Lights! Camera! Stop! How has this 24-year-old made a career playing with plasticine.
- Helin Tezcanli
- Mar 30, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 4, 2018
Sinead Stoddart first started playing with plasticine in Year 7, and 12 years later, not much has changed. Now, rather than for pleasure, she uses plasticine and wires to create short films, the recent of which is intended for those living in sheltered accommodation as a ‘how-to guide’.
Sinead is a freelance stop-motion animator.
When most of us think of stop-motion animation, we are reminded of the childhood programmes of Wallace and Gromit. Figures that have been shaped and moulded, and then have been shot slowly, with the figures being moved piece by piece to create a flowing piece of action-packed animation at the end.
“After a while, you’re kind of so into it, that it doesn’t feel like you are moving it, it’s like you’re actually interacting with a person.”
And while this interest in stop-motion may have started as a hobby, Sinead now has made a career out of creating these ‘people’.
Her current project involves making an information video for such vulnerable adults that want to move in independent accommodation. This will tell them how to deal with certain situations in their day-to-day lives and what support they can get from the services available.
“I have just animated a scene, where the washing machine breaks, and they have got to phone the handyman, that we have through our company. So they know that ‘Oh, this is broken, and I phone this guy, and he comes and helps.’ So it’s kind of a visual way of knowing what to do.”
Sinead first started making short films in UCA studying Animation. During her time there, she created three short movies, ‘One Too Many,’ 'Munchies' and 'Tone Death'. All of which have received many official viewings and awards from festivals and competitions around the world.
“It’s wonderful that my films have been out there and stuff, and they have been in over 95 film festivals around the world, and to have official viewings, that’s when you are up there in the big leagues. I am always pleased when one goes in, it kind of makes my day, I get a little spring in my step.”
The inspiration behind each short film came from several different life experiences. The idea of 'One Too Many', came from a drunken friend's night out in the first year of university, represented as a 2 foot tall puppet. 'Munchies' was inspired by Sinead's father represented as a zombie, who prefers to order takeaways instead of cooking. And finally, there is 'Tone Death'. Which describes the life of a pianist, Christopher Price and the unfortunate events that led to his hand disconnecting itself from his body.
But stop-motion isn’t the easiest of jobs. There are problems of patience, accuracy, time management and apparently, gravity.
“If you are doing hand-drawn animation or even 3D, there’s no gravity. You can push a character to do whatever you want, and they are not doing to fall over. Or the set's not going to move when you touch it, or anything like that.”
She also reveals that in the stop-motion animation industry, it’s all about who you know and with only 12 per cent of jobs advertised, this has resulted in a small market. Therefore, job opportunities are based on connections within the industry.
With that considered, can stop-motion compete with the likes of CGI animation (a big player in the film industry and in the 21st century)?
Sinead says, “When you look at things like, Aardman, they are a British company who are glorified for their stop-motion. However, they have done films like ‘Flushed Away’, which is CG/Stop motion. The way they have done that, they have made a CG film but made it completely look like Stop motion. And it’s because they are branching out into that area, but they know that people know them for this, so they want to keep it as almost like friendly feel to it, it’s that sort of familiar vibe that they are happy with.”
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