The Persistence of Animation

Parallel Synchronised Randomness — Stopmotion Animation in Live Action Feature Films

Abstract: In a film world obsessed with photoreal simulations of impossible worlds some filmmakers celebrate a different aesthetic that rejects the seamless integration of 3D realism for a consciously hand-made animated reality.

This paper examines the history of stopmotion effects in live action feature films with a specific analysis of Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep as an alternate model for both concepts of special effects.

Biographical Statement: Jane Shadbolt is a filmmaker and animator. She is currently in post-production for the 9-minute short animation, The Cartographer, a miniature epic featuring stopmotion characters in a digital world. She lectures in Visual Communications at the University of Newcastle, Australia.