{"id":4816,"date":"2023-04-21T11:14:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=3525"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:21:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:21:13","slug":"high-hopes-for-humphrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2023\/high-hopes-for-humphrey\/","title":{"rendered":"High Hopes for Humphrey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">We all travel unique paths to figure out what we want to do for a living. But it would be fair to say the journey for <a href=\"https:\/\/georgiaawestwood90808.weebly.com\/\">Georgia Westwood<\/a> &#8217;21 has been a bit more distinctive than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It involved a trip to a cheese festival while she was studying abroad in England, a cardboard castle she made for a project in elementary school, and a classic movie that she watched with her mom during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helped that she took a handful of film classes while majoring in business management at NC&#160;State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westwood lives in Los Angeles, Calif., where she is pursuing a career in stop-motion video, the practice of piecing together thousands of photos to create animation. Think of a more sophisticated version of a flip-book that brings still images to life. Notable examples include movies like <em>Chicken Run<\/em> and <em>Guillermo del Toro&#8217;s Pinocchio<\/em>, which won this year\u2019s Oscar for best animated film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westwood has not reached those heights yet, but she has created a six-episode YouTube series, called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dkk3ZnLNQzs&amp;list=PLcu8wq5Am5W6usvoAPdbiYxIHZwe6PZyG\">Humphrey\u2019s Holiday on Earth<\/a><\/em>, about a blue space alien named Humphrey (a name sparked by Westwood watching Humphrey Bogart in <em>Casablanca<\/em>) who travels through time to visit ancient Pompei, medieval England (remember the cardboard castle from fifth grade?) and a handful of other locations during an extended vacation to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Humphrey&#039;s Holiday on Earth - &quot;The Knight&#039;s Surprise&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dkk3ZnLNQzs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Humphrey has even visited campus, as a result of Westwood working with<a href=\"https:\/\/live.arts.ncsu.edu\/\"> NC&#160;State Live<\/a> to generate interest in the university\u2019s recent <a href=\"https:\/\/dayofgiving.ncsu.edu\/\">Day of Giving<\/a>. Westwood created stop-motion video of Humphrey traveling in his spaceship past re-recreations of the Bell Tower and the Talley Student Union while \u201cThe Red and White Song\u201d plays in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Humphrey Supports the Arts - @NCStateLive\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Che_FQ6_gU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, and about that cheese festival. Westwood was spending a semester at the University of Leeds when she took a two-hour train trip to the festival. She wasn\u2019t there for the cheese, but for a free workshop hosted by the production company that developed several short stop-action films featuring Wallace and Gromit, a cheese-loving inventor and his dog. At the workshop, Westwood learned how to mold a character out of clay. \u201cIt was so fun and so rewarding,\u201d she says. \u201cIt actually did come easy to me. I respond very well to working with my hands. It\u2019s very soothing, so you can just work on it until it gets where you like it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It scratched an itch for the arts \u2014 and filmmaking in particular \u2014 that Westwood had felt since dabbling in theater in high school, as well as a long interest in stop-action. While earning a \u201cpractical degree\u201d in business (at her mother\u2019s urging), Westwood also took classes in film and music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pandemic hit during Westwood\u2019s senior year, so she found herself at home in Long Beach, Calif., with lots of time on her hands. She started working on Humphrey, a character she had begun to develop during her semester in England. \u201cIt\u2019s a very good hobby to have,\u201d Westwood says, \u201cif you have a lot of time to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Westwood-3.jpeg-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3533\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s because creating stop-action videos is incredibly time consuming, particularly when you\u2019re teaching yourself how to do it. Each scene requires hundreds of still photos, moving the characters ever so slightly between each shot. Photos have to be edited, scripts have to be written, audio has to be done, sets have to be built. The first episode in the Humphrey series took Westwood three months to complete. The final episode, which was 13 minutes long, took about seven months and required about 10,000 photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a steep learning curve,\u201d Westwood says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not a very patient person. I did get frustrated and yell at the models.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But she is pleased with the final result. \u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily try to make [Humphrey] overly cute,\u201d she says. \u201cI do like how alien and simple his design is. I love him. He is special because he doesn\u2019t speak, so he has a little element of mystery. Not a dangerous type of mystery, but a very unassuming, innocent type of mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Westwood-2-1-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3532\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-ncst-pullquote has-indigo-400-text-color has-quotes\"><div class=\"pullquote-container\"><p class=\"pullquote-content\">I didn\u2019t necessarily try to make [Humphrey] overly cute. I do like how alien and simple his design is. I love him. He is special because he doesn\u2019t speak, so he has a little element of mystery. Not a dangerous type of mystery, but a very unassuming, innocent type of mystery.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Westwood would love to create a children\u2019s television show using Humphrey, but she recognizes that he may end up being part of her learning curve as she tries to make a career in stop-action video. Meanwhile, she is picking up odd jobs in Hollywood, working as a production assistant on shows like <em>Sesame Street<\/em> and <em>The L Word: Generation Q<\/em>. She\u2019s also working as a prop manager for a high school theater department. And she is working on a new eight-minute stop-motion film that features kitchen appliances as characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s only three stop-motion studios in L.A.,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a niche industry. It\u2019s so small, so there are not a lot of job openings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"<!-- wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/default-immersive-post-header \/-->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"className\":\"is-style-lead\"} -->\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">We all travel unique paths to figure out what we want to do for a living. But it would be fair to say the journey for <a href=\"https:\/\/georgiaawestwood90808.weebly.com\/\">Georgia Westwood<\/a> '21 has been a bit more distinctive than most.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It involved a trip to a cheese festival while she was studying abroad in England, a cardboard castle she made for a project in elementary school, and a classic movie that she watched with her mom during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helped that she took a handful of film classes while majoring in business management at NC State.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Westwood lives in Los Angeles, Calif., where she is pursuing a career in stop-motion video, the practice of piecing together thousands of photos to create animation. Think of a more sophisticated version of a flip-book that brings still images to life. Notable examples include movies like <em>Chicken Run<\/em> and <em>Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio<\/em>, which won this year\u2019s Oscar for best animated film.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Westwood has not reached those heights yet, but she has created a six-episode YouTube series, called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dkk3ZnLNQzs&amp;list=PLcu8wq5Am5W6usvoAPdbiYxIHZwe6PZyG\">Humphrey\u2019s Holiday on Earth<\/a><\/em>, about a blue space alien named Humphrey (a name sparked by Westwood watching Humphrey Bogart in <em>Casablanca<\/em>) who travels through time to visit ancient Pompei, medieval England (remember the cardboard castle from fifth grade?) and a handful of other locations during an extended vacation to Earth.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:embed {\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/dkk3ZnLNQzs\",\"type\":\"video\",\"providerNameSlug\":\"youtube\",\"responsive\":true,\"className\":\"wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/dkk3ZnLNQzs\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:embed -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Humphrey has even visited campus, as a result of Westwood working with<a href=\"https:\/\/live.arts.ncsu.edu\/\"> NC State Live<\/a> to generate interest in the university\u2019s recent <a href=\"https:\/\/dayofgiving.ncsu.edu\/\">Day of Giving<\/a>. Westwood created stop-motion video of Humphrey traveling in his spaceship past re-recreations of the Bell Tower and the Talley Student Union while \u201cThe Red and White Song\u201d plays in the background.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:embed {\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4Che_FQ6_gU\",\"type\":\"video\",\"providerNameSlug\":\"youtube\",\"responsive\":true,\"className\":\"wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/4Che_FQ6_gU\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:embed -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Oh, and about that cheese festival. Westwood was spending a semester at the University of Leeds when she took a two-hour train trip to the festival. She wasn\u2019t there for the cheese, but for a free workshop hosted by the production company that developed several short stop-action films featuring Wallace and Gromit, a cheese-loving inventor and his dog. At the workshop, Westwood learned how to mold a character out of clay. \u201cIt was so fun and so rewarding,\u201d she says. \u201cIt actually did come easy to me. I respond very well to working with my hands. It\u2019s very soothing, so you can just work on it until it gets where you like it.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It scratched an itch for the arts \u2014 and filmmaking in particular \u2014 that Westwood had felt since dabbling in theater in high school, as well as a long interest in stop-action. While earning a \u201cpractical degree\u201d in business (at her mother\u2019s urging), Westwood also took classes in film and music.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The pandemic hit during Westwood\u2019s senior year, so she found herself at home in Long Beach, Calif., with lots of time on her hands. She started working on Humphrey, a character she had begun to develop during her semester in England. \u201cIt\u2019s a very good hobby to have,\u201d Westwood says, \u201cif you have a lot of time to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":3533,\"sizeSlug\":\"large\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Westwood-3.jpeg-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3533\" \/><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>That\u2019s because creating stop-action videos is incredibly time consuming, particularly when you\u2019re teaching yourself how to do it. Each scene requires hundreds of still photos, moving the characters ever so slightly between each shot. Photos have to be edited, scripts have to be written, audio has to be done, sets have to be built. The first episode in the Humphrey series took Westwood three months to complete. The final episode, which was 13 minutes long, took about seven months and required about 10,000 photos.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cIt was a steep learning curve,\u201d Westwood says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not a very patient person. I did get frustrated and yell at the models.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But she is pleased with the final result. \u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily try to make [Humphrey] overly cute,\u201d she says. \u201cI do like how alien and simple his design is. I love him. He is special because he doesn\u2019t speak, so he has a little element of mystery. Not a dangerous type of mystery, but a very unassuming, innocent type of mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":3532,\"sizeSlug\":\"large\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Westwood-2-1-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3532\" \/><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:ncst\/pullquote {\"value\":\"\u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily try to make [Humphrey] overly cute. I do like how alien and simple his design is. I love him. He is special because he doesn\u2019t speak, so he has a little element of mystery. Not a dangerous type of mystery, but a very unassuming, innocent type of mystery.\u201d\",\"textColor\":\"indigo_400\"} -->\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-ncst-pullquote has-indigo-400-text-color has-quotes\"><div class=\"pullquote-container\"><p class=\"pullquote-content\">I didn\u2019t necessarily try to make [Humphrey] overly cute. I do like how alien and simple his design is. I love him. He is special because he doesn\u2019t speak, so he has a little element of mystery. Not a dangerous type of mystery, but a very unassuming, innocent type of mystery.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/pullquote -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Westwood would love to create a children\u2019s television show using Humphrey, but she recognizes that he may end up being part of her learning curve as she tries to make a career in stop-action video. Meanwhile, she is picking up odd jobs in Hollywood, working as a production assistant on shows like <em>Sesame Street<\/em> and <em>The L Word: Generation Q<\/em>. She\u2019s also working as a prop manager for a high school theater department. And she is working on a new eight-minute stop-motion film that features kitchen appliances as characters.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s only three stop-motion studios in L.A.,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a niche industry. It\u2019s so small, so there are not a lot of job openings.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia Westwood &#8217;21 creates a cuddly blue space alien out of clay that could lead to a career in stop-motion video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":3531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"indigo_400\",\"subtitle\":\"Georgia Westwood \u201921 creates a cuddly blue space alien out of clay that could lead to a career in stop-motion video.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"Photographs courtesy of Georgia Westwood '21.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,8,9],"tags":[323,473,537,959,1108,1209,1242],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-class-act","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-day-of-giving","tag-georgia-westwood","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-poole-college-of-management","tag-stop-action-video","tag-university-of-leeds","tag-wallace-and-gromit"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5095,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions\/5095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}