Major Post 10-Tango(1980)

Posted on by Jiawen Tan

Tango is a kind of weird dance. The dancers don’t always face each other, but show their absent mindedness and lack of eye contact. Both sides are dancing while maintaining an independent posture. It is said that tango was originally a secret dance between lovers, that is to say, it is an ambiguous way of expression. There is another kind of indistinct connection between dancers outside the dance, which is exactly the metaphor of this film.

The film juxtaposes the scenes of life in the same space at different times. In each individual scene, each person goes his own way, which is consistent with other scenes. Seemingly chaotic but orderly, this juxtaposition produces a kind of rhythm, just like the superposition of different musical instruments and melodies in music, just like the juxtaposition of different dancers’ body language. As a scene or individual, it appears in the deliberately created time sequence, from single to numerous, from simple to complex, which has formed an ambiguous image language.

From the perspective of lens language, the film is shot with a single lens and there is no story. But the live action film won the Academy Award for best animated short film in 1982. For a short film that has neither camera language nor narrative method, it really pursues a new sense of form. Compared with the sense of lens that the real film is good at, the sense of form is just the strength of animation. Because animation is not limited by the camera, so the creation of the picture can be as free as painting, and this film just gives up the sense of lens that the real film is good at, and uses the special effects in the later period to create a unique form that is no less than animation, and plays the advantages of animation to the fullest.

Major Post 09-Harpya

Posted on by Jiawen Tan

Harpya is a 1979 short Belgian animated film written and directed by Raoul Servais. This is a purely technical experiment, the first attempt to combine real images with animation, the results are very satisfactory. The audience was shocked, but also alarmed. He uses a 35mm camera to shoot, and all the things that don’t need to be exposed are covered with black velvet, which is very complicated and cumbersome.

Harpy is a banshee with the body and head of an eagle in Greek mythology. Its general image is fierce and aggressive. I feel that harpy symbolizes women and food symbolizes desire in the film. The reincarnation of the ending is that different men fall into the trap again and again.

The first scene in which harpy meets a man is when a man hears a scream and saves harpy. It’s a position of weakness for harpy. But when the man saw her whole face again, he didn’t regard her as a monster, instead, he felt novel, beautiful and even awed (the man took off his hat in front of her). Standing under the fountain, harpy is more like a goddess than a monster.

When harpy first came to the man’s house, she was like a pet until she showed that she controlled the man’s life. Several times in the film, it shows how harpy gobbles: the shape of a woman, the behavior of a raptor. Every time a man wants to eat something, he will appear. Robbing and eating food is robbing and containment. Cutting off a man’s lower body is a metaphor for depriving him of his freedom.

The image design of harpy is also interesting. She’s bald. Maybe the director wants to make this image weird. I really like the combination of real people and animation.

Major Post 13: Pinscreen Animation in “The Nose”

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

In my last post, I talked about how Alexander Alexeieff used his pinscreen technique to create animations. A film he used the technique on is The Nose which he created in 1963. After watching the documentary, I can now understand how he achieved the look of the light passing over the roofs of the buildings in the opening scene. Alexeieff would have begun with the pins pushed out to where they were showing a mid-gray. Then he probably pushed the pins back in for a light gray, doing this line by line to make the movement gradual. This same technique would’ve been repeated in the next scene when the light shines in from the window and moves down the wall (fig. 1).

  • Figure 1
  • Figure 2

It’s cool that the pinscreen technique automatically includes shadows. The darker object on the floor was probably created by pushing the pins outward far enough to create black and cast a shadow on the pinscreen as a result (fig. 2). I can compare this to how in 3d software, the shadows are generated for the animator. Usually in 2d animation, the shadows would be drawn in by the animator, but The Nose is like a mixture between drawn and 3d animation; it has an “illustrated” look, yet it uses 3-dimensional objects.

Sydney McPherson

Major Post 12: Pinscreen Technique

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

We looked at some films by animator Alexandre Alexeieff who invented the technique of pinscreen animation. This technique is basically another form of stop motion animation. At first, I didn’t really understand how the technique worked to create images, and so I watched a documentary on the process. The pinscreen is large and consists of a white background that had thousands of small holes. In each hole there is a cylindrical pin that sits flush in the hole or can be pushes out from the backside (fig. 1).

  • Figure 1
  • Figure 2

The actual images seem to be created using the shadows that the pins cast on the white background, once pushed out (fig. 2). In the video, someone demonstrates how the animator would achieve the shades of black, gray, middle gray, light grey, and then white. Depending on the angle of the light source, when all pins are pushed out to their max, the shadows overlap and cover all the white, creating a black surface. When the pins are pushed in just a bit, more of the white shows and looking from far away, the mixing of the black shadows and white background create mid-gray (fig. 3). And so, the pins can be placed at different lengths to experiment with the tones created (fig. 4).

  • Figure 3
  • Figure 4

In my next post, I will discuss how the technique is applied to some animations by Alexeieff.

Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4u-C8kyUeA

Sydney McPherson

Major Post 16: Zbigniew Rybczynski

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

 

I was intrigued by both Zbigniew’s work as well as his complex and vowel sparse name. Often times in his experimental animated films he would perform the roles of director, cameraman, screenwriter, and set designer all at once. Zbigniew’s career started right after his graduation from his art high school in Warsaw where he snagged a job at the oldest production studio in Poland, Studio Miniatar Filmoych. After creating his Oscar winning production, Tango he opened up his own studio and started using a computer-integrated system called High Definition. Zbigniew Rybczynski is often claimed as the contemporary George Melies. An animator we learned about earlier who was known for his trick films and famous works such as A Trip to the Moon.

A common theme of his work is all based around his idea that human perception of the world is limited and it is better for people to find new points of view in order to understand more. This is evident in his piece Tango due to the bending and altering of the viewers ideas of time and space.

Below I will link another one of his works below:

Major Post 14_Documentary

Posted on by Bobbi Ho

All the featured films presented in class was really heavy content. All had a story or message to address, not typical ones that we’ve addressed so far in class. When one imagines the term “animation”, we think of cartoons, bouncy characters and what not. Directing away from some animations, such as the ones presented, to be heavy political and social problems that should be addressed. I’m talking about A is for Autism(1992) by Tim Webb, I Met the Walrus (2007) by Josh Raskin, and Ryan (2004) by Chris Landreth. I thought they were very different to the usual films we’ve watched in the past classes. A is for Autism and I Met the Walrus was really interesting in the fact the artists used the aids of children to produce these films. An outlook from a child, that could be so innocent and yet address the real problems that is faced.

Of course there were some films that were less heavy and were more playful. I quite enjoyed Subconscious Password by Chris Landreth. I thought the whole concept of the film was relatable. I as the audience can put myself in his shoes, where there was a time where i don’t remember people’s names on a daily. Although my thought process is not as complex or vibrant as the artist’s, i can see the amusement behind them.

Major Post 14 : Japanese animation

Posted on by lilylai98

Japanese animation  is such a big part of my childhood. I can’t remember which one is the first Japanese animation I watched when I was young . But I remember I love Ghibli animation so much. Especially, Totoro and the cartoon of Osamu Tezuka. 

The animations of Osamu Tezuka are part of the childhood of me and people who grow up in 50s-90s. I am not sure do the children these days now know the Astro Boy and Black Jack or not , but those characters are for true that they are one of the signature of Japanese animation. Personally, I like the cartoon of Black Jack the most , in my memory he is the character who is very knowledgeable and kind although he personality is a bit odd however he will help everyone who need help even the person doesn’t have money to pay him. Each story is very meaningful each episode points out different meaning.

Lily Lai

Major Post 13: Journey to the East: Animation in Asia –China

Posted on by lilylai98

In class 14, we watched few animation which made in China. Most of story of them are based on the folk talk and fairy tale in China which very familiar with some of us. Although I didn’t read the book or watch any cartoon of The Journey to the West, but I have already understand the story and the story roughly. Animation is such a good way to promote different culture from different countries. And the visual style is also full of Chinese drawing element.

From all the short films we watched in class , I like the animation of  Te Wei. I like the artist combined the Chinese painting with animation and it is hard to imagine how the team finish this animation by drawing every single frame. Plus the story is like a story for kid and the narration is incredible that she can voice over all the characters appear in the animation.

Lily Lai

Major Post 15: Annie May

Posted on by Sammy Liu

Today’s highlight is Osamu Tezuka – “The God of Manga” who created Astroy Boy and Black Jack. Tezuka sees animation and manga as a form of art to convey messages, and without holding back he is open to explore serious and mature themes in his animation – a noticeable difference between Western and Asian Animation.
Following the timeline, 1960s Japanese animation was the rising of the television era. It was a large contributing factor for mass animation, and was distributed out towards different countries.
In 1970s, sports-orientated production became the new hype. After the sports-frenzy, cinematic elements became a prominent factor. They sought to convince audiences how relatable the main character actually is, creating some sort of emotional connection, which attracts many viewers.

In 1973, Tezuka Production was founded. Most of his animations reflected his values which includes; peace, love for nature and social participation.
He questions the function of story-telling in an animation, seen especially in Jumping (1984) which portrays a a rather uncanny theme, despite its fun and outgoing impression. We see everything in the unknown character’s point of view – with no sign or clue of who this character is, until at the very end, we hear a relieved sigh that slightly reveals a part of the character, (I feel like its the audience themselves as they echo their sigh).

Another big influencer was The Animator’s Club in the 1960s, founded by the first three generation of japanese independent animation artist: Yoji Kuri, Ryohei Yanagihara and Hiroshi Manabe. They explored styles and found inspiration in “Saul Bass” and Norman McClaren films.
Yoji Kuri was very experimental in surreal composition, and distracting audio in his works. He conveyed mature-themes through animation – for example “AI”(1965); exploring the relationship between men and women, and more specifically, women’s desire for men and subtly suggests the manipulation of women over men. This theme was repeated in his work “Human Zoo”, in which his funky characters (male and female in a cage) portrayed consistently how men was the animal – the female was the zoo tamer.

Moving back to a more linear storytelling format, we looked at Tadahito Mochinaga and Kihachiro Kawamoto, who were both Japanese pioneers of puppet-animation, . Michinaga had also large influence in Chinese Animation – he had good friendship with the Chinese animators, as he worked in Xinjing, China in 1945.
We also briefly looked at large influencers like Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira [1989]) and Hayao Miyazaki, and Satoshi Kon who continues to inspire many young future generations.

Osamu Tesuka: Jumping (1987)
Broken don film
Yoji Kuri: Ironic storytelling – AOS (1964), AI (1965)
TadahitoMochinaga
Kihachiro Kawamoto: coffee break
Katsuhiro Otomo: Akira, Memories (1995)
Hayao Miyazaki
Satoshi Kon
Koji Yama – Mt.Head

Major Post 14: Old japanimation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

First Generation of Animators in Japan
Which includes Seitaro Kitayama, Oten Shinokawa, and Jun’ichi Kouchi.
They mostly worked with cut-out, silhouettes due to limited budget and had to work efficiently if they wanted to gain profit. Noburo Ofuji, Jun’ichi’s apprentice was also an influential animator, similarly primarily working with cut-outs.

During the war around 1930s, propaganda films were often featured. Animation was a tool for political controversy, to educate and to spread news about the war. in Momotaro (1918) by Seitaro Kitayama showcased a “war hero” character to encourage and build people’s hope. It was also a first to be shown on TV abroad.

After the war around the 1940s, another rising animator, Kenzo Masaoka, who explored cel-animation production founded Nihon Douga, which is now known as Toei Douga. He made Kumo to Chulip (1943), which was delightful to watch. It had sweet old japanese nursery songs that kept it engaging, and a simple story plot.