Shooting Frame by Frame1 - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 18

I am always torn between the excitement of jumping directly into the
production of an animated idea and approaching an idea with a better
thought-out plan. Getting your hands on a camera, simple capture software,
and shooting a scene spontaneously can be fresh and exhilarating, until
you run into your first challenge or problem. This is especially true when
shooting frame-by-frame pixilation of human subjects. Any animation is
hard work, and you do not want to waste anyone's time and energy. Creative
ideas need to be drafted and carefully honed to impress any audience these
days. We are a visual storytelling society, and much more discerning about
filmmaking language than any time before. Having a good idea and an
interesting way of telling it gains and holds an audience's attention, and
that is good communication. This planning phase, known as preproduction ,
is your road map or core idea that gives you direction. It also changes,
and that is not a bad thing. There is room for the spontaneous approach,
mentioned earlier, in this process, and we come across the subject again
later on.
The first step in any film is the idea. What do you want to say? What idea,
story, or visual art do you want an audience to receive? Who is your
audience? Do you even care that an audience sees your work? There are
many filmmakers who have no care for what an audience thinks. These
“artists” want only to explore their own vision as best they can to their own
satisfaction. This approach requires more risk if you are approach filmmaking
as a means of income. But, some of the most successful ideas come from
this original thought process. The great majority of filmmakers do care
what an audience thinks and tailor their approach to filmmaking to make
a connection with the audience. They yearn for a laugh, a gasp, or a tear in
reaction to their film. Getting your ideas down on paper can be challenging.
Scriptwriting is not an innate talent that most filmmakers possess. It takes
practice, guidance, and crafting. There are many topics on this subject so
we do not go into this area. Ideas are another matter. I find that the old
saying “life is stranger than fiction” rings true. When you draw from your own
experiences and the experiences of others you know, you may have a kernel
of an idea that can germinate. The effective outcome of this approach is
that, if you had an experience and reacted to it in some emotional way, then
audiences have a greater access to empathy and your idea, because we all
share the human experience. Empathy, not sympathy, is a key ingredient to
including an audience. We need to understand a character's emotion, based
on our own experiences, but we do not necessarily have to agree with that
emotion.
The next step is to take advantage of the process and strengths of animation.
Hyperbole or exaggeration and strong images can be used effectively in
animation. When real human subjects are not being used as the subject
matter, we can address sensitive issues (like sex, death, and the human
condition) with human proxies, like animals, aliens, or even everyday objects.
You can elicit human emotions and experiences through inanimate objects