Storytelling, especially in animation, always have at least one vital component- a character. So, how to approach to develop the characters for your story. Probably, the simplest way to start is playing. Playing with your characters. We can begin with ‘form’. Are they people, animals, robots, or just some objects alike. And we should discover something exciting and different about each character. Something might be even non-ideal, but that will be a key to why the viewers will follow it through the whole narrative and care about it.
The character design process means that you are creating a new life form from scratch, beginning with a simple concept to a complex, and finishing with fully developt creation.
We can build our characters by using two methods. The first one is about external features. Like clothes, body shapes, colours, size of the head, eyes, facial features, how it moves, etc. Basically, their overall look. However, the second approach is much more exciting- the internal characteristics. Are they vulnerable, are they brave, are they sceptical?
Knowing a character, from both angles inside and out, will help to manage what are its true desires and what will drive it through the journey. The more we will know, the more realistic character that feels for the audience.
And this is interesting. What we need to do to make viewers feel for your character, to follow him throughout the storyline? I think the better way to get it is to create it based on people you know, who are around you, from real life. It might be a family member, like grandma or a friend, a neighbour, bus driver, someone who you see every day. Catching their authentic human emotions and experiences, that is what all these people give you.
An additional tool that helps to design a winning persona is a character arc.
“A character arc is the transformation or inner journey[1] of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to changing developments in the story. “
The one way to start character arc is to ask a question- what does your persona want? If we know that it will help us to take the character for a journey within our story, to find the right place for it. And additionally, it will help to shape the narrative line as well and to make the story to actually happen.
However, the things that character want could be different from his actual needs. The crucial difference between character wants, and needs are that needs are necessary, but the character does not like to admit it. It is like- I want to go for a walk, but there plenty of work to do. These necessities are the things it needs to learn and do in order to improve and accomplish at the end of the story. Additionally, if we will put wants and needs into the conflict that makes the character more solid and the story will have some exceptional trials in it.
Now, then we know motivations of the character, and it is already on his journey in the story, besides with conflict lets put some obstacles into the narrative. And obstacles can be anything. It can be a person (a villain), vast distances to wade through or even better- something subjective, like worries, fears. Whatever it is, obstacles are something that will be in the way of a character and blocks the road path from what he wants or needs. Thus, choices that character makes in response to obstacles lead to changes in his behaviour and thoughts and make basically a new person. It is like it in his primary form at the beginning of the story, but in the end, it transforms and reaches its higher, better version.
Moreover, if the character itself might not change a lot, but it might make a significant impact in the world around it, in characters that surround it, that is also very impressive and even make narrative quite emotional.
Each decision our character makes has implied some risks and impacts associated with it. Therefore, the character arc outlines changes and transformations of the character from the beginning of his journey through the story to the end.
Right before going for spring break, each of us got the brief and a sound record for our first project- a collaboration with Children Society UK.
Our guest Rachel Reay briefly spoke about society, it’s vision and works with kids and young people at the beginning of the presentation. And then we went moe throughout the technical assignment.
We got the information about how long should it be, that the mood, what is the audience of the film, that colours are prefered, the official typography.
colour palette
For instance, all audios provided are records of real young people who either working or found help from The CS. So, it is crucial that any editings to the soundtracks must be discussed with the client first. Even though some of the tracks are susceptible and personal shares, we should stay on, or at least finish the film on the positive, optimistic note and should keep a balance between negative experience and positive tones. And we cannot share our tracks at any points.
So, this project is, in fact, an animated documentary. We will use animation techniques to make a film that will help young people and children to represent their experiences through a sense of the safe distance of reality.
When I heard my audio for the first time, it hits me in a good way, because it was precisely my experience. So I knew what this person is talking about, I went through it. And remarkably, images and associations started to pop up in my head, and I draw the first storyboard, quick thumbnails, to snatch up this idea.
rough storyboard
And this is exactly that I wrote before in the post about storytelling: ‘The first method is to write a story you already know. Because you feel it in a particular way. … it is always good if the story will be initially from personal experiences.’ Even though it is not my narrative, however, I had the same encounter, that why it was easy to approach to developing a story.
This is an excerpt from my recent essay about animated documentary medium and whether is it a powerful tool or not to raise awareness about civil issues around the world.
The mix of documentary films and an animation technique is like a peculiar union. This form of filmmaking can be attractive for the audience in its consequential way.
In my opinion, documentary animation can be a powerful tool to make substantial changes in public minds and raise awareness about civil disturbances. It can generate empathy by irradiating new perspectives and activating powerful emotions in audiences.
Moreover, this filmmaking sector is growing amazingly quickly, and the public is now witnessing a hum around it. More significant numbers of documentary animations produced in the last decades and more film festivals have added a distinguish documentary section in their comprehensive programmes.
However, there exists a definition gap; then some part
of the public identifies what animation is and what is a
documentary as a separate media. Moreover, it could be a hindrance for them to
understand the message, and they would not choose that kind of film for their
viewing.
That means that the numbers of people who will see a film will be significantly lower. Furthermore, the social effect will be postponed and does not immediately makes changes.
The film The Girl in the Hallway (2019) by Valerie Barnhart will be analysed to find the answer about the efficacy of animated documentary as a potential medium to present real-world stories and as a communication tool with the public.
The Girl in the Hallwaypremiered on Vimeo in 1999 as a Staff Pick Award, and later at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and following a festival run at ShortFest, Fantasia and Annecy.
The film is a result of a collaboration between the artist Valerie Barnhart and the writer, storyteller Jamie DeWolf.
Valerie Barnhart is an independent visual artist, director and animator based out of Canada. She studied at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design where she earned her BFA and Visual Arts Major.
Jamie DeWolf has a background as a performing artist and educator. He also worked as a director on commercials, music videos and documentaries. He is known for his vibrant exploration of a wide range of genres, and his social activities bring into public focus problems of underprivileged communities. DeWolf’s short stories fulfilled with arousing boundary-pushing subject matter.
Jamie DeWolf calls this story The tale of Little Red Riding-Not all girls make it out of the forest. The core of the narrative is his personal experience that he shared during stage performance for the radio podcast SnapJudgment.org. It based on an actual event that took place in California, in December 1999 when seven years old Xiana La-Shay Fairchild disappeared and did not come back home from school.
Valerie Barnhart discovered DeWolf’s performance on YouTube channel and was moved by it. So, she contacted with writer and got his permission to start working on a film.
For Valerie Barnhart, it is a first film and the first time of using the animation as a medium. She literally taught herself how to animate during three years of production. She spends much time in examining materials for the film by analysing crimes scenes, reading articles about murdered and missing people cases, additionally working on creating reference videos of acting, visual researching, studying other artists and filmmakers.
Figure 2
The Girl in the Hallway made by using 2D stop motion technique. Artist animated
it straight ahead chronologically in one take by painting every single frame
with charcoals, pastels, and graphite on paper and accompanied them with
collages of newspapers and some plasticine. Barnhart played with the style and
technique by experimenting throughout the production. (Figure 2)(Figure 3)
Figure 3
Interesting to point, that if in the animated documentary is used original voiceover of a person who is the main character behind the story, it gives an extra authenticity to it. Hence, it can carry the genuine emotions of a speaker. It works as the most beneficial sound effect that could not be recreated by acting.
Valerie Barnhart put to use the advantage of it and
applied the original recording of Jamie DeWolf’s first performance with this
story on the stage in San Francisco. As a result, the authentic record provides
additional sensitive capacities to the narrative and made it extra relatable
and easily understandable on an emotional level. The origin of soundtrack
guarantees that the audience can truly feel the tautness of the voice of Jamie
DeWolf and show out his inner sensitivities of this painful event. The sound
perfectly draws out the atmosphere of the story, the feelings of the main
character and every word he delivers.
Moreover, the animation technique is also quite exceptional in how it conveys the mood of the story- it uses fictions as an interpretation tool. Thus, the animation improves beyond presentations and offers participants of the film privacy that they need to express themselves more freely.
This form gives the experience to move away from reality by using artificial devices in the filmmaking process. Animation helps to create a sense of distance and anonymity, the audience no longer looking on a specific individual. Nevertheless, it still allows identifying that person. Additionally, this anonymity allows spectators to feel more intensely.
Besides it, if the whole visual sequence of the documentary film supplemented with animated segments, it gives more vitality to documentary, and it allows viewers to delve deep into the emotional part of the narrative. Also, it filters out appalling details that people find hard to digest and lets to explore their emotions and engage with the story.
As a result, the audience will respond differently to the animated documentary than they will do it to a traditional, live-action form.
Obviously, Valerie Barnhart’s animation style utterly matches the grim condition of the events. With frightful visuals, rendered by using traditional tools, mostly charcoal and graphite, it carries the horrific burden of DeWolf’s regret. However, it still helps the audience to pass through the frightening narrative and conveys the central message of the story.
It is important to note that in the film The Girl in the Hallway, there are two heart-breaking stories.
First is the disappearance and murder of Xiana Fairchild. With the major message that moves the audience- silence and inaction are the cause of a passive form of violence. Silence is complicity. DeWolf and Barnhart speak out laud that we are discriminating against those around us. What even if society recognises this situation, by remaining in silence is the same as continuing it.
In addition, underneath the central promise lies Valerie’s discovery about the existence of cultural genocide of indigenous women and girls.
Since in our modern and humanitarian society,
the settler colonialism still exists. Moreover, external laws,
regulations and civil forces cannot protect these settlements and monitor crime
situation on the inside them. Consequently, these women and two-spirited became
easy targets and victims for kidnapping, abuse and murder.
This is where Barnhart came across DeWolf’s phrase about Red Riding Hood and decided to use this definition straightforward and drew a line between fairytale story character and Xiana Fairchild by dressing her in a red dress (Figure 4). The choice of colour represents women and girls from indigenous communities as easy and defenceless targets for hunting wolves.
Figure 4
Besides, it is challenging for filmmakers to staying an objective while working on a project. Then thorough the process, the characters involved in the story and become more familiar; hence, as a natural reaction of the artist to start to draw conclusions and consequently change an opinion to more subjective.
This is what Valerie Barnhart said about her experience in the interview for Medium.com, in January 2019: “It was hard finding a balance where I can fully give justice to Xiana, stay true to Jamie, reflect on genocide, and reflect on my own personal experiences that connect me to both of my subjects. It required a lot of energy, thought, and sensitivity as I in no way, want to exploit a tragedy or emotionally manipulate my audience”.
It is clearly seen that the film The Girl in the
Hallway is a strong example of documentary animation which displays as an
effective and affective medium for portraying social issues.
Taking everything into consideration, it is satisfying to say that documentary animation likely will continue to grow and mature well as social impact tool in the future. As this approach grows, as well as crafts of animation and documentary filmmaking themselves, there are some critical notes to keep in mind when thinking about this practice.
It should be said, that if viewers define documentary
and animation genres in a strict context base, as separate kinds, it is hard
for them to swallow it, seemingly and it is less truthful for them. Thus, for
this part of the audience, it could be hard to accept these messages that
animated documentary films try to convey. For a large part of the audience,
this particular format of the film could be a barrier to accept this genre
since they believe that animation means Disney’s Mickey Mouse. So, for them, it
is challenging to accept serious themes presented by animation techniques.
Even though there is no formula to predict or calculate when the understanding and recognition of this part of society is going to change in their minds, clearly, it is possible by applying additional steps and strategy to speed up that process.
For instance, the solution could be solidarity work between animation documentary directors and artists and a skillfully carried out social media tactics. It already started happening around but a bit erratically and uncertainly. These films need more attention to them, more visibility in the media. And social media campaigns can attract more visibility and draw extra attention to the public.
In the filmmaking industry, the story, cultural aspects and human factors move in balanced ways. This is where directors, hauled up with distinctive media strategies, can use films to boost public consciousness to think, act and renew the world.
Reading and references:
Annabelle Honess Roe
Absence, Excess and Epistemological Expansion: Towards a framework for the study of animated documentary, 2011
As I mentioned in the post about storytelling- the story is a crucial part of filmmaking production. Moreover, each story that is told has a foundation – a structure.
The structure of the narrative is the way how we organise and how we tell our stories. One of the most typical and basic structures has an opening, then it begins, then something happens somewhere in the middle of narration, and it ends. However, the story’s formation can be even more complex.
The prime purpose of structuring the story- is to organising in order all what you want viewers to know about what is going to happen and when it will happen. And it makes the story interesting and helps to make an emotional impact on your audience and how it will respond to the story. Therefore, if the order gets wrong, it could be problematically for the audience to follow the story, and the emotional reaction also will be lost.
Hence, the structure is basically a series of events- the hit points. You just need to find the most essential moments of the narrative to start building your structure.
Additionally, I want to mention a tool that was developed by improvisational theatre instructor Kenn Adams, and which is used a lot by Pixar Studio story artists– STORY SPINE. (pic)
Basically, Story Spine is a practical system that gives a structured approach to get a rough outline of your story. It works as a bare-boned spine where everything already placed in the right spot, and you just need to fill down gaps:
Once upon a time…
Every day…
This is the beginning.
But, one day…
This is an event, something happens.
Because of that… (could be used several times)
This is the middle of the story.
Until finally…
This is the climax.
And, ever since then…
The end.
While working on a story, it crucial to think about what will be the connection between all these individual events. What will be a central theme and moral?
The theme helps all part of the story work together. If there no central idea in the story, it will be unmemorable, that means it will be hard to recite it later. The main idea supports all dramatic events in your story and makes it more persuasive and inspiring.
Indeed, it is good to know the theme before you start, however, it can come across while you write and your narrative progress.
As soon as the theme and rough outline of the narrative are ready, we can start to break it into the acts- larger sections of the story structure. At this stage, the best tool to use is a narrative arc.
The most common is the three-act structure.
The first act is a beginning that includes the first three steps of the story spine, once upon a time, every day and but, one day. This is where we find about our protagonist, about the time settings and the world where everything takes place and how it will work. Additionally, the first act tells viewers what type of story it will be either it is a science fiction, a drama, a romantic comedy, or something else.
This act also introduces the audience someone, or something called the antagonist, sometimes it calls the villain. However, it can be anything and takes any form.
Along with, this part also introduces the incident, it is the Until One Day part of the spine. Generally, this is an event that establishes the rest of the story.
Overall, the first act is the essential setup of the story. It is all about everything the audience needs to know to gets interested in the journey which will follow.
As we organised all the information that the audience needs to know, now we can move on to act two. In the story spine it is the middle part- Because Of It.
The second act is all about obstacles, complications, and challenging decisions for the main character. The hard choices and actions it takes to overcome these escalating barriers. And in this part also happen massive transformations with the character.
This part is about conflict because the narrative with no conflict has no shape, no impulse. Basically, the story needs a series of trials for the character on the journey path, and where it must make a tough decision from which there’s no return.
Along with the conflict, act two must also contain a low point when it seems that everything is hopeless and is lost for your main characters. When the character feels like he completely failed and frustrated, but at the same time, there must be something or someone that will continue to push it forward.
So, at the end of act two, something horrible is expected to happen to the character to force it to face the things that it didn’t wanna challenge at the end of the previous act one.
The third part of the story structure is a final instalment, it is all about an ultimate crisis, the climax and resolution. This part should be the most intense moment of the narrative for the character, who should be in risk of losing everything it valued most, and now it faces a final trial.
In act three, the story should be resolved, and the character and the world return to a calmer place.
The third act is where everything is pulled together, where the theme and the moral are clearly expressed. The character has overcome all obstacles and errors on its way. And he changed and has learned what is most important in its life. This revelation reveals what manifests the theme and the moral of the story. And it should feel like that there was fixed the big problem or resolved character’s personal dilemma with himself, and finally, everything feels in the world is right.
On the last two weeks of the first term, I have had an opportunity to experience work placement simulation- possibility to work and help to the second-year student by cooperating on their graduation project.
In this essay, I will reflect on my expectations, plans and experiences, and what I have obtained during this brief period by working with a more experienced student.
In the animation industry, the skills like drawing and sketching, the knowledge of necessary computer software, imagination, and creativity and of course animation principals, are highly significant. However, the well relevant is an ability to meet deadlines, be able to adjust to the main style of the project and be part of the team and capable of paying attention to details. So, the purpose of this short practice is to start to understand and use all these fundamentals.
I was paired with Katarzyna Mencfel-Wenglarczyk. We first met at the beginning of the year. She showed some of her exercises from the first unit. We discussed a lot around animations, films, our exercises, and student life. Moreover, the impression of the high quality of her work inspired me to push the boundaries of personal assignments. As a result of that meeting, it was our joint decision to work together during this simulating work placement weeks.
During the first week, at our introductory meeting, Kat presents her graduation film. A touching and moving story about the refugees, missing families, homesickness, about their long way through the obstacles and challenges to meet beloved ones. Also, about deep friendship that is right here besides to help during the hardest moments in life.
She showed an amount of work that was done so far. Katarzyna explained the story, showed an animatic, backgrounds; we discussed character design and her influences for the main character.
After that, she asked about on what part of the production pipeline I would prefer to work. Either on backgrounds, animation, or character design. Honestly admitted that backgrounds are not the strongest suit, there was agreement on character design and animation. Since I had many characters design practices before, the decision was- to focus on animations.
The short that was given is a flying bird sequence with intricate camera movements and the gentle feeling of depth. It is a challenging animation that will involve much research and studying actual birds’ movements. As it is our first collaboration, Kat would like to see the abilities and trust to do not only inbetweening this short animation but do it the whole on my own.
Additionally, I asked about sounds and music for her project, since sometimes it is an inherent part of the film. Furthermore, as an animator, your work is to make movements based on music provided. On this, she explained that she wants her story itself to be a major influence for the composer to produce the central musical theme for the animation.
Throughout the second week, we communicate mostly by messenger, although also met to discuss my progress, and exchange news. I showed her the results of the necessary research for one of the sequences. She describes what film already have some changes. Moreover, this is that I found it very crucial to know- the story could change several times on the previs stage. Even more, as a part of production should be flexible and be able to adjust your work by accordance with a new story. I like how clear and coherent Katarzyna explains her visions over the project, ideas about parts of the sequence, and how she delivers tasks.
As a student herself, she also understands the needs of my assessments. Accordingly, we agreed about deadlines and will continue working together during Spring break.
Taking everything into consideration that kind of collaborations helps actively recognize the importance of work experience and what a person can receive from this opportunity, especially before a real chance to set on the worktable in a live studio and work on an existing film project. As future professional plans revolve around the animation studio, it is essential to gain these kinds of core aptitudes that would prove a professional approach and knowledge in the workplace on an actual animation movie.
What we can find behind every animation, live-action film, or documentary? It is a story.
People tell stories all the time, with historical pieces of evidence from the very beginning. Especially now with all that technical progress, internet and devices, we are telling stories all the time. Some express themselves by writing poems, novels, some, just simple short stories. A lot of people share their stories through sequences of drawings, for instance, in the form of comics. People take photos every day and share them with some descriptions, it is also a way of telling a story. And of course, there are movies and cartoons.
All these ways of storytelling have something in common- they connect people via their emotions. As such, it is interesting how to write a story in a way everybody will be into it?
The first method is to write a story that you already know. Because you feel about it in a particular way, so you can get your audience to have that same feeling as you have. You can retell that tale in a way it will sparkle the viewers.
To get the reaction out of people, it is always good if the story will be initially from personal experiences. It will be like a touchstone of the story. This is very important to the storyteller since it makes the story honest.
Although it is a good idea to share your feelings, or at the same time, you can tell us some of your new experiences in life. Either if you have learned something that you think is really fun to share, because it is your personal experience and only can come from you. Since there are no two people who have lived life the same way, hence, they don’t have the same insights as you.
There are many ways to tell a story. It could be a simple sequence of events or a narrative which will unfold through the time. And they can have unique quality in them. For instance, the description can grab your viewer or listener emotionally. Or it could take them somewhere else, to the different, even fictional places.
The narrative always begins with some world and characters. It could be either real, present time, or futuristic, or even figurative. We can think about what kind of universe is around, what kind of environment, what time is it. All these questions invite our imagination into the story we are about to explore.
So, questions really help us to build the story. The more ‘what if?’ and ‘who is?’ questions, we will ask the more ideas we will construct for the story.
Interestingly, sometimes the character comes first, and then a world builds around him. Even two characters might have different stories, but the surrounding, all objects and settings could be the same. However, if we have the world first, we are going to work on characters in a different way- what kind of characters can live there, or who are they, what they are going to be? In the end, either way, the world and characters always meet at one point.
Moreover, one of the essential parts of story-making is research. In the beginning, you just identify what the main stage and character, and what draws you to it. And then you got more solid idea you can start to delve deeper, investigate more on a subject, and explore the story’s universe and inhabitants.
Additionally, it is necessary to mention that you is you, and the things that may affect you not necessarily will speak to somebody else. So, you will need to find out the way to express your thoughts and concept to touch their emotions and minds, so they will be interested in what happens in your story and will follow your characters.
‘Bloomers’ is a short animated film that shows us the history of a Manchester-based family-run lingerie factory.
Initially made for the innovative Pan Europian feature film project ‘Happiness Machine’ that is a collaboration of ten women animators, ten different composers and Klangforum Wien. The project central theme touch on our current economic system and social aspects.
This lovely, lyrical, and a bit poetic documentary is directed by Samantha Moore. Because the work primarily made not only for screening in cinemas but also for public concerts, sounds and music are a quite crucial role of the film. The dialogues of workers, noises of factory’s machinery are mixed with music by composer Malin Bång.
But the style of animation got my full attention during the screening. As I understand the film itself is made from observational drawings, sketches of the manufacture’s interiors, exteriors and people’s portraits. However, the story shows through the fabric texture that makes the sequence very flexible and moveable. And I became curious about it- is it a result of a digital composing or maybe drawings were made straight on fabrics?
After my research, I’ve found this making-off video, where Samantha unfold the creating process of the movie.
So the magic is pure- actual finished footage was printed on the fabric, and then the fabric was reshoot.
As a result, the whole film has that interesting tactile textured feeling.
During my research around styles for my graduation film, I’ve discovered works of Jeff Scher. He is an American painter and experimental film-maker from the US. In his work, he uses traditional tools like watercolours, markers, crayons paired with collages. So it’s basically drawings sequences animated with stop-motion technique. For instance, his animation “White Out” contained 2500 drawings.
Additionally, I’ve found a short interview for BBC and New York Times blog where Scher explains his work approach, processes and influences from emotions and experiences from life around him.
Most of his movies appeal to me because they are emotionally close, colourful and depicted memories, precisely what I’m looking for my film.
Furthermore, his films remind me about animation that I saw during the Cardiff Animation Festival in 2018. It’s called “That Yorkshire Sound” (2017) by Marcus Armitage. He is from the UK and graduated from the Royal College of Arts in 2014.
I think their works quite similar in style vice. And also, observation of everyday life’s events determine their animations.
They went through their experiences working on professional software like Toon Boom and TV Paint, Photoshop and Animate CC (flash), additionally mentioned the newest feature in Procreate 5, a well-known app for iPad. They talked about all the advantages and disadvantages of all these digital tools.
Also, they mentioned all new 2D animation features and series that came out this year. And what if it is a fresh start for traditional animation to reborn and be competitive in this digital 3D era.
The first one of course- draw everything around you. But not only sketching objects, people or animals themselves, but most important was to depict them into that environment and in perspective to show that they are in the museum. So we must be included all surroundings elements to our sketches.
observational sketch
observational sketch
Natural History Museum Field Trip
The second task was to find a story around one of the artefacts and provide a short storyboard of at least not less than five frames. Frankly speaking, I thought this would be the toughest one since I always lack in stories. However, during my short tutorial session with the teacher, I ‘unexpectedly’ uncovered one :).
storyboard
I was so tired at the end of the day because I stood most of the time during sketching, but I very happy with the results and also these museums in South Kensington are my favourites.
