1. Project Ideas: I have come up with two main ideas that I am still developing:
My initial idea was to make the couch a main character, he has an evil personality and starts to eat things within the house (like what couches seem to do anyway!) starting with socks and money, to the lamp, the TV etc, until the owner comes home one day and only finds the couch. I was thinking about why the couch would eat these things, and I was thinking that it could be an old couch that the owner has kept forever, but has bought new things as time passes. The new furniture makes fun of the old couches stains, pattern etc, so it eliminates them by eating them. The whole sequence would be through hand drawing the animation, maybe incorporating a few pictures and textures to make it a little more interesting, but otherwise that’s where that idea stands for the time being.
My second idea was inspired through a sudden and recent fascination with stop motion animation, and wondered how I could get creative with this. I want to use the textures and patterns of different couches as landscapes for my characters, which are predominantly composed of things you would find in a couch i.e. coins, bobby pins, lighters, socks, cigarettes, chips and lollies (I could have real fun with jelly babies and snakes!) and tell a story by animating these through stop-motion. I am still yet to form a story line but I have been watching a few videos on Youtube for inspiration.
2. Style Manifesto, Likes: I have a few animations that I really like. Animation has always resonated deeply with me, out of all creative entertainment mediums it has always been one of my favourites. I especially like this one because it is entertaining (even though it’s a little long) as well as having valuable and multiple underlying messages. It’s a digital stop-motion production that portrays warfare, using national food icons (i.e. hamburgers for America, sushi for Japan, Kebabs for the middle east etc) to represent the nations. It fits with my own personal style manifesto because it has a strong, complex concept yet is portrayed in a witty and creative way. Its not trying to be over-creative or abstract, and even the average person can appreciate the huge amount of effort that has gone into the details of each affect, as well as being entertained.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yldqNkGfo
3.Style Manifesto, Dislikes: I really dislike productions that are incredibly abstract. I find that they don’t engage me and I don’t get as much value out of them as I would like. This one in particular I didn’t like, because I found it has no meaning. Long repetition of images I don’t find engaging and found that my mind was wondering while watching. The producer says that we ‘can freely rearrange (the images) to create your own creepy story.” I find that there is nothing for a story to grasp onto, and found it more psychodelic than ‘creepy.’ It has no solid shapes or objects that I can relate to as a viewer, and to be honest, thought it was a work more for the entertainment of people who are ‘on something.’
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_avIZO8DoOs
4. Practice Manifesto: I have found that I try to develop projects ideas through brainstorming, but usually my better ideas come when I’m falling asleep, brushing my teeth or driving. These I will then brainstorm with not much success, until I brush my teeth again. I like to ‘chew’ on my idea for a while and see if I’m still as enthusiastic about it a few days later, I also like to work and built on my base ideas.
I’ve found that I can work at any time of the day, it more depends on my mood rather than a time. I tend to work better through intense bursts of production, because everything that is happening during production is fresh in my head, I know what I have and haven’t done and how I’ve done it, whereas if I take my time or even sleep between small amounts of production, I forget everything and just see a half finished product in front of me and end up making more mistakes than progress.
The aspects of production that I find the easiest is the ideas and creativity at the beginning, and writing down the step-by-step on how I will axe the work, However what I’ve found I struggle with it the technical side of production, as I don’t usually have the leisure time to fiddle with programs and software, so I find that my knowledge is basic and my outlets for expressing my creativity limited.
What I admire most in the production in others is their ability to ‘reframe’ concepts in unusual ways by thinking outside the square. I also have a deep appreciation for producers who have the motivation to persevere with works that are labour intensive and take months to finish.
