers. Aardman Animations.
25. Petrie, D. (1996). Cooper, Wilkie (1911-2001). Available: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/556436/index.html. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
26. Reynolds, S. (2008). Sallis doubted 'Trousers' train chase. Available: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a135855/sallis-doubted-trousers-train-chase/. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
27. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Colossus of Rhodes. Available: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colossus-of-Rhodes. Last accessed 5th Mar 2020.
28. Trumble, D. (2019). The Train Chase. Available: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1151529096360468480.html. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.
29. Wallace & Gromit. (2015). The Wrong Trousers - Train Chase - Wallace and Gromit. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmZIgVoQw4. Last accessed 2nd Mar 2020.

Existing Product: Paddington
I Have Left This Slide In Case I Decide To Return To This
Part Of The Project As I Have Enough Time To Do So. If I
Do Not, Then This Will Either Be Deleted Or Left To
Show What I May Have Done Or Just Forgotten. I
Suppose If You Are Reading This, It Is The Latter.

Jan Švankmajer ? ? ?
Could Add
Alice
Food Trilogy
C R E E P Y
I Have Left This Slide In Case I Decide To Return To This
Part Of The Project As I Have Enough Time To Do So. If I
Do Not, Then This Will Either Be Deleted Or Left To Show
What I May Have Done Or Just Forgotten. I Suppose If
You Are Reading This, It Is The Latter.

Wallace & Gromit
To see the audience's thoughts on Wallace & Gromit, I decided to find a survey on
YouGov which could give me a general overview on the series. The one I found was
"Have you watched Wallace & Gromit and did you like it or not?" which was
thankfully the type of question I wanted, and interestingly it was targeted towards
adults only. Also, the amount of people who took part in the survey was 2424 which
is a decent amount in my opinion. In the survey, it took the number of people in each
section and translated them into percentages. The amount of people who liked it was
67% while the dislike percent was 7%, with the more miscellaneous answers resulted
in 26%. The survey itself was conducted in December of 2019 so it's very current. I'll
break it into the different sections of the survey with the region the audience lived in
first.
Apparently, the South excluding London has the highest amount of viewers at 71 who
like the show, although I do think the question maker could have been clearer on the
distinction between the North and South. Compared to the other regions of the
North and Wales, the South's number isn't exceedingly high as they have a
viewership of 68 so generally England has a much higher watch rate of the films than
Wales and especially Scotland with only 63 to its name. While perhaps not the
highest number, London has an impressive 59, with the city only coming 4 short of
the entire country of Scotland. I find this somewhat interesting as Wallace & Gromit
is set in the North so I assumed its popularity would be higher there.
Although dramatically lower in numbers, there are also statistics for those who didn't
like it. The highest amount is 9 from Wales while the lowest comes from the South
with 5, which makes sense with the positive response it got in that region. The
second highest dislike amount comes from London with 8 which, while obviously
having more positivity, still seems like a moderately high dislike rate when looking at
the distance between them.

Wallace & Gromit
In terms of Gender, it would seem men enjoy Wallace & Gromit more than
women. In the survey, 70 men said they liked the show with only 5 dislikes
while the total number of women who liked it was 65 with a bigger dislike
ratio of 8. If I were to guess, perhaps the slapstick humour might be more
enticing to men with more ridiculous things happening in the films. This
would be supported by the fact their creator's a man so may base the
comedy more so on his preferences than think about what a wider audience
might think, which would not be intentional of course. Another less likely
reason may be that both Wallace & Gromit are male so potentially women
can't see a role model so it isn't as interesting to them.
Now for the Political views of those who watch the films. The survey says
that Liberal Democrats are the biggest group to watch it at 77, while the
Conservatives are the lowest at 70. This correlates with the dislike ratio for
both parties. However, despite having a slight edge on the Conservatives
with positivity, Labour shares the amount of dislike for Wallace & Gromit. It
also looks as though those who voted Leave in the Brexit vote disliked the
show more than those who wanted to Remain which I tried correlating to
the locations of the vote. However, some of the results made little sense to
me. Scotland was completely on the Remain side so the result that they had
a low dislike ratio makes sense but quite a lot of the South and almost all of
the North of England voted Leave so their higher positivity is a little odd, to
me at least.

Wallace & Gromit
I find the Age results to be particularly interesting in that the age range
that has the best results for positivity in those from 50 to 65. Why this
older age is the strongest, I truly don't know. Perhaps as Wallace is within
that age range, that audience finds him more endearing or the use of
claymation is more appealing to them than modern technology like CGI
effects. This is certainly the case for Nick Park who, while interested in
computer animation, has a softer spot for stop-motion. He also happens
to be within that age range at 61, so that further backs up my somewhat
flimsy idea behind the curious result! This idea can be relayed to the next
result that the youngest range of 18 to 24 has the strongest dislike for
Wallace & Gromit. Perhaps they are too old to enjoy the slapstick humour,
and not old enough to fully appreciate the technical quality of the films.
These reasons don't feel all too justified in my opinion so the result of the
ages is rather baffling.
The final result to look at is the Social Grade for the people answering the
survey. In the survey, the maker decided to clump the higher grades and
the lower ones into two so it isn't too clear what the standings but it's still
usable. Those with a higher grade had a more positive ratio with 69 than
those with a lower one, coming only 4 less in the like sector. For the
negativity, the low grades only had one more person who didn't dislike
Wallace & Gromit. However, both sections shared the same amount of
people who haven't watched the films so I couldn't assume the lower like
ratio on the lower grades was due to less watching it. Again, I don't have
any substantial reasons as to why these results have come about.

Tim Burton
I decided to look at the general opinion on the Director, Tim Burton using YouGov. I
chose Burton as his films have a darker tone, as can be seen in The Nightmare
Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. The information shown on the site is taken
from between January of 2019 to January of 2020 so there has been a long time to
get results in. A total of 6306 people have taken part in the result so I have
confidently legitimate results to go by.
The words used to describe Tim Burton paint him in a positive light, with words like
creative, artistic and perhaps most fitting, crazy and dark. These words certainly fit
the type of film making Burton does, with distinct and different stories that are very
separate from anything in the mainstream. The dark tone is clear throughout his
productions and the bizarre visuals could lead people to believe he is slightly
unhinged! His rating as a Director is also relatively high, being the 13th most popular
and 12th most famous. I assume this is due to his long career making many popular
films like Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and the previously mentioned
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Tim Burton has a slightly below average score of 47% for positive opinions on, with
only a small 6% who don't like him. As for those who have a neutral opinion on
Burton, a middle ground is found with 26% whereas a huge majority of people have
only heard of Tim Burton at 80%. These are interesting results, as there isn't a
distinct overall opinion on Burton like with the consensus on a Director like Steven
Spielberg who has a high positive rating of 81% with a 2% dislike. This may be
translated into how Burton's films are perceived as the dark and bizarre tone and
visuals could easily have a marmite effect on people. What I mean by this is that
many people may adore the unique style he brings to the films but others might not
care about the style, to the point where they find it annoying and uncomfortable.

Tim Burton
The generation who likes him the most is those from Gen X.
These people were born in the mid-sixties all the way to the
early eighties. I would assume this high positive opinion of
56% comes from the fact many of Burton's most
recognisable titles came out during the time these people,
especially in the latter part, were growing up and so have a
nostalgic feeling for Tim's films. On the other hand, Baby
Boomers would be too old to watch these growing up or
probably not even with their children like earlier Gen X's
might have. As for Millennials, they would be able to watch
his older work through streaming platforms or DVD when
they were younger, perhaps even with a more recent Gen X
parent, so enjoying them too.
The gender who has a higher like ratio for Tim Burton is
female, but only by 4% so it isn't a drastic difference. I don't
have a strong reason as to why this slight lead is, perhaps his
films manage to equal the bias's each gender may enjoy in
narrative, visuals, characters, music and whatever else
interests the audience. If so, that is a very impressive feat to
please both females and males alike.

Coraline
Coraline is a stop-motion picture from 2009, directed and written by
Henry Selick for Laika Studios. Selick also directed The Nightmare Before
Christmas so the dark tones shared between the films makes sense. In
the film, Coraline finds a doorway to another dimension in her new
house where she finds kinder versions of her parents who happen to
have buttons for eyes. However, a sinister atmosphere soon arises so
Coraline must escape this much more twisted world before her eyes are
sown into buttons.
As there is no YouGov result for Coraline, I've decided to look at reviews
made by separate people for several sites to see what they think of the
film. I'll give my reasons as to why I believe they have these opinions
along with any other information I feel embellishes the audience's
points.
To begin with, I will look at the Rotten Tomatoes Coraline page for
audience research. The critic percentage gave it a stellar 91% out of 100.
From the reviews left by critics, they were very impressed by its
inventiveness and pure imagination in the cinematography and
storytelling. One reviewer mentions how Selick takes full use of the
advanced technology which gives Coraline a stronger atmosphere. There
seems to be an agreement that the film can be enjoyed by both children
and adults as it doesn’t try to be too complex and yet it remains
undiluted for the audience. For curiosity, I decided to look at the most
negative critiques and as far as I can tell, most of the critics thought it
was too scary for children and therefore unenjoyable which is quite the
opposite to the positive opinions.

Coraline
For the general audience's percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it comes down
to 73%. Before checking out the reviews, my guess as to this lower
rating could be parents believing the film's creepier elements are a
little much for younger children, as with the negative critics. From my
reading of their reviews, they believe the animation is impeccable and
that the story takes interesting turns, using old fables and of course the
book it's based off to heighten the storytelling. However, even on the
four out of five-star reviews, it is implied that the tone could be a shock
for first time viewers. One reviewer said they were "not sure how my
kids would have felt about it if they would have seen it as kids", with
another mentioning the picture was "a bit darker than I expected".
Once again, I checked out the negative reviews and I must admit, I
think the issues I saw were less to do with the film and do with the
reviewer. One viewer gave it a one star as it was "a terrible movie for
sensitive children" and another being angry that it wasn't for "a family
movie night". In my opinion, I believe these low ratings come down to
the viewer not checking what the film was about and assuming its
stop-motion meant it was for children. One review I found particularly
funny was a very recent one where the reviewer said Coraline terrified
them as a child, but 10 years later they believe it's a piece of art. This
shows the film can have different effects for different people from the
horror element to the technical quality.

Caroline
The next review I want to look at comes from The New York Times, written by A.O. Scott. He
differs from the general audience worries of frightening children by acknowledging its many
scary scenes and offering them as a recommendation for kids. He believes that getting
frightened is a part of youth and growing up, further explaining that a film that portrays a sense
of unease and spookiness, as long as it refrains from violence and death, can allow a younger
audience to escape the mundane, wholesome and school-approved entertainment they would
otherwise consume. I believe this opinion myself, and sheltering children from anything that
can incite a strong emotion or reaction restricts who they can grow up to be. He mentions how
authors like Roald Dahl often offer a darker story directed to children as it allows creativity to
flow, as with The Witches who transform the children into mice or the extreme transformations
that take place in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Scott proceeds to describe that Caroline takes a different approach to pacing that most other
children's animation would, deciding to take much more time exploring the dazzling and yet
disturbing atmosphere rather than the rush to the climax style kids animated media usually
goes for. A curious quote from the review that caught my eye comes after Scott compares the
film's direction to those like Burton and del Toro. He says "Mr. Selick is interested in childhood
not as a condition of sentimentalized, passive innocence but rather as an active, seething state
of receptivity in which consciousness itself is a site of wondrous, at times unbearable drama". I
find this particularly interesting as I believe the quote encompasses why there are those who
adore it, and those who believe it isn't suitable for watching. Parents and perhaps some
children may want Coraline to act as a purely escapist film that can be enjoyed with popcorn
but when they find that the film looks at the human condition and what it means to be a child
growing up, it makes that audience feel uncomfortable with its representation in the film.
However, such strong themes and how they are realised would please other viewers,
appreciating what messages are being shown through the film's narrative that they are able to
relate to. This could be either as they presently watch it, remembering how it felt to be in
Caroline's position of wanting to leave her life for a better one, or perhaps glad that those
younger than them understand her struggle.

Caroline
Scott talks about the narrative of the film, beginning by describing the title character's emotion
at the start of the film, that being loneliness. Caroline feels this way as she has moved into a new
house far away from everything she used to know. She is also at the point in her life where she
realises how inadequate her parents are, who never pay her enough attention. Later in the
review, Scott mentions the secret door that leads Caroline to a fantastical reality at night, where
her heart's desires are granted with more supportive parents along with a much more magical
garden. In my own analysis, I believe a simple comparison can be made to the 1950 children's
book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In that story, three siblings are sent away from
home by the Blitz and find a magical entrance to a fantastical world that at first appears perfect,
before the Witch's intentions are brought to light. Scott mentions how the characters increased
surrealism not only enthral Caroline with nightly spectacles but will transfix the audience as well.
When writing about the visual presentation of Caroline, Scott describes that the use of 3D isn't
made into a gimmick, with only occasional things being thrown at the screen. According to the
critic, even these somewhat generic uses of the style of film are not used to get a reaction out of
the audience in the form of ducking or shrieking. Scott believes Selick uses 3D to make the
worlds of the film more intriguing, with added depth in all of the environments. The stop-motion
characters and objects also benefit from the effect, as they are created in three dimensions.
Therefore, by putting on the 3D glasses, it only aids the viewer's watching experience. Then,
Scott mentions how the level of detail in the film requires rewatches to process all the small
intricacies appearing on screen like costumed mice, Scottish terriers and glowing blossoms. On
top of this, the reviewer describe the threatening aura of the "other" world, how it is both
fascinating and obviously unsettling. The clear sign of this eeriness is the button eyes each and
every character possess in this dimension, and the growing realisation that Caroline would have
to have those eyes if she wishes to remain in this increasingly disturbing world. Scott believes
this terrifying choice has many psychological implications, suggesting that the Director
understands how to blur the line between fairy tales and the murky, occult power for longing
that leads to misplaced desire. Scott ends his review by evaluating that Coraline explores the
predatory implications of parental love as seen with the Other Mother, who has misplaced
maternal instinct, and grounded common sense expressed by Coraline, being resilient and
magically real.

Early Man
Early Man in a 2018 film, produced by Aardman Studios and directed by Nick Park.
Park is the creator of Wallace & Gromit so had the directing role in all of their short
films as well as The Curse of the Were-Rabbit along with Chicken Run. Clearly, the key
Aardman style is throughout Early Man in Claymation and the humour too. The film's
premise is a Stone Age tribe have their land taken by the more powerful Bronze Age
army. To regain their home, Dug and his family must defeat the Bronze Age football
team in a match.
I was able to find a YouGov article for the film, detailing percentages for the different
categories of audience. The survey for YouGov took place between January of 2019
and the same month the following year. A total of 5637 people part in the results,
which is decently high but perhaps not what you would expect for a film that released
in cinemas.
To begin with, the aspect I found most prominent was the very mild reception to the
film. This was apparent by the 14% neutral opinion beating out the 12% positive
opinion and 5% dislike of the film. This mediocre turn out is evident in all of the
findings on the page, leading me to assume that the animated picture is not quite to
the standard people expect of Aardman, but it still has enough quality from the studio
to not be completely disliked. In fact, only 30% had apparently heard of the film
according to the survey's information which shows the film wasn't strong to leave an
impact, spreading to people who didn't know of it. Perhaps the advertising wasn't
good enough to leave an impression either, so audiences may not have cared.
Curiously, the general words YouGov picked out from the audience to describe the
film are polar opposite to the percentages shown. Such words include "perfect",
"awesome" and "pleasing" which certainly paint a different picture of the film.
However, it must be noted that these words are taken from fans of the film according
to the site, so a strong bias is clearly there.

Early Man
Moving onto the more specific categories, the film's appeal is shared between
Millennials at 14% and Generation X at 15%. Once again, this rating is desperately
low which correlates to the former readings I described. Besides the low
percentage, the reason I believe these generations are the most popular is
because of the film's genre and time of release. A thought I had in respect to these
generations was that I thought they would be too old to be the primary audience
for the film. In my opinion, I believed those of Generation Z would be the direct
focus, being primarily children who wanted to view the exciting and light-hearted
animated comedy. I think that YouGov may only decide that Gen X and the
Millennials are the most popular with the film because they are the youngest
options available, so children don't have as much choice. Another reason for this is
the simple fact that the target demographic doesn't know how to use YouGov to
influence the survey. I believe in this case, the highest percentages come from
parents and potentially grandparents who watched the film with their children and
grandchildren, so potentially don't fully shed light on what Early Man's
demographic thinks.
As for the gender popularity, I don't have any reason as to why women having a
more positive opinion, at 14% than men, who have a 10% positive reception. The
difference is made starkly clear in the leaderboard with it being, on average, the
59th most popular 2018 film which is 61 more places on the men's ranking. While
even the women's rank isn't good in general, the differences between the genders
is still very large. Unlike the age analysis, I don't have a good reason as to why
there is such a strong lean in appeal for women as there is nothing overtly
directed towards that gender in Early Man unless I mistaken.

Early Man
The review I'd like to go through comes from The Guardian, with Steve Rose as writer. Rose
gave the film a high four out of five, already giving the impression that he found more
enjoyment out of the film than the audiences from Rotton Tomatoes. He also begins his
review by suggesting the film's reflection on current, by the time of its release, events. These
include the World Cup taking place in 2018 which clearly relates to the over-arching plot with
the football events taking place inside the Bronze Age city and how the Cavemen use the
sport to win back their home. The next allegory he brings up is the theming relating to Brexit,
a still very prominent part of todays affairs. Rose's first notion of this theme comes through
his general summation of the film, that being of Britain's sense of history, through the
different periods of time being represented, and identity, with each period trying to seize
what they believe is their way of life. However, Rose suggests the Brexit similarities could be
overzealous on the fact that the political event is so prominent in the current climate, even
being at perhaps its most outstanding two years after the review.
That is not to say Rose's assumptions are entirely misplaced as he says so himself, describing
the small Stone Age tribe as "surprisingly diverse" with different skin tones and accents. In
my opinion, this supports the theory of the Brexit similarities as it is widely believed the
event will cause cultural divide as the Bronze Age attempts to do to this tribe. Rose further
describes the Bronze Age's introduction crashing into the tribe's home, therefore showing
the brute strength they possess in the new material this civilisation has obtained. At the
centre of this is Lord Nooth, who rules the Bronze Age city. Rose uses adjectives like pompous
and greedy to describe the bronze leader which juxtaposes the Stone Age tribe's vocal point
of Dug, being described as inquisitive and smart, at least compared to the rest of his family.
This shows that despite having a stronger power, that doesn't make the person's character
any better, with it only seeming to make you more arrogant as a result. Rose takes a sly hint
that the Bronze Age group have a slight resemblance to the European Union by having a
"melting pot of continental accents and influences", furthering this by describing their
infatuation with football.

Early Man
Rose progresses the plot by telling us Dug sets up a match against the Bronze team to win their home
back, despite he and his team not knowing how to play. He adds humorously that the comparison for
this match is between Real Madrid and Accrington Stanley. Rose suggests that while the plot is pretty
predictable with the match deciding the underdogs fate, Aardman's style shines through to bring an
entertaining film. This is all in the details, with each frame being filled with sight gags and such done
in an Asterix & Obelix and Flintstones vein. These shows depict historical eras but represent certain
aspects in an absurd way with Asterix & Obelix's body shapes being obviously over the top in design,
and the ludicrous car the Flintstones own. The voice acting of the Messenger Pigeon by Rob Brydon
provides comedy through the slightly off voice compared to the creature sending cruel remarks and
Dug's sidekick, acting almost in a Gromit way, being voiced by director Nick Park. However, Rose is
quick to mention that some jokes will be dated, so in coming years the film's comedy may be a little
lost but the good-natured humour from Aardman never loses its fizz.
Going back into the Brexit allegory, Rose believes the different Ages are not in black and white. To
begin with, he states the "Europeans", being the Bronze, employ some very British prejudices on and
off the pitch, like faking an injury for a penalty but being more sophisticated and cultured. On the
other hand, Dug and his tribe are fighting to "take back control" by reconnecting with their past, at
least that's a suggestion placed by Rose. He further describes the tribe's lack of engagement with the
outside world has stuck them in their old ways of thinking, which in my opinion sounds like a fairly
heavy-handed comment on the two sides of voters on Brexit and how their beliefs were influenced.
As a summary of Early Man, Rose states how Aardman is representative of the Stone Age tribe
remaining in the older ways of stop-motion, competing against the giant of computer graphics,
putting faith in their classic story-telling and comedic fashion. Rose appreciates how the characters of
the film can be as expressive as those made in a computer, with something heartening about seeing
the small fingerprints on the clay. I suppose it provides evidence that tile and effort went into
articulating these people and environments that you wouldn't give much thought for when watching
a computer animated film, at least not to the same extent in the moment. Rose's final words are that
while Early Man hardly does anything to evolve the medium, for a younger audience especially, the
straightforward story and light-hearted humour still works a treat.

Audience Impression to my WorkI decided to ask my friend, Valeria, to watch a few of my animations I created earlier in the year. I wanted to do this as I
thought, by getting someone's opinion on my previous works, I could understand what aspects of my work would be
worth keeping in my new product, and what I would leave or change. I chose the stop-motion pieces I made in the first
project of the year as I felt they most closely related to the animation I am planning on making for the FMP. This is
through the obvious stop-motion, the minimal voices to convey the story as well as the bizarre visuals that clearly
wouldn't occur in real life. She wrote her opinion on the different parts to each video on WhatsApp, and I will describe
my take on her views and how I'll take them into account.
I will start by looking at what she thought of my "Welcome to Rowntree's Park" animation which, briefly speaking, has
gentlemen playing with model boats who are flung away by a ship. This ship goes to the end on the water where a goose
drops an exploding Yorkie which annihilates the entire image. Valeria began by suggesting it is a very unique and
something that wouldn't be easily replicated by accident. I hope that my idea for the FMP is certainly different enough to
be eye-catching to the audience. Her next point describes how the various images that have starkly differently
appearances from different time periods gives a charming randomness that adds to the already unusual narrative. I think
the different materials I plan to use and interact with in my FMP will share this charming and bizarre look. She adds to
this point by focussing on the goose dropping the Yorkie providing to the comedic sense of the animation, which I hope
the character interaction of my FMP can embody. Valeria describes how the colours of the video, along with the
consistent 'crafty' feel to it allow the visuals to be harmonious and have an organic feeling despite being different in
appearance. I am not sure how harmonious the look will be, with the different materials being used for the setting and
characters, but I think the overall animation style will bring all the parts together and not looking aggressively out of
place.
Valeria describes her first criticism of the animation in its pacing. She believes that some of the parts are not slow
enough, or fast enough with the blowing back of the gentlemen being much too slow. I can understand this view, as
sometimes certain parts of the animation have less motion put into them as others so their parts can look much
choppier. I will try to improve upon this by making sure each moving part has the same amount of movement going
through each frame so when I edit the frames to the same amount of time, nothing looks slower or faster than others. I
will also try to think about the motion required to make something look faster, by perhaps exaggerating the movement
compared to other parts of the scene. This also goes for the audio, as Valeria wrote its timing wasn't always right. I
believe the amount of sound effects going on in a short time frame, with each part needing to be audible, leads to them
going out of sync. I will probably use far less sounds, or at least not so close together, in my new animation so this issue
shouldn't be a problem for me.

Audience Impression to my Work
The next animation Valeria wrote about was "Terry's Chocolate Clifford's Tower". This video involves a crowd
taking a huge Chocolate Orange through York to feed Clifford's Tower and burps the wrapper over the people.
Unlike the last video, she thought the pacing on this animation was much better, with the story being very
understandable despite the lack of dialogue. This is a vital positive as my FMP will construct a story without any
spoken words so I'm glad to know one of my previous works achieves this effect to a viewer. Her next point is
about my transitions, going into the map and the tower. Valeria said the transitions had a nice effect but could
have been better if they had smoother and faster movement. I can understand this, as I think the background's
images were not equal in size, so the smoothness was limited, and the amount of frames to transition was
perhaps not enough to let the flow be fast. Thankfully, I don't plan on using specialized animations and will
probably just remain straight forward cuts. The most I might do is move the camera in as a motion is
happening, but I wouldn't bet on it. The audio is also improved for Valeria from the last animation, fitting the
mood of the scenes. One part that she describes is the travelling scene, which adds the joyful sense of
adventure and the joke in that part was funny to her. Valeria says that utilizing audio in that way is
advantageous as the medium of stop-motion is one of the only ones who can use it effectively. This is a positive
I need to take through into my FMP as the limited audio I can use without dialogue has to portray the story that
the visuals may not be able to.
An issue she found with my video is the inconsistent lighting that plagues the shots. I remember having these
issues during my production as the room's lights effected the shot based on my own positioning out of frame,
along with the camera deciding its own shots on occasion. For my FMP, I will need to make sure the lighting on
the set is consistent, especially as I may do the production in various locations. There may be equipment to
help with this and I'll ask my Tutor the simplest way to avoid this problem. A final criticism Valeria found with
my animation is the notable lifting of the hill where Clifford's Tower rests. When I was doing the production, I
hadn't thought about how the Orange will fall into the tower, so I had to do some quick thinking and made
another hill to go above the Orange. While I did my best in the time I had, I will admit the effect is rather
obvious so a viewer would see that and not find it appealing. If I had to do it again, I would think about the
technical processes that go into the story. I don't believe I will need to worry about that type of issue with
my FMP, except for perhaps how the dog's look translated to the 3D room.

Audience Impression to my Work
The final animation Valeria looked at was "The Colourful Street of Bishopthorpe Road". This is the
simplest of the set, with the video beginning with an older picture of the street being filled with
rainbow bunting, until a transition takes place to reveal the modern-day road. She begins her
description by telling me this video was her favourite of the three, with it being short but pleasing
to watch. Despite Valeria not thinking the general idea of a black and white image transferring into
a colourful one is particularly original, she still finds the concept cute and believes the way I
portrayed the idea was different then others she has seen. While not directly influencing my FMP,
I do hope that my ideas give what may have been done before by another, a new perspective.
Unlike the previous animation we spoke about, Valeria thinks the transition used in this piece was
much smoother. This part was much easier to create as there were not so many parts to control in
the transition, with noting outside of the large bunting moving. With my focus dedicated to this, I
could make a lot more frames of motion which allows it a smooth movement. As I said before, the
transitions are not an entirely useful point for my FMP but understanding what an audience thinks
about the technical aspects is important. Valeria details how the audio is successful in giving off
the mood, with the music in the beginning showing the audience the colder, calm atmosphere
while the chattering crowd in the later part of the video selling the liveliness of the scene in
contrast to the former segment. Once again, as I said before, the audio is a vital aspect of my FMP
and I really hope I can do it well. The fact Valeria understood how the video was meant to be
understood with just the music is exactly how I wish the audience to hear the story for my new
animation. It just depends on what music I can find or perhaps create for how prosperous the
story plays out.
It seems the only issue Valeria came across when she watched the animation was the lighting
which was more pronounced in the monochromatic background. This obvious flickering of
reflections would be noticed by many and probably be unpleasant to see. As I said before, I will try
to make the lighting of my set and characters as consistent as possible to avoid this dilemma.

Bibliography
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20. Park, N. (2018). Early Man. Aardman Animations.
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23. Selick, H. (2009). Coraline. Laika.

Plasticine
The creator of plasticine is William Harburtt, an Art teacher from Bath. He invented the
substance in 1897 for his students to sculpture with. This was because he believed
regular clay was too difficult to work with, as it dried when exposed to air. Plasticine also
had the benefit of being non-toxic and malleable.
In 1899, Harburtt obtained a patent for his invention and so mass production began at a
factory in Bathampton in 1900. The original plasticine only came in grey, but when sales
to the public began, four more colours were added. From its start as a product,
plasticine was very popular with children, being used in schools for teaching art as well
as various other uses in moulding casts. Later on in 1915, Harburtt patented another
formula for plasticine. This new version added wood fibres which made the substance a
stronger composition being intended to be used as ear buds. It was also created for
dressing wounds and burns.
The Harburtt company directed the marketing for plasticine toward children with
modelling kits based on characters from children's stories stretching through from the
50s to the 70s. These included Paddington Bear as well as Noddy and the Mr Men.
Unfortunately, in 1963 the original plasticine factory burned down so a modern, at least
by that time, factory was built to replace it. The Harburtt company produced plasticine
in Bathampton until 1983 where they moved its production into the country of Thailand.
The Colorforms company was a major American licensee of plasticine for a period of
time between 1979 and at least 1984. However, their version of the substance had a
different formula of chalk compound leading to product inconsistencies. Many people
therefore saw the American release as inferior to the original mix. Bluebird Toys
acquired plasticine through the purchase of its parent company, Peter Pan. Later on in
1998, Mattel bought up Bluebird and sold plasticine to Humbrol Ltd, famous for their
Airfix products. Flair Leisure licensed the brand in 2005 to relaunch the substance for
stores. The company outright bought plasticine when Humbrol went into administration
a year later.

Scissors
In the Scissors origins, famous inventor Leonardo da Vinci is often credited for
their making. However, many examples clearly predate da Vinci's lifetime by
many centuries so the clear beginning isn't completely clear.
The most ancient scissors that have been discovered belonged to the Egyptians
as long as 1500 B.C. This version of scissors included a single piece of metal,
typically bronze, that was fashioned into a pair of blades controlled by a metal
strip. The strip kept the blades apart but when they were squeezed, this caused
the blades to close which appears almost as the opposite effect to modern
scissors. Each of these blades was a scissor, so collectively the blades were
considered scissors, or so rumour has it. The scissors were eventually spread
through Egypt and the rest of the world through trade and adventure through
the nation.
In 100 A.D. the Romans adapted the Egyptian design, creating pivoted, cross-
bladed scissors that are far more similar to today's typical design. These scissors
were also made from bronze although the Romans did make the device from iron
too. The Roman scissors had two blades that slid past each other at equal
lengths, with a pivot added between the tip and handles to create a cutting
effect between the blades. Both the Egyptian and Roman scissors had to be
sharpened regularly to be kept in the best quality for cutting.
As mentioned before, the true originator of the scissors is impossible to pinpoint
but Robert Hinchcliffe, from Sheffield, should be rightfully titled the Father of
Modern Scissors. He was the first producer of steel scissors, mass manufacturing
them in 1761 which is notably 200 years after the age of da Vinci.

Living Room
The original term for the living room is its opposite, that of the death room. A
more formal name for this part house would be the parlor, and it held special
importance in the 19th century as a place where deceased family members
were laid out for final respects. This would change by the end of the First World
War when Doctors and hospitals became more available and with that came the
funeral homes which did the job of the former house parlor. Since this room lost
the purpose of mourning the dead, it was rechristened as the living room.
As for why it was named the parlor in its infancy, the name derived from the
French verb 'Parle' which means 'to speak'. This term is given literally as the
room was a space where much sitting and talking took place, being either family
or guests. Its function along with the funeral-like service, was to carry out
various social functions of the house, which could be formal or informal. The
term parlor was diminished after the rebranding to the living room.
As we moved into the 20th century, with the improving conditions and
decreased number of deaths, the 1910 Ladies Home Journal suggested the
room was no longer a death room as its use for that purpose was far less than
before. Instead, it was used for various activities, becoming a livelier place than
one of mourning. The journal believed it should be renamed as 'the Living
Room', and so the term was spread among the common people of the time and
remains its name today.

Stop-Motion
The first documented version of stop-motion is credited to the duo of J. Stuart Blackton and
Albert E. Smith for creating Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus which was released in
1897. It is only left to speculation when the technique was discovered but this film is
recognized as the first commercial use of it. The film shows the day and life of those who
work in the circus. Blackton went on to produce The Haunted Hotel in 1907, which became
a huge hit. It showed moving furniture, demonstrating the basic technique of object
animation. Around that time, many animated films were being produced that demonstrated
stop-motion techniques but a key plyer in amongst the crowd was . This animator was a
standout when it came to developing a narrative in his animations. Out of his many films,
his first narrative short film is note worthy. This film is called Lucanus Cervus, being made in
1910, and used insects as puppets.
Probably one of the most famous animators of all time is Willis O'Brien. His work on the film
The Lost World in 1925 was revolutionary for the time of its release. Perhaps his most
famous work came eight years later in King Kong, which propelled 0'Brien to stardom and
inspired many future stop-motions animators to come. One of those who was inspired by
King Kong was Ray Harryhausen who became arguably more famous then his idol, not only
in stop-motion but in animation altogether. Harryhausen used his short demo reels he
created in his garage to get a position on the George Pal's Puppetoons show. He also invited
O'Brien to work on the show, but only for a short time. After their work together, Willis
asked Ray to work on his new film, Mighty Joe Young in 1949, which developed his skills
further. After this, Harryhausen went on to produce many films from The Beast from 20,000
Fathoms in 1953, all the way to Clash of the Titans in 1981. Many of his films are considered
the best stop-motions animated works to this day, and impressively most of them were
done entirely by Harryhausen without any help. However, it would be a mistake not to
mention the impact of George Pal who made huge influences on today's stop-motion films
with his replacement technique. His 30s and 40s show, Puppetoons are also notable as
it's style and energy was like nothing else of the time, winning numerous Academy Awards.

Stop-Motion
By the 1950s, television was a huge influence on stop-motion productions that needed to be made fast
and on a limited budget. In 1955, The Grumby Show was released by Art Clokey and went on to receive
critical success. With its title character, the show went on for many years and became a doorway for many
young animators to go into serious careers with the craft. This effect was also found on Clokey's next series
called Davey and Goliath. Going into the 1970s, stop-motion was becoming one of the most utilized
visual techniques, especially in the focus of adverts. Films of the 1980s heavily used stop-motion to bring
impossible visuals to life. The animation style was used in feature films, TV shows, and the new medium of
the music video. This was the decade that produced the absolute most animation to give all of these
different mediums a unique style that couldn't be captured any other way. Channels like Mtv hired
animators to make their station ID's completely out of stop-motion and musicians like Peter Gabriel would
have their music videos made completely out of clay. Massive blockbuster films utilized stop-motion
seamlessly into their shots with the most famous including Star Wars, Robo Cop and The Terminator.
Because these films used visual effects so successfully that the lines between reality and the imagined
blurred, and people thought it couldn't get clearer.
However, when the 1990s were underway, the stop-motion boom diminished beginning with Toy Story.
While The Wrong Trousers, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach were
successful, the new computer-generated effects were stealing the limelight. All of the mediums that were
heavily using stop-motion decided to change tracks and use this new, exciting style which left many
traditional animators without work. Still, there were those, notably Aardman Animations, who believed in
stop-motion and stayed through this transition period of allegiances. Thankfully for the technique, TV was
still a stronghold for its usage. Shows like Pingu and Bump in the Night allowed stop-motion to have a safe
space to strive while it was ignored almost everywhere else. Going into the new millennia, new and
affordable digital cameras allowed more freedom for people to use stop-motion, with the 2005 show
Robot Chicken producing fully animated episodes for Adult Swim with such cameras. As the technology
had evidently caught up in quality, this began a new era for stop-motion. Aardman continued to create and
refine their animation, winning an Oscar for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2006 and the new company
of Laika used 3D printing to put them on the map as a stop-motion business, starting with Caroline in
2009. Another 2009 stop-motion film was Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson which was also nominated
for best animated film, proving the technique's worth against the increasing quality of CGI. This film along
with Anderson's other animated film from 2018, Isle of Dogs, which was also nominated for an Oscar,
portray the director's unique style and shows how stop-motion can truly bring something different to the
table with the visual medium.

Bibliography1. Aardman Animations. Aardman Animations. Available: https://www.aardman.com/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
2. Anderson, W. (2009). Fantastic Mr. Fox. American Empirical Pictures.
3. Anderson, W. (2018). Isle of Dogs. American Empirical Pictures.
4. Anon (1910). Ladies' Home Journal. Des Moines: Meredith Corporation.
5. Anon. (2011). Leonardo da Vinci, his Life and Artworks . Available: https://www.leonardodavinci.net/. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
6. Anon. (2011). William Harbutt: Inventor of Plasticine. Available: http://northeasthistorytour.blogspot.com/2011/02/william-harbutt-inventor-of-plasticine.html?m=1. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
7. Anon. (2014). Egyptians. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
8. Anon. (2014). Romans. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans//. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
9. Anon. (2018). “Living Room” What We Call Today, Was Actually Called “Death Room” in the 19th Century!. Available: https://www.vintag.es/2018/01/living-room-what-we-call-today-was.html. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
10. Anon. (2020). Plasticine. Available: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
11. Anon. (2020). Ray Harryhausen | The grandfather of stop-frame animation. Available: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/ray-harryhausen-grandfather-stop-frame-animation. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
12. Anon. Albert E. Smith. Available: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0807236/bio. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
13. Anon. Art Clokey. Available: https://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/art-clokey/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
14. Anon. Wes Anderson. Available: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
15. Anon. Robert Hinchcliffe. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Hinchliffe. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
16. B. Schoedsack, E. (1949). Mighty Joe Young. Argosy Pictures.
17. Barson, M. (2020). George Pal. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Pal. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
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19. Blyton, E (1949). Noddy Goes to Toyland. London: Sampson Low.
20. Bond, M (1958). A Bear Called Paddington. Glasgow: William Collins & Sons.
21. Cameron, J. (1984). The Terminator. Cinema '84.
22. Clokey, A. (1956). The Grumby Show. Clokey Productions.
23. Clokey, A. (1960). Davey and Goliath. Clokey Productions.
24. Davis, D. (1981). Clash of the Titans. Charles H. Schneer Productions.

Bibliography Part Two
1. Gabriel, P. Peter Gabriel. Available: https://petergabriel.com/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
2. Green, S / Senriech, N. (2005). Robot Chicken. ShadowMachine Films.
3. Gutmann, O. (1986). Pingu. HIT Entertainment.
4. Hargreaves, R (1971). Mr Men. London: Egmont Publishing.
5. Laika. Laika. Available: https://www.laika.com/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
6. Lazzo, M. (2001). Adult Swim. Warner Bros. Entertainment.
7. Lourié, E. (1953). The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Jack Dietz Productions.
8. Lucas, G. (1977/1980/1983). Star Wars. Lucasfilm.
9. Mtv. (2020). Mtv. Available: http://www.mtv.co.uk/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.
10. O. Hoyt, H. (1925). The Lost World. First National Pictures.
11. Pal, G. (1932). Puppetoons. Paramount Pictures.
12. Park, N. (2005). The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Aardman Animations.
13. Pontac, K / Bleiman, D.(1994). Bump in the Night. Danger Productions.
14. Selick, H. (1993). The Nightmare Before Christmas. Touchstone Pictures.
15. Selick, H. (1996). James and the Giant Peach. Walt Disney Pictures.
16. Selick, H. (2009). Caroline. Laika
17. Starewicz, W. (1910). Lucanus Cervus.
18. Stuart Blackton. J / E. Smith, A. (1897). The Humpty Dumpty Circus. Vitagraph Company of America.
19. Stuart Blackton. J. The Haunted Hotel. (1907). The Haunted Hotel. Vitagraph Company of America.
20. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020). J. Stuart Blackton. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-Stuart-Blackton. Last accessed 26th Feb 2020.
21. Verhoeven, P. (1987). RoboCop. Orion Pictures.
22. Wold, K. Willis O'Brien - The Man who Created Kong . Available: https://www.animateclay.com/index.php/articles/11-stop-motion-pioneers/44-willis-o-brien-the-man-who-created-kong. Last accessed 27th Feb 2020.

Armatures
In my project, I need armatures as I will be creating a plasticine model so that the character
remains stable. The armatures will also make each movement more consistent as I hope the
proportions on each part of the body will remain the same size because of the skeleton it covers.
When it comes to pricing, the most expensive I found was an Aardman set on Amazon which came
to £120. Of course, this set has many complex parts to it for professional level animation with
different types of material that are best suited for separate parts of the body. I am certain I won’t
require such advanced kit for my animation, and that price definitely doesn’t leave me second
guessing.
The next armature I found was at a far more reasonable price, being £100 less than the previous
piece. This ‘basic’ armature by Anibild only features a single skeleton but its utility seems far better
for my work. Its size of 12 cm I think would work well in my set as it wouldn’t be so large that
everything else’s proportions would have to increase, but it would not be so small that moving the
model would be too difficult to do efficiently. So, it is a decent option if I were to go for the
premade armature.
However, a third option would be looking at wire to create my own armature. This would give me
more control over the proportions it would have, but the process of making it function properly
could be tough. The first product I found that could be used as an armature was found in Barnitts,
but the website reference with be from Hobby Craft. The product is a pack of several pieces of
green wire that is only 70p, a far cheaper option than the prior armature. This wire is made for
floral products as a prop to hold them up and so its use as an armature isn’t by design. An issue I
may have by using the wire is its much slimmer proportions which may not give the model a
strong build around. I would have to see if twisting the wire together would give it a sturdier hold
and how easy it would be to make an entire human body out of the product. If not, I will need to
find a thicker wire that would make the armature simpler to form.

Plasticine
Plasticine is a key component to my animation as one of the main character’s is
made of the stuff and I believe parts of the set will involve plasticine in some form.
It's easy to move mould should be the best substance for the stop-motion of my
work.
One of the first results I found was a cheaper £1.50 block of plasticine, in this case
being called Newplast. While large in quantity, especially considering its price,
being 500g, a major issue I find with this product is the fact it is purely white with
no variety. For my animation I need a lot of colours to make each part much more
interesting to look at so this plasticine would be ineffective for my work.
The next product is a large tub of plasticine found on Amazon. Unlike the previous
product, it features seven colours in large tubes of plasticine so they are more
usable in my animation. It’s a little more expensive at £6.99, but there is a lot of the
substance so that sharp increase in price is more justifiable. However, while the
amount of colours is better, I am not sure if I still feel a little restricted by them and
I may be left with a lot of plasticine left. Still, these issues wouldn’t be hard to get
around despite their slight inconvenience.
The final plasticine product has the largest amount of colours at 24, being the best
for dynamic visuals in my animation. It is also a little cheaper than the tub, being
£4.40 so that’s good prospect while looking at the affordability. A downside is that,
while there are plenty of colours, each bar of plasticine is fairly small so depending
on how much I need in the end, I may potentially need two packs. That would
defeat the purpose of the price but there may be no other choice. With the
colours, with such a variety of colours, I will probably end up needing specific ones
more than others so the overall product may be unutilised. In the end, the
colouring of my animation may depend of the quantity of the plasticine.

Cartridge Paper
I’ll need to purchase cartridge paper for my animation as the dog of the story is completely made
out of it, with a different drawing for each motion. I want cartridge specifically as its stronger
material will be easier to control during stop-motion.
Baker Ross’ cartridge paper comes in packs of 50 which would be more than enough to draw
each movement of the dog, or at least I hope so. It’s also quite cheap for the quantity of paper,
only being £4.95. However, the major detriment to this product is that it comes in many colours
while I want my dog to remain simple in white so it stands out to the rest of the setting. Only a
few of the sheets are in white which I wouldn’t risk trying to do all the dog motions on without a
mistake or just doing them all generally.
The next set of cartridge paper I found on TTS is completely white so the previous issue I had
wouldn't be a problem in this case. Its pricing is a decent amount more than the technicolour
variation, with the price being £11.99 but there is good reason for such a jump in expense. The
pages are in the larger A3 size and while I would usually see that as a benefit since it allows me
more space to draw many variations and redoes of the dog's motion, the amount of pages is
meant for a school environment. More specifically speaking, there are 250 pages of the A3 sheets
which is far more than I'll need unless something goes horribly wrong! So, with the size of the
paper and the quantity of it, I seriously doubt it would be worth the purchase since so much
paper wouldn't be used.
I discovered a set of cartridge paper on Amazon that solved the issue I found on the previous
product. This pack is only £3.99 which is a big gap from the previous one, but it does make sense
as the pages are the smaller A4. The quantity of paper is also less at 50 sheets so the overall
package is downsized. However, this isn't an issue for my work, as I feel this amount of space for
drawing on won't be overwhelming or a waste of paper. On the other hand, it also isn't too small
an amount to the point I can mistakes and still have enough paper to redo a particular
movement.

Year 2 FMP Research

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Year 2 FMP Research