The next step in Capstone is an interview. We have to pick someone to interview which is easier said than done, and then come up with questions for them and interview them. In this blog post I will talk about my process of finding my interview and planning it, and my actual interview. It was a very difficult and fun experience.
First, I met with Mr. Cassal. He texted a few people that he knew and were stop motion experts. He also gave me a few websites to look at and to help me find people to interview like, The School of Visual Arts, Studio Nos, Helen Quinn, Robofun and The Digital arts Experience. None of his friends responded so I called The Digital Arts Experience. I asked them if they had a stop motion expert, and they gave me someone named Nick. Nick is the director of operations at the DAE. We scheduled an interview for May 23.
When I was going to my interview I was really nervous. I felt prepared but I didn’t wan’t to mess up or find out in the middle of my interview that one of my questions didn’t make any sense. When I got there Nick took me into a room and I got set up for the interview and we started these were the questions I asked.
- What is your favorite and least favorite parts about being the Director of Operation at the DAE?
- What is your specific expertise in animation?
- When/why did you start doing stop motion?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of stop motion compared to other forms of animation?
- What are the different responsibilities associated with making a successful stop motion film?
- What are the most important steps in making a stop motion film?
- What are the difficult and easy times during the process of making a stop motion film?
- What steps are taken during post production (e.g., editing) when making a stop motion film?
- What do you find rewarding and challenging about teaching kids about stop motion?
- What is your favorite type of stop motion? What is your favorite stop motion film?
He gave interesting answers. For question 6 the answer that he gave was different than I thought it would be. He separated the process into pre-production, during production, and post-production. He said that pre-production was the most important step. I thought he was going to say something like making the set or storyboarding. After the interview he gave me a little demonstration and answered some of my other questions that I had. He gave me some editing software ideas after showing an example of stop motion.
This interview was very helpful. I learned so much that I will use for my final project.
