For my artist, I got Don Hertzfeldt. He made “Billy’s Balloon.” The type of fear shown is the fear of bodily harm, especially to children. I think it could also include fear of objects gaining consciousness. Their other works, like EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, is showing fear in an existential and violent sort of way. It shows a man losing his mind through the monotony of his everyday life, becoming obsessed with death and violence.
I think Hertzfeldt’s animation style is very unique. He uses primarily simple shapes, stick figures or simple bodies, to illustrate characters. The backgrounds differ in levels of completion. Some are live action videos and videos, and some are simple sketches of grass. I think the main defining traits of his animation are his sense of humor that he portrays, and his simple characters. (lasting impact)
My personal favorite horror-tinged animation is Perfect Blue. Its a movie about a woman leaving her J-pop group to pursue acting, but then she gets stalked and starts losing her mind. It’s often coined “the most terrifying animated film.” The fear it would fall under is fear of self, or fear of insanity.
The films I chose to compare are The Tell Tale Heart and The Raven (animation). The Tell Tale Heart is an animation made by UPA, and is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, The Tell Tale Heart. It follows a man who, when entranced by his caretakers eye, kills him and buries him under the floorboards. The beating of his heart drives him crazy and leads him to turn himself in.
This film is a far cry from their other productions, being suspenseful and dramatic. They still keep their style of backgrounds, but opt for more of a painterly approach, and change their usual character design to more realistic and uncanny proportions. The visuals are stunning, and show another side of the company. It was made by UPA productions, directed by Ted Parmelee, and voiced by James Mason.
The second film, The Raven, is an animation that tells the story written by Edgar Allan Poe, called “The Raven.” The art is a lot more literal, with the background making logical sense and the raven and man being represented literally. It was made by RegPow Art and Review&Brew.
The similarities between these two are that they are both made based off of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Both of these stories include lots of suspense and drama. Their styles are both dark, with grey colors and uncanny faces. The main differences that I can see are the way in which the story is told.
The story in both of them is told differently, and I think thats what makes the quality difference so stark. The Raven, while being good, just doesnt have much of that drama feel. Only in a few places is it “creepy,” or even just suspenseful. The values used don’t lean much into the room being dark or haunted, but almost well lit. The animation, in most places, is very smooth. The voice acting is okay, but does not have any special qualities to it. What I will say, though, is they did a good job of showing the ravens mystery.
I think that their styles did a really good job of expressing the story. Specifically, UPA’s. It was well made, suspenseful, and full of details while still being simple in their style. I loved the color, the character design, and the voice acting.
As for The Raven, I liked it a little bit less. I think the art was good, it expressed the story and had some moments that were unique enough to make it emotional. However, the whole thing felt confined and the shots were repetitive. I think if they used a more undefined, imaginary style the true feelings of the poem would have shown through.
Citing Sources:
0do0m. (2015, October 31). The Tell Tale Heart (UPA, 1953) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCEdRES08Y4Review&Brew. (2018, October 30). The Raven | Animation | Edgar Allan Poe [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLbe4JwE6-0GradeSaver. (2023, April 5). The Raven – Poem Summary [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85RlmXA_8M
I chose the prompt “Recreation of Reported Events.” My video, ‘How did ancient civilizations make ice cream?’ from Ted Ed fits this prompt. In the video, the narrator goes over the history of ice cream and where it originates from. Many times during this, the animators show a recreation of historical events.
1:02- 1:39
I think that the animation did a good job at recreating events. While not 100% accurate, they are portrayed in an artful and entertaining way while telling the story. I also think that this was the intention for the video.
Compared to the other options within the prompt, (Recreation of Reported Events), it is more lighthearted and abstract about presenting its events. I think this is because its supposed to be a light hearted and entertaining video. For example, the films “Waltz with Bashir,” and “Sinking of the RMS Lusitania Winsor” have heavier themes and more of an informative style to them. My ice cream video is colorful with some humor in it.
This difference doesn’t put the film into any different categories, but I think it shows a more modern way to communicate the information. Instead of heavy, information dense and long form video, getting across their story in a short time helps with viewer engagement. Since the video is on youtube, which monitors and profits off of user engagement, it makes sense that they would prioritize these things in their films.
Artists who worked on it: Lesson by Vivian Jiang, directed by Masayoshi Nakamura, Good General. Music and sound design by Zak Engel.
The animation that I chose is SIAMES “NO LULLABY”. I chose this because of the beautiful colors, animation, and music. It was animated by Rudo Company. Both the animator and the musicians are located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The band, SIAMES, and the company do a lot of collaborating, with about half of their music videos being done by Rudo.
The animation company, Rudo, does a lot of really cool work including music videos, commercials, and their own content. They have done work for big names like Hulu, Nike, Apple, Adidas, Cartoon Network and MTV. They have a distinct style but can still adapt to different services preferred advertising. They’re pretty new, 2015, so I dont think they have had much of an impact (at least what I can see) but I would say their advertisements worked well on me before I even knew who they were so I hope they inspire more high quality advertisements.
I think what is really unique about their work is that they do passion projects on top of music videos and advertisements. Their website, which I will have linked, is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Its pretty intuitive, its colorful, and its full of motion. Just going through their work and reel is so impressive.
Animation like this is really important to me because it has so much life in it. I think that animation, especially for something more commercial like advertising, can become lifeless and sterile. They put color and joy and magic into everything they create, and I hope that they are able to get bigger and really inspire a lot of new animators. Also the way that they are able to connect with more people by having multiple languages on their sites is so cool.
One of their most popular music videos, Wolf, has a “making of” video. It shows some of their process which is cool to watch. (0:52 is my favorite part)
For my choice of the literal hand in animation, I chose “How to make Jewelry.” The short animation, How to make Jewelry, shows the artists, Guldies (Alex’s), hand. The video is just a minute long and shows the hand making a bracelet. I think the hand was included to help show the story, as the other objects (pickaxe, rocks, beads) were all animated using stop motion. Guldies animations are very cool and I would recommend watching more of them.
For my choice of animation for the indexical hand was “A KISS IN THE DARKNESS.” A Kiss In the Darkness is a short stop motion animation done by Winsky, an “emerging music project” under the direction of WIllem Kingma. The art style is very gooey and organic, which I thought fit the Indexical Hand. A lot of personality was put into the characters, and while the clay figures might lack refinement or accuracy I think it adds to the character of the piece. I especially appreciate the audio used, the near constant drone of the background noise adds a lot of atmosphere to the film.
For my choice of animation for the illusion of life hand was “Twins in Paradise” by Vewn. Vewn is an animator named Victoria. She made this short animation with some others, like Nick Stratton (cool guitarist) who is a part of the band R.I.P. I chose it for Illusion because the story can be deceptive and create illusions which compels the viewer to piece together the story. It’s a very cool short film. I think the use of drugs to simulate distortion of reality shows the audience the artist’s “hand”. It’s used to show the story from the characters perspective, immersing the viewers into their world.
“Q. How Do I Cite a YouTube or Online Video?” How Do I Cite a YouTube or Online Video? – LibAnswers, chat.library.berkeleycollege.edu/faq/166951#:~:text=The%20general%20format%20for%20citing%20online%20videos%20in%20MLA%20style,Author%20last%20name%2C%20First%20Name. Accessed 14 Sept. 2024.
Briana Yarhouse Director of Animation
Email: briana.yarhouse@interlochen.org
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