Summary, Reflection and Evaluation

Summary

My animation was based upon the poem Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath. The poem explores numerous topics including history, suicide, resurrection and revenge. Personally what i found intriguing about the poem was the links to WW2 and the Holocaust. I was tentative to choose this poem because of this strong historical context which portrayed incorrectly would be hugely inappropriate. However i continued to research and found that an allegorical approach could be very fitting. Within the poem Plath refers to a cat and a phoenix (in the way she describes the resurrection) this reminded me of how the Nazi’s would describe themselves as a cat in a game of cat and mouse with the Jews. I thought this imagery was very fitting but decided to swap the mouse with a bird which could then be resurrected into a phoenix. This was now the foundation of the plot the animation would take. When it came to the actual creation and planning of the animation i had the idea to add subtle hints throughout the animation referring to the Nazis. For example the opening shows a flock of birds flying in formation, what you may not notice is how the birds start in the form of a swastika. Additionally the colour scheme reflects the colours used in propaganda posters, deep reds, black and white with occasionally a beige background.

Reflection

Research was a very important part of this project as it enabled me to have more understanding and respect for not only the people i was portraying but also the author, Sylvia Plath. Plath actually committed suicide so the poem was just as much about her mental wellbeing than it was about ww2. In fact it was the convergence of the two that makes the poem so interesting as she relays her suffering to that of those from the holocaust and claims in this that history is not for anyone to own. I wanted to respect her and her poem so research was integral to portraying my own interpretation.

In terms of storyboarding I would just note down all my ideas as i was having them and as a result would have several storyboards all slightly different but telling the same portion of the story. Through this i was able to try and come up with the best version of my animation that i could. The sequence of events was quite simple to follow as it followed the poem.

Numerous artists from a wide variety of backgrounds and styles helped in my research to find an aesthetic that would be suitable. This included the artists such as Hans Schweitzer who created Nazi propaganda to Olivia Lomenech Gill who illustrates fantasy creatures.  I felt it was important to delve in to a variety of styles from different periods of history to hopefully create the best version of the animation that i could. 

I found the sound really difficult too choose, I really wanted it to reflect how ‘Peter and the Wolf’ has certain instruments to reflect each character. As a result I wanted it to be classical and a true parallel of the characters. The final sound i chose is very simple with plucking strings. The aspect of the strings almost represents the innocence of the bird whilst the repetitiveness  and its eerie nature symbolises the birds destruction as a result of the cat. I chose to use a cacophony of drums for the Phoenix emerging as it represents a change in the birds character from small and delicate to strong and vengeful. This was also a result of my research in the foley and how not every sound needs to be an exact recording of real life. I did choose however to have a recording i took of birds chirping running beneath the sounds throughout the animation as i felt it would provide a nice natural balance to the intense music.

A part of the process i did struggle with was the choice of background. I had so many different ideas which i liked all of. However i felt that because i had delved quite far away from the story as a poem itself it might be nice to put textured paper as the background. In this way the poem then remained written on paper just through animation and not words.

Evaluation

Unfortunately i was limited in terms of what techniques and process i could use to create the animation due to the outbreak of Covid-19 however i was quite lucky to have access to procreate so  i was able to draw out and create the animation. Given the opportunity i might have explore more tactile processes such as etching. I also think i could have furthered my animation by giving my characters more personality, this could have been done by animating my cat much more villainously in the way it walked and prowled around the bird. The bird could definitely have done with more personality, however it does also suit a blank exterior and then becoming bright and vibrant in its Phoenix form. Additionally i would have liked to create my own music for the animation but due to time constraints ultimately did not have the time to create something that i felt would do the animation justice.