Pixilation - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 38

“…serious ideas can often be communicated very powerfully with
humour.”
Terry Gilliam
A few techniques can be used to help smooth out the action of a
performance, allowing for more serious interpretations. It appears that
the more time spent between frames adjusting people leads to the
potential for more quirky and misregistered movement. This can be
very funny looking. But, if the movement of a character is smoother,
then the effect can lean more toward serious interpretation. Expression
and performance play a key role, but we are concentrating strictly on
movement. So, if an actor being shot frame by frame moves slowly
and constantly and the camera operator continuously shoots frames,
capturing the in-betweens of action at a more even pace, the action
will be smoother, mimicking live-action movement. A minimum of time
should be spent between shot frames. If the person being shot is moving
constantly in a particular direction, then he/she will be better registered
in placement from frame to frame than spending minutes between
frames adjusting position and losing that registration.
Surprise is always an effective way to conjure up a good laugh. Pixilation
allows a filmmaker the ability to change the subject matter or position of
the subject within the frame for each shot. This erratic movement combined
with unexpected action and subject placement within a frame is fun and
surprising. That elicits humor. Quick movement similar to the animation in
cartoons, like the work of Warner Brothers director Chuck Jones, can raise a
laugh. Treating human subjects like cartoons that whip across a frame, do
the impossible (like dancing across a dance floor on their fingers, slamming
into walls with no consequences, and other humanly impossible feats) make
us laugh and think of these human subjects as unreal. This quick stylized
movement is what Dave Borthwick was referring to when he mentioned that
a lot of pixilation was relegated to the slapstick world.
Shooting on Twos, Fours, and More
Often pixilation filmmakers mix together smooth and quirky misregistered
movement. This adds an interesting dynamic movement to a film. We just
explored constant shooting of the single-frame camera, but the mixture of
live-action photography and pixilation can be very effective to achieve this
dynamic. A great example of the mixture of frame rates is Norman McLaren
and Claude Jutra's 1957 animated short, A Chairy Tale . McLaren and Jutra
would often shoot at half normal live-action speed (12 frames per second) to
speed up the action and blend that footage with the more time-consuming
frame-to-frame manipulations.