Week 7: Creative Project Proposal

I am fascinated by animation. I believe that it is an exceptional platform to convey thoughts and ideas, values and beliefs. It is, partly, for these reasons, that I have chosen ‘Brief #1 – Select a poem by William Blake and devise an animation with sound in response to it’ as the main focus of my creative project.

Poetry is an art form. Just like animation, the author – or poet, is able to channel their patterns of thought onto the canvas, which in turn, allows the reader to engage in a synchronous conversation with them. Also, similar to animation, the author’s ideas are open to interpretation, and it is up to the reader to process them in any way they see fit.

William Blake was an accomplished poet, however his talent only came to prominence after his death. His poetic range extended from love, to philosophy, to war and even politics. He wrote the fantastic A Cradle Song, the thought-provoking A War Song to Englishmen and the philosophical The Tyger. He wrote hundreds of poems; however my choice of focus for my creative project is The Fly.

The reason I have chose The Fly is because it harmonizes perfectly with the style of animation I am going to work with (of which, will be discussed later). It deals with the issue of the significance of human life. In the poem, the protagonist has an encounter with a fly, and brushes it away thoughtlessly. However, he – or she comes to the realization that the life of the fly isn’t so insignificant – they both live, breath and eat. They are both living creatures on earth. The one difference is, is that human life is capable of understanding that death is inevitable, whereas the fly lives a blissful ignorance.

The style of animation I have chosen to utilize is rotoscoping. This is a technique that enables an animator to create an animation that is similar to that of a live action video. According to scholar Benjamin Bratt, rotoscoping was devised in 1917 by animator Max Fleischer. It consisted of a ‘camera mounted behind an animation desk, projecting film footage onto a slate of frosted glass. The animator would trace the frames of live action onto paper… having the lead animator drawing the “key” poses’ (2012, p 3 – 4). However, in modern day, the practice of rotoscoping is usually completed on software programmes such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Flash.

My desire to employ the technique of rotoscoping for my creative project is for various reasons. First of all, I believe that it creates an ‘eerie’ effect, and promotes a sense of detachment from reality. The removal of every few frames creates a ‘wooden’ effect – and a sense of unease is achieved. Secondly, a rotoscoped animatic can be drawn very simplistically and minimally, yet produce signification and meaning.

As mentioned, this corresponds perfectly with The Fly. The ‘eerie’ and ‘wooden’ effects work well with the nature of the poem – the protagonist is contemplating his – or her own life in conjunction with that of a fly, and the reflection of life as a whole can be a terrifying thought. And although the poem concludes joyously, I want to create chilling effect, which resolves itself as in the poem. To achieve this, I will animate as simplistically as possible. It doesn’t need a lot of colour or detail; by utilizing the rotoscope technique my animatic will be basic yet thought provoking.

Sound is an integral part of my creative project. It helps create depth and adds to the feel of a final product. As I believe the technique of rotoscoping adds an ‘eerie’ effect to an animatic, I want the soundtrack to reflect this. In order to do so, I am going to use just naturalistic sounds - such a footsteps, movement and background noise – there will be no theme music. I am going to add long and provocative silences between these sounds, to keep the viewer guessing as to what is going to happen next.

As part of the planning for my creative project, I have undertaken research into various animators from all aspects of the field. However, my main source of inspiration derives from the American animator Don Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt has been in the animation business for over a decade, and ‘his films have collectively received over one hundred awards’ (EDIFF, 2009).

He is perhaps most famous for his series Rejected (2000) (see Figure 1) – a collection of short, hypnagogic films which are presented as a collection of rejected advertising scripts. Each scene makes little to no sense, but due to the minimalistic style (and the removal of every few frames) of the rotoscope effect, it creates a sense of instability, which in turn provokes the viewer to keep watching.

Figure 1 – The opening scene from Rejected presents the viewer with an eerie rotoscopic effect

Rejected is an example of the style of animatic I desire to create. Towards the end of the short, the animator is shown to have a break down, and kills all of his characters violently. I want to portray something similar this but in the context of The Fly. As mentioned, my short film will begin in a state of confusion and angst, which resolves itself towards the end (just as the poem does).

Although Don Hertzfeldt’s work is a primary source of inspiration for my creative project, I have also engaged in further study of other famous rotoscope artists. These include and are not limited to Aaron Lear, George Oliver and Gregory Chin. However, to not limit my research (and possibly jeopardize my project), I have also explored various different types of animation and art styles.

One of which I admire is Metamorphosis Art, and within this most notably the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher. Escher, a Dutch artist, was known for his impossible constructions. According to scholar Robert M. Craig, there was an ‘urge to explore alternatives [which] implies a rejection of convention’ and this was reflected in Escher’s work (2003, p 558). This is portrayed in perhaps his most famous creation: Relativity (see Figure 2).

 Figure 2 – Relativity

To me, Relativity holds several different meanings and connotations and this is why it is a favourite of mine. Like The Fly and Rejected, Relativity is open to interpretation, and it is up to the viewer to decide what they receive from it. For me personally, Relativity signifies the horrors of the world – we have problems with war, famine, poverty and terrorism – and when we are told of a fix for these problems, more arise. We as a world are the cause of these problems, especially war and terrorism, and the endless stairs represent this – we are constantly going round in circles - there is no end.

The idea of impossible constructions is something I may choose to include in my creative project. However, I am yet to decide whether they would be compatible in regards to the context of The Fly. Maybe Relativity could even work? The endless stairs could be perceived as a metaphor presenting the relationship between the human and the common fly. Unlike the protagonist, not all humans consider the fly as an equal entity, of which the relationship is never ending – we as a race will never be fully at peace with the fly.

Something else I must consider when constructing my creative project is the ethics of representation. Sensitive issues such as race, religion, gender, age and sexuality cannot be disregarded and must be examined. I want my animatic to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, so I will attempt to take a neutral stance in regards to these issues. As for the political angle of my creative project, light references to capitalism will be projected, and as the western world is under a capitalist regime, these will be light-hearted and humorous.

In his book Media Ethics: Opening Social Dialogue, scholar Bart Pattyn describes the ethics of representation in an ideal world as ‘…based on a well-balanced social dialogue in which various actors with various points of view participate’ (2000, p 11). Obviously, this is a very hard task to complete, and would be near impossible for a 90 second animate. However, in order to appeal to such a wide audience I will address the following factors:

• Profanity kept to a minimum
• Sexual references kept to a minimum   
• Violence kept to a minimum
• The sex of the protagonist kept neutral (to not alienate male and/or female viewers   
• Any religious views and/or references kept to a minimum (to not offend those who practice a certain/other religion)
• The race of the protagonist kept neutral (to not alienate a certain race/ethnicity)

If I abide by these guidelines successfully, then audience alienation will be kept to a minimum. However, I recognize that I cannot cater for all audiences – such as the blind or those who cannot speak English – but this is inevitable and something I cannot control.

Another point I must consider when creating my project is the type of software used to do so. This is fundamental; the process of animation is not a simple one, it can be long and time consuming. It is for these reasons that I have tried and tested various different pieces of software to determine the one(s) I feel most comfortable with. The programmes I used are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Auto Desk, Adobe After Effects and Anime Studio.

After much careful deliberation, I chose to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects to create my animatic. The reason behind this decision was not an easy one. First of all, the programmes I listed are excellent tools for animation construction - they have powerful features with almost endless possibilities. Secondly, they have been designed for beginners such as myself and are incredibly easy to use. However, the reason I chose Photoshop and After Effects is due to the fact that they work brilliantly together - they are part of the Adobe package suite and have been built to work in conjunction with each other.

So why didn’t I choose Adobe Flash? This is something I much considered, however the final decision came down to the fact that I am far more experienced with the GUI of After Effects than that of Flash. I have had over a year of experience with After Effects and believe that I will need a few weeks training to be able to use Flash effectively – I simply do not have the time to do this. Furthermore, I have created various test animations on After Effects in preparation for my final product (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 – A test animation I made in After Effects

In order for any creative project to be successful, it is vital to create a plan of production. In the past I have found this to be a necessity – when set a deadline I feel it is important to plan my time accordingly, and this enables for me to create a product to the highest possible standard. This time is no different, and it is for that reason that I have compiled a production schedule to ensure I meet the deadline for submission, and receive the highest mark attainable (see Figure 4).

Term Week	Date	Plan	Additional Notes
1	17/09/12 – 23/09/12	N/A
2	24/09/12 – 30/09/12	N/A
3	01/10/12 – 07/10/12	- This week I was introduced to my creative project, and I have started to think about possible ideas for it. - Update blog
4	08/10/12 – 14/10/12	- Chosen idea: William Blake – The Fly. Begin to research and write Project Proposal. - Update blog.
5	15/10/12 – 21/10/12	Finish Project Proposal and begin work on narrative storyboard. - Update blog.
6	22/10/12 – 28/10/12	- Finish storyboard and begin work on 10-second animatic. - Update blog.
7	29/10/12 – 04/11/12	- Finish 10-second animatic. Hand in all deliverables for Assessment 1. - Update blog.	Hand in: -        Project Proposal -        10 second animatic -        Narrative storyboard
8	05/11/12 – 11/11/12	- Begin 90 second animatic and practice recording sound. - Update blog.
9	12/11/12 – 18/11/12	- All images for 90-second animatic should be uploaded to computer. First 20-30 seconds of animatic should be completed. - Update blog.
10	19/11/12 – 25/11/12	- All sound files should be recorded and uploaded to computer. 60 seconds of animatic should be completed. - Update blog.
11	26/11/12 – 02/12/12	- Animation should be completed. Final editing begins - Update blog.
12	03/11/12 – 09/11/12	- Begin writing project reflection. - Update blog.
13	10/11/12 – 16/11/12	- Final touches to animation, blog and reflection essay should be completed and ready to hand in. - Update blog.	Submission: -        Blog -        90 second animatic -        Reflection essay

As shown, I also run a weekly blog to document anything I find, research or create in regards to my creative project and animation in general[1].

Figure 4

To conclude, I am extremely confident with the current progress of my creative project. As mentioned, I am fascinated by animation, and I am overjoyed that I have had the chance to study such a thought-provoking subject. This proposal has enabled me to lay the groundwork in what will become a fantastic end product. I will adhere to the ideas and values of which I have discussed, and I am very excited to begin work on my final animatic.

Bibliography

Berimbau10 (2008) ROTOSCOPING SHORT ANIMATION, [video], YouTube, 3 April 2008, Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZOHv9B0j7o [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Bratt, Benjamin (2012) Rotoscoping: Techniques and Tools for the Aspiring Artist, Oxford, Elsevier Inc., Pp. 3 – 4

Craig, Robert, M. (2003) ‘M.C. Escher and the Pardoxical Staircases of Post-Modernism’ in Moffett, Marian., Fazio, Michael, W., and Wodehouse, Lawrence., [eds] (2003) A World History of Architecture, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd., Pp. 558 – 560

Edinburgh International Film Festival (2009) An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt, [online], Available at: http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/2009/an-evening-with-don-hertzfeldt, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Escher, Maurits, Cornelis., (1953) Relativity, [electronic print], Available at: http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Hertzfeldt, Don (2000) Rejected, [video], YouTube, 28 April 2007, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOvqeABHvQ, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Pattyn, Bart (2000) Media Ethics: Opening Social Dialogue, Beligum, Peeters, Pp. 9 – 11

---

[1] http://jordans-animation.blogspot.com