Inspiration and Artists

Marcel Barelli

Marcel Barelli is a filmmaker you makes satirical short films about humans and their effects on the environment. His first work was a film called "Gypaetus Helvertics" which is about the extinction of the bearded eagle in the Swiss Alps due to Swiss citizens believing they were dangerous. The film also pokes fun at the way foreigners are portrayed by Swiss politics at the time. The animation style is cartoony which goes along with the funny satirical look at something which is actually quite sad, also the film has a sketchy hand drawn animation style which is used in all his work.

His second film "Vigia" which I had the privilege of seeing on screen a year ago at the BFI is similar to "Gypaetus Helvertics"in style and to a degree subject matter as the story follows a bees journey to find a new home as pollution and pesticide make his previous hive dangerous and toxic. But the most interesting part is the concept and origin. The film was created by Barelli as proposal from his grandfather who asked him to make a film of a story he had created about pollution and the effects on environment specifically in his pasture. Although Barelli's was unaware that this would result in him being the narrator, this adds a new level of charm and a theme of passing a story on as the film in basic is a grandfather telling his grandson a story. Also very similar I prefer the style in this as the predominantly white background gives the film a light-hearted positive feel and the pencil colouring in gives the film a childlike quality. Also the inclusion of video to show his grandfather I thought was a good choice as it gives the context needed for the short film to make complete sense.

Cartoon Saloon

Cartoon Saloon is a animation company based in Ireland who are best known for their Oscar nominated feature length film "Song of the Sea" which follows the story of a young girl and her brother as they explore a mystical world and find the secrets and reason for their missing mother. The animation style in the film is very impressive with a sketchy line style but very complex lighting and texture with the environment having interesting colours and drawn textures. Unlike "Vigia" there is also a lot going on in frame especially as there is an emphasis of water and underwater where there is always something going on, from small bubbles and reeds to large animals like whales. Their other films have this same hand drawn texture effects which I think is very interesting and I may include it in my own work.

War Story

by Nick Park

War Story is an animation by Aardman Animation in 1989. The story is told by Bill Perry and is about a story from his younger years, something very close to my concept. The tale explores Perry's role during World War II and his situation at home with his family. The animation is very similar to how I would like mine to be cutting from the man speaking (in claymation form) to an animation of what he is talking about, although I want to use real video other than that the format is very similar to what I hope to create. Occasional in the film instead of using cuts Nick Park has bled scenes into each other by keeping a character in the same place of the screen or leaving something in from the last shot for a few seconds, this is an interesting effect and one I may consider in my animation. The animation often exaggerates and finds comedy in things Bill Perry says, this gives the film a light-hearted funny mood found in most Aardman productions. I will definitely use War Story as a reference when editing my film, but I am unlikely to use stop motion as my animation form.

FREDERIC BACK

Frederic Back was born 1924 in West Germany, lived in Paris and eventually Montreal. His artwork is very stylised and charming. Back used few lines, but defined lines in his animation. This shows his skill as well as giving the images and good look. A film of his that really interests me is 'Crac!' which does not use many lines of colour, thus having a lot of the paper it is drawn on showing. This  is something I would like to achieve in my short film as I think it gives the image a dream/memory-like look about it. Although I think to make this work I will need quality paper with an interesting texture. Back's emotional and humorous style of narrative  is something I will try to have in my film, but due to me having little to know input on the story it will be hard for me to do.

After finding out and recording the story I definitely think Frederic Back's work will inspire my animation, his colourful and thoughtful animation is something I will draw on. It is especially applicable to the parts of the story set in Spain/Majorca.

ARI FOLMAN

Folman is an Islaeri filmmaker known for his work in animated films such as The Congress and his BAFTA winning film Waltz with Bashir. His style of animation very much looks like rotoscoping and it borrows some techniques from rotoscoping, but is animated from scratch. Folman's style takes photos of things for example peoples faces recreates them in photoshop and uses the layers to animate the image, where as rotoscoping is a technique where each frame of a film is drawn over to create the animation.

Waltz with Bashir is a very powerful film about Folman's experience trying to remember the role he played in the 1982 Lebanon War, which he had blanked from his memory. The film especially helps and can relate to my film as is animated documentary that uses audio from interviews that Ari Folman had with people. The visuals are very advanced and detailed something that would take me a long time to create and so the style will be something that I can not use in my own work. The audio is great from he interviews to the soundtrack. Each interviewee has an interesting story or perspective, but this may be obvious as the stories they are telling are war stories so likely will not be dull. I am taking an aspect which is used in the film, at the end there is audio of women screaming with animation, which seems normal for the film, but then it switches to video footage of the women screaming and then shows real footage of the the results of the massacre in Lebanon. I found a photo of my Nan on the holiday she speaks about and so I was thinking of ways to incorporate it into the piece and I think showing it at the very end is a great idea.


AINSLIE HENDERSON


Ainslie Henderson is a stop frame animator who uses 3D models to animate interesting and touching stories. He has collaborated with Cam Fraser and Will Henderson recently to create BAFTA nominated Monkey Love Experiments which explores the theme of love with the story being about a monkeys dreams, with the backdrop of the infamous monkey love experiments conducted by Harry Harlow. Henderson is very good at using light in his work for example Moving On an music video he produced, which has a lot of light so much that the entire background is lit up. This isolates the character and gives the video a heavenly look, which goes with what is being portrayed on screen.

Ainslie Henderson is also amazing detailed in movement which is demonstrated well in Monkey Love Experiments as the monkey is mostly made of fur it is an important to make the far believable which Henderson has done extremely well. Also Moving On shows this well as the frayed bits of string are used to show movement, it is this level of detail that I need to have in my work even if I am not using the same style.


MIKEY PLEASE

Mikey Please is a british animator who specialises is 3D animation, but an animation style style that is unique to him. He uses a white foamy substance to create characters, objects, sets, basically everything in frame is made from the stuff. he has made many films, one that I particularly like and had the pleasure of seeing at Canterbury Anifest a few years back. Almost everything is is done in camera, which gives you even more appreciation for the film. As the film is all white with shadows it creates a mood that I would like in my film, although definitely with a different narrative. I will hopefully use Mikey Pleases use of in camera work and try not to use premiere or after effects in adding effects.





MARCEL BARELLI. (2013) VIGIA. [Online] Available from: http://marcelbarelli.blogspot.co.uk/p/vigia_4088.html [Accessed: 20th March 2015]

MARCEL BARELLI. (2013) VIGIA un historique de production [Online] Available from: http://marcelbarelli.blogspot.ch/2013/06/vigia-un-historique-de-production.html [Accessed: 20th March 2015]


CARTOON SALOON (2010) Feature Films - Song of the Sea. [Online] Available from: http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/2009/06/feature-films-song-of-the-sea/ [Accessed: 20th March 2015]

CARTOON SALOON (2013) Concept Art. [Online] Available from: http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/2012/08/concept-art/ [Accessed: 20th March 2015]


TUMBLR (2015) Monkey Love Experiments. [Online] Available from:
http://monkeyloveexperiments.tumblr.com/ [Accessed: 30 April 2015]


IMDb (2013) War Story (1989). [Online] Available from: http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/2012/08/concept-art/ [Accessed: 20th March 2015]

IMDB (2008) Waltz with Bashir. [Online] Available from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/ [Accessed: 30th April 2015]


HALAS, J. (1987)  Masters of Animation, London: BBC Books