Stop Motion Geek

A Dutch family as seen in Nieuwstad (New City) . Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar. In the twelfth century, a Dutch peasant family of three – mother, father, and son, each clad in rough-spun wool tunics, the mother in a broad-brimmed white bonnet and apron ­– living on wetlands of the small peasant village of Paveien in Netherlands, just outside of the town of Culenborch (modern-day “Culemborg”) and the village of Lanxmeer, are themselves a strange distillation of their surroundings. To our twenty-first century eyes, their lives – from birth to death – are shaped so starkly by the world in which they live – a world of toil and soil, with the stuff plagued by uncertain flooding patterns and gray, gray weather. With the benefit of hindsight and an eye looking back from the twenty-first century, everything from their clothes to their very way of life – one of mere survival, of settling wild lands by building house and barn and then cultivating the land remaining – has a look and f...

Cut-out Parker Bossley character standing atop a mountain in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “With Chemicals being a fast-paced and spontaneous project I had to keep the creativity flowing and to be constantly open to new ideas,” Bristol-based stop motion animator Marie Lechevallier tells Stop Motion Geek about her latest contribution to the medium – the psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single “Chemicals” made in the cut-out style of stop motion, on which she was the sole contributor next to animation director Joseph Wallace. “That’s also an advantage of cut-out animation and the use of magazines – you have to be inventive with what is in front of you,” Lechevallier proceeds. “I like that kind of project – it’s really fun.” Cut-out character of Bossley flying with wings in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. The character of Bossley metamorphosing into a fish in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. ...

Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic. As of August 1st, 2018, ANIMARKT Pitching – a branch of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum , an annual puppet animation-centered conference based in Łódź, Poland, where producers, distributors, representatives of TV broadcasters, animators and other professionals in the stop motion industry share with those who attend the conference their experience and practical knowledge about working in animation industry, including pitching sessions, discussions, presentations, workshops, and individual face-to-face meetings, the first event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe – has extended its pitching submission deadline for stop motion short film projects to August 5, 2018. “We are excited by the substantial number of all submissions that have already been submitted. Nevertheless, in order to maximise the opportunity for creators to present themselves and their projects in front of professionals from many countries, we are pleased to extend the deadline for...

Parker Bossley as seen in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation,” muses British stop motion animation director Joseph Wallace – currently based in Bristol, UK, where, in January of this year, he founded the stop motion studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio – in discussion of the medium he employed in his most recent film – the surreal, psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, Chemicals , which has already won a Vimeo Staff Pick. Perhaps more than anything else – perfectly suiting the film’s subject matter –the style and medium allow to film to transcend to time itself, just as Wallace implies, undoubtedly allowing the film to become just that – immediate. Almost so much so one gets the feeling they’re clawing at air in search for a handle on reality as they fall…along with Bossley – also the film’s protagoni...