2016 Oscar® Animated Features Nominations & Return of SMG! Subscribe by Email for the New Monthly Posts!

Hello fans of Stop Motion and readers of the blog!

Firstly, I suppose the inaugural subject I should cover in this post is simply an explanation and then apology, which I most assuredly owe to you, reader. By chance I glanced at the time stamp of the last post that went up on the blog and it just so happens it dates exactly a year ago to this day. If you are reading this when this goes up, that means it was a year ago that you were last updated (at least by this blog) to the latest Stop Motion news, reviews, and behinds the scenes featurettes. For that let me apologize. Lately I've been slaving away at a few personal projects. It is yet too early for an announcement of any kind so on the details of those let me stay, at least for the time being, silent.

There has been quite a bit of movement in the Stop Motion world that I sadly was not here to inform you about. Most prominently: the Shaun the Sheep Movie was released into theaters and although it did incredibly poor in the B.O. it was widely reviewed extremely well by audiences and critics alike, two Stop Motion feature films were nominated for the 2016 Oscars® (Shaun and Anomalisa), and there have been talks that Henry Selick has teamed up with comedy duo Key and Peele to make a Stop Motion feature.

Let me be the first to say that there is a future for this blog.

Right now I am planning to post at least one monthly update on this blog that covers the whole of the news and discoveries of the Stop Motion world. Currently I'm planning for these to be published on the blog the last day of every month. There is at least another year in this blog. At least. If it has a future beyond then...well, we'll simply have to wait and see. I am not sure of the details yet. Will these monthly posts be one mega-post with all that month's news combined in it or will they be spread thinner in several shorter posts. The main thing: there is a future for Stop Motion Geek and new content will be coming.

The 2016 Oscar® nominations for the Animated Feature Film category are:
Anomalisa - Carlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, and Rosa Tran
Boy and the World - Alê Abreu
Inside Out - Pete Doctor and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep the Movie - Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

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Vincent & Puppet Scales

Tim Burton's Vincent is a masterpiece; the short was animated by the brilliant Stephen Chiodo . I do love that the short was shot in black and white film, ask any true film-lover and

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Interview with Bram Meindersma, Composer and Sound Designer of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"

Sam and his father, from Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Unlike practically every other medium, film has the unique aesthetic of being composed of the elements of sound and image, and, curiously, whenever watching a film, the two blend together into something of an impeccably hybridized concoction. With as much influence as sound has over the audience’s final experience of any given film, composer and sound designer Bram Meindersma’s work on the Oscar-nominated stop motion short film Negative Space – directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter – proves an endlessly fascinating and extraordinary case study, as it uses sound – both its soundtrack as well as every other element of sound design – only sparingly and in subtle ways, one that could almost be called conservative. Yet it is perhaps just that component of its sound design that, at least in part, makes the film such a powerful one. Perhaps the reason why Meindersma’s delicate work on Negative Space is so powerful is i

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"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2" End Credits

A few nights ago I sat down and watched the sequel to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ; correctly titled Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 . And, I must say... it was enjoyable and entertaining. Though the first film was comedic brilliance animated, dubbed, and packed in a box we like to call a movie. Cloudy 2 wasn't any where near as good as the first one but on the other hand the original directors/writers of the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller didn't direct the sequel. But they are the creative team behind the recently released The Lego Movie . Which looks great and is getting incredibly positive reviews from the critics. So, i am excited to partake in that movie experience. All the 'end credits' work was done by the amazing people over a Screen Novelties. Lots of cool stuff here in the end credits including grown men in strawberry suits, puppets, and of course, Stop Motion. So grab a snack and enjoy! Link: http://vimeo.com/85201368 End C

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Interview with Gerald Thompson, Director of Photography and Motion Control Artist on Australian Stop Motion Short Film "Lost & Found"

Knitsune in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. Early on, while growing up in Adelaide, South Australia, Gerald Thompson – motion control artist and director of photography on the beautiful and heartfelt Australian short film Lost & Found – developed an interest in photography, and it didn’t take very long for him to became enamored with making “epic” Super 8 films with his friends. Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. An engineer at heart – having gone on to design numerous motion control rigs as well as an incredible robot that interacts in real time with a dancer and musician – the element of filmmaking that Thompson found the most ardor remains the technical side of film’s craft, especially in the realm of special effects, specifically practical effects (for when Thompson – now a veteran in the special effects industry – began, CGI was still only in early stages of development, an

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Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “

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Interview with Florian Guillaume, Co-Director of "Magic Shoe: Episode 3"

The London-based rock band El Deyma has begun to release via their YouTube channel a series of serialized multi-media music videos entitled “The Magic Shoe,” in which each instalment features one of their songs. Each episode features a different cinematographic technique, so far having explored both live action and two styles of stop motion. Each video features the next chapter in an on-going narrative about a red shoe’s search for his twin, beginning – in episode one – in the bedroom of it’s owner, before the shoe eventually hits the streets of London in its quest, which is where the second episode – a live action piece – begins. The third episode , which is this week’s Stop Motion Geek “pick of the week,” follows the shoe’s exploits through a surreal, collage-style, stop-motion version of Venice, the soundtrack to which is the band’s song “Dino Monkey.” The original idea for the Magic Shoe series (originally conceived for what became episode one, featuring El Deyma’s song,

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MAD - Spy vs. Spy

We all love the brilliant original comic strip Spy vs. Spy, that's has been around, who knows how long, is in stopmo!

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Behind the Scenes of "Robocop 2" at Tippett Studios and how "Jurassic Park" Changed Special Effects Forever

A depressingly large percentage of Hollywood movies boast a gratuitous amount of potential and possibility and yet, for one reason or another, often fall far, far too short to live up to the films they seem to have the potential of being. Although it’s a shame that many of these films have a stupendous level of production value and talent but are often often overlooked, as production value and talent are seen as secondary and supplementary to a quality story – the special effects work done on such second-rate films sadly go unrecognized the most often. An immutable fact stands strong – mediocre films, no matter the level of talent and amount of time poured into producing their special effects, are seen and remembered as nothing but wasted potential…or worse. Yet few box office bombs have had special practical effects work as groundbreaking, especially in the stop motion realm, and yet unfortunately remains unrecognized in every respect than the 1990 film Robocop 2 , both an irrefutabl

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Interview with Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Director, Writer, and Animator of Stop Motion Short Film "Bath House"

In art as in life, when in the thick of something – a chain of, at times, loosely connected actions and consequences – it can be easy to miss “the point.” It’s often only in retrospect – the moment when one can contemplate, assessing and reassessing an event, whether mundane or abnormal – when one can discover meaning and a “point” to events in life as in art. When in the thick of something, things often feel commonplace, moments of actual weight sporadic, chaotic, and adrift, lost in the moment. Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Bath House – a 15-minutes-long short film – perfectly captures these feelings of disorder and inconsequential consequence in the midst of the mundane and seemingly aimless. This mood is further accentuated in the film by a disquieting lack of a soundtrack, using dialogue only sparingly which perfectly accompanies Bahr’s incredibly lifelike puppets and animation, together harmonizing and bringing to life moments and an atmosphere that are rarely (if ever) ca

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Short Flicks: Bent Image Lab's "Fruity Pebbles"

What could be better than starting your day off with part of a whole breakfast, Fred Flintstone, and Stop Motion? We couldn't think of anything either. Nevertheless, these awesome commercials/BTS will bring out the kid, and nerd, in all of us. Directed by Rob Shaw for the incredible Bent Image Lab (a studio that just moved to Manhattan , by the way), these TV spots encapsulates everything we know and love about the modern stone-age Flintstone family who establish how we now think of Prehistoric times. Fire House : http://vimeo.com/45991027 Cocoa Pebbles "Fire Hose" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo . Cop Rock : http://vimeo.com/42010097 Cocoa Pebbles "Cop Rock" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo .

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