Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
A different perspective
I'm awake most nights with my head pounding with ideas for i lms, even though there is little
chance of getting them made. Stories suggest themselves from a conversation at work, or
something ironic in the paper, or someone's behaviour in a shop, or wondering what lay behind
an expression I glimpsed. Could that expression be the start of a i lm, or is it the end of the i lm?
A lot of animation is about i nding a dif erent perspective; for example, seeing complex human
situations through the distancing of using animals or cars or ants, or by turning a given situation
on its head, or by creating interesting dramatic conl icts by bringing unlikely worlds or themes
together. Many i lms and plays depend on this change of perspective for characters to learn the
truth about themselves. Shakespeare sends his characters into the woods (as does Sondheim)
to see clearly, or he blinds them, or he makes them swap gender briel y; Ibsen sends them up
mountains; others travel in twisters to seek fake wizards, some have to be visited by spirits from
Christmas Past, some turn into swans, some lose their minds, some are exiled, some fall down
rabbit holes, some see themselves from afar, some face big natural disasters, some have to lose
everything they have, and some are told the truth by jesters. There are many narrative tricks
to send a character on this journey to i nd them. With animation, this journey, this change of
perspective is often the animation itself. Animation and puppets are good at showing us what
we cannot see for ourselves. Truth is so often revealed through deception.
King Lear loses everything to see what
he has (Richard Haynes).
The trick is shaping this change of perspective to make it interesting and
exploiting the potential of what animation can bring to it. Of course, this is the real
world and a i lm-maker has to take into account the reality of available resources;
happily, I've found the tighter the budget, the more creative I become.
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