Animation Reel
Pirouette.
"A clown crippled with anxiety auditions at his local dance company for the role of a lifetime; when he's forced to confront the only thing holding him back."
Crew
Written and Directed By
Adina Cohen
Produced By
Diane Cohen
Music By
Steve Wilder Blumenthal
Sound and Mixing By
Benjamin Knapp
Andrew Cohen
Director Of Photography
Aaron Umetani
Animation By
Adina Cohen
FAQ
How long did it take to complete Pirouette?
Pirouette took about 2 months of prep work. Then a year of '3 hours a night making puppets, rewriting scripts and storyboarding' (juggling with freelance). I carved out 3 months, 1 for finishing puppets, 1 month for sets and 1 month of actual shooting. After that it was 8 months of post (freelance juggle.) And to be frank I had to add 8 months of extra post (again while juggling freelance), music and mix. Sometimes things aren't ready until they are. It's better that way.
Woah Stop Motion! What program did you use? Is this clay? How long does one second take to animate?
I used Dragonframe with a canon T1i camera and a bunch of nikon lenses. For post work I'm been using After Effects.
Although Claymation is an awesome medium, there isn't any actual clay in these puppets. I used aluminum wire, foam, resin, paint, a bit of 3D printing, and hardware. If your interested in knowing the right products to use send me an email and I can point you in the right direction.
The amount of time it takes to animate a second varies, depending on how difficult the shot is, the style of the project and the design of the puppets (ball and socket/quality) . The average pace for my short was about 60 frames an hour or 2 and a half seconds.
Hey this looks like the clown from you Senior Thesis, is it?
In short, sorta.
From my senior thesis, "The Trip", the clown was a strange character who lives in an elevator and falls way too in love with the main character because he's lonely and isolated. He was supposed to be random but people really connected with him and wanted to learn more about his character. Looking back on that clown from college I realized he was a reflection of my youngerself's ignorance about love and relationships.
So I decided if I were to make a film about this character again he would have to change just how I did. So this clown may look the same but he's not creepy, has a better grasp on reality and has a whole new conflict he has to grow from. Check out my senior thesis "The Trip" in the animation page.