Preventing Forest Fires
Stop-motion graphics
Taking a piece of text, we were required to create a 30-90 second sequence which compliments, enhances or subverts the contents. It must visualise an issue as well as a call to action for that issue. This was a collaborative project with another student.
There’s a fire in the forest.
“The creatures are fleeing
The flames close behind
The wind driving onward
From underbrush up to
The high moving tree tops
The fire surging forward
There’s a fire in the forest
The whole woods are burning
The whole world is burning.
In 2020 the world saw over 52,000 wildfires which burned almost 9million acres of forestry. This is almost double the area burnt in 2019 and it is increasing as we speak.
In America, 85% of forest fires are caused by humans leaving BBQs and campfires unattended, dropping cigarettes and matches which catch ablaze.
Forestry England have now banned BBQs and fires to try and prevent the amount of forest fires caused by humans. However, if you go to a forest which allows BBQs please think about what the consequences could be if you don’t know how to dispose of them correctly. The world needs your help.
Stop using BBQs.
Stop dropping your cigarettes.
Stop Forest Fires.”
— Script for Audio
Story board.
After creating a script I made a storyboard for the origami design and video sequence. We needed this storyboard so we would have an idea of the story being told and how we were going to present it efficiently to the viewer.
DSLR Setup.
After setting up a mini studio in my room I used my DSLR camera to take pictures of our home-made origami figures to tell a story of how forest fires can be caused by humans. I used low camera angles to create more depth into the forest and high camera angles to give the audience a feel for how big areas of land are affected by forest fires.
After making the first half of the video and getting a feel of what the video will look like, I repeated the process more than three times playing around with colour, lighting and audio for the background noise, for example, crackling fire.
After Effects.
After learning how to edit pictures and create videos in After effects, I took all of the pictures from the shoot and edited them into different video sequences to eventually put together to make a stop-motion video.
Stop Motion awareness video
Delivery.
I think our stop motion came out well and the origami style was more charming than we thought it would be. During this project I learnt how to use Adobe After Effects and how to edit audio. I have developed skills like working well with another designer and creating visuals to go well with a passage of text.
Even though repeating the process four times was tiresome, it was interesting playing around with lighting and learning how much lighting can affect the atmosphere of the video which can have a larger impact on the viewer. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and it made me feel more confident using motion software’s like After Effects.