http://youtu.be/NEB_rD846Aw
A year after creating one of my favourites pieces "Horseman in a graveyard" I felt like it was unfinished and there was more to it, so I re-enacted this moment and made it into a stop motion (short movie).
As mentioned in my analysis of the photos, I wanted to make my granddad into his own character of a Hammer horror so I decided to make him the star of his own short movie.
Of course, before doing this I planned out a storyline and created a storyboard in my sketchbook. I knew what the plot was as I had already visioned this in the first shooting I just needed my ideas to be brought to life.
Story Plot -
There lives a strange man named Clayton Bright who has a secret odd like love for horses. His love is like an obsession so he keeps it secret. The reasons behind this is because he has always been alone and distanced himself from communicating with family and friends. He doesn't like the idea of being human and dealing with others and feels uncomfortable dealing with our society. When he looks at a horse he admires it's independence and strength and the fact that it can only show so little emotion. He would love to see life from a horses perspective as it is different to humans. As a horses eyes are on each side they are capable of seeing nearly 360 degrees at one time. This way you can see life in a larger view and it is easier to analyse what is going on around you.
The horse racing is one of Clayton's favourite programmes as he can see the passion and strength that the horse puts in and can imagine how great it feels to have the ability to run that fast and feel the gast of winding smacking you in the face. The only friendship this man can see is between a horse and its owner. He believes that horses are more faithful than humans.
He has two homes, one being his flat where he's himself as a man and the other is in a centuries old graveyard. The flat to him is a place where he eats and sleeps when he feels it gets too cold outside. At that point all he wants to do is lay on the sofa in his pyjamas all day watching the horse racing and Hammer horror movies. He hasn't much of an active life, only to go out and visit the horse in the field not far away from where he lives and to visit his second home, the graveyard. When in his flat the first thing he does once awakening is make himself porridge. He eats porridge because it gives him energy throughout the day ahead of him. It is being eaten with his hands as he has grown up with no manners and he is constantly in his own company so he has no care in the world and just wants to get his food down him.
The graveyard is chosen to be a second home as it is a hidden location right by the side of his flat.
There is a long lane right by it's side and to get to it you have to walk down a short banking covered covered in long grass. When walking through the lane it is hard to even notice that there is something hidden behind the row of trees in front of it. It is barely obvious to see that it is even a graveyard as the gravestones are mostly covered behind the long grass and a few are lent backwards slightly whilst others are placed flat on the ground as if they are engraved making them easy to step on. They are jotted around the place in odd like order not like a modern day graveyard. The gravestones go from small to large scale. The small scaled are made for babies and children. As the place is so secretive Clayton feels comfortable being who he really wants to be. At the far back of the graveyard right in the corner is where he likes to to settle the most. There is a long, wide, thin plank of wide placed where he can sleep on and eat his dinner. As he has body fat he isn't that easily effected by the cold and he enjoys the nature of the outdoors more than the indoors. Although Clayton has no communication with others around him he likes to explore the graveyard and reads the gravestones. He does not like the company of people living but feels a nice feeling of being surrounded by the souls of the people who were once buried there. The indoors makes him feel smothered. This is a comforting home for Clayton as he feels free to wear his horse mask so that he can play the character of half horse and half himself. This place is his main place chosen to live but only in dim and warm weather with a slight breeze. At these times he only goes back to his flat to make his dinner.
The mask is made out of latex and covered in light and dark colours such as brown, black, grey and white. It has brown fur on the front, top and behind of its head making the mask look highly realistic. He has owned this mask since the first time he has found a love for horses which was 10 years before this time. That was when he first started to watch the horse racing.
The mask represents freedom to be whoever you want to be and that is why being a horse comes so easy to him. Although it is easy to play a role of any character he only wears the horse mask for the look and feeling of being a horse. He eats with his hands but that is a hobby of his own, not playing the role. He does not act in any way like a horse.
To begin creating my stop motion I had my camera settings set to "sports" as this will set my camera to take pictures one straight after another with no delay in between. What I found went wrong in this was that my camera had died in battery the first time round doing it so the next pictures were taken weeks later. I think this can be noticed as you can see hair growth and a change in lighting. My first few pictures were taken at night and the next were taken in the day time when the sun was up.
I very much enjoyed my time taking pictures for this as It was an easy process with the timing of the camera and it felt like I was shooting a movie as I was also directing my granddad where to go, how to be and what to do. The most exciting parts to this I felt were when I was taking pictures of my granddad eating the porridge with his hands. I remember smiling to myself as It was comical but I was also proud of how far he would take it for my work. I remember saying "that's great, keep going". My other favourite scene was when he gets angry and starts throwing the branches in temper over not finding where he hid his mask. I told him to really show his emotions and to throw things around him in anger and I honestly feel like he achieved this better than I had hoped. At the time I remember taking the photo's whilst being scared. It was incredible how well he played the character. When taking the photos I wanted to zoom in on the ugly parts on his body such as the big hairy belly and the long toe nails and hairy feet. I like to focus on the strange and ugly.
Afterwards I felt the need to change the effects to black and white as I feel it is more documentary. With it being in black and white we are not distracted by the colours around and then become more focused on the main subject. When experimenting with stop motion I fell in love with the fact that a stop motion injects 2D pictures into real life. I find it to be an experimental technique.
To finalize this I used a software on the Mac called "IMovie". I had prepared myself and downloaded horrific and creepy piano music from YouTube and had this ready to convert to my work. I wanted to include music in order to make the stop motion more realistic and intense. When music is added I feel that people immediately feel more drawn to it and emotions raise high. This was the one part of my work which I did in college and not at home.
When shown in my exhibition I had the best reaction! It was a nice feeling to see people going over to my work and being highly amused and freaked out over this strange video. My granddad was at the exhibition and he had people pointing at him which made me chuckle.
Overall there were 1, 110 pictures been taken.
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