Once upon a time in a park not far from here
All the new parents came for a chat and a pints of beer
Designated drivers, they knew they couldn’t go too far
But a second drink didn’t seem to be too much harm
So, when he picked up his baby, little light weight in his arms
The lightweight didn’t realise, there was reason to alarm
It was such a peaceful Sunday! A few drinks wouldn’t hurt!
But those claims wouldn’t matter when it came to its worst
It’s another Sunday in that park nice and sweet
But no one’s on the slides, and no one’s sat on the seats
You can try to hide it, but we both know, don’t pretend
That drinking and driving can be your family’s end
If I was to do it again, I would try to do it somewhere I could have more regulation over the final product. I would record the script earlier, and make sure I kept the timing right for all of the animations needed. I would also try to regulate the Mise En Scene, as many of my shots had scrap paper in them, or otherwise things that made it look more professional. I would keep the lighting consistent the whole way through and make sure every piece of animation was original and up to standard.
I believe my end result is good because it is original, and that is typically most remembered in safety campaign videos to stay memorable, despite lacking quality.
I have created a short campaign about drink driving, that mimics a children's book with a poetry voiceover and stop motion footage. I have used DaVinci to edit my video together, and I have used the colour tool, something I learnt about from FinalCut to help me with this.
The esthablishing shot of a book opening immediately creates the idea that this is a children's story, a distorted theme that is used to portray hostility in innocence throughout the film.
This is also backed up by the use of poetry and happy go lucky music in the voice over, as well as the imagery of children in a play park, usually a designated safe space, to create an uncanny mental image, when a place that should be typically crowded is completely desolate.
Aside from this, the codes of the video are more stereotypically artful, in the way the real hands are involved in opening a stop motion book, making the tie between the reality of the situation in comparison with the fiction of the video. They also do not appear after this until the book is shutting, creating a lack of verisimilitude that could be used for mocking.
Apart from this, many of the typical codes and conventions are used. Many shots, such as ones with pedals and seatbelts, show iconography in a car, which is a common feature of road safety adverts. In this patictular case, the use of paper cutouts in the animation keeps the theme of the storybook style, creating a artistic view of the film that lessens the verisimilitude. This is important, because it makes it seem more lighthearted childs play, instead of the dark nature the film actually represents.
I feel I have relatively closely followed my original aims, as I have created the story I was interested in making, with similar shots as I was trying to capture.
However, I have also differed from what my original aims were. For instance, my original script was going to be less aimed towards its audience and more general, but this was changed in favour of the narrative I was trying to tell.
If I wanted to keep both next time, it would need to be either longer, with more time to flesh things out, or be more vauge, to stay relatable with different interpretations.
Since I was working with stop motion instead of film, I had to learn a lot of new methods to piercing together my work that I wouldn't have had to deal with otherwise. I found the lessons we had on lighting and photography were occasionally more helpful than the 12 principles of animation, as I needed to use a lot of photography for the stop frame, which I hadn't had much experience with before.
I have used two point lighting with a tripod, as I had to use another light to block out the shadow as I took the pictures. The light was shone beneath the phone, where I took photos with the light of the room behind it.
I found some of the principles useful; as I needed to use frames in my work that were very affected by things such as timing and staging.
I had problems I was not expecting in the timing of the video, as the stop motion pictures ended up being shorter than I expected them to be. This, as well as the slightly longer than expected audio, meant I had to reuse some footage, and ended up sacrificing the vaugity I was originally going for in the video.