The documentary I chose is The Ballad of Big Al from the BBC network, which talks about an allosaurus and his life on Earth. the documentary is based on the skeleton fossil of Big Al. I think that the documentary fits in supporting ideas and facts and possibly a recreation of reported events. although we weren’t alive when dinosaurs were, we have a lot of knowledge of how they lived.
The animation was made by Impossible Pictures and produced by BBC Studios Science Unit, Discovery Channel, ProSieben, and TV Asahi.
Impossible Pictures, founded by Tim Haines, is a London-based animation Studio that works with CGI. They have two other locations, 360production up in Derry, Ireland, and Firestep which works out of Manchester. They mostly work on documentary series like, Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Beasts, and Space Odyssey.
The documentary I chose was The Sweatbox, the shunned unofficial Disney documentary on the scrapping of The Sun Kingdom and hurried creation of The Emperors New Groove. This documentary was a little bit hard to find (since Disney hates it) but in the end I was able to locate it on an unlisted playlist. It is also on the internet archives in its unedited form but I couldn’t get the page to load.
I believe that this falls under the category of supporting ideas or facts. Though, it does contrast from some of the examples shown since the animation is the subject of the actual documentary. I still believe that the rough animation clips shown count as supporting ideas for the documentary, being pieces of the original script and adding authenticity to the film’s claims. They use the animation to both tell and highlight key points in their story.
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 documentary-style video that I chose is from Ted-Ed about the Berlin Wall. This is an explainer-type video, but what it does with the animation is something unique that I’ve only seen with Ted-Ed. it shows an emotive side of history. the people we see in the video are living through these events. The animation shows that! the video is informative and features beautiful animation by Kyriaki Kyriakou, Remus Buznea, Mitko Karakolev.
I chose an animated film named Waltz With Bashir. It was released in 2008 and is a docudrama about a soldier plagued with unusual nightmares during and after the Lebanon War of 1982.
The Lebanon War is also known as the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and was between the Israeli military and PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) because of an accused assassination and fighting over territory.
I chose this film because it has a direct correlation to present day events between Israel and Palestine and the war between them that has been going on for years, which I feel is important to learn and talk about among peers. The film fits under the category of a recreation of reported events because it was made in response to the war, provoking a creative approach to the trauma it caused. In this film specifically, it highlights the emotional effects the war had on soldiers.
The film was written, directed, AND produced by a one Ari Folman, which intrigued me because it reminded me of The Worlds Divide by Denver Jackson on the Ottawa animation trip last week.
I believe the animation contributes to the documentary style of storytelling well, and I think that the more realistic style approach was a wise choice.
NOTE: The entire film is around 1 hour and 30 minutes, and I wasn’t able to watch all of it, but I watched until about twenty minutes in and watched the trailer on YouTube. You can find the film in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video.
“Waltz with Bashir.” Www.imdb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/.
“Waltz with Bashir.” Amazon.com, 28 Aug. 2008, www.amazon.com/Waltz-Bashir-Ron-Ben-Yishai/dp/B0028X38GA. Accessed 18 Sept. 2023.
“Waltz with Bashir.” Wikipedia, 5 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz_with_Bashir.
Sony Pictures Classics. “Waltz with Bashir | Official Trailer (2008).” YouTube, 19 Dec. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoM-L62peIo. Accessed 11 July 2020.