I had decided that I wanted to make a house to represent my body using fire imagery from the film Synecdoche New York and My Own private Idaho. I decided to do further research into the architecture of the house, what it would look like stylistically and what materials I could use.
I looked at the artist Peter Garfields work Mobile homes/Harsh Reality. I really liked the image of the house falling from the sky as it was close to the image of the barn falling from the sky in My own Private Idaho. The light being on as though someone was inside when it was falling adds a sense of eeriness mixed with the dark lighting and desolate landscape it’s falling onto. The light reminded me of the work of the photographer Todd Hido- Homes at Night:
The images hold an equally haunting yet strangely comforting mood to them, the artificial warmth of the yellow lights in the misty darkness. It feels like they are dream images due to the blurriness, something strangely nightmare-esque to them.
I really liked the look of older wooden houses. Although they aren’t all too common in the Uk to my knowledge they are elsewhere. Most noticeably when I was in Nova Scotia the majority of the homes there were all wooden. I took some pictures of specific ones that I’ve included in my sketchbook page above. I felt that it would also be easier to create a realistic looking house with cheap materials if I went this route- with popsicle sticks.
The process of making the house was fairly easy however took a lot of time as I wanted to make the house look as realistic as possible. I used a hot glue gun to stick the house together and although this was messy I feel it wasn’t too obvious in the final piece as the whole point was to make it look slightly decrepit. I used mesh wire as the vent grate, this was just a spare material from a previous project however I think it looks really effective as the grate, something I couldn’t have replicated with anything else.
I then painted the piece using different tones to create a slightly decaying and chipped effect to wood, as though the house had been abandoned/ not looked after in years. This was to symbolise the decay of our bodies when we don’t look after them or when a disease or illness takes hold.
I then sketched what I wanted my set to look like- I knew from Jingzhiyong’s art that I wanted to make the scene feel isolated and create a sinister feeling. I decided to stick with farm like imagery with fields and a singular road, the scene in complete darkness other than the light from the fire. I wanted to have other 3D elements so decided to create a power line pole also that would connect to the drawing and the other poles would be angled so even though 2D looked like a continuation.
I was really pleased with the final outcome of the set, there were technical things if I had more material I would have changed like the hot glue to stick a lot of it together but I think within my means I created a great set. I then started on making the clay spaceman. I ordered animators clay, polystyrene balls to create the skeleton of it. My first attempt was too flimsy and fell apart too easily, the wire slipping from place so in my second attempt I tried putting bead crimps on the joints and the ends of the polystyrene balls to keep them from moving. This was successful so I covered the space man in the clay, trying to replicate my real life outfit as best I could.
I then needed to make the fire for my house. I knew it would be impossible to use real fire so I would need to look at making it. At first I tried felt but because of a lack of the material I couldn’t use it in the end. This meant that paper would have to be the substitute, much less expense came with this option also. I wanted to create 4 different fires on and around the house and would need to make sure the number of different flames I made corresponded.
I stuck some of the flames into my sketchbook to record their use. I made 9 of each in the end, 2 on the roof and house then 2 on the floor of the set. The actual process of making them was easy enough, I just had to make sure they matched in some way or another so the flow of the animation wouldn’t b disjointed. I put a tea light inside the set to create the appearance of flickering inside. I knew I wanted the spaceman to walk around but the issue would then be requiring more and more flames to keep the animation going. To solve this problem I decided that I would instead alternate between the two biggest flames of each set. This would save me time and keep me on schedule.
I blue tacked the flames to the house to save myself time and used the app ‘stop motion’. I had to improvise when it came to my tripod so used a Starbuck up and masking tapped it to the table. This worked ok but I will have to invest in a tripod for future use.
I had the spaceman stand and watch as the house became more and more aflame, before turning to face the camera. I wanted this to look similar to the other shots I had of the spaceman in real life- being stood still facing the camera. He then walks away from the house and stands at the side of the road, making the universe hand sign for a hitchhiker- the hitchhikers thumb. I wanted this to be a symbol of how we sometimes regardless of the large mess in front of us, we continue to look for an easy way out even if highly unrealistic and delusional- hence the hitchhiker on a completely abandoned and isolated road in the dark.
Overall as my first attempt with stop motion I am really pleased with the outcome. I will need to speed certain parts up however that will all come into play with the final video. I will use stop motion more I feel in this project as it didn’t take as much time as I had first feared it would.
Olivia Naysmith 