I recently gave a short seminar on various film to the rest of my MA class, for this session I chose a variety of film ranging from stop motion animation to live action films. In this blog I am sharing one of the film makers that really interested and resonated with me. To begin with we have the short film stems a stop motion animation made by Ainslie Henderson with the music of Poppy Ackroyd.
I believe stems really spoke to me through its use of material, the idea of the “stuff” having a past life really interested me. I felt that the filming of the entire process really worked well and the continuation of the creators hand in the filming stepped away from the more stereotypical animation into something else. I also enjoyed the slight sadness that Henderson discussed the puppets possessed, they do contain something of an anthropomorphic quality which we respond to at the same time they contain a notion of sad humor about them.
There is also something to be said for the palette, although the pieces and parts are a combination of both man-made and natural objects the puppets take on a very organic earthy feel. The collaborations between Henderson and Akroyd I believe work very well, the music becoming part of the piece as a whole as also shown in their other collaboration “Time Piece”. I have been listening to more of Ackroyd’s work her use of unorthodox instruments and inventive style of composition compliments the animation but also work well as pieces themselves.
As you can see the film “timeless” continues the idea of showing the method to the film making. I especially enjoy the time lapse of the camera itself showing the various movements that the camera made to create the initial animation.
Listen to more of Poppy Akroyd’s work here .
