Animation attraction by Rachel dick
Styles of movie animation technology, like everything else, go in and out of style as time passes. The current trend appears to be stop motion animation, which works by taking over a thousand still frames of clay and wire puppets and condensing it all into motion, as seen in such films as A Nightmare Before Christmas and ParaNorman. Stop motion animator Anthony Scott, who served on the crews for both films, recently gave a Skype session to interested students in Film and Video I teacher Rich Pence’s room during advisory period to share his behind-the-scenes stories.
As a child, Scott always knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. He still has his first camera that his parents bought him years ago.
“I was really interested when I was a kid, and I was really lucky that I had a movie camera when I was eleven,” Scott said. “I was able to experiment with that.”
Hoping to learn more, Scott checked out one of only two books in stock at his local library about making homemade films. His passion continued through high school, and when it came time for college, there was only one thing on his mind.
“I went to a community college in Michigan called Lansing Community College, and I took only their film classes, so I didn’t even get a degree,” Scott said. “It’s kind of a strange way to go to school, but I just wanted to get out to California as soon as I could.”
He succeeded, and found himself living and working in Los Angeles. Although his first job was not exactly glamorous, it led to an opportunity that changed his life.
“I actually applied as a janitor at the special effects division of Lucas Films, and I got the job,” Scott said. “Just by taking that job, after about nine months, I had met people and heard about a job on the Gumby series. So you never know where your opportunities are going to come from.”
After working on Gumby for a year, Scott went on to work as an animator for commercials for several companies, including Pillsbury. Then came A Nightmare Before Christmas. Germantown High’s Film and Video I teacher Rich Pence, a friend of Scott’s for twenty two years, got to spend a day on set to watch filming, and remembers the experience well.
“[It was] beautiful, it’s amazing to watch a set like that with so many things,” Pence said. “It’s very meticulous, very thought out, and you have to have a world of patience to do it, but it’s really neat.”
For aspiring filmmakers, free software can help to experiment with animation techniques and styles. Scott had some advice for any young techies hoping to make movies one day.
“It’s a lot easier nowadays. Everyone seems to have a computer and there’s a lot of really good frame-grabbing software out there, and that’s what you need to do,” Scott said. “We’re shooting movies now with just a Nikon camera you can buy at the store. It’s pretty complicated because if you do stop motion you have to build everything, but it all starts with a really good story. So I guess get a camera, get some software on the computer, and start moving stuff around.”
Movie animators have a hard and often thankless job. The hours are long, the images have to be close to perfect, and sometimes a scene that took three months to shoot is deleted from the whole movie. So why do it?
“Some people like to paint with a brush, some people like to use a computer,” Scott said. “I’ve tried the computer, and I like sitting at a desk a lot less than standing on a set moving puppets around.”
As a child, Scott always knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. He still has his first camera that his parents bought him years ago.
“I was really interested when I was a kid, and I was really lucky that I had a movie camera when I was eleven,” Scott said. “I was able to experiment with that.”
Hoping to learn more, Scott checked out one of only two books in stock at his local library about making homemade films. His passion continued through high school, and when it came time for college, there was only one thing on his mind.
“I went to a community college in Michigan called Lansing Community College, and I took only their film classes, so I didn’t even get a degree,” Scott said. “It’s kind of a strange way to go to school, but I just wanted to get out to California as soon as I could.”
He succeeded, and found himself living and working in Los Angeles. Although his first job was not exactly glamorous, it led to an opportunity that changed his life.
“I actually applied as a janitor at the special effects division of Lucas Films, and I got the job,” Scott said. “Just by taking that job, after about nine months, I had met people and heard about a job on the Gumby series. So you never know where your opportunities are going to come from.”
After working on Gumby for a year, Scott went on to work as an animator for commercials for several companies, including Pillsbury. Then came A Nightmare Before Christmas. Germantown High’s Film and Video I teacher Rich Pence, a friend of Scott’s for twenty two years, got to spend a day on set to watch filming, and remembers the experience well.
“[It was] beautiful, it’s amazing to watch a set like that with so many things,” Pence said. “It’s very meticulous, very thought out, and you have to have a world of patience to do it, but it’s really neat.”
For aspiring filmmakers, free software can help to experiment with animation techniques and styles. Scott had some advice for any young techies hoping to make movies one day.
“It’s a lot easier nowadays. Everyone seems to have a computer and there’s a lot of really good frame-grabbing software out there, and that’s what you need to do,” Scott said. “We’re shooting movies now with just a Nikon camera you can buy at the store. It’s pretty complicated because if you do stop motion you have to build everything, but it all starts with a really good story. So I guess get a camera, get some software on the computer, and start moving stuff around.”
Movie animators have a hard and often thankless job. The hours are long, the images have to be close to perfect, and sometimes a scene that took three months to shoot is deleted from the whole movie. So why do it?
“Some people like to paint with a brush, some people like to use a computer,” Scott said. “I’ve tried the computer, and I like sitting at a desk a lot less than standing on a set moving puppets around.”