FMP: Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou (1929) screen shot

Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí was a really helpful film to watch. The experience allowed me to form a clearer idea of the sort of animation I want to produce, in regards to how it is received by the view. Not only do I want it to be an experience that the viewer embarks on, but also a cause of disturbance and discomfort... something that someone would want to escape from. This short film was constructed through a combination of the artists dreams manifest content and that of random sense ideas that seemed to fit well between them both. I now I'm pondering on how I am going to build up my story board. Will it be a sort of montage of my manifest content, will it be a similar process to the making of Un Chien Andalou or could I take a completely different direction?

FMP: Dream Psychology Research

Research in my sketch book

Authors own

Moving away from the idea of dream analysis, I looked at the harder facts about dreaming e.g. the brain activity involved, dream frequency and duration and other avenues associated with dreaming (lucidity, astral planing and sleep paralysis). Astral planing and sleep paralysis were really effective concepts to play with in regards to what I want to communicate. The animation that I wish to produce is all about the very real, human desire to escape, but also exploring it as an art (training yourself to lucid dream). The Astral Plane world is a very obvious escape from reality, it is almost seen as a more intense, however, enlightened realm. Whereas, on the other end of the spectrum, sleep paralysis is the ultimate state of restriction that one can only wish to escape from. Playing with this juxtaposition could creative something strongly communicative.

An informative video I watched that explains the process of lucid dreaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYSX51xBkos 

FMP: Dream Psychology Research

Dream psychology research in my sketch book

Authors own

Of course, I had to research Freudian theory as it influenced so much art and is the most outrageous, common knowledge theory for dream analysis. Carl Gustav Jung's dramatic structure theory proved to be very helpful to my particular media of choice (animation), as it provided a rough outline of the structure of dreams and which section of the dream is most important. This could be something for me to consider when generating storyboards. Another thing that caught my attention was a quote by Sigmund Freud:

"Dreams are the Royal Road to the Unconscious."  

This quote generated strong imagery for me and it could be a potential component to my final storyboard. The "Royal Road" could be an effective symbolic device that insinuates an entrance or exit of the unconscious.  

FMP: Observational Drawing

Observational sketches, modified to look more psychedelic

Authors own

The act of observational drawing allowed me to move away for collecting loads of information for a while and just become a little more hands on and fluid with my research. Experimenting with the visual side of my concept and creating nonsensical ideas inspired by my research into Dadaism. If I were to improve anything about the drawings I produced (something I will keep in mind for future observational drawing I will do for this project) I would have liked to included different layers, building on the psychedelic quality of the images.

FMP: Dream Logging Research

Series of screen shots taken from the short film Destino (2003) by Salvador Dalí (surrealist) and Walt Disney (animator). 

Merz by Kurt Schwitters (dadaist) 

Photo's are not authors own

I have looked into some of the artists that participated in the Surreal and Dada art movements. This stage of my research has opened a lot of doors into how I can represent the themes I am working with, which are dream state, lucidity and escapism. Dalí has worked a lot with the manifest content of his dreams, along side other surrealists like Vladimir Kush and Georgio De Chirico. Destino, which is fundamentally a montage of Dalí's previous paintings, creates a strong example of how a dream may play out in ones mind, therefore I took substantial amounts of inspiration from it. Moving on from this research I won't to produce a series of observational/life drawings that I will then manipulate in a slightly surrealist/dadaist manner. Dadaism was quite a hard art movement to grasp, but I suppose that is the whole point. This kind of, nonsensical, "do whatever you like" approach that seems to be the foundations of the movement correlates very well with the lucid state of dreaming, where the dreamer is conscious of the fact that they are still asleep and, through mental discipline, can proceed to change their dream environment and situation.  

You Are Here: Final Animation

Train Strike

Authors own

This is my 30 second animation that explores the evolution of the name of the street that we today call Cannon Street. It is a visual piece, with no narrative, just experimentation of transitions, sound, insinuated actions and style. 

I find the most successful components of this animation to be the switch between two styles to give the viewer some indication of the environment they are being introduced to. Also, the insinuation of movement in the arches that pass the flame as it flickers out to make way for the incoming train. I do wish I could have done more with the sound, creating a mix that explored all of the interesting audible recordings I made. I also feel as though the flame could have been developed more, but because of my very basic knowledge of After Effects I was not able to create anything more elaborate in the time I had to complete this project. For future projects, I will make sure I put some time aside to explore software I haven't tried out yet that may come in handy in the production stage. 

You Are Here: Final Storyboard and Animatic

Final Storyboard

Animatic of final storyboard

Authors own

This was the first time I had made an animatic for any of my animation projects and I found it really helpful. I was able to get a better grasp of time and how each sequence of my storyboard will plan out. In turn, I was able to see what would in fact work well and what would not. I decided that I no longer wanted to include the candle stick as it seems too clunky, and instead just a lone flame. Also, in a critic with my tutor, he mentioned that the London bombings springs to mind. In order for me to avoid that connection I have to think about the nature of the flame I decide to animate. Will it be erratic? Will it dance? Will it throb gently? Also, what colour will it be? And how do I extend to insinuate the idea of fire? I am leaning towards the idea of using materials found at the train station such as, a newspaper. I now plan on studying the movements and colours of different flames to see what kind of emotional response they provoke.  

You Are Here: Storyboard Development

Storyboard development (left) and visual research (right)

Authors own

Through developing my storyboard I was able to concentrate on what was to be visually important within my final animation. I want it to run smoothly against the eyes, so therefore I concerned myself with clever transitions and subtle changes that insinuate things rather that embodied them. I was working with the name of the old street 'candlewick', packing the storyboard full of visual puns. Half way through making the storyboard, I came up with the idea of creating the first half, where we are leaving Candlewick Street, by hand, giving it an antique feel to reflect its historical nature. Therefore, the second half would look much more digital and modern, using simple aesthetics or perhaps even photographic collage.

Freedom & Liberty: Storyboard Ideas

Storyboarding 2 ideas

Authors own

The process of storyboarding my ideas was quite challenging, as I had a lot of places I wanted to take them.  I feel I produced some successful ideas due to the responses I received when pitching to a group of my peers.  However, I went with my first storyboard idea, as it had the most potential.  What I think works well about the idea is its potential to engage with the viewer causing them to empathise with the character and its struggle to control its own freedoms.

The narrative follows the journey of a non-gender, non-racial character as they attempt to make their way from A to B.  However, throughout this journey they are burdened by the presence of a gigantic, controlling hand.  This hand pokes and pulls at them to the extent of them snapping and fighting back.  When reviewing the story I can see that the extremity of the hands behaviour needs to be intensified in order for the audience to have an emotional response and for the characters resulting reactions towards the hand to be justified.   

Metamorphosis: Initial Idea

Photos are author own

My initial idea was based on metamorphosis as a super power, looking at examples like, The Hulk, Ben 10 and Megamind. I made a storyboard (first image) that included a boy who was teasing his sister and in order to avoid the consequences he turns into a rock. However, whilst he is still in rock form a man walks by and kicks him across the ground. When the boy turns back into his rightful form he has a huge dent in his head. This worked as a good starting point, but the story needed to be developed more. Most people felt as though the struggles the boy is put through should be elaborated and more extreme. So I expanded the story to include him getting kicked into a river and having to battle through numerous obstacles, whilst getting pushes down the current. I found the process of developing my story challenging because I had to make sure the audience was able to empathise with the character, but still find his experience comical. This is a hard thing to master. 

I then went on to designing the character using illustrator (second image), which was a very fun experience. I was able to create a character that before only existed in my mind and visually express the temperament of the boy. I think my initial character design was successful, but I found myself loosing interest in the concept I had chosen for the project. I want to create a more metaphorical, in-depth representation of metamorphosis. 

FMP: Dream Logging Project Proposal

Screen shot of my project proposal power point

Photo is authors own 

After mind mapping the ideas that I currently have surrounding the idea of Dream Logging and deciding what research is necessary for the development of this concept, I composed a power point presentation, in order to pitch my idea to a group of my peers and my tutors. Through doing this I was able to grasp the direction I was heading in with more clarity and allowed others to give me fed back that will enrich my research process and in turn, my ideas to come. For the next stage of my FMP I will use this project proposal to guide my research into the Surrealist and Dada art movements, as well as films/animations that have explored a similar concept to mine, most obviously the Walt Disney animation  Alice in Wonderland (1951).

Day 5: Film Poster

The brief was to make a promotional poster for the unmade film The 33, which is about the miners that were trapped underground in Chile, 2010. I started this project off by researching the accident and finding photos and videos associated with it. I then looked at existing film posters to do with being trapped and also for films in the cinema today. I started generating some ideas for my poster in my sketch book, picking my favourites and producing them on InDesign. I decided to go with the design you see below.

Authors own 

I produced this image on Photoshop. It was originally a screen shot of two miners hugging from a video I found. I cut out a black silhouette of the two man to represent the darkness of their environment underground and added some thin lines to show important details e.g. the helmets, the squeezed close eye, the arms. I am pleased with this design decision because it says a lot about the struggle the 33 miners endured, the desperation. However, the background loses its meaning a because you can clearly make out what it is. There are actually rocks in the back ground. I enjoyed the research and idea generation part of this task because I was able to learn and also be created with the new information. Although, I found the final process of making quite stressful as I was not too familiar with Photoshop. Having said that, I am please with the outcome, considering.

Two other designs I made using Photoshop and InDesign