Sunday 13 November 2016

Study Task 3: Choosing a Research Question

Research Question:
How does visual storytelling in Animation invites the audience to view the world as a world of possibilities?

Ontology (What is there to study?):
  • Difference between the psychological impact of still and changing imagery on people's mind
  • Immersive experience: use of technology
  • narrative genres and relevant use of semiotics
  • The shift from the use of stereotype in anthropomorphic characters
  • Defining character traits based on its shapes
  • Seeing a good application of 12 principles of animation and stunning graphics over thought-stimulating content? (commercial entertainment vs avant garde) perhaps a possibility of assimilation from both?
  • Is it still effective to use cliches to evoke feeling of sympathy and stimulate humanist thought on the audience?
Epistemology (How can we know about it?):
  • Analysis of existing animation from various genres
  • Past experience watching animation (audience PoV)
  • reading and cross referencing articles and journals

Methodology (How do we study it?):
  • Analysing secondary sources and coming up with a thesis
  • Interviews to test out the thesis
  • Social experiment: let people watch sime animated clips and tell them to fill a survey relevant to the investigation

Resources:
  • Chomsky, N. (1989) Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, London, Pluto Press.
  • Staiger, J. (1992) Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
  • Collington, M. (2016) Animation in Context: A Practical Guide to Theory and Making
  • Barthes, R (1977) Image Music Text, London, Fontana
  • [Internet] Source: https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-barthes-2/
  • Crow, D (2003) Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics, Lausanne, Switzerland, AVA Publishing
  • Goldmark, D and Keil, C (2011) Funny Pictures: Animation and comedy in studio-era Hollywood, Los Angeles, University of California Press



Animations or animation related artefacts:
  • Pixar's colour script (Mis-en-scene)
  • Zootopia