What I was least confident in was the visual aspect of the film. My favourite parts of animation are visually stunning scenes in animated films that I grew up with from studios like Studio Ghibli and Disney. There were certain scenes that were so comforting and beautifully created that I had felt connected to and remembered to this day. I wanted to created something that would have at least a similar effect.
In a video documenting Ghibli’s background artist Kazuo Oga, who was known for his paintings of forests and sceneries. He had observed the trees he painted in person in close detail and was able to point out the visual traits of each trees. This enabled him to capture a scenery’s essence without having to directly copy from an image to create a painting that wasn’t necessarily realistic but familiar.
Taking away from that, I figured that it would be good to have an in-depth visual knowledge of the object I’d want to portray, so I spent a day taking photographs of garlic in its many forms in order to familiarise myself with its texture, weight, shape, and colour.
I didn’t realise until later that my camera had created a process video of me taking each photo, though I found it interesting to look back at how I set up each shot (I didn’t remember being so frantic, however):
Additionally, I also filmed myself preparing garlic in a variety of ways. Though I don’t have a solid idea of what I want my film to look like visually, these videos would hopefully become useful references in the future.
https://giphy.com/gifs/OOS524Mu4pSSHQwD7n
https://giphy.com/gifs/Lq2tWqKmbRgejDGbnD
https://giphy.com/gifs/garlic-2bA1OO82bpUd0tKbQ5
https://giphy.com/gifs/c4FEifePNGWA1Xyw1v
https://giphy.com/gifs/sb3HUN8tVCxHvBBCVL
https://giphy.com/gifs/dGHSz8p22tx9b9LUrF
This process of observation was quite enjoyable and made me take note of a lot garlic’s traits. By filming this from the top down from my point of view and only showing my hands, I found that this imagery would be quite universal. Perhaps a film that would in some way be applicable to most people’s experiences of everyday life is one where a character’s age, ethnicity, and overall appearance is not known. I think it would also be great to challenge myself in showing my identity through the objects in the background instead of my character.
I wrote down a plethora of ideas on paper on what I could do. Learning from the last project, I know now to narrow down my ideas into one solid concept with a clear message in order to stay on-track during the production process and have a strong film at the end. I found from the past that complex philosophical concepts like existentialism are difficult to capture and contextualize, especially when thinking about my identity, so my objective was to also find a concept that still has meaning but is not too abstract and wide.
What I’ve landed on is Garlic.
I like how silly and mundane the idea is upfront, and garlic is something simple that bears a lot of meaning to me personally.
The idea came to me one evening as I called my father in Thailand while I was sitting in the kitchen of his childhood home, asking him for ideas on what I could make for dinner. I listed out the ingredients I had in my fridge, including garlic, which prompted him to suggest me a simple pasta dish before recalling old memories of how he used to cook this dish for his siblings who he now barely talks to, even remembering the way they’d bicker over the table. It fascinated me how garlic and food in general can carry vivid memories not with the taste, but simply just the idea of it.
That prompted me to unpack my relationship with my family, especially my parents. I had a good childhood and still have a good relationship with them now, though things get more complicated as I look back and identify the instances that have impacted me to this day, and all the times I felt upset with them. Could this be seen as resentment? Could I love them as much as I resent them?
During my research, I found the poem Poplar Street by the poet Chen Chen, which included the quote:
I like jelly beans. I’m afraid of death. I’m afraid of farting, even around people I love. Do you think your mother
loves you when you fart? Does your mother love you all the time? Have you ever doubted?
Poplar Street by Chen Chen
The phrase “Does your mother love you all the time? Have you ever doubted?” made me look at my life through a different lens. I believe that what I felt was resentment to some degree. The way the past few years had kept me at home had led my family being overwhelmed by each other which only brewed more conflict, with my mother oftentimes cutting an argument short by saying “Let’s eat first.”
I think garlic reflects this sentiment well. Its strong taste meant that too much of it could overpower the taste of any other ingredient in a dish; garlic can be frustrating to prepare and clean up with all the layers of skin that gets everywhere; the smell of garlic would stick to your fingers for days no matter how much you try to scrub it off. Eating too much garlic at once can also give you acid reflux. Garlic could easily be overwhelming.
On the other hand, as I moved to London by myself, all the sounds I had found so annoying suddenly disappeared and each hour of the day often felt quiet. It was easy to feel so far from home (5,000 miles to be exact) and staticky phone calls sometimes couldn’t ease how hollow I felt. I packed sauces and seasonings from Thailand, though I used them with the dread that eventually I’d run out. I could get three bulbs of garlic for 90p, however, and as I peeled each clove in the quiet kitchen by myself, my anxiety eased like my mind could sense the bustling yet comforting atmosphere of the kitchen at home. Even the taste itself was close to the taste of home, and everything I had resented before felt like it was just enough.
I created a mindmap on a Padlet board in order to save links to external sites as well as to have everything in one place that I can refer to when I need to.
Here, I also explored the portrayal of food in art from a variety of sources such as Ghibli’s comforting food scenes, The Simpsons and how cartoon food didn’t need to be realistic to appear appetizing due to nostalgia, Hans Peter-Feldmann bread photographs, and Bake-off’s illustrator Tom Hovey’s outlook in treating the bakes as art.
The tutors’ feedback to my initial idea gave me a lot of reassurance and eased a lot of my initial worries of the topic of garlic being too simple/not serious enough, or that I wasn’t explorative enough in my choice to create a 2D hand-drawn flat-screen animation.
Project Brief Personal Project …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Unit: Exploratory Practice: Animation Arts (PU002397) Lead tutors: Su-Lynn Tan, Stuart Hilton Key dates Tuesday 15th February: Exploratory Practice Unit and Personal Project Briefing Wednesday 2nd March: Statement of Intent formative submission by 3pm via Moodle Wednesday 9th March: Interim 1 presentation – Proof of Concept Wednesday 27th April: Interim 2 presentation – Animatic and Proof of Concept Tuesday 31st May: Final Presentation Thursday 9th June: Summative submission by 3pm BST (15:00) via Moodle
Aims / Context This unit enables you to pursue a personal project and investigate an area of interest in time-based media, resulting in an individually authored work (or series of works). There is no constraint on form other than being required to justify its relationship to the discipline of animation and you will be encouraged to take risks, experimenting with techniques and exploring formats beyond the traditional. This is your opportunity to promote yourself as an auteur, defining your own personal style and outlining directions in your work. Your choice of subject and specialisation will be self-negotiated and guided by your unit tutor. You can work solo whilst gaining support from students/ collaborators in minor roles or work in small groups.
Brief Create a 1–2-minute animated film that promotes you as an auteur, defining your individual style whilst experimenting with techniques and formats that help you develop directions in your work. You should explore themes that have personal value to you. You will consider the relationship between sound and moving image. You can choose to focus on one specific aspect of your research or combine different aspects together but be careful not to overcomplicate things – simple stories with a clear message will work best.
Approach You will develop a project that demonstrates your ability to engage with the creative production process to complete an animation project showing significant conceptual and technical skill that has considered context and its relationship to its audience. After an intensive experimental testing, research and development phase, you must propose a sophisticated conceptual and visual language for your production. Your idea must be pitched as a treatment that outlines your concept, intended audience and viewing context. Key aesthetic elements such as visual language, pace, character, genre, environment and tone or ambience should be highlighted. An indication of how you intend to produce the project should be considered with technical needs and new learning being addressed. An indication of production planning should be outlined, informed by the project schedule. Developing your personal project with reference to contemporary and historical issues, themes, design, artwork and theories is an important part of the research that will give your project context and authenticity.
You should continuously evidence in your blog, a reflective and critical engagement in the development of visuals for storyboarding, environments, turnarounds, tests etc. The brief is open and there are no constraints on form, content or platform. However, there are basic production constraints: • Duration needs to be carefully considered and the works should aim to be around 1 to 2 minutes in length. • Duration needs to be carefully considered for pieces that are of an alternative format e.g. interactive / animated graphic novel; installation;performance piece. • Sound should be considered as part of the project development, pre-production, production and post- production process.
Delivery It’s important that you stick to the 1–2-minute length. A couple of seconds more or less are ok, but you should create 1–2-minute glorious minutes with high production values rather than a longer duration with inconsistency. You will deliver an h264 file at 40mbps, HD (1920×1080) at 25fps with sound.
Reading list
Beiman, N. (2016). Animated Performance: bringing imaginary animal, human and fantasy characters to life. Deja, A. (2015). The Nine Old Men: lessons, techniques, and inspiration from Disney’s great animators. Gilland, J. (2012). Elemental magic. Volume 2, The technique of special effects animation. Waltham, MA, Focal Press. Hooks, E. (2011). Acting for Animators. New York, Routledge. Polson, T. (2013). The Noble Approach, Chronicle. Thomas, F. and O. Johnston (1984). Disney Animation: the illusion of life. New York, Abbeville Press. Williams, R. (2009). The Animator’s Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators, Faber & Faber Further Reading
Bacher, H. P. (2008). Dream Worlds: production design in animation. Burlington, MA: Oxford, Focal Press. Beloeil, G. R., Andrei. Castro, Robert. Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth, 3D Total Publishing. Levitan, E. L. (1960). Animation Art in the Commercial Film. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation. MacLean, F. (2011). Setting the Scene: the art & evolution of animation layout. San Francisco, Chronicle Books. Details of the University’s online referencing system for practical and written work: http://www.citethemrightonline.com/Home
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this unit you will be able to:
How the learning outcomes are to be evidenced in this assignment
Evidence of an advanced and explorative critical understanding of the practices and knowledge base of your subject & discipline (Knowledge, Enquiry)
Show that you have an advanced and explorative critical understanding of the practices and knowledge base of your subject & discipline. You can evidence this in the research and development material, as well as through the final work shown in the pdf and also discussed in your critical appraisal.
Evidence of skills needed to work effectively as part of a cross-disciplinary team to achieve goals (Process)
You should document the processes of collaboration and demonstrate in your pdf submission through the images you choose to present and in the annotations and commentary, in your selection of blog and/ or journal pages and your critical appraisal how collaboration could work in a common project, demonstrating an interdisciplinary perspective.
Evidence of an understanding of the importance of studentship through engagement and participation with the course and your student colleagues (Communication)
Show in your pdf submission and in your statement of intent and critical appraisal that you have an understanding of the importance of studentship through engagement and participation with the course and your student colleagues. You should reflect on how you used good organisational skills in relation to managing your workload, being punctual and having good attendance, and completing your work at key stages in a timely manner.
Evidence and understanding of the professional technical and artistic benchmarks within a subject specialism (Realisation)
Demonstrate in your submission through the critical appraisal and in the practical work, that you have an understanding of the professional technical and artistic benchmarks within your subject specialism
