Developers

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech film director he has influenced many people including; The brothers quay. Svankmajer has always been interested in art and film from an early age going to; the college of applied arts and the Prague academy of performing arts. He is most famous for mixing stop motion and surrealism together. Most of Svankmajer’s films are quite dark, strange and even disturbing. Svankmajer married a lady called Eva Svanmajervoa she was also very talented in art she painted, and wrote they often worked together unfortunately she died when he was 69. A lot of Svankmajer’s work is based around food many say that he had a terrific experience growing up. Svankmajer creates the illusion of movement by speeding up his film. Svankmajer famously said “I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects.” Švankmajer was so successful because he exaggerated everything. After watching his stop motion films I feel in stop motion you have to exaggerate in stop motion. He didn’t just exaggerate when acting he exaggerated when editing e.g sound effects. The target audience for Švankmajer's films would be dark visual characters who dont need to be told the story they can come to their own conclusions on what the artist is putting across. 

Ray Harryhausen - Dynamation

Ray Harryhausen was an American born on the 29th of June 1920. Ray Harryhausen is still alive and well at the age of 92. He specialized in stop motion and model animation. Ray Harryhausen helped films films such as “King Kong” be big films. He helped them do this by his break through of realistic miniature models.  Harryhausen’s first film was a massive hit called ‘the beast from 20,0000 fathoms’ it had budgeted $210,000 and it ended grossing $5 Million . Harryhausen created a whole new animation technique by splitting up the foreground and the background of live action footage this split the 2 images up he then put his models in and re captured it creating the illusion and leaving a very smooth finish. 

Dynamation 

The process was simple but very effective.  He projected a live action image onto a rear screen in front of which was placed the animation table with the model.  He would then place a glass sheet in front of both.  When the live action plate had been shot Ray would establish where he wanted to make his matte line and so by looking through the camera viewfinder he would re-establish that line and with a wax pencil on the end of a stick, follow that line by drawing it on the glass.  When he was satisfied that the line was accurate he would then paint out, with black matt paint, the lower section, below the line.  He would then photograph the animation of the model reacting to the live action on the plate.  Afterwards he would then create a second pass in the camera to reinstate the lower previously matted out section so creating a combined image of the creature seemingly as part of the live action. 

Willis O’Brien

Willis O’Brien was an American motion effects and stop animation pioneer. “He was responsible for some of the best known images in cinema history”.  His best known film for my generation would be the first ever King Kong. He also made some other well known films such as; the lost world and Mighty Joe Young. Willis O’Brien left home when he was just 11 years old. He was also a professional boxer winning 9/10 fights. O’Brien was very creative early on in his life, he was a cartoonist for a newspaper and a sculptor. O’Brien is a legend in todays animation world didn't get the recognition he deserved while he was alive. I like to think O’Brien was like Van Gogh he wasn't appreciated until he wasn't with us anymore. Willis O’Brien created the illusion of movement by creating detailed miniature models; using this technique was very simple but very effective. He would create enough frames until there was enough to be played rapidly causing the persistence of movement. I feel Willis O’Brien was amazing at what he did; using such limited resources he has managed to be respected even today in the film world. O’Brien even struggled with finance to make films even after his king kong legacy.