We are Police

Official music video of The Weekend People’s new single, ‘We Are Police’

There is something intriguing about zoetropes- something tactile and unreal. This music video was produced using a technique that involved creating turntables that would animate live in camera. When the frame rate of the filming and the speed of the phonograph both worked together,the animation springs to life.

The technique started with filming a turntable spinning at various speeds and with a few framerates and shutter speeds. We had marked points on the platter with pieces of tape, and could count the frames it took to rotate. After a bit of trial and error, we figured out the technicalities. Filming a 33 frame sequence at 25 fps, with a fast shutter speed (to stop motion blur), and a lot of light would make the frames align and animate. The process works much like a classic zoetrope, where slits in the paper would act as a shutter, except now we were using an actual camera shutter to freeze the movement.

Music by The Weekend People

Awards & Screenings

2012 – Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI)

2012 – Prix Ars Electronica Animation Festival, Linz Austria

2012 – desktop Create awards – Shortlisted for Best Motion

2012 – BUtiful Film Festival, Bournemouth UK