Mitosis
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Mitosis
Thomas Hardye School
Download film (right-click)Animation , Artistic/Creative , Biology , Explanation , Instruction , Secondary
A summary of the process of cell division - in plasticine!
Director's Notes:
SciCast goes claymation!
This film was made — obviously — using plasticine, fashioned by the three film-makers (and anybody else who walked in the door on the day and stayed for more than three seconds) into lovely cell diagrams, and lots and lots (and lots) of letters.
The result is clear, simple, and has a very particular character. Lovely. How better to summarise the process of cell division than in modeling clay?
SciCast Notes:
I love this film. It was a brave thing to try, in that stop-motion animation can take an age to shoot, and the bunch making this had barely a day. But even then they’ve not gone the simplest route. The way the captions animate on and off is quirky and rather stylish, when it would have been quicker (but oh-so-dull) to do something simpler.
We worked a little on the lighting — cameras tend to flatten things somewhat, and putting some coloured angle-poise lamps low-down against the floor helped give the plasticine sausages a bit of shape.
If I’m being really really picky — and I’m a TV producer, so that’s my job — the narration is good and clear and straightforward, but it’s a bit of a plain read. With a little more enthusiasm in the delivery the film would be even more watchable. Hard to do, though, and in this case it’s better to be clear than cheesy.
I’ve written up some Film SChool notes about different types of animation.
— Jonathan