Our lecture for the first week was cancelled, so we had an introduction to the brief this week before the main lecture.
We were taught how we can approach picking a research topic, such as considering what skills we need to attain for the area of the industry we want to go in and how the research topic could help with that.
We were also taught about the different art elements to consider both with our practical work and when critiquing work as part of our research pieces. Observing, documenting, and learning from our visual environment is always important to developing our artistic skills.
History of Animation
Originally, animation was taking up as an art movement, and was celebrated as a new way for artists to express themselves in ways they had never been able to do so before. Being able to make even the most abstract of ideas come to life and have movement was an exciting new medium to explore.
We were tasked to find films where artists/animators celebrate the artform of animation from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. While it might fall a bit out of the time frame, I thought of ‘Betty Boop: Snow White’ from 1933. The animation medium in this short film was used in a way that harnesses the ability to animate surreal concepts, especially with the scene featuring the song ‘St. James Infirmary Blues’ by Cab Calloway.
My Research Topic
I’m not yet exactly sure which topic I want to base my research on, but I have had an interest in both how experimental visuals advance animated media, and the phycology of media and fictional characters for a while, so I would like to involve one of both of those topics. I also became very interested in the representation of rebellions through media such as ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Andor’, which could potentially tie in well with phycology. I could also explore something mentioned in our lecture this week, this being how in the absence of TV and cinema, art was the main movement of culture. I would be curious to explore how animation has been used to both represent and create movement in rebellions.
While my undergraduate dissertation analysed the closing scene of ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’, I focused more on how the visuals summed up the tragic events of the film and the bittersweet ending for the protagonist than the theme of rebellion. I did however touch on the tragic nature of the protagonist being a tool of war, and still find this topic to be very interesting and would love to have the chance to explore it more.