OUAN504 - Character & Narrative - Acting Up: Song Choices

OUAN504 - Acting Up:

Taking a very different turn from last year, I have decided I would like to tackle this module from a rather sinister angle. I plan to choose very deep and meaningful lyrics for this brief despite using a very humorous looking character for the animation that is meant to accompany the voice acting. In terms of how the mind works and the many difficulties encountered, I chose these few songs to eventually narrow down my final choice to, simply because I can identify with them very well and think I'd have a better chance of addressing people with pragmatical lyrics that revolve heavily around psychoanalysis.

For this brief, my intention was to move away from humour and try a different perspective as I want to be able to broaden my skills by trying out different emotive techniques, for instance, I have already managed to entertain through humour and silliness - childlike and adult humour. I wish to work on using sadness, shock factor, romance and horror in my work, to name a few.

Tool, a metal band of which I am quite accustomed to, are known for their terrifyingly eerie animated music videos that make little or no sense, revolve around the idea of parasite/host situations, and feature plenty of images of eyes to create the illusion of paranoia.

Tool - Lateralus:

Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.

Lateralus makes me imagine myself slowly whispering the lyrics and alternating between that and screaming and laughing. Moom's eyes would often roll back into his head in an attempt to search for thoughts, maybe he could be reaching out and closing his eyes, looking for something. A shadow of himself could be the prop for this, slowly separating itself from him, floating away.

Matchbox 20 - Unwell:

All day staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something

I'm talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
And I know, I know they've all been talking about me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong with me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow I've lost my mind

I remember my mother used to listen to this band and I remember this song very well!Albeit seeming sad at first, I think it's quite inspiring and hopeful. I chose these two verses as I imagined Moom sat in a room with himself, playing with objects and overthinking to himself. As much as I wanted to go for a cheerful song, I thought about the possibilities of Moom having a bit of an existential crisis and breaking down. He looks so lighthearted and fun to animate that it would almost push the envelope of what I could achieve with him. One a lighter note, Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" is a very beautiful song that inspired me for this project:

Fleetwood Mac - Landslide:

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too
Oh, I'm getting older too

I take my love, take it down
I climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Will the landslide bring you down
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Will the landslide bring you down, oh, oh
The landslide bring you down

However, in true Grace style, I had to have at least one silly song with daft intentions. Here we have good old "All Star" by Smash Mouth. Yes, that song from Shrek. For this I pictured myself speaking slowly yet quite abruptly in a very strong Scottish accent. Moom would be green for this, hold an onion and dance around and point a lot at the camera as if telling this to an audience.

Smash Mouth - All Star

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb
In the shape of an "L" on her forehead

Hey, now, you're an All Star get your game on, go play
Hey, now, you're a Rock Star get the show on get paid
And all that glitters is gold
Only shooting stars break the mold

This seems like a fantastic idea as it wouldn't be right to choose anything to psychological as Moom doesn't seem fit for that purpose. My audience is the class and with all this workload going on, I wouldn't want them to feel more down and dreary about the whole module! So, I thought I would evoke a better reaction from a daft choice.