Stop Motion Film

Whether it’s stop motion or claymation film, I’m sure you couldn’t think of many films that revolve around these specific filming processes. But there are a few particular films that shine the brightest out of them all. That being Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Both these films are incredibly popular horror films done in the works of stop motion film.

Stop motion is all handmade. The models that represent characters and sets are handmade but not just one model, they typically make over hundreds so that they can get the different emotions to match. They have to get certain machines to move them or hand move them. since they film with picture sequences, some films end up with hundreds of pictures depending on the scene. These scenes can take hours and take hundreds of people to create carefully with patience. Because of this process the filming can take a long couple years.

Completing the film Coraline took around 4 years and involved 500 people. The photography of the film took about 18 months. Coraline being made from clay, having the two factors being combined together is a very time consuming process.

In the end the film was rewarded with best music in an animated feature production, best character design in an animated feature production and best production design in an animated feature production. It was even rewarded with the movie of the year ending off with at least 5,000 images.

Now as for The Nightmare Before Christmas this film took about three years to create and it took about 109,440 frames. It took a lot of different figurines of the model to create; in fact both films had actually included over 400 different head models for the main character, but unlike Coraline it was not a claymation, just stop motion animation.

The film won just as many awards as Coraline considering they’re both all-time classics and are made by the same director, Henry Selick. Stop motion films are an incredible piece of art that takes years of patience and dedication to create, making it an important piece to film history. 

I interviewed Pitman High Senior, Mykeila Adari, asking them, “How do you feel about Stop motion Film?” 

They replied with, “I love Stop motion Films, I think that they’re so fascinating and that how tons and tons of photos being put together could turn into a film, they’re amazing.” 

I responded with a follow up question and asked, “Is there a particular film you had in mind?“ 

In which she responded with, “Coraline and Corpse Bride.” 

I asked her, “What made Stop motion so much better for these films? 

In which she simply replied with “It’s just good and better”