Study on script writing

As another part of my practical response, I intend to write a set of short script, each about a character I designed. This is the first time I write a piece of script in a formal way, therefore I struggled a bit when I was doing the formatting of it. I came across this video and it answered all of my question when doing it. Here is the first short script I attempted to write.

INT. KITCHEN

During the time of a war, a young girl trying to learn to cook for the first time. Camera zooms out from her hand chopping vegetables to her full body. Her mother watches her when she struggled using the knife and sighs.

MOTHER

Don’t push yourself.

(She walks towards the girl and pats her softly on her shoulder with a bitter smile, speaks with soft voice)

The girl stops for a few seconds looking at the cutting board and rubs her eye. She quickly focuses on chopping again, bits her lips with a strong face, not answering her mother, she tries a few more time.

Camera cut to a zoomed in scene of the cutting board with badly chopped vegetables.

GIRL

I’m sorry…

(Speaks with voice can barely be heard, turns around and hugs her mother, the mother touches her head to sooth her)

Research on characters and response

Reaserch on outfit

(Photo Credit: Phil Peters)

Research on the women's outfit and appearance in 1950s

Character designs-response to evil Disney characters

Character designs-stereotypical character of victimhood representations

Presentation board

Studies on facial features

Revised stucture of chapter 2&3

Chapter 2:

• War time Japanese propaganda

1. Informing people of military power, encouraging soldiers and troops and soothing the people. Haridakis quotes from the War and the Media, of the main message conveyed in Japanese propaganda at the war time.
2. Momotaro mo uniwashi (the message of national hero and spirit, can be compared to Victory Through Air Power in the next chapter), Evil Mickey attacks Japan (a representation of victimhood under the power of the US)

• Post war Japan

1. Change of society, Economical states, and the emotional states of people, determine a main tone of not only films, which were produced after the war, as a country being defeated in the war.
2. Osamu Tezuka, inspiration and contribution to the Japanese comic and animation industry, the start of Japanese animation.

• Post war film industries

1. 1950s Osamu Tezuka, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli as a identical example of producing anti-war film studio etc.

• Post war representations of conflict

1. Expressing a theme of anti-war, and the reflection of the loss of the war and the consequences brought by the endless conflict.
2. Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, In This Corner of the World
3. Television, Japan and Globalization. Documentary: The Margins of Reality. Discussing the similar and different ways of conveying the message.

Chapter 3:

• Representation from other cultures, USA, Europe etc.

1. The importance of the characteristic, performance, referring back to the films mentioned in chapter 2.
2. Disney animated propaganda compare to Momotaro mo uniwashi, and Astro boy mentioned in previous chapter, also compare to Evil Mickey attacks Japan.The character in original Disney films, and the parody within the Japanese version of the Micky mouse. Both character design and character performance, to support the influence of USA animation on Japanese animated films.
3. Victory through Air Power compare to the Wind Rises, of informative militarism, the contrast of the way of expressing the anti-militarism within the other film.

• Comparing the tone of voice within the animation

1. The main character from the film mentioned in chapter 2, such as In this Corner of the World, to analyse a similar tone of presenting a victimhood, while the USA as a winning country in the Second World War, gives a different perspective reflected on the tone of voice of character in animations.

Visual Reference - USA representations

Blue Racer and the Japanese Beetle

Victory through Air Power

Commando Duck

You're a Sap, Mr. Jap

Academic resources update

Japanese Visual Culture
Macwilliams, M. (2015). Japanese visual culture. Abingdon [u.a.]: Routledge.

Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia, P198
Parmar, P., Richard, B. and Steinberg, S. (2006). Contemporary youth culture. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press.

"After World War II was lost, there was little need for this sort of animation, or indeed any animation at all."
A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide, P257
Richie, D. (2012). A hundred years of japanese film. New York: Kodansha.

"Many of the cartoons of World War II feature American characters not only defeating Japanese caricatures on battlefields but also killing them completely. Rarely do figures representing the Japanese armed forces survive to the end of an American cartoon."
American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary, p165
Lehman, C. (2007). American animated cartoons of the Vietnam era. Jefferson, NC [u.a.]: McFarland.

Visual references - Japanese representations

In this corner of the world

The Wind Rises

Grave of Fireflies

Momotaro no Umiwashi

Evil Mickey Attacks Japan

Structure of the chapter 2

To clarify the argument and support statement

· Message intend to convey in Japanese propaganda films (link to the quote mentioned by Haridakis, Hugenberg and Wearden, of the reality in the propaganda production)

o Momotaro no umiwashi (the message of national hero and spirit, can be compared to Victory Through Air Power in the next chapter), Evil Mickey attacks Japan (a representation of victimhood under the power of the US)

· Post-war Japanese film industries (the common message in contemporary war films, Yoshimoto mentioned in Television, Japan and Globalization, to discuss the message that is common between films produced by different animators and directors)

o Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, In This Corner of the World

· The role of design and performance in building the character for different purposes (linking back to the previous examples, pick out characters to comment and compare both similarity and differences, to develop an identical representation from them, which will link to the responsive practical studies)

o Authors of children’s books were recruited to work in the animation branch to make educational films (mentioned in War and Media, indicating the possible character would be created for the propaganda films)

Research week 1 part 2

Examples:

In This Corner of the World (2016)
Set in Hiroshima during World War II, an eighteen-year-old girl gets married and now has to prepare food for her family despite the rationing and lack of supplies. As she struggles with the daily loss of life's amenities she still has to maintain the will to live. (Katabuchi, 2017)

Victory Through Air Power(1943)
An animated documentary promoting of the soundness of strategic aerial bombing in World War II. (Algar and Geronimi, 2017)

Momotaro no umiwashi (1943)

Featuring the "Peach Boy", character of Japanese folklore, the film is aimed at children, telling the story of a naval unit consisting of the human Momotaro and several animal species representing the Far Eastern races fighting together for a common goal. In a dramatization of the attack on Pearl Harbor, this force attacks the demons at the island of Onigashima (representing the Americans and British demonized in Japanese propaganda), and the film also utilizes actual footage of the Pearl Harbor attack.(Seo, 2017)

Statements:

Propaganda films gives a different extend of understanding of audience nowadays to the historical events compare to the audience at the time.

Animations tend to achieve the purpose of vilifying the character with the impact of the soundtrack and other elements affecting the atmosphere.

Characteristic is highly affected by the cultural background of the director.

Contemporary films aimed at the society conveys different messages, to propaganda films aimed at the soldiers. It serves a soothing purpose and usually anti-war thought.

Relevant quotes:

"Arguably even more influential were the various documentary filmmakers who emerged after the Second World War, who forged an 'observational' aesthetic" (Ward, 2012, p4)

Leiji Matsumoto's film, the scene where American fighter jets sink the Yamato, is accompanied by a soundtrack identified with the Gamilon aliens. "the American enemy becomes an alien of no cultural affiliation, so that they can be portrayed without directly generating anti-American sentiments"(Ataria, Gurevitz, Pedaya and Neria, 2016, p108)

"constitute a form of cultural therapy in which the viewers are confronted over and over again with loss and defeat, but which offer a soothing and comforting end."(Ataria, Gurevitz, Pedaya and Neria, 2016, p108)

"the reference has often been to the same monumental, national events, such as World War II, as if Japan was caught in the never-ending cycle of victimhood and traumatic recovery." (Yoshimoto, Tsai and Choi, 2010, p244)

Bibliography:
Katabuchi, S. (2017). In This Corner of the World (2016). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4769824/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Algar, J. and Geronimi, C. (2017). Victory Through Air Power (1943). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036497/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Seo, M. (2017). Momotarô's Sea Eagles (1943). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420783/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Ward, P. (2012). Documentary: The Margins of Reality. New York: Columbia University Press.

Ataria, Y., Gurevitz, D., Pedaya, H. and Neria, Y. (2016). Interdisciplinary handbook of trauma and culture. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Yoshimoto, M., Tsai, E. and Choi, J. (2010). Television, Japan, and globalization. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan.

Research week 1 part 1

Examples:
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II. (Takahata, 2017)

The Wind Rises (2013)
A look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. (Miyazaki, 2017)

Evil Mickey attacks Japan (1936)
A Japanese anti-American propaganda. Japan argued that the invasion of Asia was freeing the continent from the Western colonialism.

Statements:
Audience of war films tend to be interested in the realistic war scene and the model of warships, but mostly lack of historical outlook.

Films tend to vilify the invaders,beautify the victims during the war time through building of the character.

Behavior of a character from a certain country is different in contemporary animations produced by the country and by other countries.

Educational animation produced at the time was successful because of the character created in it for entertaining purpose.

Propaganda films gives another perspective of the way a country sees itself during the war time.


Relevant quotes:
"The theme of Japanese militarism was embedded in the country's educational, documentary and propaganda films from the start of the war with China in 1933 and persisted throughout the Second World War, Bendazzi noted."

Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf, authors of children's books, were recruited to work in the animation branch of the U.S, to make educational films for American troops. (Nel, 2007). "Reasoning that the soldiers would only pay attention and learn if they could also be entertained." (Haridakis, Hugenberg and Wearden, 2009, p77)

The performative role of animation in the nation rebuilding efforts of Japan after the Second World War. Concept of "performativity"(Hu, 2015, p11)

(Yokota and Hu, 2015)


Bibliography:
Takahata, I(2017). Grave of the Fireflies (1988). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Miyazaki, H. (2017). The Wind Rises (2013). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/?ref_=tt_rec_tti [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Haridakis, P., Hugenberg, B. and Wearden, S. (2009). War and the media. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Hu, T. (2015). Frames of anime. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong U.P.

Yokota, M. and Hu, T. (2015). Japanese animation: East Asian Perspectives. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Disney propaganda animations

During the summer holiday, as I have changed the direction of my topic of research, one of the aspect I started to research on is the propaganda movies produced during the time of the war. During the course of research, I came across to Disney's films, which they were commissioned to produce a quantity of propaganda films for the US during the WW2. Supporting one of the statement I would make in the dissertation, propaganda animations usually vilify the opponent of the country with character appearance and behavior.

Revised COP3 dissertation proposal

Name: Yixing Qin
Degree Programme: Animation
2017/18
CoP3 Essay: To what extent has animation constructed our understanding or view of the WW2?

I would like to discuss and come to a conclusion about the influence of the character designs and plots in animations based on WW2, to achieve this, reference to minor other identical war films is in addition to back up my argument at the same time. The structure of the dissertation would be roughly as follows.

I intend to use the introduction to clarify my direction of study in the main body, with appropriate quotes, to make a critical statement with a strong point to raise the importance of the topic. In my understanding, the reason that the argument is important would be that as an identical topic in films, war, can be a great example in discussing the elements within it, as it involves both cultural, historical, and other aspects as well.

In the first main part of the essay, I intend to explore the topic by quoting relevant academic sources to support my argument, to clarify it and link to the next paragraph, providing the source of triangulating. In additional, I want to separate the discussion by propaganda animations and contemporary animated films based on WW2, in order to compare the character behavior within them.

As for the second majority part of the dissertation, I intend to explore on examples of animation extracts and critiques of professions upon them, to triangulate between them and the argument I made out of by myself, most importantly, referring back to the previous paragraph.

For the reflective practice part, I plan to explore on making of characters on purpose of both reflecting on the identical stereotype designs, and scripts, animation based on them to draw together a critical purposed pastiche outcome to reflect on the study in the previous chapters. To analyse the practice, I intend to constantly linking it back to the point I raised in the dissertation.

In order to draw the statement to a conclusion, the argument would be draw to a statement that I got out of the research and discussion answering the question sat for the topic of the dissertation, with the support of the single conclusions through the essay.

Case studies

Victory Through Air Power(1943)

Disney Propaganda Films around 1943s

Grave of the Fireflies(1988)

Relevant books or journal articles

Annabelle, H. (2013) Animated Documentary, Palgrave Macmillan
Judith, K. (2012) Animated Realism: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Animated Documentary Genre, Oxford: Focal
Wells, P. (2015) Understanding animation, London: Routledge
Ward, P. (2012) Documentary: The Margins of Reality, New York: Columbia University Press
Relevant websites
Pixar Animation. 2017. Character designs [online]
http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html (Accessed 15 April 2017)

Essay

https://issuu.com/yixingqin/docs/essay

Parody and Pastiche

“The disappearance of the individual subject, along with its formal consequence, the increasing unavailability of the personal style, engender the well-nigh universal practice today of what may be called pastiche.” Jameson (1991, p16) discussed postmodernism as stepping into late capitalism, a field formed by a variety of styles, including pastiche, formed the “disappearance” of following after personal styles.

Hutchenon (1986) suggested parody as "representation rather than recycling" of a story, it is suggested as a artefact making humour referring to the existing problem.
Yet Jameson defined postmodernism pastiche as 'blank' parody, reflecting on fact that animations being recycled.

Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism. Duke University Press
Hutcheon, L. (1986) The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and History.

Context of Practice 3 Proposal

https://issuu.com/yixingqin/docs/cop3_proposal

CoP2 Response

Concept art I produced for the response to the essay and the visual research, suggesting character as poppet manipulate by the scene.

Adorno & the Culture Industry

In How to Look at TV (1954), Adorno suggested that the effect of television cannot be expressed in terms of 'success or failure, likes or dislikes, approval or disapproval'. He suggested that understanding the effect of television is not simply trough visual perception but personal to a subconscious level.

The example I want to address here is animation on television such as Simpsons, the simple lines and readable plots provides the audience perceptions in a straightforward way rather than unengaging animation with lack of general understanding. Which leads to where Adorno states that we are 'concerned with the nature of present-day television and its imagery' rather than 'the effectiveness of particular show'.

Study Task 5 - Writing an Introduction

Other than the narrative, the main body of an animation is the character, scenes are elements surrounding the character, where it is placed by the animator, socially and historically, the extras as a part of the society environment as well, everything varies along the timeline excepting the character on the whole. Among the three sections, pre-production, production and post- production, design of the layout of the scenes, usually happens during the production part. During production, role of the characters and the narrative of the story determines the blueprint of the scenes, its main role is to build atmosphere guiding the audience into the narrative, and to clarify the relationship between space and time within a film. It is constantly being considered when determine the good or bad of an animation, stands a vital position in conveying message to the audience. In additional, environments provides the stage and space for the characters to act in, a well-designed set of scenes can improve the animation on artistic aspect, enhanced the theme and has great impact on the style of the animation. Barry Purves referred in the Fundamentals of Animation, interpreted animation as an art of ‘metaphor’ for role-play showing different perspectives and ideas about the culture we live in, and elements within the animation are integrated in a coherent way (2006, p33). The point that environments and characters illuminate and support one another has been made in the statement. Apparently, the design of scenes is an art form, but serves the purpose of the animation in the first place, not its own, therefore not an individual art piece that ignores the rationality of the script. In my opinions, it occupies an important position of the visual experience given to the audiences, constitute the main visual content and the reflection of the style of the animation, imperceptible influenced on perception of re-narrated metaphor. Therefore I intend to discuss the position and visual influence of scene designs in an animation, supporting the argument with key statements and sources. To my subject discipline, effective scene designs reinforce the impact of an animation visually and emphasis the character that brings the animation to a higher level, therefore discuss on the topic offers either a possibility of a clearer understanding of application of scenes as an animator or the ability to comprehend and interpret of films.

Study Task 4 - Choosing a Research Question

Research question: 

What is the role of animation scene design in animation aesthetically?

What is there to study (ontology)? 

There are a number of existing books and articles written by either animators, film directors or writers.

How can we know about it (epistemology)? 

I will include quotations of each forms to support the point in the essay, to inform

How do we study it (methodology)?

I will be analysing texts, animations.

Resources available:

Fraser, M. (2011) Setting the scene: the art and evolution of animation layout, San Francisco: Chronicle Books

Wells, P. (2006) The Fundamentals of Animation, AVA Publishing
Bacher, H. (2012) Dream Worlds, Independence: CRC Press
Selby, A. (2009) Animation in Process, London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
Ghertner, E. (2012) Layout and Composition for animation, (n.d.)

Animation available:

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron 2002, film, DreamWorks Animation, America.

The Lion King 1994, film, Walt Disney Pictures, America.

IMDb. 2006. Paprika [online]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Study Task 1

Laura Mulvey has stated that gender imbalance within films and animations. She is a feminist film maker who is best known for the essay she published in 1975 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', it suggested that 'women displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle', a crucial definition influenced by the women's right movement, addressing that male protagonist provides the sense of authority and the females provide the 'erotic look'. J Storey has referenced to Mulvey's essay of female position in 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture', indeed support one another by suggesting the women in film are 'to-be-looked-at-ness', the term Mulvey used in her article.

End of Module Evaluation

The context of practice module is one of the longest module throughout the year, looking back on what I have achieved and file the work together help me to comment on the process that I have went though and clarified what I have not done well enough or missed out.

Started with blogging on the context of practice blog, I summed up the lecture notes as I took notes on the booklet and transferred onto the computer in order to post then on the blog. Procrastination sometimes affected as the note was not typed up onto computer on time, therefore some loose sheets had been lost. In that case I would refer back to the power point used during the lecture and seminar sessions to recall what I have missed. The biggest difficulty I experienced was the essay, it is the first time to write essay in a formal standard with Harvard reference. The ability of summing up ideas and sort them by logical ways is what I need to improve. I have tried to do mind map for the purpose of making the ideas clear, it did helped largely, but if I am going to write an essay, I would maintain the effective method I used and seek for other methods that suit me better. During the middle of the essay, I also struggled with finding the best way to organize the language in order to express what I want to express. I think it is caused by lack of reading of academic writing. However during the course of writing the essay, I feel that I have gained a great experience and practice of this level of writing skills.

The other part of the module is the practical part, which is the animation response. I started to think about the practical part which is the animated response to the topic I have chosen, I found that the definition of the title is still vague to me, though it is a broad title that allows a wide range of arguments, I intent to go near to an abstract animation. I generated all sorts of ideas that are totally different from each other. I struggled to make my mind on one of the idea, eventually I went for an abstract one where I feel I could include some interesting sorts of materials. Photoshop and After Effects are the two main pieces of software I used to create the animation. What I would do to improve if I can do it again is to refer to more similar kinds of animations before I actually starts to process mine.

Ultimately, a habit of recording information in order to absorb it afterwards, and essentially read more books to broaden horizon, when writing an essay can easily reminds up and refers to books or journals. Watch more animations to gain knowledge in all kinds of animations but not only one.

Lecture: Semiotics

Sign=signifier+signified

The relation between then is arbitory. The semiotic chain of meaning links: feeling, thoughts and emotions. To trace from sigh back to signifier+signified.

information source→transmitter→channel→receiver→destination

The noise source affects the channel, it change the communication and starts a new communication. The redundancy indicates the high predictability plus low information, which is universally agreed, shared meanings.Oppositely, entropy means low predictability and high information, which is unconventional.

A paradigms is a set of signs from which one is chosen.

Codes are signifying systems.

Animated Response: Development

A sheet of generation of ideas that the main charactor has been mass produced, and he finally found out he's just one of them. This idea has a relatively clearer storyline, however I decided to make the animation closer to an abstract film.

Lecture: Colour theory

Colours stands out of contrast of backgound, therefore it can be seen by human eyes. Contrast include not only the difference of the colours, but the "warm"  and "cold" of the colours as well. For example we indicates red as warm colour while orange is a less warm colour comparing to red, which differentiate orange from red.

Lecture: Intro of colour theory

The visible light are from the range of 700 to 400 nm, from red to purple. Human eyes detects colour with rods and cones, which are the receptor in our eyes. The rods detect shadow and lights, while the cones detect colours. 
There are three kinds of cones, where one detect red and orange, the other one detect green, and the remaining one detect blue and violet. Primary colour means the colours that can be detected straight forwards with the cones, while secondary lights are the lights that's needing more than one cone to combine in order to detect the colour. The chromatic value means the luminance. 

Study Task 2

At the very first part of the book, Storey clarified the way we define popular culture with the term ’culture’, where it is ’one of the two or three most complicated words in the English Language’, suggested by Raymond Williams, it is not only restricted to a word but a massive definition. Culture can be refer to ‘a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development’, yet it can represent a huge part of the culture part of a country. He also suggested that ‘culture’ can be interpreted as ‘a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group’. This definition is suggested when speaking of the cultural development, analysing the evolvement through a period of time of people or groups of people. Furthermore it is not only restricted to a narrow range of cultural products but also literacy and religious for instance. Storey suggested that culture is ‘synonymous with that structuralists and post-structuralists’ where poetry novel, opera and fine art and these sorts of art usually defined as high culture. In conclusion, popular culture usually means to ‘mobilize the second and third meaning of the word ‘culture’’, that allow us to consider pop music, comics and soap opera (Storey, [2008], 2).

Source: https://drive.google.com/a/students.leeds-art.ac.uk/file/d/0B-4SIkiY5HDGejBPV0lRYk82YzQ/view

Lecture: The Design as Social Critic

In the late age of print, Gutenberg's printing press,1440, has started the mass produce of printed products, and it is was when it spread out.

The mass image culture:
New royal academy is the first art school, the ideas of fime art and rest of creative production been trained to make historical propaganda oil painting for money purpose of famous peopel from past.

Culture and popular culture:
urbanization of royal vreses working class, making of a working class of two different cultures, which are always in confix. People starts to produce political cultures and political threads. New sorts of urban culture of selling reproduction of paintings, and starts the reproduce of art. The reproduction has chosen the simple grey scaled, as it is easier to mass produce.
Hence at that time, mass culture is everything being standatd, and traditional authority of what's good and beautiful are rebuild.

Animated Response: Development

A scibble of one of the initial ideas of an abstract living life conbined by peacock and snake.