Friday 10 October 2014

Zero - Zealous Creative.


Zero by Zealous Creative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMbySJTKpg 

This animation was created using models composited from clay and stop-motion techniques.

This short film tells the story of Zero, a kind-hearted character how is treated as n outsider because of who he is (his number, 0). He eventually finds another 0 whom he falls in love with. Despite their being a strict rule that 0's are not allowed to reproduce, which leads to Zero being put in prison, they have a baby who has two heads, and marked with the number/symbol infinity. This leads to Zero and his family being finally excepted highly by all of society.

A narrator tells the story of Zero, as the characters do not have proper voices themselves; they just make muffled noises. This could be related to the fact that the characters are made from wool; the majority of characters being made of pink wool, while the 0's are made from brown wool, which represents their position in society, as dirt.

The dolls used only move a little, and in short isolated movements, but small details, for example in their facial expressions, say a lot, and connect to the audience. 
The audience develop an emotional connection with Zero and his family, as they are treated unfairly by everyone else, and they audience are led to sympathise with them.

This whole animated story could be symbolism for issues in society today, of people who are treated unfairly because of their background or other cultural factors.

I also found it really interesting to watch the behind the scenes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhLSZBCn1p4) pre/post production (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yt8xEb1VXA) videos for Zero. 

It was interesting to see the development processes of the animation, from concept sketches, to prototypes, to development of scenes, characters, lighting etc, and the fact that the whole production took two and a half years to make, which I was quite surprised by.

It was also interesting to see the digital compositing effects used, for example the use of blue screen and editing. 

I really enjoyed this stop-motion animation as it had quite a quirky style but was still able to connect to the audience and tell an interesting story. I thought that the style and ways in which it was made were creative and it was clear to how much effort each of the production team had made to make Zero possible.



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