In Bagpuss, when they walk there is limited character movement as well as limited facial expressions when talking which overall concludes it has a low budget when producing the ad. For example when there’s a shot of the mice surrounding a box in the scene they push away a character Professor Yaffle as well as approach the box in a group, what was shown was limited movement in doing these actions as the frames kept skipping/having jump cuts which suggests it has a low FPS. The only way these characters show their characteristics are via sound of the mice squeaking as there is hardly any detail in any of the facial expressions of the characters, as even their eyes do not blink throughout the ad. The explanation for this can be due to the place of exhibition this animation was targeted at, which was for television in combination with the year off the animation was first aired which was 1972. Technology in these years was a lot harder to get in terms of really good quality and the costs to acquire this technology made this even harder. The target audience off bag puss is aimed at kids which is what to some extent allows the animation to be of such quality as kids animation’s are not meant to be as high tech as something you would see in the cinema, more or less the kids will not mind how much FPS is in the animation just as long as they acknowledge movement within the animation. In Wallace and Gromit, there is a magnificent level of detail put into a Claymation animation, all of the dialogue is mimicked in perfect sync and the movement of the characters in the programme has potential to mistake people for this animation almost being real and humane. This instantly will suggest that not only does this programme have a high rate of FPS, it also suggests the programme is high budget and uses a lot of modern technology. There is a scene where a police man is talking in a church about ware rabbits to the fellow citizens, the police man in that specific scene has a lot of detail in his facial expression. The reason for this much amount of detail put into this animation is that the budget is well over 5million, the first series of Wallace and Gromit started off in 1989 however in 2005 there was a movie out called curse of the were rabbit which had a huge 30million budget. Wallace and Gromit targets mainstreamers and family as it has been a successful showing film at the cinemas winning over 10 BAFTA awards out of being nominated in 16. This animation needed high quality equipment to produce, it helps that in the 20 th century it is a lot easier to get access to this equipment however still expensive.
This contrasts to Bagpuss animation as they did not have this much access to all these high tech equipment and if they did the price would be over 5 times of what it is now. In Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” in 1912 the movement of the beetles has a limited FPS as it is very jumpy and not smooth, there is multiple non diagetic sounds to represent the mood of the animation as there is no actual dialogue in the animation. Around 1.41 of the clip there is inter titles to explain the story behind the animation, as there is no ability to talk or ability to have any lipsyncs in the animation. This reflects the contextual content of the animation as it was made in 1912, a time where stop motion had not evolved to what it is today. The whole illusion of moving animation was very fascinating at this time as people did not even own televisions at this point yet alone see inhuman objects move. In part 2 of camera man’s revenge about 4.30 minutes in there is action scene of two characters fighting which suggest an action genre; however a continuous stationary long shot camera angle has been used throughout the animation. This is very different to action scenes in the 21st century s there are a lot more close up shots and mid shots that frequently change especially in rhythm to enhance that action scene feel which the 19th century did not really have. This reflects the low budget of this animation, as the audience was not as huge in 1912; there was not a mass industry around yet alone any type of TV. It was only in the 1930’s cinemas started being a mass entertainment of 1000’s of people however the audience is very limited as at this time you would have to be well off with money to be able to go to a cinema, to some extent you would be lucky if there is a cinema near you as not many people at all in these times had money to just go to cinema. The tickets would be a lot more expensive back in the 19 th century then it is now. Wladyslaw Starewicz “the tale of the fox” in 1930, about 20 years later has shown a significant improvement in stop motion animation as there is actual sound, lip sync, more frames per second, a lot more back ground visuals, a lot more movement and special effects in order to make this animation more humane. Twenty one years later after, Willis O’Brien’s King Kong was released and was a magnificent development from Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” the biggest improvement is facial expressions and sound which the camera mans revenge lacked. King Kong’s character is expressed through facial expressions and body
language a lot more; this in effect with actual synced sound really gives an idea of a live action film even though it is just an animation. The development of special effects and technology creates a way in which they can have these amazing monsters and unreal things with real people in films. All green screen and CGI methods all began where this film was first released, if it weren’t for these films none of the special effect films today would have been where they are. The method they used here is back screen projection 1.45 in, you can tell the difference in depth, as the character is more 3d then the film itself. When she acts as a layer that covers everything in her way, very similar to the green scene effect. You can tell the actual King Kong character and dinosaurs are illusions of a small model however they have created a set around it to make it look like to the audience that it is a full sized figure. King Kong is classed as an action genre as well but the difference in the amount of camera shots and angles from King Kong and the camera mans revenge is relatively high, although the FPS in King Kong is not brilliant and movement is jumpy however fascinating how you can create these characters and real life people to create a special effect live film. Technology hasn’t advanced very much in movement but the improvement of stop motion animation, special effects and back screen projection in mainstream films have increased significantly especially with the invention of sound and reality. Allow to create more of a character in these animations. The budget of King Kong ultimately has increased as in 1933 you have access to Hollywood TV. Mix of animation and live action is revolutionary at this point – one of the first time people would of seen these cutting edge special effects find a lot more fascinating and more entertaining meaning a mass audience of 1000’s more people are available to see king Kong; as it is reasonably cheap and more people can afford the cinema at this time. This means they will make more profit out of it enabling them to have more money for budget for the next film they produce; and this system continues on repeating. 1930s and 1940s was when there was a increase of people going to cinema this is why the budget is a lot higher then Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” From about 1960 onwards the development of stop motion animation continues to improve. In ‘The time machine’ by George Pal the first thing you notice that stands out in this animation that it is actually in colour TV rather then black and white. This is a big improvement in
TV in general yet alone stop motion animation. It is a lot more clearer and easy to spot illusion of movements with colour as about 1.34 minutes in the scene where the character starts time travelling, the clocks and flowers show all the little changes which suggests that the FPS of the animation has increased to increase realism this contrasts to ‘the camera mans revenge’ as it the footage is not jumpy, the camera is stationary and does not shake. As the character goes faster in time you see less frames per second but more movement so it shows the audience a variation in stop motion animation and how it can be used to show something going a lot faster, this is something that has not been done before at this time period. There is a lot of change in camera angles and scenes yet again to suggest time is moving and to give you a better reality feel of the situation especially at 1.05 where a first person camera angle shot is used to show what the actual character is seeing, this in combination with the 3d stop motion animation gives a dramatic ‘time is flying’ effect, this is especially achiever through the flicker of day and night lighting special effects which is shown throughout this clip, this wouldn’t of worked in black and white, colour TV in this way increases the realism of what is shown on TV. This in combination with the personal narrative thoughts and direct speech in perfect sync with the nondiagetic background sounds to fit the theme/mood of the scene. As the character goes faster in time travelling and risks it at 2.54 mysterious sound track is played and then at 3.59 the sound track has a much faster rhythm and beat to show excitement. All of these effects together create an intense level of realism in animation then ever before, the budget for this animation is going to be high as it is a movie targeted at mainstream cinemas in order to make investments in the whole Hollywood scene frenzy which was going on at this time. The filming in colour and props used in this movie also suggests it is quite costly. Also around in the 1960 time period Ray Harryhausen ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ which was released in 1963 enhances the development of Computer Generated Imagery techniques by combining it with back screen projection. It is a huge development from King Kong’s back screen projection however you can still notice how flat the actors are projected, as the skeletons look a lot more 3d and real then the actors themselves who just like 2d and flat. Special effects from 14 seconds of the skeletons coming out of the ground shows how more
advanced they are in special effects as it actually looks like this fake skeleton is actually coming out of the ground giving it that realistic illusion that stop motion animation provides. Another action genre film as there is a lot of movement and multiple camera shots suggesting that the FPS is high especially for the skeletons as 2.14 in on the clip the skeletons reactions to the warrior is very real and seems as if the actor is generally having a fight with a skeleton. This is a huge improvement from Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” action scene where there is no way near enough FPS and camera shots to show a realistic fight. The budget has to be fairly high for this animation as it is part of a full film, which is targeted at cinemas. The amounts of CGI effects happening in combination with back screen projection reflect how expensive and time consuming it will be to create scenes like this. Around the 1960’s period no one would of ever seen something like this and be utterly astonished by how realistic something that is fake can look. Yet again similar to George Pal’s animation, non-diagetic background sounds are used to enhance the realism and build tension especially in the fighting scenes. Hollywood was a real big thing around here as it was rapidly getting bigger and better, films such as Jason and the Argonauts is what continued to increase its target audience as the economy around this time was way more well off then what it was back in early 19th century.