Gisele Kerozene by Jan Kounen 1989

Gisele Kerozene by Jan Kounen is a stop-motion animation film made in the late eighties. It is set in a modern city with a small statue as the main prop - the most important. Three main characters are chasing the statue after the fourth steals it. One by one the three characters are defeated by the fourth. It happens around the city weaving in and out of buildings.

Being a stop-motion animation film it allows the actors to fly on their motorised flying brooms, this means the story line is easy to follow because the concept is simple. This concept could be one of the main characters is meant to steal the bird statue, therefore the others are meant to follow the thief. The whole video has an element of humor to keep the audience interested.

Muto by BLU

Muto by BLU in 2006 is another stop-motion animation, instead of people its graffitti drawn on walls which have then been animated to create the motion of the characters moving along the walls.

The concept of the film in my opinion is about birth, death and recreation. This is a clue from the film becuase the 'men' on the walls keep changing and evolving as well as becoming something new. Its a good way to represent the recreation that happens during life. There is also a sence of humor being presented in the film, for example, a man sneezes and 'breaks' his head.

The Girl Chewing Gum By John Smith - 1976

'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith was created in 1976, in a town centre.

'The Girl Chewing Gum' uses a camera to shoot in a continuous motion which allows us to see what is happening as it happens. This is so no jumpiness between scenes or pictures is created unless they are meant to be placed there, by using the cut effect in editing.

'The Girl Chewing Gum' requires the audience to constantly watch the artwork from beginning to end to understand everything. The narrator in the beginning of the film is telling the audience what happens, and its worded to make it sound like he is a director telling the set and cast members what to do. Eventually, the narrator then reveals that he is miles away in a park.

This spin on the film allowed the audience to be put into a false sense of believing something, once the viewer had watched the film, the reaction made by the audience at the very end of the film allows the concept of the video to be expressed. I would say that this was the concept of the film.

Deadline Post-it - Bang-Yao Lui 2008

Bang-Yao Lui created the stop-motion animation film for his final project at Savannah College of Art and Design.

The animation took 3 months to film, 3000 post-it notes and 1 week to edit. The use of the editing program makes the viewers feel like they are watching something which took a week to film, and shorter to edit. Its not until the end where you realise how much effort the crew and creator went to for the final project.

The use of colour on the wall makes it seem more realistic and giving the post-it notes a personality - of course they cannot move, but the animation makes it feel like they are moving across the wall into different shapes and objects. The size of the animation makes the personification of the post-it notes even more real. I feel it also makes everything easier to understand while watching the animation.

The use of colour, editing and size makes the video seem like it has been created by professionals, it surprised me to find out it was done by students.

The concept of the video isnt clear if you watch it a couple of times. Its clear to see that the video has a sturcture, with a beginning, middle and an end. From my point of view, the concept could be exploring the idea of a fully craft driven piece, using stop-motion animation.

Posting it on YouTube allowed the world to see his creation, now its been recognised as a wonderful video by E4's series 'RudeTube' making an appearance in the 'Weird and Wonderful' episode.

Chapter 3 - Narrative and non-narrative structures

Artists have to take into consideration whether their piece needs a narrative structure or not. This could mean if the audience can admire the work and then move on, or if the audience has to admire the work from beginning to end to understand the artist's point of view.

'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith requires the audience to admire the work from beginning to end to understand everything. This is because at the beginning the narrator tells us what he was to happen, as if he is a director, and the audience pick up on this straight away. However, something during the middle of the film doesn't add up. As the information is fed to the audience by the film, the behaviours of people around and the narrator talking doesn't fit the way it used to fit in the very beginning. This then gives the middle part of the film and at the very end, the narrator explains who he is, its not who the audience assumed he is. Therefore this gives the film the structured, beginning, middle and end.

Tina Gonsalves' Chameleon doesn't have a structured story like 'The Girl Chewing Gum'. Tina Gonsalves had created pieces of artwork that the audience didn't need to constantly look at to understand the whole idea. This meant the audience could look at one piece (in this case an interactive photo) and then move onto another. Without having to constantly look at the artwork unfold its story by beginning, middle and end it made it easier for the audience to understand what the artist was meant to achieve.

Chapter 2 - Technology, Techniques and Styles

'DEADLINE - Post-it' (YouTube) Bang-Yao Liu 2008

'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith 1976

In the space of 33 years, technology has meant that more and more of people's ideas can be expressed better, with it becoming more realistic as technology advances.

The 'DEADLINE post-it' Video was created by a student from Savannah College of Art and Design for their final project (available on YouTube). By only using stop-motion animation it has shown the advancement in technology, which means that more and more of the creators ideas can be expressed better. Another way of showing the advancement in technology is the images are able to be stitched together to make the video have a smoother transition between pictures.

'The Girl Chewing Gum' uses a camera to shoot in a continuous motion which allows us to see what is happening as it happens which is easier on both the crew and the audience. This is because there is no jumpiness between scenes or pictures unless they are meant to be placed there, by using the cut effect in editing.

The styles vary differently, but they both have the same outcome, they both are trying to show the audience something. In one film this is exploring the idea of a fully craft driven piece by the use of stop-motion animation and clever shots as well as a mix of good music and clever animation skills, whereas the other video is trying to convince people the order in the way it happens, when actually it is prerecorded and watching from a certain distance by continuous shots, and have clever sentences over the shots, repeated to create the first impression which leads to the audience's assumption.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs

Chapter 1 - Past And Current Artist Work

For this I am going to discuss Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' (1996) and 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith (1976). Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' follows a robot's journey's to try to find perfection which leads ultimately to the robot self destructing because of not being able to find perfection. Where as 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith is a town center scene where there is a narrator, telling the audience what the narrator wants to happen. Although it is later revealed that the narrator is telling the audience what has already happened at the particular location.

A main similarity of the two experimental videos is the video tells the audience a lie. In Andy Huang's video this is the TV telling the robot that the image on screen is the perfection that the robot should aim for. However when this image changes again, the robot is again being told what perfection should be, and as before, the robot copies. A similarity occurs in John Smith's video. The narrator is telling the audience what happens, and its worded to make it sound like he is a director telling the set and cast members what to do. After minutes of this happening, the narrator then reveals that he is miles away in a park. The beginning of the film makes it look like we are watching something in creation, in fact we are watching it and assuming somethings happening. The reveal of the narrators true identity comes as a shock for the audience because of the first assumption that he was a director.

A difference between the two films is the way the similarity is played to the audience. In 'Doll Face' the object or person is the TV, this is shown as the most important character because the TV is telling the doll/robot what to do. This is understood almost instantly by the audience. However in John Smith's film it is not instantly understood who takes control of the scene. We (as an audience) have hints and idea's that it be the man talking and narrating the piece, but is later revealed that the man talking isn't who the audience assume he is. The difference is the understanding made by the audience of who each character could be, in one film the understanding is made instantly, in the other film the understanding takes a little longer to be known to the audience.

Chapter 6 - Different Interpretations

Many people have different interpretations of things that they may see, whether on a daily basis or on a one off trip, for example in the Tate Modern.

The interpretations made by the audience of the artwork in the Tate Modern may be different as everyone will have different opinions and these opinions effect their conclusions of the art-work they might see.

Some examples of this could include Robert Therrien's 'No Title (A Table And Four Chairs)'. Many people, including myself, didn't think that this was art. After reading the descriptive plaque on a wall to describe the artists views to try to explain his reasons for creating the art, it later changed the way I viewed the piece, therefore the plaque on the wall could have changed the way others saw the table and four chairs.

Another piece experienced at the Tate Modern was Anish Kapoor's structure. As before, you needed to read the plaque on the wall to understand what the artist was thinking. To start off with, it looked like art although it was still unclear what it meant without reading the plaque. It could be the reflection of anything, being distorted and changed to be something else or something new. However, when I read the plaque, my interpretation was completely different to the artist's view - making it feel like my personal interpretation wrong. Taking this into consideration, as well as including my personal opinion, i think artists make artwork with multiple meanings because everyone might read it differently to the original idea, therefore it would make it easier to create different meanings.

If everybody had the same interpretation on art or on every day objects, nothing would be any different because everyone will think the same about those objects. There would be no contrast between something being art or not, there would be no difference in opinion between the art objects, it would make art boring because no one can explore what the meaning of the object or what they think of the object when they see it.

Chapter 5 - My Experimental Video Idea

My experimental video is inspired by many works of art published first on YouTube, now being published on TV channels such as E4 (RudeTube) and channel 4. The concept of the stop-motion animation video is exploring the idea of a fully craft-driven piece of work.

The whole video will use stop-motion animation until the very last scene, this will be using a normal video recorder.
The first few scene's will involve the main character (a wooden art figure) doing everyday tasks, like moving things around and clearing things up. The scene's in the middle will consist of the main character preparing for a party or gathering.
Unfortunately, only one person turns up. Another character (another wooden art figure - and the only one turning up) will join the main character for a party, each will do something different at the party. The last scene will consist of 2 people re-creating a scene from the stop-motion clips or creating a new scene to add onto the end.