Stop Motion Ice Skating? YES! We have done it again!

It’s Christmas time, and we have just released our newest live action stop motion video! We used the film making technique called “stop motion animation”, which was used back in the early days of cinema to animate objects, but we put our own twist on it by doing it with people!

Anyways, without further adieu, check it out below!

We had A LOT of fun with this shoot! Here’s how the whole thing went down..

We got the idea for this Stop Motion Ice Skating video, after we did one of our Instagram “tester” videos with Kyle (camera). You can see our ice skating tester video here.

Once the idea for Stop Motion Ice Skating was born, we spent several weeks just letting it simmer on the back burner of my minds. Then I dove into youtube search and did some research on real figure skating moves. Then I made a loose “stop motion shot list” of moves I wanted to film, as well as a simple “script” for the talking parts. Then came the several weeks of waiting for snow in California!

As Christmas approached, Mary and I had a day of “location scouting”, where we drove an hour north to Frasier Park, CA, and checked out the potential filming spots. On our location scout we didn’t find much snow, so we waited for a “snowy” text from a friend of ours until we set the shoot date.

When we got the text, it was time to GO! We drove up to Frasier Park on a cold morning, and filmed the whole stop motion ice skating video in 5 hours.

I’ve been getting faster at editing the stop motion videos, so the edit only took one day this time! Luckily, I was able to find some ice skating sound effects by looking around youtube long enough.

We blew our own expectations out of the water yet again, and the shoot could not have been possible without our awesome team of friends! Allen Niles did an amazing job with acting, helping to write the dialogue, (and helping me to stay balanced on that rail slide!) Kyle Chebbi did a fantastic job with camera, and co-directing!

Here is our behind the scenes video!



More specifics: After shooting all of the pictures on our DSLR, I import them into Premiere Pro as an “image sequence”, then slow the speed of the resulting video down to whatever I work out the math to be. (In this case, it was 50 percent). After that, I can go in and resize the images until I get the framing I like… then it’s time to add in the sound effects! This is usually the part which takes the longest, as I have to look through the internet to find suitable sounds, then time them to the video. Overlaying music helps out A LOT!

Good Vibes were had all around, and we hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as we enjoyed making it!!

Check out some of our other stop motion videos below:

Stop Motion Mario Kart

Stop Motion Skateboarding

Stop Motion Surfer

PS: “Where have we been?!”

After being a little “quiet” on the channel, I’m happy to announce that we are going to be producing regular content again! I’ve been busy working with new people, seeing who has good intentions and vibes, and organizing a team to help take the youtube channel to the next level.

The channel “Rustic B” may or may not go through another name change at some point in the future, to make sure that everyone feels welcome as part of a team, and to represent our mission statement better. Our mission statement is: “To spread the power of Optimism and Mindful Positivity, through making content with Good Vibes”

Do you have any ideas for a new brand name?