Featuring Joel Defrance, Hayat Erdogan, Patricie Flores, Cecile Hauser, Robert M. Johanson, Anna Lehr, Lis Mamis and Dominic Oppliger. Filmed at Gessnerallee in Zurich by Pavol Liska and Elisabeth Conner. Edited by Kelly Copper in New York. Traditional music by Berkes Bela (Hungarian/Roma, circa 1914)
This video is part of a series of stop motion animations that were made in 2011 and 2012 by Nature Theater of Oklahoma as a preparation and exploration for a projected animated film that would eventually become Life and Times - Episode 4.5. The films were composed from individual still photographs shot with a Cannon Mark ii camera in various locations while the company was on tour with Life and Times - Episodes 1 and 2. No one in the company had ever done animated film before, and we were learning as we experimented. Breaking down time into individual still moments was a challenge both for the directors and the actors involved. The individual photographs -- done often over the course of an entire day -- were later assembled in Final Cut at a rate of 10 frames per second to create the motion.
This animation was done as part of a workshop in Zurich with local artists. We wanted to see if we could animate to a recorded vocal track. A lot of work went into breaking down the track into various syllables and trying to get Rob to make those vocal shapes with his mouth at the right time during the animation. The results here are mixed.
To see other animations in the series, go to: vimeopro.com/oktheater/stop-motion-animations