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  • I'm feeling like 6-9 months would be pretty good for a timeframe, as that would allow people to have a life outside of jam and such. I'm constantly busy with college, so I would definitely appreciate a larger time period.

    I'm really liking some of these theme ideas already! Like doors and party sounds like it would be a great time. Regardless of what gets chosen, I would love to be able to join in this year!

  • Cryptozoology - Found film of Bigfoot, newly discovered footage of Loch Ness, or maybe new footage of a brand new creature. Transitions could be the awful spinning newspaper or a book page turning, a book of movies?

    What about a black and white project? I know StopmoNick has done at least one of these.

    • Cryptozoology sounds awesome! Also something Prehistoric would be cool. A Timeframe of about 6-9 Months is great!

       

       

    • Cryptozoology is a superb idea, could be like monsters throwing stuff at each other Godzilla vs. King Kong style, and the transition could be the thrown object that hits the monster at the beginning of the scene.( A poll would have to be made, and crap happens if somebody fails to finish, but it can also be a select few concepts to chose from (e.g car, tree, rock...)

  • Not mentioned so far: something on the climate crisis? Might be straying into political terrtory, though. 

  • I like the idea of a party, then maybe the transition could be something happening to the camera, as in it gets knocked over goes to black or something spills on it and goes to black.

    Under the sea is also a cool idea then the transition could be bubbles.

    Love the idea of steampunk. I already have a 50 page script for that but would not use it for the jam. Transitions could be steam or mechanical arm moving down or doors closing.

    Doors -  every project must open and close a door?

    Length - I am voting for a shorter time. The last one was a marathon it seemed like and with the extra time I kept pushing to do something different. I was almost ready on the first deadline (186 days) and I think it would have been a different film.

    Jam 1 - 108 days, Jam 2 - 226 days, Jam 3 - 238 days, Jam 4 - 228 days

    Maybe jam 5 about 150 days? I know for Stop Mo #3 I didn't even start til June due to making a costume for somebody so that Jam was only 92 days for me. I guess having a longer deadline allows people that have a life more time to get an animation in.

     

    • Doors is a great idea for the transitions!  I have a collection of doors from various projects so it would be easy for me to use one of them.  But is that enough of a unifying theme in itself?  You could do anything at all, as long as you put doors at the start and end, so it is really more like the blackout as a way to cut from one animation to the next one.  The doors would change in style and colour but I think they would still cut together.

      Length (of working time) -  I still like a fairly long gestation period (9 months?), since some of us may be committed to other things and not able to start right away or work on it uninterupted.  As far as length of the actual animation, I like the idea of aiming for 15 seconds, but being allowed up to 20 sec if the piece won't quite fit.  

  • Having failed to make it for this last Jam, as things just kept pushing it back, I know that whatever length of time you give I will still be struggling to get there at the last minute! Steampunk sounds fun as a style, and I rather like the idea of each of the contributions linking to the others - perhaps as parts of a large machine or conveyor belt so objects came into frame on one side and left on the other, having undergone some weird and wonderful transformation. Come to think of it that would work also as a Christmas present conveyor belt idea....  

    • Looking at some of the ideas already suggested...

      Simon, I would have done a steampunk piece if I had managed to do a Jam segment this year, as I think it could qualify as a form of science fiction.  I did a class exercise with my Steamwalker, but the requirements of moving away from the camera to start and coming towards at the end were hard to fit into it, and adding those shots would have extended the length well beyond the 15 or 20 seconds maximum. And with all the other class exercises to do, I couldn't make it happen.  A steampunk theme would give me an excuse to build an airship so I would be up for that.  

      Dance (Like James suggested in his list of good ideas) would be a great, if challenging theme.  (No way could I do it anywhere near the level of Justin Rasch or Anthiny Scott but I would learn a lot from trying.)  It allows so many different styles of character and movement.  Also I've seen a compilation of dance clips from old movies where the editor has matched the moves, even though it's Fred and Ginger in one shot, Groucho in another, and John Traolta with Olivia Newton-John in another, with the same music track over all of them, and the shots flow together perfectly.  I think it would be necessary to give everyone the music first, so they can match to the same beat, but beyond that anything goes.  

      Water would be good, too, if it allowed a wide range of interpretations.  Making ocean waves might not be for everyone, but if you also allow a trickling stream, or an undersea scene where you don't even see the surface of the water, or a squirting garden hose or a bucket in a well, people could choose how much water you see and how much is implied.

      Flight is a good one too - another chance to make an airship!

      Forest, rather than specifically a Jungle, could be good, with a range of different forest types as well as different stylistic approaches.

      Lots of good ideas already put forward.

  • 6-9 months seems realistic as someone mentioned already. As for the themes I would suggest steampunk, medieval, fantasy, author specific horror(e.g: like Poe's pendulum, or Lowecraft's Elders), or an actual story concept where the animations are interchangeable but the story would still make sense (no clue on the specifics tho, hust thinking out loud)

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