3 More Practitioners

From talking in the sessions and looking at the blogs of others in the animation group I found 3 more practitioners that interested me:

Jan Svankmajer

Born/ Working: Prague, Czechoslovakia. [now Czech Republic]
Medium: Mixed media stop motion and live action films
Subject of work: Fantasy/ Black Humour
Audience: Adults



Information from: IMDb, 2013. Biography for Jan Svankmajer. [Online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0840905/bio [Accessed 6 October 2013]. tchakon, 2009. Jan Svankmajer - Breakfast. [Video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTBW7MMTW4 [Accessed 6 October 2013].

We talked about Svankmajer's work in the session, but I hadn't seen any of his work before we were shown this piece the other day in class. Immediately the twisted, dark humour stands out, which compliments the use of stuttering pixelation technique on the actors to emphasise even more the feeling of a fixed path of action for the characters. Also what works well is the shift from the actors to the puppet heads - it's obvious, but I like that the technique can be seen and the extreme contortions of the face. Simply getting the actors to pull faces wouldn't have had the same effect. Plus the limited colour scheme really makes the bleak atmosphere and the message of the film clear.

Oh Yeah Wow - Darcy Prendergast

Born/ Working: Australia 
Medium: Mixed media stop motion and live action films
Subject of work: Music videos/ advertising
Audience: Teenagers/ adults


Information from: Harrington, J., 2013. Blind Searching. Maintain Raisin Options, [blog] 28 September. Available at: http://maintainraisinoptions.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Darcy Prendergast, 2005. Darcy Prendergast Information. [Online] Available at: http://darcyprendergast.50webs.com/info.htm [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Oh Yeah Wow, 2013. Goyte: Easy Way Out. [Online video] Available at: http://ohyeahwow.com/gotye/ [Accessed 6 October 2013].

I saw Prendergast's video Easy Way out for Goyte on Jenny Harrington's blog. I really like the over-exaggerated actions as they emphasise the key actions and effort needed for the character to move through his day. The stop motion is quite subtle in parts, helping to add extra character and style to scenes without taking away from Goyte's performance. I love the camera movement though, of just circling around on a fixed point - it's an excellent and clear way to show monotony.

Daniel Sousa

Born/ Working: America
Medium: Mixed media, stop motion, 2D digital animation
Subject of work: Archetypes of human nature and our unconscious drives.
Audience:Teenagers- adults


Information from: Moreton, R., 2013. Daniel Sousa. Visual Culture, [Blog] 29 June 2013. Available at: http://rorymoretonviscul.tumblr.com/ [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Daniel Sousa, 2012. about. [Online] Available at: http://www.danielsousa.com/about.html [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Daniel Sousa, 2012. minotaur. [Online] Available at: http://www.danielsousa.com/minotaur.html [Accessed 6 October 2013].

I found Sousa's work by looking at Rory Morton's blog. Sousa's work appealed to me because of it's experimental nature, how he tries to convey something different through his technique. In particular I love the combination of hand drawn and stop motion animation in Minotaur - the line work and form (his characters have great, strong silhouettes) on the drawing is beautiful, detailed but stylised and it exists so naturally in it's 3D surroundings. The shadows that the cut outs create and this technique in general add an extra level of depth making the world he creates feel more tangible. That the characters appear so separate from their environments though communicates the loneliness of their existence in the piece.