Major Post 16: Documination

Posted on by Sammy Liu

The idea of Documented Animation primarily started off as short moving-pictures presented inside documentaries, for example, Winsor McCay’s The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918). At this point in time, animation was more like a decoration for documentaries – accompanying the information.
Eventually, it developed into more freedom for Animators and Film Makers to be more experimental towards the input of their thoughts and ideas.

My favourite that screened would be Of Stars and Men (1961) by John Hubley. This is something that could have been screened in science classes (despite it being longer than 1hr). It reflects results of the curiosity from that era – where research of the world was in motion. The moon landing had yet to happen in 1969, but the possibility of being able to explore the outskirts was already in full experiment.

Of Stars and Men (1961) – John Hubley

As well as documenting findings, Animated Documentaries could address situations on such as political issues, illnesses, and other sensitive or complicated topics.

I was completely inspired by Tim Webb‘s A is for Autism (1992), it was informing and visually appealing; complimented with experiences of people that not everyone gets to spend time with. It showed how art-forms can be a way to channel information into chew-able pieces. Also, what professor said – The power is all there (The voices and drawings of the children with Autism), Tim Webb took it and articulated it to become something that blesses all sides that are involved.

Ryan (2004) – An animated documentary about Ryan Larkin, by Chris Landreth. It records Larkin’s difficult situations in his life, and also the encouragement from people around him. It includes mentions of his award winning creations, Walking (1968) and Street Musique (1972).

Sheila M. Sofian
Truth has Fallen (2013) – Puts into light of the twisted injustice in America, using animation as a tool to help viewers realise problems of the world.

Sheila SofianManga! (1985)

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.

Major Post 15 – Animated Documentaries & Chris Landreth

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

On the day of class 18, we were shown all kinds of animated documentaries that tackled all sorts of subjects and events. The art style of these animations are much more free. There is no limitations, which is close to a more experimental style of animation. The creators of these animations use stories that are close to their personal life or someone has relayed that information. As documentaries are a documentation of a real life event or an occurance or even just to show awareness for a certain thing.

All of the animations featured in class was wonderful and very interesting. Although, I was more interested in the works of American animator Chris Landreth. His works Ryan (2004) and Subconscious Password (2013) were very unique view points on life. With Ryan, it was about a canadian animator named Ryan Larkin, whose work was Oscar nominated. This focused on the real life struggles Ryan had been going through in his life such as drug abuse, alcoholism and homelessness. The animated film won an Oscar for Animated Short. With Subconscious Password, we look into the inner workings of Landreth’s mind when it comes to trying to remember a friend’s name. It was dealt with as if it were an episode of a game show.

Animated documentaries are a fascinating way to experiemnt and relay a story to a much wider audience. I greatly am fond of the experimental style of animation when it comes to these topics. I’m also very interested in the process and the use of softwares and mediums in order to create a film, and use these mediums to fit the feelings of the artists by going over limitations.

Julia Reymundo

Major Post 14 – Satoshi Kon

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

Another great influence to Japanese animation is Satoshi Kon. He was born on October 12, 1963 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. He was a Japanese film director, animator. screenwriter and manga artist. He was a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He graduated from Musashino Art University with a degree in Graphic Design. Sadly, he passed away on August 24, 2010, at the age of 46, because of pancreatic cancer. Which robbbed cinema of one of the greatest thought-provoking artist. He was also mentioned on the Fond Farewells portion in TIMEs People of The Year 2010. He has made iconic films like Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and Paprika (2006). I will talk about the other films that were not mentioned in the powerpoint.

Satoshi owes the success of Akira (1988) for the start of his career. He first started out as a manga illustrator, but transferred mediums as he wanted to create animated films. Madhouse studios was the main studio that produced his films. His first film was released in 1998, called Perfect Blue. This was a suspense story about a pop idol dealing with a stalker, and the hardships of being an Idol.

Millenium Actress was released on 2001 and it centers around a former actress. With a movie studio being torn down, a TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career.

Satoshi Kon’s films have a universal theme, Distorted Love. In Perfect Blue, the obvious sign of this was from the stalker fan who wanted to cause harm to Mima, the main character, from all the “distress” her career caused him. Another less obvious one, comes from the feelings of the Mima’s agent, Rumi. Rumi was obsessed with the image of Mima the idol that she takes it upon herself to actually become Mima, referring to herself as “The Real Mima.” Millenial Actress’ distorted love is chasing after a lover long gone. Tokyo Godfathers distorted love focuses on a mother who had lost her child, so she desires any child to lover her as a mother.

It is interesting to what was in the mind of Satoshi Kon and how he depicted and explored social stigmas and the human psyche, which showed how complex life is. His work has been gritty and intense and he does not stay away from mature subject matters. His work will always be the middle ground between ‘cartoons’ and reality.

Julia Reymundo

Major Post 13: Asianimation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

It was super fun looking at less main-stream animations apart from the Western and US, and diving into Chinese animation. I thought it was interesting how many adaptations of the same story exist; like remakes of Godzilla or King Kong, but with “The Journey to the West” and “Nezha”.

Many animations used Chinese Ink as their medium, giving each one a soft, elegant texture. Therefore, it was fitting that calm and slow pacing was used often.

The first artist of the day is Wan Brother, one of the earliest animators in China, who was inspired a lot by the US and has Snow-white/Disney vibes seen in their layout, set-up or background. Again, he worked with ink and used Rotoscoping which was also inspired by the US.

In 1956, a new movement began called the Hundred Flowers Campaign, which was to lift the restrictions felt imposed upon Chinese intellectuals, to stir up socialism and thus grant greater freedom of thought and speech.
It brought up the opportunity to create something new and original to represent China.
The name of the movement originated from a poem: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend” (百花齐放，百家争鸣, Bǎihuā qífàng, bǎijiā zhēngmíng).
 “The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science”. – Mao Zhedong.
We can definitely admire the initially pure intentions to try and build creative freedom in China, and it’s something that’s worthwhile to remember and be grateful of.
It makes me curious to: if China had carried on developing their style, what would that look like?

Extra class notes:
Te Wei – Founder of Shanghai Arts and Film Studio!
Chinese manhua artist and animator, Developed chinese ink-wash animation
Studied in Changchun, Tadahito Mochinaga
Tadpoles Looking for Their Mama (1960) – Te Wei
Yu Zheugang A Clever Duckling (1960) an origami
A-Da/ Xu Jinqin –
Wan Brother:
Princess Iron Fan (1941)
Uproar in Heaven (1964) mixes in Chinese Opera make up on their characters.
Shanghai Arts and Film Studio, first coloured chinese animation (1956) Why is the Crow Black-coated.

Major Post 12: Czech Animation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Czech Animations – a lot of them uses stop-motion and a variety of different objects, allowing for more experimental and unexpected movements.

Two, out of many, highlights:
Ruka the Hand (1965) by Jiri Trnka had heavy symbolization within its simple story plot. An interesting character – The Hand; represented many things, including the aspect of control. The message is relevant to everyone who has experienced some sort of control or manipulation, therefore, the audience would be able to relate to it.

Jan Švankmajer
Dimensions of Dialogue (1982) – looks at miscommunication, irresponsibility, inability to work together, and disagreements, portrayed in such a visually appealing way. It uses suitable pairings, such as a pencil and a pencil-sharpener or bread and butter, to help understand compatible communication, yet then starts mixing it up pairings (e.g. pencil-sharpener plus bread), giving us a visual image of what miscommunication looks like.
It is such a smart way to convey an issue we all experience, that I feel like people could learn, or at least be aware of their actions, from watching this.

Extra Class Notes:
Hermina Tyrlova – Czech director, animator, writer.
Ferda Mravenec
Jiri Trnka – Master of the wooden puppet style, was previously a famous illustrator.
Fyodor Khitruk – Russian Animator
Ostrov (1973)
Yuri Norshteyn – Russian Animator
Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)
Miyazaki mentioned his works to be one of his fave.

Major Post 11: Different forms of animation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

Light and Shadow

This class we learnt about Alexandre Alexeieff who invented Pinscreen, which is a method that uses a lot of pins with different lengths in protrusion to create light and dark spaces. This technique allows for more flexibility in lighting and three-dimensional space – an aspect that requires more time in Cell Animation.

His works: The Nose (1963)
NFB: Mindscape (Pinscreen too)

Our second artist is Caroline Leaf – one of the earliest animators who used sand to animate. She had a low artistic background but during one of her art classes where her teacher asked them to bring stuff in, she brought in sand. Leaf carried on experimenting with sand and her technique has certainly inspired many more down the generation of artists – for example:

Which is sOO cool and expressive. I think similar to the Pinscreen technique – light and shadow and three dimensional space is something that’s achieved faster too.

The last artist that I will mention here is William Kentridge, a South African Artist, famous for his prints.
We had noticed in class, how most experimental animators have Fine Art backgrounds, and Kentridge is another example of that transition in professions.
His piece, Felix in Exile (1994) expresses social issues in his country, South Africa, and explores the physical and mental struggle of those times.
A rather uncanny source of his inspiration for his creations comes from using “other people’s pain as rare material” – Kentridge.
This stood out to me because at my first impression it sounded rather inappropriate and possibly insensitive, yet actually, with further thought, with appropriation perhaps the artists can portray it in a way that could be healing, or at the least, acknowledged.

In this video, he talks about how he uses charcoal because “you can change charcoal as quickly as your mind changes” pulling in the idea of spontaneity again; a mind-set similar to our previous artist, Norman McClaren.

Class notes:
William Kentridge
Felix in Exile (1994)
History of the Main complaint (1997)
Eyewash (1959) – Rober Breer
Fuji (1974)
Jake’s Professor – COMMUTER – Matt Patterson
George Dunning – Yellow Submarine (1968) designed by Hienz Edelman
Also Founder of TVC in London.
Paul Driessen –
The End of World in Four Season – multiple frames (like a comic book style) moving at the same time.
The Killing of an Egg (1977)
Frederic Back – Cel overlays. Colouring pencils on frosted cells.
Frederick Back – Crac (1981)

Major Post 13 – Go Nagai

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

After getting to know a little bit more about the history of Japanese Animation. I just have to mention one of my favorite people in the manga and anime industry.

Kiyoshi Nagai was born September 6, 1945 and goes by the pen name Go Nagai. He is a manga author and has been a great influence to both manga and anime. He effectively pioneered their most representative genres, such as the Super Robot genre, Magical Girl Warrior genre, and the Horror genre. As a child, he was influenced by the work of Gustave Dore (Particularly the Japanese version of the Divine Comedy) and Osamu Tezuka. He dropped out of college because he fell ill and him being aware of his own mortality, he wanted to leave evidence that he lived. So he decided to pursue being a manga artist.

His most notable works are Mazinger Z (1972), Cutie Honey (1973), and Devilman (1972). He is known for intentionally breaking taboos. This caused him and his earlier works trouble with the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). Most of his TV work have been fairly safe. Him and his work continues to be recognized till this day especially with the newest Devilman reboot releasing on Netflix named Devilman Crybaby.

Major Post 12 – Chinese Animation

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

For this class, Chinese animation was introduced. It featured a lot of beautiful films and I’m glad I got to learn the history of it. There are so many other films I never got to see till now. The films were elegantly animated and it really felt like the culmination of the creativity artists had at that time. I got to do further research so I could fully understand the history of the country’s animation.

The Wan Brothers played a crucial part in the animation industry in China. They would remain one of the most renowned animators. In 1956, the government introduced the Hundred Flowers Campaign which was to “let a hundred flowers bloom in the field of culture.” This caused an influx of all of China’s artistics fields, which included animation. The country’s most unique visual styles were paper-cut animation, folded paper animation, and ink-wash animation.

The films that featured each of those technique were Piggy Eats Watermelon (1958), A Clever Duckling (1960), and The Buffalo Boy’s Flute (1963) respectively. Te Wei was the one who developed the Chinese Ink-wash animation and helped create one of the said films above. The Wan Brothers would come back and release their film Uproar in Heaven (1964) which was based on the novel Journey to the West. This film was full of vibrant colors and fluid animation. It was highly praised just for it.

Julia Reymundo