pop-up animation studio

I'm fascinated by film-making and I'd like to share my interest.

   It's a lie that playing video games is active; it's simply passive consumption of someone else's imagined world. 

All modern forms of entertainment: video games, cinema, TV and internet are essentially passive. 

As a result we spend hours every day staring at screens and tapping out keys. I'm no exception. It's unhealthy and to cap it all we're bombarded with commercials to use more and more of our time in a passive way. No wonder there's so much obesity. 

The pop-up animation studio

And yet Britain leads the way in innovating ever more ingenious games and series.

   Why let someone else have all the creative fun of making something new and original?

People need to discover how easy it is to create original images and to animate them into a film and tell a story visually. [in my humble opinion] Paintings can move.

There is nothing so creative as making your own images and seeing them move

It's possible to make a film in a day. It may not win an Oscar but it shows you how quickly modern software can composit a film out of a hundred stop motion photos. 

And with attention to a storyboard, characters and lighting it can be a film worth watching.

  So I've come up with the idea of a pop-up animation studio: a tripod, camera and laptop and craft materials, such as card and paper. It's small enough to fbe easily transportable by car or train so I can facilitate workshops around the country.

  It's useful to have several copies of animation characters so I now use a template for a male and female character printed out on card in advance. They fit together with brads, little black fasteners. If I use black card the brads will be almost invisible. They're black so you can alter them and colour them in on the day. 

So there it is and my next workshop on February 6th in Birmingham will show how robust the idea is.

mindful storyboards and filling the gaps in the narrative

Mindful storyboards, filling the gaps in the narrative

Creative writers always say: use all the senses. To evoke a particular place and time, include what you can see, hear and feel, also smell and taste.

This is very much like an exercise in mindfulness, to be in the present, non-judgmental, noticing what's special about the experience. In doing research, writers walk about the location: museum, library, canalside, drinking in the experience. In fiction, the character's emotion is the most vital part, but readers need to 'be there' as well.

Reviewing a piece of writing in a critique group you often find that you've left out some important detail, something so obvious it didn't occur to you to mention it. It's only when your work is read by fellow writers that your attention is drawn to these gaps. 

If you're working on your own, as most of us are, how do you guard against this tendency?

My suggestion is to use storyboard examples. Although a storyboard is used to show the sequence of camera shots in a film, it is also useful to let your story flow. A storyboard focuses on the key moments so it's useful in preparing an 'elevatior pitch' or a synopsis.

You don't have to be an artist. You can just draw stick figures and scribble in a rough background. If you pick out six 'story beats' from your novel.

The first thing you notice is that the boxes in a storyboard are  tiny . Some professional storyboard artists work on on an amazingly miniature scale.

My solution has been to use pastels on an A4 sheet like this:

I predict that you'll notice something in the pictures which belongs in the narrative but isn't there. Whose point of view matters? Are the characters looking at each other? Is there a whole scene that's missing? 

If it's helpful you can storyboard every scene and you may notice details which turn out to be useful. There is a risk is that storyboards are too visual. Our present culture is dominated by visual media: film, TV, internet, video game and the novelist's task is to portray human experience in all its aspects. 

Pictures can hint at smells, tastes, body sensations and emotions but ultimately it's  down to the writer's imagination that finds words to convey these.

How to keep readers reading

Best advice for novel writers: READ MORE

It's vital that writers to understand the conventions that readers are familiar with, in order to avoid cliche or worse: incoherence. 

Breaking the rules invites ambiguity

So what are the rules about keeping readers motivated to read on?

Plot comes first. However convoluted the plot, it can fit into one sentence. 
Tell your friends no more than that one sentence and remind yourself of it every day.
Keeping the plot sentence in mind helps writers write a continuous story and also helps agents and readers decide whether to buy. Knowing the plot keeps you away from sub-plots and irrelevant episodes.

Beware any changes in plot after your first draft; every change will have consequences on each page which will be tiresome to correct. By all means change the characters' names, gender, dialogue as much as you like but plot is sacred from the start.
Plot provides the motivation for your main character and it changes in a special way through the story. and yes, keep to one main charcater and maintain their point of view throughout.
[established writers ignore this but for first novels a rambling point of view puts people off] 

So what is a plot?

Stories open with stasis: the kingdom is in neglect, doom-laden, or everything seems fine but the king is ageing, rumours of dragons abound. Whether you start with action or dialogue, your novel informs the reader of the characters, the place and time and underlying this: the genre [thriller, mystery, horror, historical, romance] Concentrate on your favourite examples of your favourite genre and you will have a repertoire of clever plot twists. 
You can introduce the rules of your fictional world through action, narration or dialogue. If there is magic or paranormal events they are bound by certain rules such as: having a wand made of a particular wood, or having telepathy only with those you love.
Then comes the trigger, the call to action for our hero or heroine. A significant event brings the character to life [eg a beautiful princess is entranced and sleeps for a hundred years]
Ther character sets out on a quest. The object of his quest is often a symbol rather than anything especially valuable. Readers are asked to suspend disbelief, the wrtiter and the character believe that only this one object will bring happiness, relief, safety or survival.
Surprises happen. 
A good writer constantly reaffirms and contradicts readers' expectations. Stories that are entirely predicatable are boring so plan a surprise for every chapter ending. A surprise is an unexpected plausible obstacle or help to the character's quest. She meets antagonists and protagonists, a wise woman or a cruel tyrant.
Then she is faced with a critical choice which demonstartes free will. Things could go either way. She decides to follow a path which is fraught with danger.
This leads to the climax in which she confronts her greatest adversary: time, dragons, a torturer or an arranged marriage and a tense conflict plays out resulting in a reversal: now the character has changed in some way, become more resourceful or lost the battle and accepts defeat. Finally we have the resolution: the new stasis in which the world of the novel is altered following the climax.
So what has kept the reader turning each page?

Surprises and rising stakes. As the story proceeds the character rsks more and more until she stakes her whole life on the outcome. 

I haven't made these rules up, if they sound dogmatic, they can be traced in most films and books and talked about in plot advice to authors since the time of the Greeks. 

In my view, plot awareness is the author's best friend.

Bringing characters to life

one minute 2D stopmotion video tutorial 

There are some excellent sites which show how animation is done:
Michael Parks' stop motion walks

The 12 rules of animation

Here I'm sharing my experiences in making 2D figures using cut-out foam shapes sewn together with cotton. I've let the materials decide the colours and shapes and this can cause problems later. In 2D I don't need to balance the character but they do need walk somehow, which may be complicated for my dancer in this one-minute video tutorial:

I've chosen pastel shades for the dancer's dress which will distinguish her from the other characters who will be in different shades of grey.
  I've decided to stand the characters on a cobbled pavement which will take up the bottom third of the screen, though I am experimenting with a silhouetted background of audience heads.
Follow further one-minute tutorials on walking and green screening to see how the film develops.

The point of Close ups in stop motion films

Close ups have several functions in film. 

A one minute video tutorial:

close-ups blog post
Obviously they convey detail but more importantly they can show a character's emotions more effectively than a long shot which relies on gesture. A close up can imply an unseen observer. A close up may feel intimate or scary depending on how it is used
camera angles 
Extreme close ups and unusal angles can create surprise.
reasons for extreme close ups
A close up may help in continuity by coming between long shots that would otherwise seem jerky due to a change in perspective or angle.

For these reasons, I think it's important to duplicate a character's face on a large scale in a stop/start animation. In this video, I demonstrate how you can do this to simulate the use of close ups in cinema films. 
My characters are made from foam cut to shape and sewn together. The shapes are derived from photographs using a light box, as you can see in this one minute tutorial:

Free stop start 2D animation tutorials

One minute video tutorials start here

Moving images surround us now. How easy is it to animate your own creations to send greetings and amuse your friends? Very easy.

All you need is a mobile phone or camera, a laptop and some craft materials. a table top tripod is perfectly adequate, though I use a full size floor tripod. Animation programmes such as iStopMotion are cheap and easy to use. Basic film editing programmes are available as free downloads, such as Videopad, but I prefer to use Final Cut Pro X though professionals  use Adobe Premiere.
   You don't need any fancy equipment, just a tripod camera and a simple download cable.

I'm using coloured foam sheets available from shops such as Range, cutting them to shape from a photograph using a light box and joining them together using a needle and thread. 

In this first video, I show how you can create a character that walks.

But How do you create a 'filmic' effect? That comes next... 

Free lesson plan: writing a love poem

LESSON PLAN: WRiting a love poem

for aspiring adult writers and teenagers, exploring romance and commitment through poetry.

Could be adapted for younger age groups

	Groups, timing	content	A/V aids
Introduction	5 minutes	In this hour we will 1. Read two poems 2. Discuss their meaning 3. Write a few lines 4. Share a little	Aims projected overhead
First poem	2 minutes	Wedding by Alice Oswald	Handout: Wedding
Impressions	5 minutes	What strikes you first of all?
Rereading	In pairs, 5 minutes	Read the poem to a partner and talk about its meaning.
Deeper thoughts	silently, 5 minutes	It's quite an intimate poem, write down some ideas; what does the poem evoke for you?	Paper and pens
Second poem	2 minutes	If I could tell you by WH Auden	Handout: If I could tell you
Impressions	5 minutes	Seek to include people who haven't spoken up.
Rereading.	In pairs, 5 minutes	Read the poem to a partner and talk about its meaning.
Writing	silently, 10 minutes	Write creatively borrowing an idea or a rhythm from the poems.
Sharing	10 minutes	Talk about what you've learnt or read your writing aloud
Feedback	5 minutes	Comments on today's task
Summary	1 minute	Well done, today we've done some creative thinking and writing.

Handout, page set-up: landscape, two columns cut to A5 size

If I Could Tell You

Time will say nothing but I told you so
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be sold, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know. 

WH Auden

Wedding

From time to time our love is like a sail
and when the sail begins to alternate
from tack to tack, it's like a swallowtail
and when the swallow flies it's like a coat;
and if the coat is yours, it has a tear
like a wide mouth and when the mouth begins
to draw the wind, it's like a trumpeter
and when the trumpet blows, it blows like millions . . .
and this, my love, when millions come and go
beyond the need of us, is like a trick;
and when the trick begins, it's like a toe
tip-toeing on a rope, which is like luck;
and when the luck begins, it's like a wedding,
which is like love, which is like everything.

 Alice Oswald

Write From Life: Free Lesson Plan in Creative Writing

Learning to fictionalise

	Groups, timing	content	A/V aids
Introduction:	Plenary 5 minutes	In this hour we will aim to 1.    Listen carefully 2.    Narrate 3.    Fictionalise	Aims projected overhead
Purpose of session	1 minute	To write from life but camouflage it. Tell your story and watch how it transforms
Recounting a dramatic event	In pairs 5 minutes each	Talk to your partner about a dramatic event that happened to you in the last year.  Listen attentively, no questions
Writing	Individual 15 minutes	Change the names and location. Write up your partner’s experience in 1st or 3rd person. as if it was a short story.
Read aloud	In pairs, 5 minutes each	Check with your partner that any identifying evidence has been concealed, ask permission to make it yours
Reading aloud	Plenary, 10 minutes	Read the stories to the group
Discussion	5 minutes	What was that like?
Summary	4 minutes	There are stories everywhere. With trust, you	Handout [below]

Fictionalising

Life experiences are a vital source of original writing.   In order to use your own and other people’s experiences you need to fictionalise. 

·        Listen attentively, picking up facial expressions and turns of phrase

·        Conceal the identity of people

·        Transform the event into a narrative

Listen for snatches of dialogue at crucial points in a story. 

Remember plot conventions such as a trigger, quest, climax, resolution. 

Protect the identity of your source by changing the names and locations. 

Choose a genre such as sci fi. Gothic mystery or a time period, such as the Renaissance Florence. 

Transform your characters into animals or robots.

Fictionalising

Life experiences are a vital source of original writing.   In order to use your own and other people’s experiences you need to fictionalise. 

·        Listen attentively, picking up facial expressions and turns of phrase

·        Conceal the identity of people

·        Transform the event into a narrative

Listen for snatches of dialogue at crucial points in a story. 

Remember plot conventions such as a trigger, quest, climax, resolution. 

Protect the identity of your source by changing the names and locations. 

Choose a genre such as sci fi. Gothic mystery or a time period, such as the Renaissance Florence. 

Transform your characters into animals or robots.

What I want to write about: lesson plan

Lesson Plan: one hour

What I want to write about. What I don’t want to write about 

	Groups, timing	content	A/V aids
Introduction:	Plenary 5 minutes	In this hour we will aim to 1.    Extend your repertoire of themes 2.    Do creative writing	Aims projected overhead
Purpose of session	5 minutes	Importance of surprise and originality in writing.  With lots of ideas you have more choice.
Make a list	5 minutes	Divide a fresh sheet of paper into two columns and list: What I want to write about	Example sheet [below]
Make another list	5 minutes	Now list: What I don’t want to write about
Reflect	1 minute	Mark the ideas that stand out
Discussion 1	In pairs, 5 minutes	Talk about the ideas that appeal
Creative Writing	10 minutes	Choose an idea and do some free writing
Creative Writing	10 minutes	Which column did you choose? Choose an idea from the other column and do some free writing
Discussion 2	In pairs, 5 minutes	What was that like?  Were ideas from one column easier to write? Did the discussion with a partner help?
Reading your work aloud		Share your writing with the group
Summary	1 minute	Value of having a storehouse of ideas. The best ideas are sometimes counterintuitive. Have you generated more ideas you can work on?  Any comments.	Handout [below]

What I want to       write about

What I don’t want  to write about

 A

What I want to write about. What I don’t want to write about

We made two lists and selected one idea from each column.

1.             Having a good repertoire of ideas in your store cupboard provides impetus to your writing

2.            It gives you more choice.

3.            You may be rejecting ideas out of hand which could be really exciting and unexpected.

4.            Choose the idea that sings or which generates strong feelings in you.

5.            Getting into the habit of making judgments about which idea to go forward with involves a dialogue between the Inner Critic and the Creative being.

6.            Surprise and originality are vital to good writing.

7.            Be prepared to take on something you’ve never done before.

8.            “Things I hate” can generate a rap, a polemic or laughter through ridicule.

9.            Allowing in more ideas will enable you to allow real life experiences into your writing.

10.          You’ll collect expressions or phrases that surprise you and resonate and put them into dialogue or events.