catwasteresearch

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Portraits of animation characters

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Ants 

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Good scene suits on a merry go round 

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Allen Anders - Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987)

The fever dream of a 1980s stand-up comic who is either having a nervous breakdown or the best set of his life.

Imagining Nigel up there everyone laughing at his jokes when he is dying inside.

Or maybe it is Christarf who is getting the cheers

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transitioning back and forwards between two photos, rippling effect in-between. I like the idea of Nigel looking at a photograph on this table, or it sitting on the table, filmed from above. Voice over which makes you feel a bit empty and nostalgic. Recalling distant memories and sadness

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video collaging, different layers, photo/video/paint stopframe and after effects 

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Interesting transitions 

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Jamie Crewe

mixing paper cut outs with green screen, Plasticine/Clay figures. Really like the colours, composition and mixed media. Could work well to make Nigel’s story more emotive 

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Sound of ball hitting fence I like this rattle it makes, it sounds like slow motion in itself. I should record this properly with mic and experiment with this sound, slowing it down etc 

Sounds to collect:

Ball hitting fence

Children’s voices by school playing

Applaud/Cheers

Voices on Sauchiehall Street 

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Clown Pumps a Balloon, This Clown is scared of loud noises and their own tricks. Also I don’t think the costume is right. I need to think more about what their outfit is. I like the colours but at the same time when I take my hat off and with the red gloves and rosy cheeks It looks like Pokemon/appropriating anime?? Not sure. 

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Performance Improv with Roxanne. Exploring our different characters. Pocket Lady and Clown. I like how we are playing together. I was prefer this process of performing than speaking. It is interesting looking back at footage and thinking about shapes and lines that we made with our bodies. I think we could plan out more certain shapes and illusions. I want to explore this shuffling beany creature more. I like at the end how the curtain is pulled up on the Clown 

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After doing the first 20 minute reading of my text/word repetition/Sounds/ experimenting with the speed of speech while reading, I realised that I needed more characters to get involved. 

Within the time I had I thought it would be best to get another costume going and use the Bean to converse with. I got a wig from the Savoy centre. I have been thinking about the reason why I started using the cut-up technique to begin with - which was to collect vocab and learn new voices. To become better at articulation. 

I feel like I am arguing with myself in my head constantly, there are different voices going on. I feel like I am confused about what I am trying to say. Also I feel like it is hard to get people to listen to you when you don’t know how to express yourself verbally. 

This reminded me of a time when I had just read an article about sexism within Pixar from a woman animator who had just left Pixar although it had been her dream job her whole life. It upset me. I was with my boyfriend on our bikes riding home from Walmart. I was explaining things that she had described and he was riding away really quickly, I was trying to keep up and we were cycling so fast down the street with our bags of food and I had to speak louder and louder so that he could hear because he was getting further and further away. I was cycling faster and faster and trying to keep his attention. Not really checking the road for cars. The cycling mixed with the talking/shouting(because so far away) got me so energised and frustrated. I was like you always try and leave the conversation when I start talking about feminist issues, this moment is a perfect example. You are literally cycling at top speed away from me when we are in the middle of a conversation. He said it was because I was being so negative and he doesn’t want that energy, I shouldn’t be emotional when I process information and speak about it to other people. 

I can see that it is more persuasive way maybe to talk to people. However I feel like this moment is just a pure example of not being listened too, of heightened emotion and speech, and also feeling quite alone. It reminded me of this because of the intensity of which I was trying to get something out and communicated but I failed. The way in which the words in the text are quite random and nonsensical and it is like i’m trying to reach a state of clarity but I can’t. Or the moment just before you reach clarity maybe.

I wanted one of the characters to be getting constantly interrupted stammering, trying to get words out. It is portraying some sort of internal confusion and conversation. The bean was meant to have a voice and to be interrupting. Then the other character with long hair is speaking really slowly. Because I was listening to a Ted Talk about Empathy and being a clown slowed down, and it made the speech so dramatic and every word so meaningful which I found quite funny.

Filming Process and Reflection on Footage

Hannah Logan helped me to film some footage of the three characters at dinner together. I had a list of shots that I wanted. A lot of the footage ended up being quite out of focus, and also it didn’t match up the way I thought it would. I was reading too much off of the sheet. I thought i was going to improvise new speech but I was feeling too embarrassed to do so in front of someone. Also I don’t actually know her that well. But it was good practice working with someone random, also it was only intended to be a practice anyway. I don’t think that I thought out the conversation feel well either, It would be good to have more responses to break things up eg) “hmm..” “Yeah” “what?” also to have a greater intensity and variation of the way I was saying things. 

I think it would be better to find some people who like acting and get them to do parts like this. Then I could be in control of the camera also which is what I like. Also then I might actually get what I plan as I will be thinking more about the direction and less about the performing process. Too much at once and feel like I change it when I start trying to perform.

When I am doing video blogs it is different because people do those on their own normally anyway.

I ended up editing the footage just by what was going to work at all because I really feel like the footage and content wasn’t that useful to express the ideas I had. 

Need to find a way to tell people exactly what shots I need and also to be able to think through the angling better. Because I wanted them to be looking at each other eye to eye, and face to face, but the side on shots didn’t work too well especially since both characters were shot from the same angle. They needed to be from opposites. It was unbalanced. 

I realised the aesthetic is very Rachel Maclean and also her new film Make Me Up, seeped into by subconscious too much. Dinner party scene mixed with wigs. Hyper feminine. Too far. Don’t want it to be like this even though I really loved that film.

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Setting up for Story Time Dinner, thinking about lighting. Was listening to a podcast on iplayer Arts and Ideas, I like this sound in the background as it an indication of the context of the world outside. 

Also playing is Madmoizel Fr from some sound recordings I took at a gig. I really like this synth music and the way she distorts her voice 

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bouncy stage