Animation Timeline

We know animation today as the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Spongebob Squarepants, but if we look back to the past we can see the pioneers of animation, and how different it was back in the past then to present day. If it wasn’t for these pioneers of animation, the future of animation might have been a completely different.

Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern was the first instrument in animation to, it worked just like a projector and it was ‘the first projector’, developed in the 17^th century. The magic lantern works by having a concave mirror in the front and there is a light source behind it (Would have been a candle), and this mirror gathers light and projects it through a slide with and image printed onto it. The light rays cross an aperture and then hits the lens. The lens projects an enlarged picture of the little original one on the slide, on to a large screen.

Thaumatrope(1824)

A Thaumatrope started off as toy in Victorian times, because of its simplicity and ease of making/constructing. The Thaumatrope uses persistence of vision to work, this is because it’s a disk or card with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to marry into a single image.

Phenakistoscope (1832)

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (1801-1883) is physicist from Belgium. He is a pioneer of animation because he invented the Phenakistoscope. He was the first person in history to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. He done this by using two counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other.

Zoetrope (1833)

William Horner (1786-1837) was a British Mathematician, who was also a Headmaster of a school, but most importantly he was the inventor of the Zoetrope. A Zoetrope is a device that creates the illusion of motion from a fast succession of static images. The Zoetrope was made up of a cylinder with vertical slits cut into the sides. The internal part of the Zoetrope

The Flip Book (1868)

The Flip Book or Flick Book uses persistence of vision through its rapid motion, a flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change.

Praxinoscope (1877)

Emile Reynaud invented the Praxinoscope, the Praxinoscope is the successor of the zoetrope. Just like the zoetrope, using a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow observatory slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so the reflections appeared more or less stationary as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Kinetoscope (1888)

The Kinetoscope was a break through early motion picture device. Only one person at a time could view the action of the Kinetoscope because it only had one ‘peephole’ to observe from. The Kinetoscope creates the illusion of motion from a strip of film displaying sequential images over a light source with a high speed shutter.

35mm Filmstrip 1894-1895

The Edison production of butterfly dance with the 35mm filmstrip, this invention set the path of a modern-day format for still motion picture photography around the globe.

Cinematograph 1892

A Cinematograph is a device that’s a film camera but also a film projector as well. There is confusion about who invented it but, Léon Bouly was the inventor and unfortunately he couldn’t afford the patent for this device in the second year and then the Lumière brothers bought the license for the Cinematograph.

Gertie the Dinosaur 1914

Gertie the Dinosaur is an American animated short film created by Windsor McCay.

The film was the first ever film to be created using key frame animation, although not the first ever animated film, as sometimes it is thought to be, however it was the first ever cartoon to feature a character which showcased an interesting and appealing personality. Having a true main character distinguished it from earlier animated films referred to as, “trick films”.

El Apóstol 1917

The world first animated feature film, which used a cutout style of animation. This film was well received by critics and went on for commercial success. El Apóstol was directed by Quirino Cristiani, the running time of the film is 70 minutes and interestingly there were 14 frames per second, so overall there was 58,000 frames throughout the 70 minutes.

Walt Disney's Alice Comedies 1925 

Walt Disney is a pioneer of modern-day animation and this was his first attempt at animation. The 'Alice Comedies' are a series of animated cartoons created in the 1920's by Walt Disney, a live action little girl (played by Virginia Davis) named Alice and an animated cat called Julius have long quests and adventures in an animated environment/landscape.

Walt Disney's 1928 Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie is consider to be the debut of Mickey Mouse, and his girlfriend Minnie, which are icons still running today, Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, however this was the first to be distributed. This film is a hit a new stage in the development of animation as it was one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, it was still produced in black and white, created in The Walt Disney Studio.   

Warner Bros 1930 Loony Tunes

Warner Bros released, 'Sinkin in the bathtub', which was the first series on Loony Tunes, it was a theatrical cartoon short, made in 1930 was produced and directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. It was the debut of Bosko the 'Talk-ink kid', Bosko was Warner Bros first star character, which was later taken by Porky Pig and Daffy Duck.

Walt Disney's 1932 Silly Symphonies, 'Flowers and Trees'

Walt Disney commercially released this film in 1932, it is the first animation to be produced in the full-colour three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-colour Technicolor films (black and white).

Walt Disney's 1937 Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

This is the first cel animated feature to be full-length in motion picture history, and the first one in colour, it is in Walt Disney's Animated Classic series.

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the German fairy tale by the Brother Grimm.

Yellow Submarine 1968 The Beatles

Directed by George Dunning,  and produced by United Artists (UA) and King Features Syndicate. The Beatles' animated personas were based on their appearance in the promotional film for the song "Strawberry Fields Forever". This animation stands out in its industry because in 1968 it competed against Disney Animations productions which have always been the leaders in the industry, and the Yellow Submarine was very well received by the public and critics.

James and the Giant Peach 1996

This British-American fantasy animation, directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel by Roald Dahl. Produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi the film features a mixture of live action and stop-motion animation. This film was recieved positivley by a wide range of critics,  for example; the New York Times, Janet Maslin said the film is, "a technological marvel, arch and innovative with a daringly offbeat visual conception" and "a strenuously artful film with a macabre edge."

Chicken Run (2000)

Chicken run is a British animation film, made by the Aardman Animations studios and directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. It was filmed in a stop-motion style, so all the characters were hand made moulded pieces of clay, It was the first feature-length film by Aardman. Aardman Studios are known globally as masters in claymation stop-motion, crafting productions like; Wallace & Gromit and Pingu.

Documentary Research

This is some research for how popular music has changed, these are the current  top 50 in the UK Singles chart:

Documentary Story Ideas

'Life'

This idea for a documentary is something that interests me and I'm sure a lot of other people. Everyone in the world would have some sort opinion on this so it makes for a very interesting documentary, 'What is the meaning of life?' is one of the human race's unanswered questions, I'm not saying i will be able to answer it but it will make for a personal and intimate documentary. This Documentary would contain a lot of interviews with people that have stories and advice they would give to people young and old.

How Popular Music, 'Pop', has changed throughout time

This documentary idea is very interesting because it has changed a lot since the 40's and there a lot of factors within music to talk and debate about now. We can compare the past musical icons to the modern-day musical equivalents, E.G: Rolling Stones to The Black Keys. We would use archive footage of past events and get our own interviews with people that have something to say about music.

Legal & Ethical Issues in Documentary

Legal & Ethical Issues in Documentary

Slander

Slander is oral defamation, is a malicious act of spreading untrue statements about someone or something else, in a way that is intended to cause harm or that does create harm. A person spreads an untrue story about someone or something else to others. He or she might repeat the story multiple times or address a group of people and communicate the story to them all at once. Generally, the more people who hear the libelous statements, the more damage it might be likely to cause their subjects.

Within a documentary to be labeled as 'slanderous', there has to be a spoken defamation of someone and then the reaction to that is libel-ability.   

Libel

Libel is a written or recorded defamation, so this would be something published which is a false statement that is damaging to a persons reputation. Within a documentary libel is the reaction to slander, because slander is the spoken false statement and libel is the reaction to that statement.    

Slanderous Cases

Michael Moore with his documentary called Fahrenheit 9/11 on the 9/11 terror attacks. Just a few years later, “Fahrenheit 9/11” would not have seemed nearly as explosive. But it was timed just right, getting rushed into theaters at the height of the Iraq War, smack bam in the middle of President Bush's administration, it was very successful. But this could be seen as slanderous because within the documentary the director Michael Moore  states that President Bush has connections with Bin Laden's family, even though Michael Moore had no factual evidence to prove this. This possible slanderous comment/thought to make or project and Michael Moore is very lucky he didnt get convicted with slander for this. 

Living with Michael Jackson' which was presented by Martin Bashir, it is unethical because Michael Jackson had agreed to an eight-month long interviewing process with Martin Bashir, hoping to enlighten his fans about many misconceptions in his life. When Michael Jackson saw the finished product of "Living With Michael Jackson" on the air, he realized that Martin Bashir had betrayed his trust in order to produce a obscene thriller that just made more puzzling questions for Michael Jackson instead of him answering his questions for the public. The real dispute hung around a young 13-year old boy who Bashir interviewed without his mothers acknowledgement and within this interview Bashir asked irrelevant questions that made Michael Jackson look perverted, for example: Bashir asked, if Gavin Arvizo (13-year old boy) had ever slept in Michael Jackson's bedroom. Bashir got an answer from Arvizo that he manipulated so that it would portray Michael Jackson in a dangerous and perverted way. Because of this documentary it has been face-threatening and done a lot of damage to him, his family and his career, this is unethical and slanderous.

A documentary that has been seen as slanderous is named 'The Burden of Virginity' this was based around the idea of difficulties for newly married women in Uzbekistan. The director Umida Akhmedova was actually convicted of slander with 'Offence through mass media', towards the Uzbekistan people. After admitting to this she was allowed to walk free however narrowly avoiding a 3 year imprisonment sentence because they allowed her to be released under an amnesty in honour of the 18th anniversary of Uzbek independence.

'The Third Jihad' written and directed by Erik Werth, and directed by Wayne Kopping is 'potentially slanderous' because the directors wanted to portray some information and evidence on how Islam have problems with the West, and the Muslims living within America got upset at this, and Werth and Kopping were very lucky narrowly escaping conviction of being tagged as 'slanderous'.

'Super Size me' presented, directed and written all by Morgan Spurlock, this is a slanderous documentary because it focuses solely on the Mc Donald's brand of fast food, and he says lots of negative and bad things about this food after  going through an extreme diet of just their food which was just done for an affect to show the worst case scenario, the reason why its slanderous is because it's giving Mc Donald's a bad name and it is de-facing the brand.

Ethics in Documentary

Ethics are a very important and serious thing when it comes to documenting, ethnics is an arrangement of morals within different cultures, and within a documentary they have to respect these different cultures and morals, or the documentary would be classed as unethically correct.

For example, the Jimmy Saville case of him being an alleged Pedophile, this is unethical because the makers of the documentary didn't take into consideration that his family and his victims would be dramatically affected by it, because Jimmy Saville is dead now and all the attention and focus goes onto his family and victims. This is unethical, the producers of the documentary done it all for an affect and didn't look forward foreseeing the potential damage it could cause thats why its is unethical.

Louise Theroux's documenter who typically documents a community or a group of people who are far outside of normal life in some way shape or form, and he interviews them in a manner of being naive and innocent about them; these groups have been racists, religious fanatics, maximum security prisoners, drug addicts and so on. Focusing on his documentary called 'A place for Paedophiles', it is unethical because there is no need for the documentary and he is singling out different people with convicted mental problems, these people can still have family and victims and this would have a bad and disturbing affect on them.

Another Louise Theroux documentary, 'Twilight for the Porn Stars', This is also a very unethical documentary because of its intimate nature. Louise Theroux Interviews a number of different Actors within the porn industry and it is unethical because there would be people family and friends that don't want to know and see there loved one talking about there doings within this private and sensitive industry.

Another unethical documentary is 'Living with Michael Jackson' which was presented by Martin Bashir, it is unethical because Michael Jackson had agreed to an eight-month long interviewing process with Martin Bashir, hoping to enlighten his fans about many misconceptions in his life. When Michael Jackson saw the finished product of "Living With Michael Jackson" on the air, he realized that Martin Bashir had betrayed his trust in order to produce a obscene thriller that just made more puzzling questions for Michael Jackson instead of him answering his questions for the public. The real dispute hung around a young 13-year old boy who Bashir interviewed without his mothers acknowledgement and within this interview Bashir asked irrelevant questions that made Michael Jackson look perverted, for example: Bashir asked, if Gavin Arvizo (13-year old boy) had ever slept in Michael Jackson's bedroom. Bashir got an answer from Arvizo that he manipulated so that it would portray Michael Jackson in a dangerous and perverted way. Because of this documentary it has been face-threatening and done a lot of damage to him, his family and his career, this is unethical and slanderous.

'The Most Hated Family in America', another documetary made by Louise Theroux, it is about a family at the core of Westboro baptist church which actively protest against homosexuality. The group go to US Marines funerals and display signs that say things like, 'God hates fags', which is obviously politically incorrect and just wrong. This documentary is unethical because it shows christianity in an extreme and negative light, this is only a small group that do this and it is portrayed like all christians are like this. The way Louise Theroux makes documentary's  is sometimes unethical because the choosen topic to document on, and the way he presents this topic, he will have his own opinions so this will reflect within his interviewing and maybe just the whole outlook of the finished documentary.

Stop Motion Presentation (Production Guide)

Interview Analysis

Interview Analysis

Hello Perry, I know your interest is EXPO, can you please tell the viewers what EXPO is?

Would you say thats what's good about EXPO, that its got something for everyone?

Have you ever met anyone famous at EXPO?

So would you call yourself an avid film buff? Because obviously your quite with that as your interest.

Yeah, so what is your favorite film?

Would you say he's your favorite director?

Why would you say that? what makes them two stand out?

Yeah so as your into film, would you ever want to go into that as a career?

Have you ever written any material?

I've seen one of your previous films, and i have to say it is very good, and before you went in to writing/making that film did you write it out like how you've written these future films that you have been talking to me about?



What is the best question and why?

Have you ever met anyone famous at EXPO? This is a risky question because this question could of went two ways, really well and he would drop some interesting names within his awnser, or it could just simply go to a 'no' which is not good. But the reason why this is the best question I asked is because he has met alot of famous people at this event and he could freely talk about it for a adequate amount of time.

What was the funniest response? what question prompted it?

So would you call yourself an avid film buff? Because obviously your quite with that as your interest.
This was a funny response from Perry the interviewee, because it is a rather personal question so he has to judge himself and give his opinion on himself, and that is always a thing people love to talk about and can talk alot about.

The worst response? why?

Why would you say that? what makes them two stand out? This question is not to bad but the repsonse wasnt fantastic because it was partly very obvious and hesitant. I say 'very obvious' because the first utterance he made of his awnser was: "Cos' I really like the way they direct... Love and am a massive fan of their films", it wasnt that detailed but after this he em's and ar's for a little bit and then he gives an interesting insite into one of the directors.

The Interview Concluded
In conclusion the interview was very successful, it was successful because all my questions were answered thoroughly, these in-depth answers

Van Susan's Possible Questions

Van Susan’s Possible Questions

When did the band start?

What did you play in the band? And what do you find so interesting about what you play?

What were the bands influences, also who or what influences you to play your style of music?

Can you possibly talk about what (made you split away from the band)?

Are you going to join another band?

Do you play any other instruments other than a bass guitar?

What are you currently doing now?

What was it like to headline at Indigo2?

What was it like touring the UK?

Have you ever played with the Van Susan's outside the UK?

What equipment are you using at the moment?

Did you ever get a good pay for being in the Van Susan's?

Robert Welland

Aardman studios

Aardman Studios

How Do They Create Animations?

Aardman studios are an English national treasure; they specialize in stop motion animation. They have made some vastly successful movies and programs, which include: Wallace and Gromit, Morph, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run, to just name a few.

The animation industry in the UK has a great tradition of Stop Frame, or Stop Motion (may also be known as Puppet, Model or Clay) animation. Studios like Aardman, have made some vastly successful movies and programs, which include: Wallace and Gromit, Morph, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run, to just name a few.

As the most potentially time consuming form of animation, stop motion requires enormous amounts of patience and dedication, Wallace & Gromit in ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’, was made in Aardman’s studios. It is all filmed using stop motion, this technique of filming animation which is very popular, it is a very tedious and time consuming technique, but when its done correctly it gives a great look to the film. And there are a huge variety of tasks and activities that go into making a piece of stop motion animation. This is reflected in the wide range of job roles available.

Job Roles

Animators

Aarman’s animators would have proven high-level experience because of the prestigious Aardman studios. They are always pushing the boundaries of the art form; they have an exceptional sense of various acting and performance styles. The animator’s job is to be an artist, an artist that gives a story through the movement of the characters, and also the movement of the camera and the way the footage has been shot.

Assistant Animators

The film productions demand artists who demonstrate animation, model making and sculpting skills to serve as assistants on feature film projects. Knowledge of photography is also a useful skill to an assistant animator, because they can give help and advice to the animators to get lots of different opinions on they way they film the shot. That’s what an assistant animator would be used for, their advice and knowledge on the way the footage gets filmed.

Storyboard Artists

An Aardman storyboard artist should be able to effectively communicate emotions and feeling through character design, staging and interesting enthusiastic storytelling. A Storyboard artist would be creating storyboards through, character design and rough example model sheets as well as personal sketches, these are the building blocks to convey a story. Traditional skills such as life drawing, sculpture, painting and photography also assist a storyboard artist because all these skills involve using some sort of creative intellect to start with a blank canvas and making a interesting story for a stop motion animation film.

Layout Artists

Layout artists are those who run all the mise-en-scene, this is everything that appears before the camera and its arrangment - composition, sets, probs, actors, costumes, and lighting. A cinematographer’s eye and an understanding of film-making are vastly helpful for this job role; this is because they will be dealing with the visual aspect to film-making. At Aardman studios there is a huge art department for making big background landscapes; they look at architectural designs to make realistic models for the film set.

There are lots of the same puppet armatures used for different scenes within Aardman studios productions, for example: Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-rabbit, for the main villain in the film the Were-Rabbit they built a skeleton like structure and then used lots of different materials on a number of the Were-Rabbit puppets made, in scenes where the character would talk or howl they used flexible and malleable materials to move the mouth. Aardman studios set a high quality level of stop motion animation that’s why there world renowned, but this is only because all of the sectors work hard and in sync with each other, in which creates a successful production. 

Robert Welland