2010 Spring - Studio

Mini-thesis - Final project for studio

A couple of precedents and influences that inspired me:

Pinocchio (1940) - Walt Disney
El Empleo (The Employment) - Santiago Bou Grasso
Everything Will Be OK - Don Hertzfeldt
Mask - Ji Hyun Ha

Pinocchio (1940) - Walt Disney

A classic and popular animation created by the Disney studio, the protagonist Pinocchio is a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy. This is one of the classic examples of integrating the "lying" with the "tell," when he tells a lie his nose grows longer.

El Empleo (The Employment) - Santiago Bou Grasso

Santiago Bou Grasso' s 2D animation "El Empleo" (2008) creates a world that depict people as objects. The audience follows a man's routine life and is led into this environment trying to put together the meaning behind. "El Empleo" had significant impact for this project, I am deeply inspired by the story beats of how the narrative is told. Also I admire the aesthetics and texture the drawings bring out. For my project, with this reference I wanted to carry out this idea of introducing a queer world as well as creating a dark atmosphere with the use of textures and layers.

"Everything Will Be OK" - Don Hertzfeldt

What interested me in the animation "Everything Will Be OK" by Don Hertzfeldt may not be the main point but in the initial stages of my brainstorming I was deeply attracted by the social interactions within the film. For example quoting an excerpt from the narrator," A checkout girl said, ' How are you doing today?' Bill said,' Fine, thanks, how are you?' She didn't answer. Bill felt used."
Also the simple style of drawing accompanied by narration was a great inspiration, even though as I progressed I did not follow that path.

"Mask" by Ji Hyun Ha

"Mask" (2008) is a stop motion animation created by Design and Technology alumnus Ji Hyun Ha. Ji's description: The story of Mask is concerned with society's treatment of those who are different and powerless, exploring our conflicts and struggles in human interaction and relationship to social expectation and constructs. By focusing on the complex operation of social inclusion and exclusion, Mask addresses issues of morality, power, judgment and arrogance in human interaction, and the collective violence, abuse, oppression and tension that results from difference and inequality. In my opinion the medium used and details in this piece certainly increased the tension and the mood drastically adding to the story. Although having similarity on the topic mask, the issue I want to address differs focusing more on the truthfulness and perception on social encounters.

Reference
http://www.jerrystocking.com/clustercalls/images/pinocchio1.gif
http://www.opusbou.blogspot.com/
http://www.bitterfilms.com/ok.html
http://a.parsons.edu/~haj64/thesis.html.