The first approach I used to start the brief was look at the definitions for each of these words. Even though I knew what the words meant I thought having a fuller understanding of what each of them meant, would inspire me or at least give me a better grasp of the kind of themes and stories I could relate back to them;
longing
lɒŋɪŋ/
noun
- 1.a yearning desire.
For the first theme, longing I had probably the most ideas, I think the idea of wanting something can be interpreted a range of different ways, and I immediately had a bunch of different ideas that I could associate with this word. One of the main methods I used to generate ideas for the animation relating to this word was to look up quotes made about 'longing' and from there interpret them and brainstorm, coming up with ideas as I went a long.
The first idea I had was very simple, and the first thing I came up with as a simple suggestion to myself, so that I could essentially get the ball rolling and start generating ideas. It was simply the idea of two character writing letters to each other, suggesting that they were apart and at a fair distance from one another. The connection here was the 'desire' or longing to be with one another, but were making the best they could given their situation. This is a very simple and every day situation for someone to find themselves in, which is why I think it could be potentially a successful animation and allow the audience to connect with it on an emotional level, which is what I was hoping to achieve with the animation I produce for this brief.
The second idea I had was the concept of someone longing to do something or be somewhere. This could be shown, through a character staring at the sky or sea, dreaming of doing something like sailing the ocean, or being an astronaut. That was the general idea behind this anyway, longing to experience something. Another animation feature I thought could be potentially included in something like this would be to show the character growing up in a time-lapse fashion, stood in the same spot. So where as the character will be changing and developing into an adult from a boy with a boyhood dream stood observing the sea or sky, the environment will stay the same. I liked this idea, but at the same time thought it was quite cliche, however it would have been relatively easy to animate.
Next, I had the idea to show another side to the idea of longing, a more materialistic and an overall less emotional response. In this situation I thought of a character longing to have money and material possessions. Not necessarily out of greed but out of bettering his situation and not having to bear the pressures and stress of every day life as a burden. The way I thought to portray this was to depict several situations as a comparison between his life and someone else, so maybe he would be stood at a bus stop on a rainy day feeling miserable and someone drives past in an expensive car and the water that has accumulated at the roadside splashes him. This is also quite a generic idea but I thought could potentially work at answering the brief.
The fourth idea I had also communicating the idea of longing was a scene featuring an elderly man wishing or 'longing' to be young again. Perhaps this could be shown with him reliving a memory from when he was younger, such as his wedding day before it flashing back to him as an older man again. With a more or less empty expression of longing or sadness expressed in his face. This was one of my favourite ideas that I came up with for the longing theme because of its simplicity but also because I think it's quite an understandable emotion that not many people have experienced exactly but could imagine it to some extent, the feeling of wishing to be young again and relive the happiest moments of your life.
The idea of homesick is one that I really like in connection with this brief. The idea I had that is my favourite idea is having an astronaut in space looking through the window of a space shuttle towards Earth, longing to be back home with his family, and essentially being homesick. The way I was going to end this animation was showing a scene of his family on Earth looking back up to the sky, where the astronaut is in the shuttle.
The first idea I had was very simple, and the first thing I came up with as a simple suggestion to myself, so that I could essentially get the ball rolling and start generating ideas. It was simply the idea of two character writing letters to each other, suggesting that they were apart and at a fair distance from one another. The connection here was the 'desire' or longing to be with one another, but were making the best they could given their situation. This is a very simple and every day situation for someone to find themselves in, which is why I think it could be potentially a successful animation and allow the audience to connect with it on an emotional level, which is what I was hoping to achieve with the animation I produce for this brief.
The second idea I had was the concept of someone longing to do something or be somewhere. This could be shown, through a character staring at the sky or sea, dreaming of doing something like sailing the ocean, or being an astronaut. That was the general idea behind this anyway, longing to experience something. Another animation feature I thought could be potentially included in something like this would be to show the character growing up in a time-lapse fashion, stood in the same spot. So where as the character will be changing and developing into an adult from a boy with a boyhood dream stood observing the sea or sky, the environment will stay the same. I liked this idea, but at the same time thought it was quite cliche, however it would have been relatively easy to animate.
Next, I had the idea to show another side to the idea of longing, a more materialistic and an overall less emotional response. In this situation I thought of a character longing to have money and material possessions. Not necessarily out of greed but out of bettering his situation and not having to bear the pressures and stress of every day life as a burden. The way I thought to portray this was to depict several situations as a comparison between his life and someone else, so maybe he would be stood at a bus stop on a rainy day feeling miserable and someone drives past in an expensive car and the water that has accumulated at the roadside splashes him. This is also quite a generic idea but I thought could potentially work at answering the brief.
The fourth idea I had also communicating the idea of longing was a scene featuring an elderly man wishing or 'longing' to be young again. Perhaps this could be shown with him reliving a memory from when he was younger, such as his wedding day before it flashing back to him as an older man again. With a more or less empty expression of longing or sadness expressed in his face. This was one of my favourite ideas that I came up with for the longing theme because of its simplicity but also because I think it's quite an understandable emotion that not many people have experienced exactly but could imagine it to some extent, the feeling of wishing to be young again and relive the happiest moments of your life.
The idea of homesick is one that I really like in connection with this brief. The idea I had that is my favourite idea is having an astronaut in space looking through the window of a space shuttle towards Earth, longing to be back home with his family, and essentially being homesick. The way I was going to end this animation was showing a scene of his family on Earth looking back up to the sky, where the astronaut is in the shuttle.
fear
fɪə/
noun
- 1.an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.
Fear was another theme I had a lot of themes for, I think it's due to it being of of the themes with a broad range of possible connotations and ideas that can stem from the idea of fear. Again, similarly to with the theme of 'longing' I used a bunch of quotes in order to gather ideas about what other peoples interpretations of the word fear were, as well as gathering potential ideas for the animation story line by interpreting the words and phrases used in the quotes.
The first quote I looked at reads; 'Men feat death as children fear going into the dark'. I found this to be quite a powerful quote to look at, because it describes the way priorities and attitudes to change as you grow up and develop as a person. Children don't really understand death let a lone fear it, whereas adults think about it subconsciously on a daily basis, and the human body is too delicate to ever feel completely safe. This quote also gave me the idea to consider a story line about a child being scared of the dark, to most adults this seems like a trivial matter or a trivial fear, but told through the eyes of a child the fear of the dark can be very real and this can be communicated to the audience despite your age or feelings towards the dark.
Following on from this, I had an idea for a potentially moving story line for an animation based around the idea of fear. It would depict a solider hidden in a trench from the fire from the enemy coming overhead, obviously virtually anyone in this situation would be terrified at the prospect of death and the fear would be communicated to the audience through the actions of the solider. The solider knows he needs to vault over the trench soon, and he's building the courage to do so as he does I imagine this is where the animation cuts off, and the rest of the story, the fate of the solider lies in the minds of the people viewing it rather than reveal what happens. This I believe would be quite an interesting way to express fear to the audience, through something as universally recognisable as war.
Solitude is something that a lot of people would consider quiet a scary feeling, the feeling of being completely alone. I've seen a lot of short films that use an 'alone' type aspect to put the character in a compromising position, and you do feel the tension as the audience. Influenced by the short animation, 'Feral', I had the idea to show a young boy lost in a woods before finding his way out at the end, and his way home.
Again the fear of death is something very real to a lot of people, and showing a character on his death bed with the prospect of death right around the corner could prove to be a moving story, especially if it was communicated well within the 5 - 10 seconds available. A character being ill or injured in some way and realising they aren't going to make it could prove to be quite an emotional and moving animation, although my worry is it could be too dark for the purposes of this task, or that I wouldn't be able to do the story or be able to portray the kind of emotional and fear that I want to in the 5 to 10 seconds available.
Aside from these emotional and kind of abstract fears, a short animation based on horror, including traditional creatures such as vampires or other paranormal entities would be a fun and traditional way to express fear and horror through the medium of animation. Something like a jump scare or a typical creepy dark animation would have suited this theme well, in a very obvious sense of the word fear.
hate
heɪt/
noun
- 1.intense dislike.
'Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that'.Is quite a powerful quote that I found when looking up ideas and connotations of the word hate. This, like the previous themes is very open to ideas and interpretation. I initially had a few ideas for this that I came up with quite quickly. I must admit, however I did branch out a little from hate, and some of my ideas perhaps represent things like selfishness or frustration.
The first idea that I came up was perhaps not the best I could have thought up with the broad scope available to me with the word hate as an influence. It involved, someone ending a relationship by being cheated on and the feeling the person who betrayed would feel in that situation, a mixture of confusion, betrayal and frustration towards the person, perhaps this could be referred to as hate. I think the animation for this story would have to be quite dark due to the seriousness of the story, so perhaps a serious art style even if it's not necessarily accurate a serious style rather than a silly one would suit it more.
The next story line I came up was quite dark also. It involved a person sitting in a court room, during the trial of a person that was accused of killing someone that was close to them. I think this could be quite an emotive and worthy way to represent 'hate' in an animation given the short time. If told correctly and produced in the right way it would be quite hard for the audience to not empathise with the character and feel a mixture of sadness and anger for them.
The first idea that I came up was perhaps not the best I could have thought up with the broad scope available to me with the word hate as an influence. It involved, someone ending a relationship by being cheated on and the feeling the person who betrayed would feel in that situation, a mixture of confusion, betrayal and frustration towards the person, perhaps this could be referred to as hate. I think the animation for this story would have to be quite dark due to the seriousness of the story, so perhaps a serious art style even if it's not necessarily accurate a serious style rather than a silly one would suit it more.
The next story line I came up was quite dark also. It involved a person sitting in a court room, during the trial of a person that was accused of killing someone that was close to them. I think this could be quite an emotive and worthy way to represent 'hate' in an animation given the short time. If told correctly and produced in the right way it would be quite hard for the audience to not empathise with the character and feel a mixture of sadness and anger for them.
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