At first glance, "Winter Tale" is a silly story about a vacuum cleaner wanting an appendage ("hand") to do extra household work, but Yazvinsky lures us into feeling emotions for the vacuum by background music/noises and camera angles of the stop-motion animation style.
While watching pictures of a vacuum roll around on a screen doesn't sound very interesting, Yazvinsky uses audio elements to push through the stand-still frames. It opens with sound effects of doors opening and shutting and an accelerated ticking clock which adds the element of urgency. The sound of the vacuum rolling on the wood floor gives it the feeling of motion, even though it really is just pictures put together. Of course the suction of the vacuum is included, but Yazvinsky added all the little details of tinkling glass, behind a funk version of "Jingle Bells". The techno-driven soundtrack allows us to relate to the industrial hustle of the vacuum's work, while the ending piano track really pulls on the heart-strings of a vacuum that just wants a hand.
Each picture taken has been meticulously added to the sequence to give the illusion of movement and video, while still retaining the basic characteristics of photography. The head-on shots of the vacuum's chord moving are particularly engaging, due to the fluid changing depth of field that you would experience in a video but gets segmented in the photos. The dust particles are another visual attraction that would be hard to capture in video, but get accented in stop-motion animation.
Winter Tale (2011) is a charming film about a vacuum cleaner who is literally a helping hand around the house. Throughout the film, we follow a Dyson (trademark!) vacuum cleaner who performs several chores for a family. The use of stop motion is absolutely essential in this piece. It animates an object into a character with a distinct personality. It also puts the artificialness of his character in harmony with the rest of the world, which also moves with the slight trademark jerkiness of stop motion. It also appears that this film might have been at 12fps, since a lot of the movement seems a tad exaggerated and not as fluid as 24fps. The filmmaker includes several moments that personify the vacuum. For example, the Dyson puts a CD in the CD player to jazz up his work. The cinematography in the film is functional and beautiful. The filmmaker is able to recreate motion camera effects like movement, panning, and rack focussing. The warm lighting in the film is great and it really fits with the slight light hearted tone of the film. Also, the audio effects really help fill-in the gaps in this world. I really liked the robotic noises as the vacuum flexes its joints. I also really enjoyed the arc of the story and how the humans were only shown as appendages (which is all the vacuum would understand) and how the humans repay the Dyson for its service. It’s a sweet story.
However, there were a few things that were confusing to me. There was a beat in the story where the vacuum appears to attack another vacuum. While this wasn’t really clear upon my first viewing, it doesn’t make much sense as a story beat. It seems like an arbitrary conflict added to create a reason for the hand’s breaking. It could have been done in numerous other ways (like it breaking in an accident as it serves its masters). It just seemed like an unneeded beat of drama. Also, I don’t know how I felt about the incorporation of the normal speed live-action performances. There were some clips that didn’t have that nice jittery motion of the stop motion. It seemed to smooth and simply jarred against the rest of the film. And while I applaud the filmmaker for doing complex camera moves in stop motion, some were distractingly jumpy and took away from the experience.
Other than these few minor points, this film was an incredible display of how stop motion can be used to tell compelling stories. Stories that bring the mundane to life in the most exciting of ways.
"Winter Tale" is an adorable short stop motion film that warmed my heart more than I thought it would. I found it extremely charming and something that brought a huge smile to my face. After trying out my hand at stop motion this week, I have an even bigger appreciation for all of the meticulous details that go into preproduction and filming. I noticed two different techniques that I found interesting and very useful. When the vacuum is doing normal things, like putting a CD into the player or plugging the cord into an outlet, the video was so smooth that you barely noticed that it's stop motion. To achieve that, you have to take LOTS of pictures to make each movement seem normal. However, when the vacuum was decorating the christmas tree, it was jumping around from different sides of the tree as if to show a time lapse montage kind of thing with decorating, which means taking not as many pictures of the vacuum in each spot. That's not something that I would've picked up on before, but I really enjoyed realizing it. As Reagan said, I did not 100% get the point of the second vacuum and I was a little confused about what was happening between them. But I thought the ending was very cute and I forgot about it. Overall, I found this short incredibly entertaining and I can't imagine how much time went into creating it.
“Winter Tale” is a fun stop-motion animation film in which a vacuum cleaner gets a hand which he can use as an accessory for his hose. Upon getting this hand, he is able to complete many more household tasks, and completes them as fast as he can. He eventually breaks this hand when a door slams, forcing him to go back to one task. After the Christmas festivities are over he receives a new, better hand from his owner. I liked this film. The lighting was spectacular, as there was an open window, which provided “natural light”—there was most likely a lighting kit outside. All the shots were lined up well and there were not many noticeable errors in that department. The sound effects and music added the overall story well. The music could’ve been scored better, but the sound effects were exemplary. They added to the storytelling a lot. My problem with the plot was that it was unclear what really happened to the vacuum in the closet when he broke his appendage. There was some sort of altercation with another vacuum cleaner but we don’t know why. Overall, though, I like this piece. It was well thought out and shot.
"Winter Tale" by Sergey Yazvinsky was amazing. Considering we just had to do our own stop-motion movie, I really paid more attention to the filming and post production rather than the plot. I had a super difficult time making my stop-motion movie, so it blows my mind to watch something like that. I doubt that was shot on a phone, but the fact that it looks so much like film is amazing. For our assignment, we had the thematic theme reflection. In that video, the thematic idea can easily be seen as winter. I wish I would have watched this before I attempted my stop-motion project because it gave me a lot of enlightenment on how broad you can go off one theme. I liked how it was shot from all different angles and how there were a mixture of different shots like close ups and that one scene in particular where there is a zoom on the candle. Its cool how stop-motion can give anything and everything life, just like the vacuum in this particular video.This whole week of learning about stop-motion gave me a lot more appreciation for it. I never really thought too hard about how it is made but after learning about it and having to make one myself I now have the upmost respect for the people that do it.
This week’s film, “Winter Tale” by Sergey Yazvinsky, was quite an interesting choice. Of course, it is appropriate for this week’s project, but there are a lot of different ways this could have gone. I really appreciate this film for being such a complex shot motion project, particularly after struggling through so much of my own production. The fact that most every shot was smooth and flowing and continuous is what impressed me the most, since those are elements that, when done right, go unnoticed. Something else I was impressed with was the variety of shots. With any film, but with stop motion especially, the added shots probably created a lot of extra work; however, the views of simple objects like the moving clock and the chandelier seemed to add a lot of depth and context to the short piece. From the narrative side of the equation, I really enjoyed the story that this film told. I like that there was no spoken word, but the story was simple enough to be told by the images and the music. After having worked on the various projects for this class, I have a better understanding of how important those audio elements are for weaving the narrative, and of how difficult it can to find the right music to fit when you don’t have a composer and full orchestra as part of your film crew. When it comes to the structure of the story itself, I appreciate the fact that Mr. Yazvinsky (and or his writer(s)) had a clear beginning, middle, and end, with a series of specific beats. I really think that it is because of this clarity of organization that I was able to watch this film with no words and easily understand the story it was trying to tell.
"Winter Tale" by Sergey Yazvinsky was a very fascinating stop motion film. The way the music played a roll really brought the characters to life. With the music adjusting to the ways the vacuum cleaners moved it allows the audience to feel like the objects were more like people. I loved the way also that the stop motion was filmed so fluidly and detailed that it seemed that the vacuums were moving as if a person would. Another interesting component of the film I noticed was that the movements of the vacuum that were captured were so similar that a living being would have. Just like even when the "head" of the vacuum moved. Overall the film was shot so well that the stop motion brought the character to life in a natural way, but what made it the most interesting was the music.
the short video "Winter Tale" made by Sergey Yazvinsky was a very interesting and makes people thought provoking. This video generally describe a daily life of a cleaner。 From the cleaner's points of view, he feels not happy for his life. His life seems boring and lonely. Sometimes, his body will have some issues. The cleaner has spent his whole life on cleaning which is great. That also mirrors some of the social issues. However, at the end of the video. The cleaner got a new "Hand" which helps him on cleaning and he seems very satisfy about it. From this video, we can know that there are many stuff that we need to pay attentation to. I like the way how they shot the video. That makes the video more close to our daily life and how it related to us.
At first glance, "Winter Tale" is a silly story about a vacuum cleaner wanting an appendage ("hand") to do extra household work, but Yazvinsky lures us into feeling emotions for the vacuum by background music/noises and camera angles of the stop-motion animation style.
ReplyDeleteWhile watching pictures of a vacuum roll around on a screen doesn't sound very interesting, Yazvinsky uses audio elements to push through the stand-still frames. It opens with sound effects of doors opening and shutting and an accelerated ticking clock which adds the element of urgency. The sound of the vacuum rolling on the wood floor gives it the feeling of motion, even though it really is just pictures put together. Of course the suction of the vacuum is included, but Yazvinsky added all the little details of tinkling glass, behind a funk version of "Jingle Bells". The techno-driven soundtrack allows us to relate to the industrial hustle of the vacuum's work, while the ending piano track really pulls on the heart-strings of a vacuum that just wants a hand.
Each picture taken has been meticulously added to the sequence to give the illusion of movement and video, while still retaining the basic characteristics of photography. The head-on shots of the vacuum's chord moving are particularly engaging, due to the fluid changing depth of field that you would experience in a video but gets segmented in the photos. The dust particles are another visual attraction that would be hard to capture in video, but get accented in stop-motion animation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWinter Tale (2011) is a charming film about a vacuum cleaner who is literally a helping hand around the house. Throughout the film, we follow a Dyson (trademark!) vacuum cleaner who performs several chores for a family. The use of stop motion is absolutely essential in this piece. It animates an object into a character with a distinct personality. It also puts the artificialness of his character in harmony with the rest of the world, which also moves with the slight trademark jerkiness of stop motion. It also appears that this film might have been at 12fps, since a lot of the movement seems a tad exaggerated and not as fluid as 24fps. The filmmaker includes several moments that personify the vacuum. For example, the Dyson puts a CD in the CD player to jazz up his work. The cinematography in the film is functional and beautiful. The filmmaker is able to recreate motion camera effects like movement, panning, and rack focussing. The warm lighting in the film is great and it really fits with the slight light hearted tone of the film. Also, the audio effects really help fill-in the gaps in this world. I really liked the robotic noises as the vacuum flexes its joints. I also really enjoyed the arc of the story and how the humans were only shown as appendages (which is all the vacuum would understand) and how the humans repay the Dyson for its service. It’s a sweet story.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there were a few things that were confusing to me. There was a beat in the story where the vacuum appears to attack another vacuum. While this wasn’t really clear upon my first viewing, it doesn’t make much sense as a story beat. It seems like an arbitrary conflict added to create a reason for the hand’s breaking. It could have been done in numerous other ways (like it breaking in an accident as it serves its masters). It just seemed like an unneeded beat of drama. Also, I don’t know how I felt about the incorporation of the normal speed live-action performances. There were some clips that didn’t have that nice jittery motion of the stop motion. It seemed to smooth and simply jarred against the rest of the film. And while I applaud the filmmaker for doing complex camera moves in stop motion, some were distractingly jumpy and took away from the experience.
Other than these few minor points, this film was an incredible display of how stop motion can be used to tell compelling stories. Stories that bring the mundane to life in the most exciting of ways.
"Winter Tale" is an adorable short stop motion film that warmed my heart more than I thought it would. I found it extremely charming and something that brought a huge smile to my face. After trying out my hand at stop motion this week, I have an even bigger appreciation for all of the meticulous details that go into preproduction and filming. I noticed two different techniques that I found interesting and very useful. When the vacuum is doing normal things, like putting a CD into the player or plugging the cord into an outlet, the video was so smooth that you barely noticed that it's stop motion. To achieve that, you have to take LOTS of pictures to make each movement seem normal. However, when the vacuum was decorating the christmas tree, it was jumping around from different sides of the tree as if to show a time lapse montage kind of thing with decorating, which means taking not as many pictures of the vacuum in each spot. That's not something that I would've picked up on before, but I really enjoyed realizing it. As Reagan said, I did not 100% get the point of the second vacuum and I was a little confused about what was happening between them. But I thought the ending was very cute and I forgot about it. Overall, I found this short incredibly entertaining and I can't imagine how much time went into creating it.
ReplyDelete“Winter Tale” is a fun stop-motion animation film in which a vacuum cleaner gets a hand which he can use as an accessory for his hose. Upon getting this hand, he is able to complete many more household tasks, and completes them as fast as he can. He eventually breaks this hand when a door slams, forcing him to go back to one task. After the Christmas festivities are over he receives a new, better hand from his owner. I liked this film. The lighting was spectacular, as there was an open window, which provided “natural light”—there was most likely a lighting kit outside. All the shots were lined up well and there were not many noticeable errors in that department. The sound effects and music added the overall story well. The music could’ve been scored better, but the sound effects were exemplary. They added to the storytelling a lot. My problem with the plot was that it was unclear what really happened to the vacuum in the closet when he broke his appendage. There was some sort of altercation with another vacuum cleaner but we don’t know why. Overall, though, I like this piece. It was well thought out and shot.
ReplyDelete"Winter Tale" by Sergey Yazvinsky was amazing. Considering we just had to do our own stop-motion movie, I really paid more attention to the filming and post production rather than the plot. I had a super difficult time making my stop-motion movie, so it blows my mind to watch something like that. I doubt that was shot on a phone, but the fact that it looks so much like film is amazing. For our assignment, we had the thematic theme reflection. In that video, the thematic idea can easily be seen as winter. I wish I would have watched this before I attempted my stop-motion project because it gave me a lot of enlightenment on how broad you can go off one theme. I liked how it was shot from all different angles and how there were a mixture of different shots like close ups and that one scene in particular where there is a zoom on the candle. Its cool how stop-motion can give anything and everything life, just like the vacuum in this particular video.This whole week of learning about stop-motion gave me a lot more appreciation for it. I never really thought too hard about how it is made but after learning about it and having to make one myself I now have the upmost respect for the people that do it.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s film, “Winter Tale” by Sergey Yazvinsky, was quite an interesting choice. Of course, it is appropriate for this week’s project, but there are a lot of different ways this could have gone. I really appreciate this film for being such a complex shot motion project, particularly after struggling through so much of my own production. The fact that most every shot was smooth and flowing and continuous is what impressed me the most, since those are elements that, when done right, go unnoticed. Something else I was impressed with was the variety of shots. With any film, but with stop motion especially, the added shots probably created a lot of extra work; however, the views of simple objects like the moving clock and the chandelier seemed to add a lot of depth and context to the short piece.
ReplyDeleteFrom the narrative side of the equation, I really enjoyed the story that this film told. I like that there was no spoken word, but the story was simple enough to be told by the images and the music. After having worked on the various projects for this class, I have a better understanding of how important those audio elements are for weaving the narrative, and of how difficult it can to find the right music to fit when you don’t have a composer and full orchestra as part of your film crew. When it comes to the structure of the story itself, I appreciate the fact that Mr. Yazvinsky (and or his writer(s)) had a clear beginning, middle, and end, with a series of specific beats. I really think that it is because of this clarity of organization that I was able to watch this film with no words and easily understand the story it was trying to tell.
"Winter Tale" by Sergey Yazvinsky was a very fascinating stop motion film. The way the music played a roll really brought the characters to life. With the music adjusting to the ways the vacuum cleaners moved it allows the audience to feel like the objects were more like people. I loved the way also that the stop motion was filmed so fluidly and detailed that it seemed that the vacuums were moving as if a person would. Another interesting component of the film I noticed was that the movements of the vacuum that were captured were so similar that a living being would have. Just like even when the "head" of the vacuum moved. Overall the film was shot so well that the stop motion brought the character to life in a natural way, but what made it the most interesting was the music.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethe short video "Winter Tale" made by Sergey Yazvinsky was a very interesting and makes people thought provoking. This video generally describe a daily life of a cleaner。 From the cleaner's points of view, he feels not happy for his life. His life seems boring and lonely. Sometimes, his body will have some issues. The cleaner has spent his whole life on cleaning which is great. That also mirrors some of the social issues. However, at the end of the video. The cleaner got a new "Hand" which helps him on cleaning and he seems very satisfy about it. From this video, we can know that there are many stuff that we need to pay attentation to. I like the way how they shot the video. That makes the video more close to our daily life and how it related to us.
ReplyDelete