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Saturday, February 21, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Behind the scenes with MAG

Shavua tov!

After several readers wondered how MAG made his stop-motion movie, our people contacted his people; the relevant parties did lunch; and we were granted exclusive access to this up-and-coming star.

MAG is an adorable and well-brought-up young filmmaker with an infectious grin and a twinkle in his eye. (We here at Our Shiputzim pride ourselves on our objective and impartial journalism…) He recently took time out of his busy schedule to meet with the fabulously-dressed Our Shiputzim entertainment reporter, who appears to be about twenty-five years old. (Hey, it’s my blog; I can be as creative as I want!)

Our Shiputzim: “Thank you for meeting with me. Please tell me how you made your movie.”

MAG: “I used a digital camera to take the pictures. (I put the camera on a tripod to keep it still.) After taking the pictures, I put them on the computer and opened them with a free program called Monkey Jam, which turns the pictures into a movie. Then I added titles and sound with Windows Movie Maker.”

OS: “How many pictures did you take for this movie?”

MAG: “I don’t remember exactly, but I think it must’ve been about 550 pictures.”

OS: “Did you have any help?”

MAG: “My older brother helped with the end of the first part, and a friend helped me with the second part.”

OS: “How did you get into stop-motion animation?”

MAG: “I watched a bunch of stop-motion movies, like ‘Wallace and Gromit’ and ‘Chicken Run’, and I decided to try doing it myself.”

OS: “What projects are you working on now?”

MAG: “I’m working on one movie with characters made out of clay and also on a computer-animated movie using a program called Pivot Stick Figure Animator (3-Beta).”

OS: “Your parents must be very proud of you BA’H…”

In conclusion, MAG tells me that he’d be happy to answer any of your questions as well…

6 comments:

  1. You asked all the right questions. Thanks.

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  2. why just his parents are proud. I would strongly suggest some other relatives are also very proud.

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  3. Very impressive! Loved the movie as well. And I couldn't even figure out how to fill out the mishloach manot form on-line (heavy sigh). I don't know if it's a generational thing, a left-right brain thing or just something in the Shiputzim family genes.

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  4. Mother in Israel - Thanks for your YouTube comment. It was the initial inspiration for this post.

    "Anonymous" (yeah, right!) - Hmmm. I wonder how you could possibly known this? I mean, it's not like you're one of MAG's grandfathers or anything, are you?
    :-)

    Malke - You may not be able to handle the e-form, but unlike me, you don't get intimidated by legalese. As you know, a single "heretofore" has me running away in fright...
    :-)

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  5. How old is the young artist?

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  6. Ilana-Davita - We just celebrated his bar mitzvah a few months ago (BA"H).

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