Exercise 1 - part two. 'Daughter' animation

Following my Cinderella story in 5 frames, I've been mulling over the process of producing these sequences of 5 pictures to tell a story. I've looked at other students work, some of which are very inspiring, beautifully drawn and very clear in their story. Clarity seems to be the key point in this - making sure that the viewers eyes are drawn to the main action and/or character in the scene. The ones that worked the best for me were a) those whose stories I was familiar with, b) the ones that were visually clear and c) those stories that had a consistency to them - eg following a character through to the end.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about a story of my own. My personal interest in creating digital films is primarily in creating poetry films/animations, as a backdrop to my poetry, so I began thinking along the lines of how to identify 5 frames of a poetry film. The problem I was up against was that there isn't such a strong narrative in the poetry. I chose a poem 'Daughter' that I wrote some time ago in Pembrokeshire. It is a poem describing a moment of realisation in my life. The text for the poem is at the bottom of the blog entry.

These are some of the sketches I did to explore what should go into each frame. And also to explore the themes, atmosphere, metaphors in the poem, and some idea of how I might go about do this in film.

I decided on a simple animation that focused on the mood of light-dark. I found some pictures on the web that showed a window with light shining into a dark room - these were a great help. I also had the idea of paint splashes when I went for a curry with my partner on Valentines Day. There was a painting on the wall that was just paint splashes, and was very effective. 

My final 5 images that tell the story are below. These are individual frames from the animation.

The animation is on vimeo. The link is here: Daughter

My main problem with this exercise was the fact that it had a very simple narrative. I'm not sure that the 'story' comes across very clearly. I also wished that I had made the pint a bit more pronounced, perhaps drawing it in ink. But I was pleased that - as a result of looking at other people's stories - I simplified the scene completely, and enlargened the beer glass, so that the beer glass became an embodiment of me, the only other thing in the picture apart from the window and eira looking in.

The actual realisation of the piece in animation was a lot more time consuming and frustrating than I planned (!). Issues like the paint drying very quickly, and the reflections of the light from the ink etc.. But great fun to do.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

The text of the poem is here:

Daughter

For Eira

Old Point House, Angle

Until now, I didn’t know how dark it was inside.

It seemed a cosy place to have a pint. 

The seats are worn and wonky. Torn-up

beer mats wedged under table legs.

On the walls are curiosities, nets, an old clock

whose hands are slow. All the regulars

are talking shop.

You peer in now, nose to the glass,

your hands shield the sun’s glare, your 

smile as wide as the bay behind,

your eyes are a lighthouse beam 

scanning the shadows for me, 

rummaging amongst memorabilia 

for my shape.

And though I smile and wave

I’ve ghosted into dust.

You turn from the window, 

out of the frame

leaving me low-ceilinged 

and cluttered, staring 

at the square of light where you had been.