Editor’s observe:
Beginning life on a backyard tree stump, Tiny Chef got down to create the world’s tiniest dishes for the world’s tiniest cooking present. On a mission to assist youngsters discover their ardour for cooking, he took to Instagram with a collection of brief (however very candy) stop-motion movies.
Along with his in-depth information and boundless attraction, he shortly amassed a following of die-hard followers, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Nickelodeon got here calling for their very own style of the Tiny Chef.
Now a critically acclaimed and wildly in style TV collection, “The Tiny Chef Present” is the children’ cooking program bringing stop-motion to a complete new era.
We requested Cinematographer and Tiny Chef DOP Ozlem Akturk (Ozi) to elucidate a number of the challenges confronted throughout manufacturing and the way they have been overcome.
Working as a cinematographer on The Tiny Chef Present has been each difficult and rewarding. The stop-motion animation course of is commonly underestimated within the quantity of labor and time that goes into producing a closing product.
Regardless of the challenges of pre-production and capturing through the pandemic, we accomplished manufacturing and post-production by the top of June 2022. The TV Present premiered September ninth, 2022, within the US and was subsequently launched within the UK.
The idea behind “The Tiny Chef Present” is that he’s an actual being in our world. We needed to carry Chef’s social media presence into the TV present by incorporating parts from his social accounts, together with him interacting with actual people.
Listed below are a number of the hurdles we confronted:
A race in opposition to time.
One of many largest challenges was time administration: we would have liked to shoot very quick and had solely a yr to do the precise manufacturing. We determined to copy his kitchen set 4 occasions to work effectively, however that meant we would have liked to keep up consistency throughout all 4 replicas, lighting and continuity-wise with dressing and the characters.
The primary kitchen set was our playground; right here, we may determine the place to place practicals and plan the sunshine set-up. Afterwards, we needed to switch the identical rig to the opposite kitchen units to identically match throughout all of the places.
Miniature workspace for a Tiny Chef.
Cease-frame animation requires distinctive element to realize realism, which will be particularly difficult as a result of constraints of miniature units and restricted workspace.
Capturing in small, remoted items – between 150-300 sq. toes – whereas sustaining full darkness to forestall gentle leaks and flickering requires exact planning and group. The sensitivity of stop-frame animation, which captures every body individually, makes it a lot much less forgiving than dwell motion, as any change or disruption is instantly seen.
Establishing lights, bounce boards, the digital camera and the pc whereas guaranteeing sufficient house for the animator can be very demanding. It’s important to make sure the animator’s consolation, as they could spend weeks and even months in a small unit, transferring the puppet body by body.
Moreover, advanced photographs with a number of characters or parts can considerably enhance animation time and reduce the animator’s each day output.
Avoiding accidents.
Sustaining the steadiness of lighting tools is essential in stop-motion. Any change is noticeable and can lead to a pricey reshoot. To stop this, measures reminiscent of placing kick plates across the toes of the sunshine stands and cameras are taken to attenuate the chance of kit being booted unconsciously. Regardless of these precautions, it’s not unusual in a good house for tools to be by chance knocked by the animator or artwork division through the animation course of.
In such instances, the director might select to reshoot or approve slicing to a special angle to salvage the shot.
Synthetic daylight.
The live-action units offered a singular problem, particularly the outside tree stump set, which had a restricted house of 600 sq. toes. One of many main challenges we confronted was simulating daylight on this confined house, because the ceiling top was inadequate to help our imaginative and prescient. This required our crew to be resourceful and develop revolutionary options to benefit from the restricted house.
Exterior stump with lighting setup for nighttime.
A singular look.
“The Tiny Chef Present” is a preschool collection that goals to entertain youngsters and educate the younger viewers. As a cinematographer, I needed to carry a singular visible type to the present by breaking away from the standard method of getting every thing in focus.
I made a decision to create a extra cinematic look to make the animation extra participating for each youthful and extra mature viewers. I achieved this through the use of tighter lenses starting from 55mm to 105mm and apertures between 4 and 5.6. This allowed me to create a way of depth within the photographs by protecting the background out of focus every time the scene allowed.
Shut-ups.
Due to the character of the present, we would have liked to seize close-up photographs of the meals and the cooking. Not all lenses are able to sustaining their focus that near an object, although, particularly when it’s miniature. We had to make use of macro lenses, together with certainly one of my favorites, the Nikkor 105mm micro, which is a superb lens for filling the body and getting the article sharp. There have been a few events the place we would have liked to be even nearer, however due to the usage of diopters, we have been capable of obtain the specified shot.
Takeaways.
As a cinematographer, I thrive on the challenges that include new work. It’s all the time a studying course of and permits me to always push my inventive boundaries. Cease-motion productions, specifically, current a singular set of challenges that hold me on my toes. From the technical points of lighting and digital camera work to the creative consideration of storytelling and visible type, there may be all the time one thing new to discover.
Every shot is a brand new alternative to push the boundaries of what’s doable and discover methods to make the stop-frame animation extra reasonable and interesting. The thrill of overcoming obstacles and discovering options to issues is what makes my work as a cinematographer actually rewarding.
