The Odyssey
Brief: Create an animation narrative that references myths and legends, or future visions, challenging and presenting your outcome in a new and innovative way through only using images and no text.
Stories both of a fiction and non fiction context have, for thousand of years, been a medium to provoke a reaction and express varied signs, meanings and messages of expression from humans. From ancient legends, to fairy tales, to contemporary urban myths, the bizarre and shocking and the beautiful and extraordinary have woven there way into narratives that have been shared and communicated within our society. Modern creatives are given unique opportunities to express stories of all natures through multiple mediums in turn subverting a new and fresh outcome of exciting content.
Beginning by researching into a brief history of story telling, I gained a better understanding of how language and importantly image within a narrative are used to inform, entertain, manipulate and document. Additionally through investigating the timeline of storytelling, from early cavemen paintings, the invention of the printing press and the mass spread of the Bible, Shakespeare’s famous theatre productions, through to the birth of Hollywood and modern cinema and the digital age with the modern narrative taking its form under the hand held digital device; I was able to interpret that stories are intrinsic of our society and culture in turn defining values of desires, dreams, prejudices and hatred. Through my research development I began to gain more of an interest in the mythologies of Ancient Greece and Roman, as well as future based narratives and classic fairy tales. Notable examples are The Odyssey, Metropolis, and Beauty and the Beast, all illustrating narratives that express through the visual form.Initial research allowed myself to gain introductory ideas and questions to take forward; my forefront intention was to explore a narrative that expressed a meaning to provoke and engage with an audience on a personal level in turn influencing a certain emotion in reference to an impactful story.
From delving into past, present, and future inspired mythical narratives, I gained initial thoughts to base a story for my outcome. Ancient Greek mythology was the outstanding subject researched and in turn I wanted to take forward and explore further. With this in mind I further analysed famous Greek myths and narratives, that alluded to a poignant cultural message or issue to be challenged and questioned. I listed three potential stories to base my animation upon, Hercules, Medusa, and The Odyssey, I chose The Odyssey for that on reflection of the epic storyline I had a sudden recollection that the famous greek myth held similarities to the refugee crisis. Told by the famous Greek literature Homer, The Odyssey follows the story of soldier Odysseus as he attempts to return home from ten years away at war; however his journey home is riddled with epic challenges and obstacles from a flesh eating Cyclops to a seductive beautiful singing voices luring innocents to their death, yet despite these challenges Odysseus with the aid from Greek gods returned home safely to rejoice with his family. The mythical struggles that Odysseus encounters bare similarities to the factual challenges of a refugee escaping Syria, for instants Odysseus travelled by boat same as the refugees and the monsters experienced within the narrative could correlate to the horrifying imagery of soldiers and war that a refugee bares witness to. In addition the epic scale of the Odyssey and its journey influenced from war affiliates with the journey taken on by a refugee to get to safety both physically and mentally.
After delving into extensive research about the Syrian refugee crisis I began to draft an adapted fictional story based on factual events of the emergency and inspired both by the parallels of The Odyssey to form the context of the animation. Through story workshops and explorations I generated a character named Ammar Dwek aged 13, who is escaping war torn Syria on is own as all close family members have been killed in the conflict. Making his way across the Aegean sea Ameer encounters various troubles and challenges, but with the guidance from his mother and an angel Ammer makes it safely to the shores of Greece to begin his new life safe in refugee. I converted my notes for the story visually into a rough storyboard, that I later finalised with adaptations, the storyboard supplied a helpful and crucial visual aid for a preliminary look at the animation.
From building the storyboard up I began to gain a sense of time to the narrative, this sequentially led to introducing sound and music to the sequence. I decided to feature a song instead of just sound effects or no sound at all, on account of I felt it would supply more attraction and attention for the viewers. After exploring many genres, artists and songs I settled with Strange Fruit by Nina Simone, that I mixed with Kanye West’s sample that he adapted into Blood On The Leaves. The lyrics to Strange Fruit I felt held similar connections with the signs, meanings and messages of a refugee, adding the boldness and brutal sounds of Blood On The Leaves provided an aural entertainment that reinforces allure to the audience and ultimately supports the narrative meaning to the animation.
With an established storyline created and an initial plan for sound, I turned my attention to the styling and imagery for the animation. At first I explored existing examples of interesting animation, David Foldvari, Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain all supplied inspiration. Foldvari’s use of bold, tonal and contrasting illustrations ignited meaning and provoked a reaction that engrossed my eye, alternatively the works of Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain offered engaging examples of how to use sound and imagery to influence an effective and intriguing narrative and animation. I decided to create my animation using black and white elements only because I felt the addition of colour would take away the dramatic ambience that I wanted to forge to the sequence. Using my storyboard as a guide, I had a minimal selection of sourced images, I mainly used my imagination to create the imagery; I chose this approach to create looser and more expressive visuals that in turn would bolster the fanciful, mysterious and dreamlike symbolism of the animation sequence. Following sketching out initial ideas, I finalised all the pictorial elements and scanned them into the computer to edited and adapt ready to composite into the production of the animation.
With all the assets completed I compiled them all together to begin making the final animation. To start I used Ae to compose, animate and apply effects to my illustrations, creating individual compositions for each illustration I used Ae puppet tool to transform the still images into subtle moving animations. Following I would apply a combination of effects placing keyframes in certain locations along the timeline for each asset, to get the visual response I wanted and reinforce movement to the stills. With all the pictorial components completed I focused on sourcing footage to complement the animation, collecting a mixture of miscellaneous footage I again used Ae to convert them in order to fit with the styling of the animation. Saving all the composite’s I then took them into Pr to assemble them all into a final sequence, and incorporate the song mixed I created with Garage Band. Syncing the footage with the sound and then tidying up the overall sequence I created a final render and titled it, The Odyssey.
Overall the final animation supplies the meaningful and impactful ambience I set out to achieve. Through reaching the history of narratives and storytelling, I have gained a fresh understanding of the importance to narrative and supplying meaning through language and visual imagery, which I want to take forward expand and have a the base for future works. Delving into the mythical world of Greek Mythology ignited my imagination, and finding a connection to the Syrian Refugee Crisis brought about the significance caused when experimenting with the old and new to create a new outlook that provokes an emotional response. I believe my final outcome accomplishes this, the dark, contrasting and tonal pictorial elements describe tension and an emotive atmosphere, that in turn portrays challenging and questionable ideologies thus attracting the audience. The addition of mixing Simone and West together creates a compelling soundtrack to the piece, supporting the visuals and guiding the viewers attention through mixed emotions. On reflection I might adjust the timings of some of the animation elements, and slightly change the movements of the visuals to be more smoother and flowing. Going forward I want to build upon the skills I have learnt with Ae and Pr to aid my intentions to explore meaning within narrative., similar to my final outcome which supplies the signs, meanings and message I wanted to create initially by adapting existing material into something thats fresh, original but ultimately thought provoking.