A Stress Story

Created by Sofia, Michael and Tobias

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017

Here's what they had to say about making this movie:

A Stress Story, a stop motion animation with a main character named Justin, describes how a stressful daily routine may lead to a panic attack. Our message to other people is that there are ways to cope with daily stressors to prevent stress from negatively affecting the brain. We used materials such as plasticine and cardboard to make characters, props and backgrounds for the film. For most of the scenes we shot the characters and props in a three-dimensional format, but we also used a two dimensional format for the description of the brain. We chose stress as our topic because we were all motivated and eager to learn about panic attacks and how it affects the brain.

Some of the challenges we faced during this process was that the stop motion software was hard to use. There were unexpected pauses between shots, and the background would move or characters would get damaged. We learned to wait between shots and to have patience and that there are also negative and positive effects of stress on the brain. We also enjoyed making the plasticine characters and the colorful backgrounds.

A Stress Story, a stop motion animation with a main character named Justin, describes how a stressful daily routine may lead to a panic attack. Our message to other people is that there are ways to cope with daily stressors to prevent stress from negatively affecting the brain. We used materials such as plasticine and cardboard to make characters, props and backgrounds for the film. For most of the scenes we shot the characters and props in a three-dimensional format, but we also used a two dimensional format for the description of the brain. We chose stress as our topic because we were all motivated and eager to learn about panic attacks and how it affects the brain.

 Some of the challenges we faced during this process was that the stop motion software was hard to use. There were unexpected pauses between shots, and the background would move or characters would get damaged. We learned to wait between shots and to have patience and that there are also negative and positive effects of stress on the brain. We also enjoyed making the plasticine characters and the colorful backgrounds.

Sully

Created by Sam, Gregory and Sam

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017

Here's what they had to say about making this movie:

Although cannabis may have certain health benefits for the adult, early exposure to cannabis can prove to be detrimental to adolescent brains. By showing the effects of cannabis in “sully” we taught the general public about the effects of cannabis on the brain.

We first decided to pick marijuana as our topic and how it affects the adolescent brain. We then researched the effects on it. We took out the important parts and made it into a script. Next, was the storyboard where it was difficult deciding how the story would go. We finally agreed on one, and made the props and the set. The materials we used were cardboard, plasticine, skewers, play-doh, and construction paper.

We chose to base our project around cannabis because it is being legalized next year, and an important question about the legalization is how it will affect the next generation. By researching this topic, we help teach the general public about its effects on adolescents.

To exercise or not to exercise

Created by Sarah, Laurie and Gurleen

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017

Here's what they had to say about making  this movie:

We wanted to bring our facts to life. That’s why we made a stop motion video. We decided to use paper, because it allowed us to show the emotion we wanted to be seen in our film. For this artwork we used paper, pencils, markers, scissors and most importantly, our emotions.

The reason why we created this film is to educate and inspire children to exercise for their brain and better their future for themselves. The message we were trying to send out to children was to keep exercising, so we showed a comparison between 2 people.

We had many struggles throughout the process, like compromising with each other and understanding each other. We did not realize that this would be such a hefty process. Over time, we eventually started to cooperate, and then we started working more efficiently with our teamwork. The overall process was a hassle, but together we did the best we ever could.

Alzheimers Movie

Created by Paige, Andrew and Keanu

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017

Here's what they had to say about making this movie:

We created this artistic animation using plasticine for the characters, and made the illusion of movement using stop motion. The things we learned while creating our animation include, but are not limited to: what Alzheimer's does, and how to work with plasticine in stop motion.

Our favorite part was making the characters for the animation. If we could change something about our animation, it would be the absurdly fast walking grandpa because seniors usually walk very slow (which we originally had not done).

While making our film, we were surprised to find out that it was exceptionally hard to animate our characters. This happened to an extent in which it was near-impossible to persevere throughout our vast workload.

Kamusta ka ~ How Are You?

Created by Hanna & SeungYi

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017

Here's what they said about making this movie:

Our stop motion film is about how being bilingual can delay the onset dementia. We used plasticine and paper backgrounds to illustrate why it is important that our brain lasts as long as our body does; so it is important to be able to take control of our brain health by just learning another language.

The process of making our film was very stressful. Sometimes we fought and other times we just couldn't get things right. One of the hardest parts was when we were making our figures for our film our nails kept getting in the way. When we were also making our figures’ limbs kept falling off. When we were in the middle of filming it was really nice to watch back what we just did and make edits to it.

The reason we decided to keep our visuals simple was because we wanted it to be organized but still pleasing to the eye. We decided on a red and blue colour scheme because we thought the two colours were complimentary. The library background allowed us to place the characters in a more realistic setting.

Get Some Sleep

Created by Ken, Evan & Allan

at Bright Lights in the Lab 2017.  

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

We created a stop motion animation about sleep deprivation and how it affects the human brain instantly and over time. Some examples of instant effects are slow reaction time, and loss of motivation. Some long term effects are memory loss, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The materials we used to create our stop motion animation were plasticine, cardboard, tape, pencil crayons, and scissors. 

We did our artwork by first, choosing a topic which was sleep and we brainstormed everything we knew about sleep. Then, we thought of a story we could have animated. After, we thought about things that would affect our character from lack of sleep. It was loss of memory, loss of motivation, and memory loss. Finally, we got all our characters, made the background and started the animation.  

We chose the topic of sleep because it seemed interesting. We thought that 3D characters and props could bring our story to life more. We also decided to add some humorous parts to bring people into the story so they wouldn’t get bored of our educational parts.