Susanne Edvards Blog post about Stop motion movie

Stop motion movies

Stop motion is a technique to fool the eye that dead items actually are moving. To do this you need a film or video camera that can take one picture one at a time.

The animator takes a lot of photos of items with very little variation in position, and then shows the photos quickly. To do this you need a computer and an animation or video editing software an illusion of movement is created. If you have access to an I phone or an I pad you can down load this program in the Appstore.

 

The Lgr 11 states in the first chapter that pupils shall be able to try out different expressions such as drama, rhythmic, dance, musicianship and creativity in art. As I see it when the pupils are making movies like this they are able to make a dram of their own, they can make music to the movie and creativity in art, well it’s moving art. Also in the written purpose for the topic art in Lgr 11 it is written that the pupils should get experience of visual culture like film. Also in the main content for art in the Lgr 11 photography and program transfer is something that the pupils should try during their early ages in school.

As a teacher I see one opportunity most of all, the pupils are interacting with each other, talking and doing things together and if I have learnt something as a teacher it is just that fact that when children are doing things together they are learning to collaborate. This is a fantastic tool for pupils to work in smaller groups and besides the fact that they are getting to know each other they develop their language, learning from each other. This is a sovereign program to work in topic integrated subjects. In my school we don’t have access to Iphones nor Ipads but together with a personal from Medioteket we came up with four Ipads. We had been working a lot with dinosaurs and the human development. So the pupils choose in their groups different sequences in the history of life. At first we went through what the order of the sequences should be and what would happen there. Then they started to work, they used play dough, paper, cloths, wires and cardboard. For two whole weeks they didn’t do anything but manufacturing subjects for their movie. In my class some of the pupils were really experts on this program and they helped the others to getting to know the program and how to take pictures with the Ipad and edit them. When the groups were done with the real work they started to make other movies. If I had access to Ipads I would really use them a lot in all my topics. I think it would be usefully as a portfolio of a pupils development, if they are working with something you can take a picture when they start, some pictures when they are working with it an the final product. I do so privately with my family car projects they comes home like stiff and rolls out like majestic then it is really fun to see all those 200 hours of work in 25 seconds. 

Since you need a huge amount of pictures to make a movie for just 1 minute I don’t think it’s the best program to set up a movie with a lot of information to the pupils. To do that there is a lot of other programs like Photo story or Moviemaker that is more suitable.