Screen Project 2: Research Development
Week 10’s workshop activity prompted me to research articles on my project’s keywords. I am interested in reading more about animated adaptations of literary works, short animation, and sound design. This blog entry will refer to one of week 7’s readings and specific sections in two books Adaptation for Animation: Transforming Literature Frame and Independent Animation: Developing, Producing, and Distributing Your Animated Films.
The first chapter of Adaptation for Animation: Transforming Literature Frame has given me some insights into animated adaptations and animation as an art form. It features an interview with John Canemaker, in which he tells that animation is extremely powerful for delivering symbolic metaphors, internal thoughts and at the same time, it can aspire to poetic imagery and feeling (Rall 2019). Moreover, the chapter states that changes are necessary for adaptation because animation is a different form, thus requires a different interpretation to reflect the animator’s personality, artistic style, limitations, etc. (Rall 2019). The interview and the book further discuss popular works of different studios, animators, and artists. While I have yet to develop a personal style, I reckon my video could still reflect the power of animation as a visual medium for communicating personal thoughts. During the process, I have made a few changes to the storyboard. I want to incorporate more distinctive images of Hanoi in autumn that were induced by my experience and memories. Although my images differ from those depicted in the stanza, I share the poet’s feelings about autumn in Hanoi. I’ll try my best to deliver the atmosphere and sentiment of the chosen stanza.
As mentioned in a previous post, I was inspired by many animated short films made for the Annecy International Animation Film festival. Since then, I have continued to watch more of them. I noticed that some films stood out to me through their visuals and style, some struck me with their meaning, and others because of both. I was only familiar with feature-length animation before this project, thus seeing how such short films can reveal the creators’ artistry and message truly amazed me. I would say I am most impressed with films that present a serious message in a lighthearted way. Therefore, I was absorbed in the section Telling the harder truth in the book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films. In this segment, Adam Elliot, a Melbourne-based animator, discusses how his films often successfully send social messages through achieving a balance between humor/pathos or comedy/tragedy (Mitchell 2017). I think balance is the keyword here. While some of the animated short films I like are not tragedic per se, but they are balanced by conveying a heavy message in a buoyant manner (eg: In Between 2012)
The only article I would like to discuss in this blog post is from the week 7 reading list. Oddly enough, this article also covers an interview in which the interviewee, Water Murch, talks about sound design. Murch beautifully illustrates the importance of sounds by associating the harmonious relationship between sound design and film with dance. Another comparison the interview presents is between the traditional Hollywood way and the England way of putting a soundtrack together. Their differences are explained clearly and certainly help to expand my knowledge of how sounds are added to films. My Screen Project 2 video could benefit from this article by following Murch’s advice on making a sound list early on in a project (Murch & Paine 1981). The method is to think deeply of the characters and the environment, as well as the sound in layers which is a piece of advice I also received from my pitch (Murch & Paine 1981). I believe brainstorming sound design early would be advantageous for my video because the sounds must be carefully chosen to ensure that they blend well with other audio tracks.
Throughout the process of making the video until now, the animated films I watched and the text I read may or may not resonate with my video, but they always give me fresh insights into animation/filmmaking and motivate me to work harder. Drawing and animating sometimes drain me because once I start, I often lose track of time. But then I love being busy doing something I enjoy so I can’t really complain.
References
Mitchell, B 2017, Independent animation : developing, producing and distributing your animated films, Taylor & Francis Group, ProQuest Ebook Central database.
Murch, W & Paine, F 1981, Sound design, Journal of the University Film Association, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 15–20, viewed 3 October 2021, JSTOR Arts and Sciences V database.
Rall, H 2019, Adaptation for Animation : Transforming Literature Frame by Frame, Taylor & Francis Group, ProQuest Ebook Central database.