My senior year of high school, I took the new film class which was put together by my English teacher, Terry, and the AV coordinator of the school, Tom. For one project, I decided to create a stop motion chess game and set it to the "Blue Danube Waltz. To film it I set up a chess board in the family living room with some lights. Then filmed it frame by frame to create a chess game, moving each piece a fraction of an inch at a time. Each piece had a distinctive way of moving Bishops twirled, Knights popped from square to square and so on. The animated pieces had balletic feel and amazingly matched the music vey well, even though I hadn't actually planned it that way.
The film won First Place in a 1972 International Film Festival in Wilson, NY. Granted, only the US and Canada were represented. It did convince me that perhaps I should pursue film in college. |
