Critique for Dyalla Swain
Dyalla’s light-hearted and playful approach to the stop-motion work is clever and well considered. It appeals to both adults and children and makes some tough issues easier to understand for a child. The storyboard follows the same style which makes it very easy to see the direction that Dyalla is taking.
Personally, I was kept interested throughout the piece, but I could also clearly see what the piece represented (the sweatshop challenge). I think that this is important as this clip is aimed at a younger audience so captivating animation style and simple, but clear, messages are central to the overall effectiveness of the piece.
I liked the metaphorical ‘helping hand’ reaching down to pluck the main character out of his/her turmoil, it was surprising yet effective. The transition between background colours (the tearing paper) was also well considered and well executed.
The only advice I would give on this would be to include audio cues on the storyboard (since the sample clip doesn’t have audio) to make imagining the end result more effective. As Dyalla said, the music and sound effects will have a great impact on the overall piece. I also might suggest more variation in the puppets facial expression (but obviously this would have been hard to do in the time constraints of the sample clip).
Overall I thought the clip was fun, playful and most of all effective. I look forward to seeing the end product.
