Textual analysis: How mood and meaning is conveyed through different sound-image relationship.
Cultural Aesthetic and Technological Development
Reproducibility: made accessible for everyone
Constant shift between low brow and high brow: animators constantly experimenting ways to deviate the conventional structure
Constant experimentation with sound: Disney's Metronome, McLaren Neighbours (synthetic sound), Carl Stalling (illogical SFX for gags), Hans Zimmer (shepard tone - illusion of rising tension
Relate this back to the purposes of animation: consider their structures.
Practical
Create an animation based on sounds, take into account textures and noises of audio pieces selected when designing the characters and the environment.
Consider mood and meaning when listening to the audio. (outcome: chaos or order?)
Experiment with different traditional medium to best express my response to the audio.
Abstract Animation
- shape or forms moving in illogical continuity
- primal: seeks to represent inarticulable personal feelings beyond the orthodoxies of language
- rejection of rationalism and emerging from the unconscious mind
- philosophic and spiritual
- subjective interpretation
Sound
- distinguish diegetic and non-diegetic
- interpreted through the feelings it inspires
- specific signifier for the purpose of narration and characterisation
- Some conventional use of non-diegetic sound: reinforce naturalism (Disney), accentuate comic imperative (Warner Bros.).
Choreography
- Laban's movement thematics: formalist approach to define mood and meaning
- observing people to discern the need for and aims and intentions of their movement
- 'focuses on the flow of the weight of the body in time and space, articulating the effort action'
- Depicting conflict through juxtaposition of rhythm and function in any sequence
'Experimental Animation has a strong relationship to music and, indeed, it may be suggested that if music could be visualised it would look like colours and shapes moving through time with differing rhythms, movements and speeds' (Wells, 2006)
Source:
Wells, P. (2006 [1998]) Understanding Animation, King's Lynn: Routledge.
Choreography
- the prominence of the dynamics of movement as a narrative principle
- for McLaren, every animated film echoed dance 'because the most important thing in film is motion, movement. No matter what it is you're moving, whether it's people or objects or drawings; and in what way it's done, it's a form of dance.' (Bendazzi, 1994)
- 'Understanding movements and their functions can therefore be a means of understanding people. If they move to satisfy a need to express, then by observing and analysing movement one can discern the need and also the aims and intentions of the movement' (Hodgeson and Preston-Dunlop, 1990)
- 'narrative often played out purely through the movement of the body as it is represented in the animated film.'
- 'The 'body' here might be understood as an obvious representation of the human/animal form, an abstracted version of human/animal form, or purely abstracted shape that finds correspondence with the dynamics of movements available to the physical form.'
- Rudolf Laban's modern dance theory: 16 basic movement themes (construction of movements):
(on weight, space, time and flow)
1. Awareness of body
2. Awareness if the body's resistance to weight and time
3. Awareness of space
4. A recognition of the flow of the weight of the body in time and space
5. The need to adapt to the movement of others
6. A recognition of the instrumental (functional) use of limbs
7. An increased awareness of isolated actions
8. An understanding of occupational rhythms (work-related movements)
-'it (the animated forms) can only give the impression of 'space' and 'weight''
'It may be argued, though, that animation is liberating because it can manipulate the illusion of space and needs no recognition of weight unless it wishes to draw attention to the implications of a figure or an object actually being light or heavy.'
'the weight that the animators wishes to imply'
'relies on the viewer's understanding of the actual weight of figures and objects in the 'real world''
(on rhythm and function of movement)
9. The ability to create different shapes of movement
10. The deployment of the 8 basic effort actions
Wringing
Pressing
Gliding
Floating
Flicking
Slashing
Punching
Dabbing
11. Orientating the body in space, playing out the following key tensions:
Firm <---> Light
Sustained <---> Sudden
Direct <---> Flexible
Bound <---> Free
12. Relating shape of movement to effort of action
13. The ability to elevate the body from the ground
14. To create group feeling through the expression of movement
15. To create group formation through movement (e.g. circles, rows, etc.)
16. To determine action moods through the expressive qualities of movement
'especially useful in the detailed address of choreographic movement in animation because the elements successfully focuses upon the specific vocabulary of any one movement. This helps to distinguish the source of the movement, and the impulses from which it arises; the direction of the movement and its purpose; and the final outcome of the movement, either as it completes its own process, or informs the following cycle of movement.'
Paul Wells on Richard William's view of the whale scene in Pinocchio:
- focuses on the flow of the weight of the body in time and space, articulating the effort action
- Using Laban movement thematic to explain the process from 'floating' effort action to a 'punching' effort action: Action moods 'from passivity to anger' triggered by heat and smoke -> 'bound' state -'free' state tension, stillness till the sneeze 'freeing' the body to move (sustained-sudden) -> changes the space orientation.
Juxtaposition of rhythms and functions that occurs between the whale and the fleeing characters:
(movement and counter-movement) instrumental use of limbs by Geppetto and Pinocchio; 'slashing' in contrast to whale's 'punching'. -> climax: whale's failure -> final outcome: stillness and quiet
'By addressing the different and conflicting modes of movement in any one sequence, it is possible to reveal the inherent qualities of the animation itself in the determination of time, space, weight and flow.'
'The formalist approach engages with the implicit meanings of movement and serves to add another dimension to the understanding of animation as a medium over and above its capacity to capture the thrill of the chase or a moral and ideological conflict'
Case Study
(Feet of Song, 1988. by Erica Russell)
- abstracted human figures engaging in a number of dance oriented movements correspondent to a soundtrack of calypso music.
Analysis using movement thematics
Awareness of body - opening image which prioritise symmetry and balance in upright form
Awareness of space - circular turn pivoting in one leg
Adaptation to partners - multiple figures abstractly linked together and are compressed to indicate the center of the body as the key instigator of movement.
Instrumental - redetermined pushing movement as expressive rather than functional
'gliding' and then 'slashing'
The 'body'
- Abstract and highly-stylised design - calls attention to the illustrative and choreographic elements of both animation and dance, essentially defining their intrinsic relationship.
-fusion of different shapes and forms
-narrated through the vocabulary of dance and the expressive design schemata of the animated form.
'Russell has not subjected her bodies to the demands of realistic movement and 'a story', but used her bodies to narrate the inarticulable abstraction and satisfaction of rhythm and movement. Laban's movement thematics enable the viewer to penetrate this language and define the mood and meaning of physical expression.
Sound
- creates mood and atmosphere, pace and emphasis
- 'creates a vocabulary by which the visual codes of the films are understood'
- elements that composes sounds in films:
1. Voiceover [omnipotent narrator] (non-diegetic)
2. Character monologue (diegetic)
3. Character monologue (non-diegetic)
4. Character dialogue (diegetic)
5. Character dialogue (non-diegetic)
6. Instrumental Music (diegetic)
7. Instrumental Music (non-diegetic)
8. Song [music with lyrics] (diegetic)
9. Song [music with lyrics] (non-diegetic)
10. Sound effects (diegetic)
11. Sound effects (non-diegetic)
12. Atmosphere tracks
- Sense of now-ness:
'Music may be normally interpreted through the feelings it inspires, and is deployed to elicit specific emotional responses in the viewer and define the underlying feeling bases in the story.'
-'From the use of 'real', un-scripted, non-performance voices through to the overt mimicry and caricature in the vocal characterisations by such revered figures as Mel Blanc and Dawes Butler, the tone, pitch, volume and onomatopoeic accuracy of spoken delivery carries with it a particular guiding meta-narrative that supports the overall narrative of the animation itself. In the same way as music, the voice, in regards to how it sounds, as much as what it is saying, suggests a narrative agenda.'
- hyper-realist texts (e.g. Disney):
'emotional synchrony of the voice is reinforcing modes of naturalism'; uses non-diegetic to heighten the emotive aspect.
- Warner Bros. (Chuck Jones):
'... whenever possible, never use a sound effect that you'd expect. It should have the same effect on your ears but should not be the same sound effect.' 'So your eyes sees one thing and your ear says the opposite.'
'constitute a sound/image relationship unique to the animated film, particularly with regard to the comic imperatives it placed within the narrative structure.'
'delineate specific narrative information'
Case Studies
(Gerald McBoingBoing, 1951 by UPA)
- A film directly addressing the role of sound in animated cartoon
- Anarchic - liberate from Disney's hyper-realism and Warner Bros. and MGM's comic anarchy - 'to achieve more aesthetic and philosophic effects, or an altogether more self-conscious style of humour.'
- The language of sound as a narrative tool:
'The noise essentially narrates the scene and determines its visual possibilities.'
'drawing attention to the consequences of the sound itself as the substitutional representation of an action.' as displayed by the gradually heightening tension stirred up at the beginning up to effect of the explosion.
'defining its central character through the non-diegetic apparatus of the voiceover and musical interludes and, most importantly, through the shift of sound-effects as non-diegetic imposition on a scenario to a diegetic voice within the scenario.'
-'The pertinent use of sound as a specific signifier for the purpose of narration and characterisation': 'Gerald McBoing-Boing recognises sound as a mode of authentication, and implicitly illustrates the relationships between the impositional animator and the requirements of the texts. In many senses, sound is the chief mechanism by which this relationship may be properly evaluated.'
(Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Prologue (1989) by Disney)
- Musical narrative: 'a self-conscious expression of the tension between the realist mode and the performance mode, where the musical presupposes the translation of speech into song, walking into dancing, objects into props, and any environment into a version of a stage.'
- Song's mood dictates the pace and rhythm of the action with occasional diegetic authentication.
- 'The role of a song in the soundtrack, may therefore, legitimise the use of the lyrics to illustrate thoughts and emotions, and/or extend narrative questions and issues. It may also provide a structural device for the specific choreography of a scene or the background for other exchanges. Further, it might be an expression of both diegetic and non-diegetic information, and the stimulus for particular kinds of imagery.'
- '... it also defines aspects of character, particularly those concerning motivation.'
Abstraction (aesthetic)
- 'abstract films are more concerned with rhythm and movement in their own right as opposed to the rhythm and movement of a particular character.'
-'shape or forms rather than figures'
-'highest mental and spiritual faculties' Specific non-continuity (distinctive language | non-narrative)
-'signals the rejection of logical and linear continuity and the prioritisation of the logical and linear continuity and the prioritisation of illogical, irrational and sometimes multiples continuity.'
-'continuities are specific in a sense that they are the vocabulary unique to the particular animation in question' Interpretive form
- Self-expression: 'vocabulary used by painters and sculptors'
- Subjective: 'the audience are required to interpret the work on their own terms, or terms predetermined by the artist.'
- (William Moritz) 'using animation in a directly metaphoric - "spirit and integrity of its own"- way and not working in the realms of the purely abstract.' Evolution of materiality
- recognises the physical nature of the medium of choice
Multiple styles
Orthodox Animation: unity of style
Experimental: mixing 'to facilitate the multiplicity of personal visions an artist may wish to incorporate in a film, ... to challenge and re-work the orthodox codes and conventions and create new effects.'
Presence of the artist
-personal, subjective, original responses
-'relations between the artist and the work, and the relationship of the audience to the artist as it is being mediated through the work.'
-'closely related to philosophic and spiritual concerns and seeks to represent inarticulable personal feelings beyond the orthodoxies of language.' Dynamics of Musicality
-'if music could be visualised it would look like colours and shapes moving through time with differing rhythms, movements and speeds.'
-'psychological and emotional relationship with sound and colour which may be expressed through free form which characterises animation.'
-'often resisting dialogue, the cliched sound effects of the cartoon, or the easy emotiveness of certain kinds of music.'
-'Silence, and avant-garde score, unusual sounds and redefined notions of 'language' are used to create different kinds of statement.'
-'if orthodox animation is about 'prose' then experimental animation is more 'poetic' and suggestive in its intention' Case studies: non-objective and non-linear animation
(A Colour Box, 1935. Dir. Len Lye)
'Composing motion' as it reveals the 'Body Energy' which connects the music and images
-the lines, shapes and colours that move in relation to the music represent the spontaneous physical response of the artist during the moment of expression.
-'narrative' is entirely bound up with the psychological and emotional state of the artist in relation to social and environmental stimulus, the background and experience of the artist, and the artist's knowledge and use of the medium.'
-'action that takes place between the frames; subject to intense variation given the conditions he imposes upon himself in making the film.'
-'viewers must find their own relationship with imagery and its determinate meanings on their own terms.'
(The Nose, 1963. Dir. Alexander Alexeiff)
-pinscreen technique: prioritised the ways in which light redefined solid materials rather than animation concerned with line-forms or surfaces.
-'create narrative ambiguities and destabilised environments.'
-'His films seem dream-like and render the viewer uncertain and vulnerable, yet encouraged to participate in dream logic which seems to define parallel worlds.'
- (in other words) create 'the unnatural' and address 'the uncanny'
-'resisting an obvious 'story' in order to create mood and atmosphere'
-'music was later added to punctuate aspects of it rather than to create a specified emotional response.'
-Strong Surrealist tendency: rejection of rationalism -> Freudian theory
(Andre Breton Surrealist Manifesto) 'art should emerge uninhibited from the unconscious mind, recovering the imagination to engage with notions of supernatural and the re-creation of myths.'
-'Characters' slip in and out of a fluid physical environment and have a temporary narrative status, seemingly operating as figments of the imagination.
- the 'uncanny' can materialise through the acknowledgement and acceptance of the power and effect of any animated image.
-Xerography and puppet animation
-Xeroxed (photocopied) and enlarged, and then rendered and drawn on before being re-filmed on a rostrum.
-'The effect to distort and degrade image to create a haunting and hallucinatory quality to 'the character'
'The film continually blurs lines in regard to its representation of 'life' and 'death', masculinity and femininity, and the physicality of sex and violence.'
-'Animation also reduces the status of 'the body' and, in doing so, extends its vocabulary of representation, thus using it as an infinitely malleable property less fixed by biological or social constraints. The body here is uncertain but obviously politicised.'
-'Anderson is attempting to re-engage an audience with its deepest fears, using an abstraction of visual and verbal languages, which resist rationalist interpretation and evoke primal 'babble' of the unconscious mind directly expressing the taboo and the repressed aspects of the human condition.'
-'deliberately resisting interpretations', 'disorientate and provoke the viewer'
-'refutes and invalidates it (sense of 'the real'), insisting upon the medium's capacity to create different and unique image systems with their own inherent form and meaning.'
References
- Kinetic geniuses: Norman McLaren, Charlie Chaplin, Oskar Fischinger
- Optical art - psychedelic: pattern repetition, rotation of colours
- Ub Iwerks, Richard Williams, Sylvain Chomet
- Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey Stargate Sequence (VFX)
- Music videos: 'Backwards' by Tame Impala, 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' by George Dunning, Ori Toor, Jesse Kanda
Content Proposal
- Examine the relationship between function and aesthetic in choreographic dynamics
- Investigate timing and spacing in cartoon animation
- Mickey-mousing and repetitive pattern. How order can cause disruption?
- Explore the extremes in plasticity of image relative to music
- Subjectivity of experience: abstraction and clarity of image to the audience
Practical Direction Create character animation and environment based on drawn sounds
After the presentation, I have clearer ideas of where am I going with COP 3! I have decided that my essay focus will be on animated performance because I definitely feel more passionate doing a research on the topic as compared to the rest of my ideas. I have also received reading suggestions to kick start the research.
Here are some of them:
-Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks
-Animated Performance by Nancy Beiman
-Funny Pictures: Animation & Comedy in Studio-era Hollywood
Animated performance are usually caricatures of everyday life. It takes inspiration from slapstick comedians from the silent film era such as Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges, Harold Lloyd, Jacques Tati, and many more.
Hmm hmm hmm Monsieur Hulot agrees
A classmate also suggested that I can compare and contrast theatrical plays from oriental cultures, such as traditional chinese opera, kabuki, wayang shadow puppetry, etc. I can potentially look at how they influence a specific aesthetic of the animation originated from different places which could also help to specify my research topic even more.
George Orwell's 'Down and Out' has inspired me to explore animated performance. The novel itself is is an autobiography of Orwell's youth, in which he spent living in poverty, working rough jobs and encounters with different kinds of personalities who are living in more or less the same situation as him. Having experienced living in poverty, Orwell approached the subject in a very natural way and it struck me that he does not give a stereotypical image of tramps but crafted complex characters from their behaviour and differing views on life formed through experiences. I realised the transition between one instance to another is a process that leads to growth or decay of a certain human being - the reflective consequences of action.
In animated feature films, the running time prompts the production team to be more pragmatic with the narrative, hence many characters are made different from the rest of the crowd. Caricature plays a huge part in film characters as it helps to isolate the main characters and narrows down the scope of the narrative. The peculiarities in the designs of the main characters helps to sets the right mood to excite the audience about the journey that awaits. Therefore, character design is a potential theme that I'll delve into for the extended essay.
As I did more research I think character design is not what I should be focusing on because I think that world building is more significant than just character design, which leads me into a more generic topic of production design. I am particularly interested in auteur filmmakers such as Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson and David Lynch who conveys emotion through a combination of well designed premise, performance and narrative.
Play acting is another thing that I am interested in after doing more in depth research of character design. Play acting means crossing the line between everyday reality and some invented reality, like a mime performance. Chaplin is a respectable name from the silent comedy golden era because he uses caricature-like gestures to convey different emotions and creates invented reality in the audience's mind through such strong characterisation. Another example of caricature artist that I want to explore is Hokusai as he used to do performance sketches when he was an apprentice and I am interested in the dynamics in the still image that he creates through the thickness of lines and definition forms that helps to convey fluidity in his drawings.
