Monday 22 August 2011

Overheard On a Salt Marsh

This was--far and away--my favourite poem as a child. I loved the sinister conversation between the creepy Goblin and the beautiful Nymph. When I was 3 years old or thereabouts I could recite the whole poem from memory except I said "Give me your beads I besire them" (instead of desire them)

Every summer I like to make a stop motion animated film with my Digital Blue camera. This cool camera is made for kids (and I'm just a big old kid at heart, right?) that can make stop motion films and add visual and sound effects if needed. Spiderman recently bought be a microphone to connect to our laptop so I could record myself playing the ukulele to be able to improve. Bless his heart--he paid £4 extra for one that looks like an old fashioned retro mic --I feel like I'm actually at the BBC during the 1940s. Anyway, armed with a new microphone I decided to record the poem and animate a film to go with it. Stop motion animation is a tedious process--I have no idea how Nick Park of Aardman Animation does it--it is 15 frames a second. that's right--15 clicks of the camera button to get one second of film. I tend to do 3 clicks per shot then move the character and do 3 more clicks etc etc until I have made one second of film. There is a small blip where I had moved stuff about 3 times before I realized the camera wasn't connected properly and I couldn't be arsed to go back so the Barbie does a bit of an abrupt move towards the end, but it is for funsies so who cares?

Right, are you sitting comfortably? Turn your volume UP (or ON as the case may be) otherwise you'll not get the full enjoyment.

Overheard On a Salt Marsh by Harold Monro
Animated by Spidergrrl
Staring my Irish Princess Barbie and some troll gonk I found at school


Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. I must confess that I am not familiar with the poem. But I love your recitation. The cadence and the voices are really good. The animation is pretty good too!

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  2. And, Danny, that's just the way she always said it too, even when she was a little tyke! I would read the nymph part and she'd do the goblin part (Heather always went for the dramatic role, not the wussy one) and loudly say: GIVE THEM ME, GIVE THEM ME, I BESIRE THEM! It was hard to keep a straight face when "besire" came out the first time........and the second time.....and the third time.......

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  3. That was awesome!

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