I officially started the pre-production phase of my final year film today. So far, I have several ideas about a story and have decided to make it a combination between hand drawn backgrounds and 3d characters.
I have several visual experiments planned, and probably more will popup during development. I started today by doing a simple background test in Adobe Photoshop. The idea of the test was to start experimenting with emulating a more clasical, hand drawn – paint on paper look in Adobe Photoshop. The initial speed paint took me about an hour.
While working on thetest, I also decided to check how much changing the background would influence the mood of the picture. The original idea was for the forest to have a misty/early morning/rainy autumn look. I then used a brighter background, to achieve a more sunset/sunrise feel. This worked to some point because part of the trees are semi-transparent, so they take on the color of the background.
And finally, a plain white background with some mist, to indicate a more closer to winter feel for the test.
Overall, I am pleased with how this turned out. It is also the beginning of a long process, trying to figure out and develop the story, and also the look of my film which would help it tell the story in the best (or close to best possible) way.
What follows will be several articles on global media and animation, and their social and cultural influence on the world today. As a basis for this articles, I will use some of my university essayist on animation theory. They will be rather long and some of them will contain links to old propaganda material, which is banned from broadcasting on TV.
Part 1 – Introduction to the media foreground of today.
The computer I’m writing this on has a CPU unit, developed in Ireland, software developed in the United States and parts manufactured in China and Thailand. It was brought in a Greek owned store, on the edge of the Bulgarian capital, and I got to that store in a Russian car. This simple example shows how connected the world economies are, and how they all merge and rely on one point – the consumer.
But, what is the consumer’s connection to the world where all this things come from?
In the last 25-30 years, our access to information has increased to the point where now almost everyone with a computer and a fast internet connection can, in theory, access information created on the other side of the globe in an instant. Media coverage has expanded, featuring “live” footage from global hotspots and forming the public’s opinions on given problems in far away countries. The majority of western viewer’s idea of the outer world, of these countries of far away were people he doesn’t know live and speak a language he will probably never hear , comes from the very screen that has probably been manufactured or developed in one of those countries.
Media coverage, pop culture, films, web content – all of this aspects have merged into an ever-growing media foreground, which shapes the western viewers idea of the outside world. An idea, which can directly influence global markets, prices and politics.
During WW2 the US governments employed most of the animation studios(which saved Walt Disney from bankruptcy at the time) in making propaganda and various educational films. Actually, that was the main source of profit for a lot of studios at that time. The animated mediums is a good tool for propaganda, because it could easily “demonize” the enemy due to its stylistic abilities. On the other hand, people were used to watching cartoons for fun, and often times they would “led their guard down” when doing so.
This was the prequel to the media foreground of today. The idea behind those propaganda cartoons was simple – to justify the violence against the enemy, by removing the “human” characteristics from them in the eyes of the viewer, and showing him how perverted, treating and evil the enemy is – in other words, the enemy is not human and humane like us, so our acts of violence are justified.
This is also the very reason why you wouldn’t see this cartoons on TV today. Because the west’s former enemies, are now their allies and business partners. A negative media image is not required, so this cartoons were banned, and Bugs Bunny could no longer sell grenades with ice-cream to the Japanese. The whole point of this article is simple – Media forms our opinions of the surrounding world, even “childish” cartoons.
The media foreground directly influences the way we see the world and how we understand, or don’t understand global conflicts, politics and culture. An obvious example are the WW2 propaganda cartoons, which were later pulled out of circulation when politics changed…but new media is emerging and the media foreground is always growing and evolving. It has become our main source of information and the main “justificatory” for conflict, investment and public opinion. It draws our portraits of different cultures and societies, of which we don’t have other contact, but which directly influence us through the global economy. And, I personally think, this is not always a good thing.
For instance, in 1954, the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, was overthrown by an intervention of the US government and the CIA. The intervention was orchestrated by The United Fruit Company and the father of modern PR Edward Bernays . What they did was very simple – using the cold war scare and the fact that Guatemala is in close proximity to the US, Edward Bernays led a campaign which portrayed the democratic and pro-US government of Guatemala as communist. Articles, false news coverage and even an orchestrated state visit to Guatemala, in which people were hired for and anti US demonstrations in front of the US officials and “pro-communist” literature was planted, build a negative, false pro-communist image of the country’s government in the eyes of the US public and senate.
The result was an overthrowing of a democratic government and the installment of a puppet of the United Fruit Company in its place, resulting in years of corruption and practical slavery to the interests of the company. Even with today’s information, how many times do you think people actually try and check for facts(or the people who present these facts) themselves, rather than rely on questionable sources and a picture, build from pop culture and films?
So, the next time you go and see a movie, or play a video game…don’t always think about it as “just entertainment”, because it might actually be pulling the wool over your eyes and promoting something, which, if you think about it, might not actually agree with.
Next week: Some of the good sides of the global media foreground, which are closely related to modern animation.
I was born in Bulgaria, a country sutied on the crossroads of the Balkans. As far as I can remember, my introduction with the animated world started at an early age with “The hour of Disney” and reruns of old Warner Brothers cartoons. I clearly remember racing to our television set, waiting for the series to begin and watching with amazement how the animated characters came alive before my eyes and populated their fantastic world with stories and adventures.
I practically grew up with Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Batman the animated series, Duck Tales, The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest and too many other animated series to list here. My love for animation was later transferred to our first personal computer, a 500mhz machine with an S3 Savage 4 video card, brought in Plovdiv for Christmas in 1999. Video games offered me something new – interesting animated characters, which were interactive. My 11-year-old imagination rocketed with epic ideas for huge game worlds and unlimited adventures with characters of my own!
Fast forward to the present day, more than 10 years after that, and I am thousands of miles from the origins of my interest in the visual arts, living in London, UK. I have several years of experience with digital illustration and 18 months of professional experience in game development. My knowledge includes 3D Studio Max, Maya and Adobe Photoshop. Behind my back is an IT based high school education with top marks, freelance comic book and poster work, and an animation award for an advertisement for the charity organization The Terrence Higgins Trust.
Lastly, I am a second year student at an animation course, and my passion for cartoons and games has expanded – I am now interested in almost any type 2D or 3D visual art! During my university education, I have also began to see the cartoons of my childhood in a different light – realizing the complex processes behind them, and the social and cultural significance that animation had on the development of western society and modern culture. For example, in recent years, I found out that some of the old Warner Bros. cartoons I grew up with were actually banned in Europe and in the US for political reasons.
Which leads me to the idea of this blog: to reflect on my journey in the world of the visual arts, both in practice and theory…and hopefully, by sharing this journey, to help others who are undertaking a similar trip.
Without further delay, after you now know a little bit about me, I wish to welcome you to my blog, and I hope you enjoy your stay.
