One of the main considerations of buying a video camera for animation is that it must have as much manual control as possible. The most important features to have control over are focus, exposure and white balance.

The real alternative to all this video nastiness is to shoot on film. Super-8 cine cameras can be picked up cheaply at second-hand shops worldwide. Though film is fairly expensive and getting it onto video/computer to edit is even more so, it is far far superior in image to video. If you don't know what film even is and had never heard of Super-8 until just now then you'd better either stick to video or do lots of reading up on the subject first.

How do I shoot on film?
You don't. If you are here, now, asking us this, then you should never ever shoot on film. At least not until far into the future when you will look back on this question and feel ashamed.

What Camera do I need for animation?
Go buy a camera magazine and leave us alone.

Exactly what software/hardware/camera should I use?
We could tell you what we personally use, but would that really help? Obviously you need one of the above mentioned solutions for capturing frames, an editing package to edit the animation, some sound software of some sort, and probably a paint/image program for titles, effects etc. We use what we use and have no knowledge of alternative packages, so have no basis for comparison. We don't want to advise you to use something which wouldn't actually suit your requirements. Any software which does the basic job will suffice, it's creativity and lateral thinking which gets you good results within the limitations of technology!

Exactly what PC software should I use?
A Mac.

Where can I get the software/hardware I need?
You see that box thingy all around these words? Thats a browser. Use it, and stop using us as technical support. Alternately, go to the shops.

Are there official Monty Python Lego sets?
No, don't be silly.

In the Python Movie, where is Bedevere's helmet from?
If you even know what this question means, you will know that the Python movie was an official commission from The LEGO Group.

Now, to fully understand the story surrounding Bedevere's helmet (if you really care that much), you have to understand something about how The LEGO Group works internally. All of the retail models ever (for System anyway) are designed in a high-security superbase in an extinct volcano in Denmark, which is full of cupboards and draws and boxes and bins and vaults of LEGO, and futuristic golf carts full of LEGO driving down silver LEGO corridors. Said LEGO consists of every single brick or element currently available, or available in the last three years in every single colour they have the facilities to produce. There are no bricks older than three or four years old. All old lego is thrown out. There is no one place in the world where all the LEGO ever can be found. It doesn't exist. There is no Eldorado, no Avalon and no Santa. Even the people at Legoland have to scour the yard sales like the rest of us for old parts. Sorry to be the ones to tell you.

Subsequently, the place is littered with random parts just lying around in draws. Mostly new, some in non-retail colours, some that have never (and will never) be released, and even a few random old parts that people have horded from previous 'purges'.

It is from this source that the props for the Python movie were gathered, including Bedevere's helmet. We at SYF do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of every brick ever produced, and assumed (if we even though about it at all) that this visor (which was just in our pile of stuff) was from an old old Castle set. A theory supported by the fact that it fits an old helmet and not the more recent post M-Tron ones. Maybe it is from an old range. Maybe it was never released. Maybe it never will be. We have it, so we used it.

In the Python Movie, where is Bedevere's helmet from?
Dunno.

In the Python Movie, where did you get the mace?
See above.

In the Python Movie, where did you get the helmets for the dancers?
"Doesn't anyone want to know how the drug works chemically?"
Those are the bat winged knights helmets with the wings cut off. Shocking isn't it. We understand that only black versions of this helmet were ever released, and yet ours are grey. But then we work for LEGO and you don't.

I am a competent and experienced film maker who understands the basic principles of film production and I have a very specific question about one particular aspect of your films. Can I ask you about it or will you shout at me?

All perfectly sensible questions are very welcome. Just don't ask us how we did the faces in ONE: A Space Odyssey, or where that helmet came from.

How can I become an animator?
You have to be born with a sinister sociopathic disease that makes spending a long period alone in a dark room, moving stuff very very slowly or drawing the same thing hundreds and hundreds of times seem to you not only like an excellent career choice, but like an absolute necessity to your very being, a valuable use of your time and of great importance to humanity. If these symptoms sound familiar then you are already an animator. If you are not already an animator you will come to realise this for yourself within hours of giving it a try. Becoming a director or film producer is something you can learn and achieve. Animators are just born that way.

Have you seen that Coke advert that Jack White did? What's that about?
Who knows.

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