Executive Summary

My culmination project will be a claymation animation short film. I can’t really describe the theme in one word, but the general idea is finding yourself and coming to terms with yourself, finding balance between the good and the bad. I guess you can say it’s self acceptance? I chose this theme because I find myself struggling with that idea personally and any time I want to write a script, I subconsciously write in that theme without intending to. I think my culmination idea will help me in my career because it’s forcing me to work independently and to build a project from scratch. My culmination idea is also allowing me to explore my video track more than I had the opportunity to do. Hopefully by the end of the film I would have produced something I feel is good enough to present to festivals.

When I was sixteen I did a summer program at SVA for experimental film. Because I did not have actors I chose to do a stop motion. This was my first time experimenting with that form of filming and I had a lot of fun. The short film I made was thirty seconds long and it made me want to make more. Unfortunately I never picked it back up because it required a lot of time that I did not have when focusing on school. I want to do this for my culmination because now that I have an idea of how to go about doing this I hope I can make something better than the last time. I also do not plan on doing it alone like I did before.

My role in this project will be the camera operator, the editor, the director, the writer, and also the person who builds the set and props. I will be receiving help from a City Tech graduate, Diane Baez, who will help with building the set, stop motion figures, and with the writing. Although it seems as though I have a lot of responsibility, I feel like a lot of these go hand in hand. Building, assembling and dressing the set will happen on the day that we film and will stay set up while we shoot over the course of however many days it takes. Being a camera operator/director of photography and director for me goes hand in hand with being the editor because I will know what I am looking for in the final product and will in a way be in control of that. I just have to make sure I am not being a control freak and allow Diane to help me.

By the end of this project I hope to achieve a three to five minute claymation animation film. I predict that the project will most likely be a lot more stressful than I anticipated and that it might be cut down to less time if Diane and I are unable to find enough time to shoot. I hope to strengthen or better my skills in sculpting and set building for miniature sets as well as camera work.

Project Description

The goal is to make it 3-5 minutes because stop motion takes a long time to film. The longline of the film is a series of events leads an alien down a path to self discovery that allows them to heal a once neglected inner child.  There will be no dialogue so that anyone from any background will be able to watch the film and understand it.

Deliverables

• Signed Proposal
• Calendar
• Script
• Budget
• Final Video