Pixilation - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 37

infrared beams could allow you to shoot your camera from across the
room, but this takes careful control and aim and might pull you out
of position. Finally, you can use a time-lapse feature on your camera,
but that requires that you be ready for your next position every frame
within that allotted time interval. So, you can be an actor and a director
simultaneously, but it is much more effective to have someone behind
the camera shooting and calling out to you or actually moving you as
the animated (actor) subject.
Humor
“Although pixilation has been explored since Norman McLaren's work in
the 1950s, it had tended to be used largely for slapstick effect. Our
initial interests were in trying to use the technique in a more subtle
and expressively dramatic way.
“The intention was to make a film that looked like live action but
[moved] like an animation film. When successful, the technique creates
a distorted realism that can very effectively be used to accentuate or
exaggerate a character's personality and presence. It was that possibility
of manipulating the dramatic performance of a character that led to the
use of pixilation techniques in the Tom Thumb project.”
Dave Borthwick (Bolex Brothers), The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
As Dave Borthwick points out, many pixilated films have leaned into humor
and slapstick, primarily because the fast and energetic movement of
pixilation tends to strike the “funny bone.” Yet, this technique of animating
people also lends itself to more serious subject matter. The more control of
expression and movement, the more serious the effect can be. As Lindsay
Berkebile points out, using holds with as little movement as possible in
a human animated subject can emote a sense of quiet desperation or an
inner energy and conflict that may reveal another layer of interpretation in
an animated performance. The key is in the performance, expression, and
overall movement.
In Jan Kounen's Gisele Kerozene and in Norman McLaren's Neighbours ,
the action is so broad and absurd that one cannot help but laugh. In
Neighbours , when one of the battling men, played by Grant Monroe,
hits the other neighbor's wife with a picket fence post, throws her baby
to the ground, and kicks the baby off screen, we cannot help but laugh
despite the dark humor involved. It is so tragic that it actually becomes
comedic, and the fast paced action of the pixilation feeds the humor. As
Terry Gilliam states,