F&T - Research

Having spoken to Jared and Rachel about what I could do, I took up on their idea of playing the role of a 'researcher' to provide stimuli and ways in which animation has been used to visually communicate.

A painting that I saw in Tate Modern in London came to my mind when I began researching for imagery of the Vietnam War. Vietnam II by Leon Golub is a staggeringly 2.94m x 11.51m which I found oppressive and thus reflects the conflict in the painting. I thought that the stylised figures on the beige 'blank' space of the sheet could be a combined starting point for my research of content and aesthetics for the film.

I particularly liked the idea of potentially having a blank but 'textural' background.

Here is my Pinterest board of Vietnam imagery:
Follow Grant Holden's board Vietnam Imagery - F&T on Pinterest.

Another Leon Golub painting I found images of online was White Squad, a good example of strong contrasts and distorted figures that I hoped to pursue in creating.







Alongside this I began researching for animations that could be used as inspiration:
Follow Grant Holden's board Rotoscope/Animation Inspiration - F&T on Pinterest.

The animations I chose from the Pinterest board above were rotoscoped (a technique I was keen to be used for this project) and/or use 'blank' space as background. From the research I collected I created an idea for the film that I liked the 'feel' of:

My idea was to have scribbled/hatched figures traced from live-action footage that would have a harsh, agitated feel. The reason why I liked the idea of rotoscoping was the fact it would be able to have an accurate representation of realistic motion and proportions of the human figure. The live-action would be used as basis for the animation to be built upon and it would mean that it saves time by not having to create it all from scratch. Deryck had also said he liked the idea of abstraction and stripping film to its most basic so I thought of doing this by having the figures as generalised forms