RESEARCH FOR ANIMATION: BOB GODFREY:

During my one on one talk with my lecturer, he recommended that I research Bob Godfreys' work in depth.

The main reason for doing some research about Godfreys' work is because of his well renowned animation 'Roobarb and Custard' originating from the early 70's. My lecturer pointed out to me that he is a good source of inspiration because he only colours in the characters and only some of the background which has significance and giving more attention to some detail. This for me is exactly what I did in my animation for a few reasons, one being it saves a lot of time which benefits me as the task was 3 weeks long. I also adopted this technique because i have a lot of frames planned s I want to extend my animation duration to around a minute long.

In comparison to this screenshot of Rhubarb and custard, I kept the background a clear white and I only coloured in the characters and other objects to keep the audiences attention on what I want them to see. One of my friends preferred this idea as he said it would keep things simple but effective and it would not allow me to waste valuable time of unnecessary colouring in. 

In conclusion, I think after researching some of Godfreys' animations that I made the right decision in adopting his style of colour scheme as it has actually made the animation better than if I had coloured in the background.

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE PROJECT: THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE PROJECT: THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW

Over the past two days I have been watching some clips from 'The Ricky Gervais Show' for innovation for my next project. The show consists of Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington, who on a animated live radio podcast talk about the feelings and opinions of Karl and sometimes the day in the life of Karl. The things that Karl says causes eruptions of laughter and sometimes disagreements of Karl's' opinions and they pick out the things he says and makes a mockery out of him, which then causes him to justify himself which then leads to eruptions of laughter.

I also wanted to take note on the clever structure of the animation. It is formatted as audiobooks with animation and the inspiration from their animation was drawn from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the likes of 'Scooby-Doo' 'Tom And Jerry' etc.
At the beginning of the animation, we see Ricky, Stephen and Karl sitting in a studio starting a conversation about what karl is thinking. As Karl starts speaking, the animation changes and provides a visual context of what Karl is talking about, much like a flashback scene from a film with a narration over the top of the animation and the animations give a literal visual moving image of what Karl is talking about.

After Karl finishes and elicits a humorous reaction from Stephen and Ricky, the animation pans back to them in the studio and most of the time the same format will repeat whilst taking about something else.

This is the main inspiration for my first idea. except I will set the opening scene in a living room with either two characters sitting together talking about their fond memories or having three people having a laugh together talking to each other having funny conversations.

The idea is still early in the works, but I am getting towards finalising a solid idea.

Below I will leave a YouTube video of a Ricky Gervais show clip below to give you a better idea about what I am talking about:

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: MICHAEL GONDRY: BJORK/BACHELLORETTE

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: MICHAEL GONDRY: BJORK/BACHELLORETTE

For more ideas and inspiration I researched Michael Gondry and his music video: 'BJORK'. Michael Gondry is a french film producer, screenwriter and music video producer. I learnt that Gondry is well known for his vast manipulation of mise-en-scene, which means "placing on stage". Most of Gondrys' work revolves around the design and the background of a production as a way of telling the story with a vast use of visual language.

Gondrys' 'BJORK' music video is about "an exploration of self relevance". The thesis of the story is about a story within a story within a story, which it then falls apart. 'Bachelorette' lurks in her garden and finds a book, which writes itself and as a result she finds new found fame when she falls in love with a publisher who distributes her book. Then the tides turn later on in the video as the publisher is in the audience viewing an actor playing him on stage and he eventually breaks off the relationship with Bachelorette and things start to devolve and collapse. Miss en scene then plays a role where the set begins to literally crumble and fall apart, which is symbolic for the collapse of the woman's life.

When researching from online sources about the video, Michael Gondry provides a clear message: "This character is leaving the forest and she decides to go to the city to have a normal life. She tries her best and it doesn't work out and she come back to the forest and she is happier there" The message that I get from Gondrys' words is that it is best to stick with what you know, which can be applied to everyday life as a important message to people.

With no surprise the video received positive reviews. As I was researching the background and the development stages of this project, it sparked a potential idea that my animation were to depict a message with visual language to the audience that could concur with providing a positive message or something that could be somewhat of a revelations or a reminder as I am thinking about going down the route of a war story type animation, the revelation being that life is too short and the fact that childhood is the best time of your life and it could be directed to an audience of my age to remind them that worrying about things during teenage years is a wasteful emotion because in adult life there are more important things to be worrying about?

At this stage it is too early to tell exactly what I am going to do in my animation but at the moment this is partly my mindset and plan for now.

Moreover, having learnt that Gondry uses mise-en-scene as a tool to convey a message to the audience, having experience from my A level media studies and my projects that I have crafted, Mise-en-scene is very useful and can be of great benefit because it saves time not needing to explain in words with clear understanding of what is going on.

In conclusion, this research has made me one step closer to guiding me to what pathway I am going to choose, however still requires more research.

HERE IS THE MUSIC VIDEO BELOW:

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: HARRY WATT AND BASIL WRIGHT: 'NIGHT MAIL

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: HARRY WATT AND BASIL WRIGHT: 'NIGHT MAIL

During the project brief on 'TEXT MESSAGE' my lecturer introduced us to the very influential film called 'NIGHT MAIL' directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright. It shows the very famous scene where a train is travelling to Scotland, the sound is in sync with the motion of the train tracks with a written poem and music. When watching and listening I realised that there poem is describing the journey to the audience which also extends the vast imagery used, such as the many cut shots and rapid shots of the certain aspects of the train and its surroundings.

This was for me a good starting point for me to understand what the project expects of me. My objective is to sought a creative response to the text message, my whole animation is to be revolved around the text met with creativity and matter of fact. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, 'WAR STORY' was the animation I was most intrigued by. However, Watching the scene from Night Mail has made me rethink my strategy.

I dug deeper to try and find out more information regarding this scene. I learnt that the poem that was used was from W.H.AUDEN and it was used towards the end of the film and importantly a few lines from the poem were taken out to fit the film sequence. I am also contemplating finding a poem or a verse that would fit into my animation and if I were definitely going through with this idea, I would consider cutting down lines to save time and fit the scenes. I gathered this information from (gradeasaver.com) 

I learnt that the speed of which the poem is read out matches the movement of the train, which I thought was quite effective as it provides a clear understanding visually and audibly. Auden in the first part of his poem used eight rhymed four-beat couplets in accordance to the sequence. (gradeasaver.com)

I was also thinking for an idea, in contrast to the films scene, I could pick up the tempo and the pace of the animation to give more variety and make the animation seem more interesting because it may prevent the animation from becoming a drag and boring.

I also wanted to gather information from this film scene because my lecturer says that it is on of the most influential films ever made and in any circumstances for research and planning, I want to learn from the best and try to incorporate valuable information I have found as a way of improving my skills and to help me learn from my mistakes from my previous animation.

In conclusion, I have been able to broaden my mind and have found new sources of inspiration that have allowed me to emerge more ideas based upon strategy and how I approach this project. I want to however carry on my research because I still have not yet made a decision on my final idea.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

GRADEASAVER.COM

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: PETER LORD/ WAR STORY/GOING EQUIPPED

RESEARCH PART 2 TEXT MESSAGE: PETER LORD/ WAR STORY/GOING EQUIPPED

Peter Lord is a British animator, Film producer and director and theco-founder of Aardman animations. During the brief of our next project, My lecturer showed the class two Aardman animations called 'WAR STORY' and 'GOING EQUIPPED' which gave me a clear example of the type of animation that is expected of us. They are based upon the title of 'TEXT MESSAGE' which requires lateral thinking and a free range of creativity. I am required to find a short text as the source for the animation which can range from creative writing or found sources or from nature.

Currently in the early stage of research and planning, I have at the moment found innovation from these two animations I have noted above. This is primarily due to Peter Lords' creativity and his approach to development processes. I purchased a book called 'THE ART OF AARDMAN'  and Peter Lord spoke about how "Every film that we bring to the screen has been developed through words and in pictures." He also said from the source that "I love to dig out the stories within stories and hidden histories buried under the surface." In my view he means that he likes to anchor ideas from other ideas and reform it and recreate it as his own, and through this regression, new ideas can emerge.

Peter also said that "ideas come from inside your head, and as often as not, they tumble straight out as drawings and into sketchbooks." I came to learn from this one quote that you should always have a sketchbook and pencil in hand and always jot down ideas and drawings. They do not have to be oil paintings or even remotely interesting or complete, but jotting things down can give you the first step to the path of experimentation.

I also decided to learn about the synopsis of 'WAR STORY and 'GOING EQUIPPED' Below you can view the animations:










According to sources from IMDB, 'WAR STORY' used a real interview for the sound, where a man named Bill Perry who relates back to his youth days and his tilted house and his adventures during the world war 2 blitz. For a potential idea I am suggesting anchoring the same format of a person narrating about their youth with the person talking about their memorable moments.

I also dug out for information about 'GOING EQUIPPED' The plot is simply, very similar to 'WAR STORY' a person being interviewed about his life, how he got into prison and what it is like doing prison time. For my idea, I am potentially looking to this format. I particularly enjoyed 'WAR STORY' more because it was more light hearted and the flash back scenes were of high interest to me.

In conclusion, These two animations are sources rom which I am going to anchor from and I am going to look for more sources to help me broaden my knowledge and my creativity skills. I also need to pin down idea for a story, this is the area I am currently struggling with.

RESEARCH ON FINE ARTISTS 2: FISCHI AND WEISS:

During my second week of fine art, my teacher introduced me to these artists called Fischi and Weiss who were an artistic duo mainly working with clay sculptures.

Their work consisted of comedic and intelligent wit. A prime example being their first collaborative project: "Wurstserie" which consisted of a series of sliced sausages which would be shown reacting to senarios to situations such as traffic accidents and so forth. This is very similar to anthropomorphism, which sets the comedic theme.

I also learnt that in some of their pieces of work, the duo would create forms and events that actually happened, this also reflects upon day to day events that are echoed in everyones lives. Hence the title 'The World We Live In' this displayed a subjective viewpoint of the artists views on the occurrences in the world. It revolves around almost rhetorical questions as they cannot be answered like: "what does it mean to be alive".

I could not really find much else about their work because it was so succinct and I found that there was a reoccurring theme reprised in each piece of work that they did.

The reason behind the research of these artists is because I made a TV theatre, which is quite reminiscent to this work because I used clay figures as the main focal point of my piece, my peers found my design to be unexpected and humorous, which is the exact words described for Fischli and Weiss.

RESEARCH ON FINE ARTIST: EDOUARD MANET

Moving onto the fine art aspect of the foundation course, I researched Edouard Manet. I also bought his book: "MANET by himself" which covers his whole life's endeavours of art.

At the beginning on the fine art course, we were set to make a collage of any kind. I looked inside the book and came across many portraits of people, ranging from paintings to drawings and other uses of materials. I cut out the figures and stuck them onto a A3 sheet of paper to create a contrasting poster showing the past versus the future.

Below shows my collage work:

This was a small introduction to how I used some of Manet's work for my collage.

After I formed this collage. I researched deeply into Manet's techniques and the transition from his realism and naturalism work into Impressionism, which is what he is renowned for.

A famous quote of his sums up the majority of his work:

"I paint what I see, and not what others like to see" 

Manet was a very assertive artist and he would bring forth his own visions into his work and he deliberately averted from conventional rules of painting. 

Manet was met in his early works with a lot of criticism especially criticism for his painting 'The absinthe drinker' His biggest critic being Thomas Couture, another influential french painter who commented:

 "does anyone paint something so ugly? My poor friend, there is only one absinthe drinker here, and this is the painter who produced this insanity" ... 

Before his Impressionism movement, Manet began combining full length portrait work and he would implement the theme of reality existing in the present time. Also, he would reject the concept of less is more attitude with his work. 

Finally, Manet's work was a style in which he would depict visual impressions of movement, especially with shifting effects of light and colours and focus on whole-tone scale. 

Taking away from my research, what inspired me the most was his famous quote, in which he asserted his own individuality into his work. This is in my view saying do not try to make a piece of work for others because it usually tends to be weak and making a piece of art for yourself and making it the way you want to make it will eventually reap you with reward because you cannot impress everybody and making your work to the best of your ability is more than can be asked.

I sourced my work from the following webpage:

Http://www.impressionniste.net/manet_edouard.htm