OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Scripting First Drafts

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Scripting First Drafts

After the huge mountains of research I enjoyed undertaking over the past few weeks, I decided that it was now time to put together a rough set of scripts using the most important or entertaining facts I had gathered throughout the research period. I used a wide range of sources for my research: books, online websites, anecdotal stories from people who knew some of the artists (mainly the most modern ones), and journals.

It took a few days for me to pick out the best bits and compile a rough draft each animation. I brought them along to my several tutorials and discussed elements such as timing, appropriateness, and keeping the dialogue short and snappy, rather than long-winded and waffly (which I admit I often struggle with)!

Some of the feedback I received was particularly helpful. One of the main pointers that was given of which I acted upon as soon as possible, was the suggestion that Marcel Duchamp's character shouldn't actually be shown urinating in the urinal at the end as this could go against educational restrictions and rules and also be too graphic and inappropriate for a younger audience. Instead, we decided that the mere suggestion of him urinating would be more than sufficient and allow for that feeling of mystery and surprise. I changed the script to allow for this, and made it so that he turns to face the urinal (back to the audience) and we hear a loud unzipping of a trouser zip instead. It will then cut to black as we see the credits roll.

Alongside this change, I also shortened a lot of the dialogue by cutting unnecessary bits out and keeping it really punchy and fast-paced. I used a stopwatch to time myself reading out each script from the start of the main countdown to see if each one stayed just under 60 seconds. All the scripts passed. However, I wanted to be extra sure that when I asked my voice actors to do their parts, I had sufficient evidence that the timing was right, otherwise it would mess them around and wouldn't be fair, especially as each role is unpaid work.

To test the authenticity of the timing, as I know I have a natural motor-mouth that can run at 1,000 miles an hour, I asked a few people with differing delivering methods to read them out in their own way. All passed the timing test with only a couple of exceptions. I cut a few more words out to make it more comfortable and less 'rushed'/sloppy.

I perfected the scripts a few days after and sent them to each voice actor that got in touch with me, (3 in total) with a deadline for the voice acting. I will now wait for the masters to work their magic on my scripts.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice - The Big Surrealism Research Haul

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

The Big Surrealism Research Haul


What was Surrealism?

• A movement founded in Paris by a small group of creatives
• A means of using dreams, the subconscious, and imagination to create surreal and unusual works
• Inspired by Sigmund Freud and his idea that suppressed emotions and thoughts should be let out and explored
• Use of everyday imagery, nature, and mythology to symbolise dreams and the unconscious 
• Made to make the audience feel uneasy about the world around them - the uncanny
• One of the most distinct movements due to its ease of recognition
• Max Ernst was madly in love with the use of birds, Dali used ants and eggs

When and where did it take place?

• Started: 1924 to 1966 
• Place of Origin: Paris, France

Who were the major artists?

• Max Ernst
• Joan Miró
• René Magritte

Rene, a Belgian painter, is one of the most well-known artists of the 20th century. His unusual take on Surrealism makes his work incredibly unique and his love of repetition made him successful. (He often reproduced some of his most popular pieces.) "His interest in the idea may have come in part from Freudian psychoanalysis, for which repetition is a sign of trauma." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-magritte-rene.htm

"The illustrative quality of Magritte's pictures often results in a powerful paradox: images that are beautiful in their clarity and simplicity, but which also provoke unsettling thoughts. They seem to declare that they hide no mystery, and yet they are also marvelously strange.

Magritte was fascinated by the interactions of textual and visual signs, and some of his most famous pictures employ both words and images. While those pictures often share the air of mystery that characterizes much of his Surrealist work, they often seem motivated more by a spirit of rational enquiry - and wonder - at the misunderstandings that can lurk in language.

The men in bowler hats that often appear in Magritte's pictures can be interpreted as self-portraits. Portrayals of the artist's wife, Georgette, are also common in his work, as are glimpses of the couple's modest Brussels apartment. Although this might suggest autobiographical content in Magritte's pictures, it more likely points to the commonplace sources of his inspiration. It is as if he believed that we need not look far for the mysterious, since it lurks everywhere in the most conventional of lives." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-magritte-rene.htm 

• Salvador Dali

"Salvador Dali is among the most versatile and prolific artists of the twentieth century. Though chiefly remembered for his painterly output, in the course of his long career he successfully turned to sculpture, printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and, perhaps most famously, filmmaking. (Un Chien Andalou)" - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm

Dali's work features themes of death, eroticism, and the decay of nature and objects. His famous "melting clocks", and "lobster telephone" are amongst some of the symbols that are most associated with him today, and he's known for his eccentricity and striking moustache! He has often been confused as being French, as many painters of the era were associated with France in some way due to its connection with art. However, Dali was in fact Spanish. 

"Dali soon became a leader of the Surrealist Movement. His painting, The Persistance of Memory, with the soft or melting watches is still one of the best-known surrealist works. But as the war approached, the apolitical Dali clashed with the Surrealists and was “expelled” from the surrealist group during a “trial” in 1934. He did however, exhibit works in international surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade but by 1940, Dali was moving into a new type of painting with a preoccupation with science and religion."

"As an artist, Salvador Dali was not limited to a particular style or media. The body of his work, from early impressionist paintings through his transitional surrealist works, and into his classical period, reveals a constantly growing and evolving artist. Dali worked in all media." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm

Dali was actually expelled from art school after stating that:

“none of the professors of the school being competent to judge me, I retire”

• Man Ray

Born: August 27, 1890 - Died: November 18, 1976 (From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

As an American filmmaker, painter, and photographer, Man Ray's (Emmanuel Radnitzky) work spanned across many genres, often making it difficult to associate him with one major movement

"Although he matured as an abstract painter, Man Ray eventually disregarded the traditional superiority painting held over photography and happily moved between different forms. Dada and Surrealism were important in encouraging this attitude; they also persuaded him that the idea motivating a work of art was more important than the work of art itself." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ray-man.htm

He was fascinated with juxtaposing extraordinary objects and items with the female form. His work "Le Violon d'Ingres", featuring part of a violin overlapping a woman's back, follows her figure and curvature to represent a "human violin". This clever playing around with shapes may have lended itself more to the Surrealist movement, however Surrealism had not evolved just yet, so Man Ray's work could be seen as pre-Surrealism. This image, albeit influenced by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's "La Grande Baigneuse", has gone on to make its mark in our popular culture. The violin's notorious 'f-holes' have become inspiration for tattoos! 

"In 1915, Man Ray met French artist Marcel Duchamp, and together they collaborated on many inventions and formed the New York group of Dada artists. In 1921, Ray moved to Paris and became associated with the Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles of artists and writers. His experiments with photography included rediscovering how to make "camera-less" pictures, which he called rayographs." - http://www.biography.com/people/man-ray-9452778

What were the major works?

• The Persistence of Memory (1931)

"This iconic and much-reproduced painting depicts time as a series of melting watches surrounded by swarming ants that hint at decay, an organic process in which Dali held an unshakeable fascination. The important distinction between hard and soft objects, associated by Dali with order and putrefaction respectively, informs his work method in subverting inherent textual properties: the softening of hard objects and corresponding hardening of soft objects. It is likely that Dali was using the clocks to symbolize mortality (specifically his own) rather than literal time, as the melting flesh in the painting's center is loosely based on Dali's profile. The cliffs that provide the backdrop are taken from images of Catalonia, Dali's home." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm

• The Son of Man (1946), Man in a Bowler Hat (1964), The Great War (1964)

Rene seems to have a thing about hats on people whose faces are obscured by unusual objects! In fact, the men in bowler hats are actually self portraits. 

• The Accommodations of Desire (1929)
• The Human Condition (1933)

What were they trying to achieve?

• Trying to explore the inner depths of the mind and translate these findings into art
• Use Freudian theories and dream analysis to work out meaning behind suppressed thoughts and emotions
• Bring science and psychology into the creative industry to create surreal work
• After the years of Dada, Surrealism wanted to bring back a little bit of the traditional whilst keeping modern thoughts and theories alive

OUAN603 - Extended Practice - The Big Dada Research Haul

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

The Big Dada Research Haul


What was Dada?

• Dada was an avant-garde movement, taking place to react and retaliate against the first World War.
• It was influenced heavily by such movements as Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, and Constructivism and was seen as revolutionary, and almost a form of anarchy in the art world.
• Massively diverse contributions of poetry, contemporary dance, literature, sculpture, collage, and painting.
• Dada works often created controversy and made society question the intent of the work, artist, and movement itself.
• Went against the rules that governed thought, language, meaning, and art.
• Seen as a retaliation against the bourgeoisie with its anti-war and anti-nationalistic ideas. Associated with radical left groups.
  
  Note: "Bourgeoisie" - Middle class, materialistic and Capitalist population who own most of the world's wealth and means of production.
• The movement was later abandoned with the introduction and uprising of Surrealism. 

When and where did it take place?

• Started: 1916 to 1924
• Place of Origin: Zürich, Switzerland

Who were the major artists?

• André Breton
• Hans Arp
• Francis Picabia
• Hannah Höch 

Born: November 1, 1889 - Died: May 31, 1978 (Germany)

Höch was famous for her rather unusual collages, created by taking parts of photographs and merging them to create spectacular pieces of 'Photomontage'. She was a rarity, not only within the Dada movement, but in art as a whole as female artists weren't as well publicised. She wished to change the idea of men being the dominant sex in the creative industry whilst making a statement with her works.

Her look was also a political statement: 'boyishly short' hair and a rather androgynous way of dressing was her way of retaliating against male-dominated society and their expectations of what a 'woman should look like'. By doing this, she was embracing her idea of the "New Woman", a feminist way of life that called for equality not just in the arts, but in modern life. 

"Using camera-made images, Höch and other Dadaists pieced together works with satirical and ironic messages about the chaotic sociopolitical state in Germany." 

"The Dadaists were self-proclaimed radical thinkers who championed women’s rights. But Höch, the only female Berlin Dadaist, was marginalized for her independent spirit, masculine dress, and bisexuality. Her photomontages often confronted gender issues, championing the “New Woman” who was empowered by the vote, sexually emancipated, and financially liberated." - http://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/hannah-h%C3%B6ch

"She also consciously promoted the idea of women working creatively more generally in society. She explicitly addressed in her pioneering artwork in the form of photomontage the issue of gender and the figure of woman in modern society." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-hoch-hannah.htm

• George Grosz

Born Georg Ehrenfried Groß, he later changed his name to George Grosz in an effort to retaliate against the Nationalist Germany of the time. After being discharged from military service for having a severe case of sinusitis, he was then arrested after joining the KPD, or Communist Party of Germany. Luckily, he escaped using fake ID. He was bitterly anti-Nazi.

"After observing the horrors of war as a soldier in World War I, Grosz focused his art on social critique. He became deeply involved in left wing pacifist activity, publishing drawings in many satirical and critical periodicals and participating in protests and social upheavals." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-grosz-george.htm

• Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp was notorious for his "readymades", which caused massive controversy across the art world as he practically took the hard work of others and modified it slightly to make a statement or a joke. He refused to be lumped in with any particular art movement, and often created works that could be affiliated with plenty of the modern genres. Marcel could be considered a 'the joker of the modern creative industry' as it was often difficult to take his work seriously! His controversial messages still live on in today's society and are met with an array of emotions - disgust, confusion, and fascination. 

"Coined by Duchamp, the term "readymade" came to designate mass-produced everyday objects taken out of their usual context and promoted to the status of artworks by the mere choice of the artist. A performative act as much as a stylistic category, the readymade had far-reaching implications for what can legitimately be considered an object of art." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-duchamp-marcel.htm

Duchamp's readymades (everyone is familiar with his urinal) could have been some form of prediction as to how society would be in the 21st century with the rise of designer labels only racking up large price tags because of the name of the designer, and not really being about who actually made the item. Think back to Kanye West and his 'Yeezy' collection - not really innovative or artistic to many people, but stick his name on a white shirt and sell it for $120 (http://www.okayplayer.com/news/style-kanye-west-apc-120-plain-white-hiphop-t-shirt-sells-out.html) and you instantly have something that people will buy for the name. Marcel was probably one of the first artists to exploit this idea, but he did it an ironic way that was playful and humorous (maybe not to traditional artists however!).


What were the major works?

"Equilbre" or Balance (1925) "In this piece Hoch expresses her finding balance as a bisexual in society, showing the shifting identities of women in the world." - https://offtheorange.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/hannah-hoch/

Le Violon d'Ingres (The Violin of Ingres) (1924) 

Fountain (1917) "The most notorious of the readymades, Fountain was submitted to the 1917 Society of Independent Artists under the pseudonym R. Mutt. The initial R stood for Richard, French slang for "moneybags" whereas Mutt referred to JL Mott Ironworks, the New York-based company, which manufactured the porcelain urinal. After the work had been rejected by the Society on the grounds that it was immoral, critics who championed it disputed this claim, arguing that an object was invested with new significance when selected by an artist for display. Testing the limits of what constitutes a work of art, Fountain staked new grounds. What started off as an elaborate prank designed to poke fun at American avant-garde art, proved to be one of most influential artworks of the 20th century." - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-duchamp-marcel.htm 

L.H.O.O.Q (1919)


What were they trying to achieve?

• A reaction towards the horrors of the first World War
• Satirical and nonsensical art, created from found objects and works
• An uprising against the bourgeoisie and Capitalist and nationalistic society
• A feministic movement of artists and a new, fairer society
• Change the way people perceive art and move even further from traditional methods
• Artistic and societal revolution!

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: After Effects Refresher

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

After Effects Refresher

- Don't rely wholly on After Effects for whole sequences! (Create a new composition for each shot, put together in Premiere to save on a horrid build-up of layers and long render times!) This makes it easier to control and see exactly where you're at without having a muddled timeline of bits of bobs. Don't edit in After effects!

- Don't bring Photoshop files in as footage, bring in as composition so that AE does not flatten the layers of your artwork.

- Don't forget! Lighting is really important in AE and brings the last touches of a 3D layer together and gives it more realism!

- Seperate bits of an image (i.e. background) onto different layers so that you can create a parallax effect in AE. Label eveything for ease of use and stay well organised!

- Maximum layer size is 10,000x10,000 pixels in AE, so try not to be too ambitious with backgrounds.


Here's a wacky little test I did just to check out some of the features (even though I've previously made animations in After Effects, it's still really fun and educational to mess about with it sometimes as you often learn new things from playing around)!

https://vimeo.com/154998730 

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: A Change of Character

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

A Change of Character

After much debate and thought about Impressionism, along with some well-needed research, I discovered that my first choice of mascot for the Impressionist movement - Van Gogh - was actually considered post-impressionism and therefore would not be a completely suitable candidate for the animated short. I was so stuck on using him and him alone for the piece that I was disheartened to discuss in my tutorial that I should use more characters and have them interact with each other.

I thought about which Impressionist artists had the most recognisable and appealing faces (not meaning attractive or desirable, but in a sense of who looks more fun to draw and oozes character). I thought about Degas' angular, pretty face but felt he was maybe too "prince Charming-ish" to draw. I felt more attraction towards Pissaro's fluffy beard, as this would add some well-needed texture to the animation. However, I decided to go for a little bit of both popularity and appearance, and went with Paul Cezanne, an Impressionist favourite of mine (I have many memeories of his work from High School and know very well that he is taught about in GCSE level Art class).

However, I spoke to Mike regarding some of the artists I had in mind for all three movements and he suggested that rather than focusing on appearance and which were more aesthetically memorable, try researching into their stories and histories a little bit and use artists that have a humorous background as this will be more appealing.

We also spoke about maybe trying to introduce a female protagonist into the mix, and decided on an artist named Hannah Höch who was a part of the Dadaist movement and focused very much on "found art". After seeing her photographs, she actually has a very interesting and angular face and hairstyle, which would be brilliantly fun to draw and recreate as a puppet! DuChamp will be thrown in as a mention, but nothing too forceful on the audience as I would like to reinforce the idea that a female changed the art world massively and it's not all about one gender.

Monet, for the Impressionist movement was actually severely blind due to cataracts. This could be a great opportunity for some light humour as he could bump into things whilst narrating and struggle to interact with things. Van Gogh was known for alcoholism and substance abuse - an avid drinker and a user of kerosene, turpentine, and absinthe. These rather hallucinatory substances would make for a great Van Gogh addition to the Impressionist animation - fumbling around, seeing real auras floating about from his "Starry Night" painting. A comical message to the audience about not doing drugs would also be a great add-in! I also decided to use Berthe Morisot in my Impressionist cohort as she's a strong female artist who was also highly influenced and friends with Manet, another painter of the era.

The issue I discovered that was so prominent with most of my artists I had researched was that many overlapped with the genres they were categorsied in. DuChamp wasn't strictly Dada and fell into work much earlier. Van Gogh was also part of post-impressionism, and a couple of others I looked at worked over many genres. I thought that in order to be stricter and really pull in my ideas, I would go for artists that fit the criteria, even if they spanned over a few genres. However, if an artists fell into a few, I would make sure their "main movement" was one of three that I would be working on, so as to be as accurate as possible. 

Impressionists:

Claude Monet

Vincent Van Gogh

Berthe Morisot

Surrealists:

Salvador D

  

Man Ray

René Magritte

Dadaists:

Geoge Grosz

Hannah Höch

Marcel DuChamp