Sandra's Hookers exercise was to write a piece about Katie's tea rooms - a place where something unusual occurs. Apparently it's a real place!
Thursday, 22 April 2010
King of the Castle
This was from Sally's hookers exercise: A boy, on holiday with his mother, wanders off.
Another attempt at using Flash. I'm gradually getting the hang of the tools in flash, but finding it difficult to create a narrative in pictures. So used to doing it in words! Again, not poetic or very good, and when I have shown it to people they are not sure what's happening! Oh well! Note the way the mother's arms come off as she's running out of the sand dunes!
Another attempt at using Flash. I'm gradually getting the hang of the tools in flash, but finding it difficult to create a narrative in pictures. So used to doing it in words! Again, not poetic or very good, and when I have shown it to people they are not sure what's happening! Oh well! Note the way the mother's arms come off as she's running out of the sand dunes!
O what's apurring?
Another attempt at Flash animation! Not very poetic but it was fun to make! This time from Beth's hookers exercise which was to write a piece about a pet going missing, and someone seeing it being bundled into an army vehicle.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Dinner's Ready
I decided to leave Newport and teach myself animation at home. After all, so much of it is about practice, and I wasn't having any time to actually do much animation. So since January I've been stuck in to manuals and creating short animations.
I belong to a writers' group called Hookers' Pen, and each fortnight, a hooker gives out a writing exercise. This short Flash animation is from Hillary's Hookers' exercise which was to write a piece about a nun walking down a long corridor; the only condition was that there should be no adjectives or adverbs in the piece.
I belong to a writers' group called Hookers' Pen, and each fortnight, a hooker gives out a writing exercise. This short Flash animation is from Hillary's Hookers' exercise which was to write a piece about a nun walking down a long corridor; the only condition was that there should be no adjectives or adverbs in the piece.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Metamorphosis
I love metamorphosis. This is one of the best things about animation for me. And it complements poetry well.
Here's an attempt at metamorphosis that I did in Newport.
Here's an attempt at metamorphosis that I did in Newport.
Good Poetry Animation links
Billy Collins Action Poetry: I especially like Forgetfulness and The Dead
http://www.bcactionpoet.org/
A website devoted to moving poetry - lots of great animations on here:
http://movingpoems.com
I've been reading up on avant-garde film. These I really like:
Len Lye - great mix of music and abstract images
Free Radical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGyVYDseGc4
Trade Tattoo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjjHqf34Qd0
Colour Box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3y1offmJ4Y
Oskar Fischinger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZxw1Jb9vA
Charles Bukowski's The Genius of the Crowd. -
http://www.bcactionpoet.org/
A website devoted to moving poetry - lots of great animations on here:
http://movingpoems.com
I've been reading up on avant-garde film. These I really like:
Len Lye - great mix of music and abstract images
Free Radical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGyVYDseGc4
Trade Tattoo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjjHqf34Qd0
Colour Box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3y1offmJ4Y
Oskar Fischinger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZxw1Jb9vA
Charles Bukowski's The Genius of the Crowd. -
Notes on poetry animations
I’ve been making notes on some of the poetry animations I’ve seen – noting what I like/seems to work for me etc.
I like it when the animation takes metaphors from the poem and explores these ideas with lots of metamorphoses and transformations. For example in Billy Collins’ ‘Forgetfulness’, there is a mix of live action and animation playing with the concept of things disappearing – eg birds flying away, images being rubbed out, the map being folded up, a person shrinking to a dot, boats floating away. They are all illustrations of what’s in the actual poem but the way they merge into each other is satisfying. They complement each other very well, so that it doesn’t feel that the poem takes over or the animation takes over.
This is not the case with ‘Hunger’ where the images seem to reflect the mood of the poem rather than the words of the poem. In ‘Hunger’ the words are written on walls in stark concrete carparks and bleak modern faceless places. I found myself concentrating on the words – looking at the way they appeared (beautifully) on the screen. I found the meaning of the words very far removed from the visual representation. Not such a bad thing as it left me searching for meaning, but it was less satisfying for some reason.
Suggestions from Ginny Head:
‘Ah Pook is Here’ narrated by William Burroughs (not strictly poetry but well worth a look)
‘The Raven’ by Edgar Alan Poe (on Youtube)
‘The Cat Piano’ narrated by Nick Cave
‘I would like to be a dot in a painting by Miro’ by Moniza Alvi
Flanders Animation – 15 animated shorts based on Flemish poems
I like it when the animation takes metaphors from the poem and explores these ideas with lots of metamorphoses and transformations. For example in Billy Collins’ ‘Forgetfulness’, there is a mix of live action and animation playing with the concept of things disappearing – eg birds flying away, images being rubbed out, the map being folded up, a person shrinking to a dot, boats floating away. They are all illustrations of what’s in the actual poem but the way they merge into each other is satisfying. They complement each other very well, so that it doesn’t feel that the poem takes over or the animation takes over.
This is not the case with ‘Hunger’ where the images seem to reflect the mood of the poem rather than the words of the poem. In ‘Hunger’ the words are written on walls in stark concrete carparks and bleak modern faceless places. I found myself concentrating on the words – looking at the way they appeared (beautifully) on the screen. I found the meaning of the words very far removed from the visual representation. Not such a bad thing as it left me searching for meaning, but it was less satisfying for some reason.
Suggestions from Ginny Head:
‘Ah Pook is Here’ narrated by William Burroughs (not strictly poetry but well worth a look)
‘The Raven’ by Edgar Alan Poe (on Youtube)
‘The Cat Piano’ narrated by Nick Cave
‘I would like to be a dot in a painting by Miro’ by Moniza Alvi
Flanders Animation – 15 animated shorts based on Flemish poems
Walk Cycles and Francess Bevans
During the course in Newport we began to learn about animating walk cycles. I've put some of these together to create a rough animation of my poem Francess Bevans which is one of my Pembrokeshire poems. I wrote it after visiting St Bride's Haven in Pembrokeshire. The poem won second prize in the Pembrokeshire Fish Competition and it has been published in Roundyhouse 23 (2008); and In the Telling, (2009) eds. S. Richardson & G. Ashton. Cinnamon Press.
The music is 'Benedictus' sung by the Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera school choir.
The music is 'Benedictus' sung by the Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera school choir.
Saturday, 10 April 2010
How can animation enhance poetry?
Just a few thoughts on creating poetry animations:
What kind of animation works for poetry? - in fact is there a 'kind' of poetry animation? Are there underlying trends? I have seen a lot of poetry animations where someone had animated an existing poem. What about starting the other way round? I'd like to see examples of this. Or where they are created together - like a piece of devised theatre.
If you do start with the poem, do the images represent or complement the words of a poem? How can animation help to unpick layers of the poem rather than just illustrate it?
I see a lot of similarities between animation and poetry: the tightness of the media - being able to say something in a short honed piece. The use of metamorphosis and transitions in animation lends itself to poetry very well. They can both go anywhere. Poetry's use of metaphor, symbols, rhythm etc can be explored beautifully in animation. But I do think that there has to be something that the animation adds to the poem, rather than just being an illustration.
What kind of animation works for poetry? - in fact is there a 'kind' of poetry animation? Are there underlying trends? I have seen a lot of poetry animations where someone had animated an existing poem. What about starting the other way round? I'd like to see examples of this. Or where they are created together - like a piece of devised theatre.
If you do start with the poem, do the images represent or complement the words of a poem? How can animation help to unpick layers of the poem rather than just illustrate it?
I see a lot of similarities between animation and poetry: the tightness of the media - being able to say something in a short honed piece. The use of metamorphosis and transitions in animation lends itself to poetry very well. They can both go anywhere. Poetry's use of metaphor, symbols, rhythm etc can be explored beautifully in animation. But I do think that there has to be something that the animation adds to the poem, rather than just being an illustration.
Animation Exercise - consequences
I especially enjoyed having a go at drawn animation. This was the first one: Consequences. We had to create three 3 second animations - of a head, a body and legs.
Starting to look at Animation Theory
I decided I needed more technical tuition in animation and enrolled on an MA in animation at Newport University. There we did a lot of walk cycles, and talked a lot about the theory of animation. This was interesting but not what I was looking for.
Theory
As I'm interested in animation as a backdrop to poetry, I focused on this as part of my theory essay. Unfortunately, there is very little written about poetry in combination with animation. There is a lot about poetry with film, but, in spite of doing fairly substantial web search, and searches by the librarians at New York state library, the BFI, and the Poetry Library I wasn't able to find a body of work to get my teeth into.
As part of our theory classes, we looked in detail - frame by frame - at animations to assess timing and movement. This was really interesting, and I found it a useful exercise in understanding mood and atmosphere as well as seeing the amount of frames you need to create different styles of animation.
Some, for example, Billy Collins' 'The Dead' (http://bcactionpoet.org/the 20dead.html) uses simple line drawings with jerky movements, fast transitions and lots of metamorphoses. If you slow down the animation and watch it frame by frame the moves are made across very few frames, for example the arm moves with the cigarette over 24 frames (12 different images). The poem itself is dealing with abstract ideas; it is concept driven as opposed to being a narrative.
'Goodbye Blue Sky' from Pink Floyd's The Wall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0v07InoFiU) has beautiful Gerald Scarfe drawings with much smoother transitions. It gives a very different feel. There are still a lot of metamorphoses, but these tend to be at a slower pace generally, and there is a flow of ideas which follow more of a narrative than 'The Dead'. It's still quite abstract but grounded in reality. The arm movement of that big creature takes 70 frames (each a different drawing)!
'The Piano Duet' from Corpse Bride is even smoother (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMcImrNnOQ). 3D animation with no metamorphosis. This is a narrative, relationship based, much more like live action. The camera moves in the way live action camera moves. The movement of his arm takes 90 frames just for a slight gesture!
The ideas behind the animations help to dictate the nature of the animation. The Dead is intellectual, abstract and concept driven. It lends itself to an animation with lots of transitions, metamorphoses and changing images. Goodbye Blue Sky is more shocking and laden with messages about war and death; the beauty of the images and smooth transitions works on our emotions. The Piano Duet is a narrative, part of a larger story, exploring the relationship between two characters, and the live action-feel works to make the characters real for us, and enables us to identify with them.
Theory
As I'm interested in animation as a backdrop to poetry, I focused on this as part of my theory essay. Unfortunately, there is very little written about poetry in combination with animation. There is a lot about poetry with film, but, in spite of doing fairly substantial web search, and searches by the librarians at New York state library, the BFI, and the Poetry Library I wasn't able to find a body of work to get my teeth into.
As part of our theory classes, we looked in detail - frame by frame - at animations to assess timing and movement. This was really interesting, and I found it a useful exercise in understanding mood and atmosphere as well as seeing the amount of frames you need to create different styles of animation.
Some, for example, Billy Collins' 'The Dead' (http://bcactionpoet.org/the 20dead.html) uses simple line drawings with jerky movements, fast transitions and lots of metamorphoses. If you slow down the animation and watch it frame by frame the moves are made across very few frames, for example the arm moves with the cigarette over 24 frames (12 different images). The poem itself is dealing with abstract ideas; it is concept driven as opposed to being a narrative.
'Goodbye Blue Sky' from Pink Floyd's The Wall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0v07InoFiU) has beautiful Gerald Scarfe drawings with much smoother transitions. It gives a very different feel. There are still a lot of metamorphoses, but these tend to be at a slower pace generally, and there is a flow of ideas which follow more of a narrative than 'The Dead'. It's still quite abstract but grounded in reality. The arm movement of that big creature takes 70 frames (each a different drawing)!
'The Piano Duet' from Corpse Bride is even smoother (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMcImrNnOQ). 3D animation with no metamorphosis. This is a narrative, relationship based, much more like live action. The camera moves in the way live action camera moves. The movement of his arm takes 90 frames just for a slight gesture!
The ideas behind the animations help to dictate the nature of the animation. The Dead is intellectual, abstract and concept driven. It lends itself to an animation with lots of transitions, metamorphoses and changing images. Goodbye Blue Sky is more shocking and laden with messages about war and death; the beauty of the images and smooth transitions works on our emotions. The Piano Duet is a narrative, part of a larger story, exploring the relationship between two characters, and the live action-feel works to make the characters real for us, and enables us to identify with them.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Hinshelwood Cup - a poem for Dad
This poem was written for Dad's retirement conference in November 2009.
A daughter's perspective on psychoanalysis.
A daughter's perspective on psychoanalysis.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Poetry Video Log
This was recorded in New York in July 2007 as part of Michael Mart and George Wallace's video archive of poets:
First attempts at poetry animation
My interest in animation is to explore how to use animation in the context of poetry. How well they complement each other, and how well animation can be used as a backdrop in a performance context. This is my starting point! Here are three short animations using Stop Motion Pro. I made these in 2008.
Dust Chorus
This first one I made during a 3 day taster course in Bristol. It's based on a poem called Dusk Chorus which won first prize in the Roundyhouse Poetry Competition. I was interested to see whether I could express what I wanted to say without using words. Hmmm.... not yet!
Mrs Cheveley in the Conservatory at Tenby
I thought I'd try creating an animation alongside me reading one of the poems. This is a poem that has been published in several literary magazines - one of my Pembrokeshire poems. It's very rough and messy but was great fun to make! The animation won first prize in Leaf Book's Mostly Life competition in 2008, and I performed the poem with the video as a backdrop in Milgi's yurt in Cardiff last year. This definitely spurred me on to continue learning about animation.
Quarry
Another Pembrokeshire poem. From the North coast, a place called Porthgain where there is a disused quarry, and people have used stones to write words all over the quarry floor. This animation is also very messy and didn't really turn out how I had hoped!
Dust Chorus
This first one I made during a 3 day taster course in Bristol. It's based on a poem called Dusk Chorus which won first prize in the Roundyhouse Poetry Competition. I was interested to see whether I could express what I wanted to say without using words. Hmmm.... not yet!
Mrs Cheveley in the Conservatory at Tenby
I thought I'd try creating an animation alongside me reading one of the poems. This is a poem that has been published in several literary magazines - one of my Pembrokeshire poems. It's very rough and messy but was great fun to make! The animation won first prize in Leaf Book's Mostly Life competition in 2008, and I performed the poem with the video as a backdrop in Milgi's yurt in Cardiff last year. This definitely spurred me on to continue learning about animation.
Quarry
Another Pembrokeshire poem. From the North coast, a place called Porthgain where there is a disused quarry, and people have used stones to write words all over the quarry floor. This animation is also very messy and didn't really turn out how I had hoped!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)