Review of Final Major Project

STUDENT NAME: Qandeel Anjum
PATHWAY: Lens Based Media
FINAL MAJOR PROJECT TITLE: The Dark Mind


My final outcome is an animation that uses mixed media, 2D and stop-motion clay. I believe I have progressed well during the seven weeks, I am confident with my final piece. It was by means a smooth journey, there were many bumps and hardships along the way, which I found to be very exciting because I knew for sure that I was not playing safely and experimenting enough for it not to be too little.It is not too far off my Project Proposal as it is still very much about the human mind and how dark it is, the mental illness the mind can very easily cause a person to obtain.

To make a check list of how my learning has effect my project I have done: an FMP plan, blog and sketchooks.Making a physical plan of what I was going to be doing throughout the seven weeks deemed to be very useful and helped me visualise how much I should have done so far, what I should be doing now and what I need to prepare for, for the week after. Having to update the blog everyday was a very helpful end to the day, as I can evaluate my days worth of work and revise what I have just learnt. This would reflect what I have done in my sketchbook and express in a more sophisticated manner the process of my journey and reflection upon work

Upon beginning the project, I knew I had to do something to push myself, something I haven not done before. I am glad to have met that target by making a film with an animation style and material I have never worked with before.

The development of my research is the key to where I have ended up with my FMP. My research is in depth enough for me to move aside from what I would have intentionally done and dived deeper into my topic to find something more effective as a final outcome.

I often asked for advice and others opinions on what I was doing, because as the audience they are entitled to their own opinions. Votes for best plot ideas were taken from group evaluation sessions and tutors, along with valid reason as to why the vote was being made. I also took professional input from tutors and took in their opinions and advice to apply to my work to increase the quality. For example having a well thought out story is just as important as the way you convey it.

If I was to do this project again or be given a few more weeks, I would really love to improve on my time management. I was very ill prepared and found myself really stressed and in a rush towards the end. If I could just fix the flaw I believe I would have a more clean and easier to understand animation. This would also mean more enjoyment in my work rather than just the feeling of want to get it over with. Never the less, I can confidently say I have successfully leant how much in depth research pays off in regards to the final outcome. These are important skills I have learnt and while definitely apply next year so I can be more at ease than I was this time around. It will only get harder from here so I should understand how important time management is.

Porcelain Flower

"When a woman is referred to porcelain, generally it is the skin texture that is quite delicate and flawless. There is certainly an aspect of beauty which is so perfect and beautiful, that you don't want to touch it for fear of breaking the delicate beauty of it.
Similarly, a flower is delicate and flawless. Alluring you with it's natural beauty but too beautiful for you to want to touch it for fear of breaking the delicate beauty of it".

The term porcelain occurred to me from a conversation I had with a friend a while ago as we were discussing my theme and ideas I could explore when trying to come up with a story. The word stuck with me and it just seemed to fit the storyline so well.
Flower came from the form of symbolism in the animation. The more Agnes harmed herself to look "beautiful" the more petals fell from the flower, causing it to wilt away and die.

There's been a pattern in my work which uses some sort of symbolism somewhere, even if no one can see it. I know it's there and if people did search it up, they'd find it interesting too. I though the use of flower as symbolism for her progression of loosing herself was quite intelligent and it proved to be because everyone who watched it pointed out that it was a very good idea and was pleasing to the eye and theme. It also got the message across since people do sympathise with innocent like a flower, more than they would a person.

Taking the tutors advice into account throughout this whole project was the best thing I had done. It meant that I had much better results that I had intentionally hoped for. I am very proud of the results of my animation.

Flowers? Symbolism?

The idea suddenly occurred to me when I was got into bed at 5am and had to wake up in two hours to go to university. I was extremely restless due to high stress levels and insomnia. I just couldn't calm my mind down and rest, all I could think of was work while I lay wide away with tired eyes that seemed to be open wide.
"A flower getting damaged: dying alongside her losing it and ruining herself.
As she peals her skin away, we change to a shot of her shadow on the wall and the flower has a lot of petals that’ve fallen as she flattens herself we views outside her flat and zoom out, seeing the shilouette of her flower petal falling and sounds of rolling are heard.
Plucking yawn hair off and replacing with paper Opening title sequence.
TV screen, Chanel change: a film by Qandeel Anjum.
Her walking down road and some girls laugh, road us cleared “film name” switch to her sad face and black screen. Now film starts."
I remember trying to fall asleep and being unable to I grabbed my phone and started typing whatever came to my mind instead of wasting ideas and my current strength which is somehow keeping me awake.

For a while I was wondering why I suddenly had the idea of adding a flower in my animation. It happens so that I had been thinking about a name for my animation that related to the film and sounded catchy enough; people often relate flowers to beauty and when having a chat with a friend about body dysmorphia a while ago she kept using the word porcelain so it just stuck to me and my brain just happen to be constantly repeating that word.
Also, very early in my first sketchbook, on the first page, I made a mindmap of psychology and drew a few images aground it, one of which was a flower.

I though the imagery of it was just beautiful and the way there was quite a lot of detail on something so small, especially because it was enlarged so and drawing with a few scribbles of pen. The fall of petals also looked amazing and I though it'd be a wonderful thing to animate in such a dark and somewhat scary animation. A little bit of a juxtaposition is never bad. It's visually appealing and relaxing to see something with as lovely connotations as a flower in a film that's generally the complete opposite.

Somehow I had also been unconsciously inspired by Beauty and the Beast, although the flower wasn't exactly symbolical as it had meaning and played a huge part in the plot. It's just the imagery of something so beautiful belonging to the beast who's described and seen as ugly, scary and mean.

Drawing falling petals and leaves seemed to be a recurring thing in my book. Maybe the fact that it's finally spring finally hit me?

I love me some symbolism and  I usually manage to get it in  my animation somewhere, somehow. Whether it's very noticeable at all or not doesn't matter so much, because I know that there is a reason each object is placed in the image and if people were to be critical and search it up if they wanted, then there will be answers for their questions.
It also adds depth to the film and gives it some more meaning that isn't everything you see the first time, you might have to watch it twice or three times to understand the little scenes and why they're used.

Another reason for having petals for symbolism is because I know that if, hypothetically, this was to be a full length film I would want it to be rated PG. Most film makes try and get as low a rating as possible for their films, this way more people can watch it and that means they'll earn more. This means I couldn't possibly have graphic scenes or anything that could break the PG rating boundary and venture into 12A or 12. As long as I am to follow the PG rating list and not raise higher I will be satisfied.
So, to fill the scenes where there would be gore or some sort of inappropriate scene I could replace them with the flower and show what's happening through the plant.

Animatics

The first thing I'm hoping for is that the animation lasts longer than a minute, because I gave myself two weeks to animate and it usually takes me a week to animate a little under a minutes worth of animation, therefore I'm hoping for something longer than a minute.
I also have a rough idea of what the background are going to look like but I've yet to decide the full details. Lately, I seem to be really enjoying background art for animation seeing as I put quite a lot of time and effort into it, and really study the accuracy of surrounds from different angles. So I'm hoping to have well drawn scenes for my final animation, that compliment the eeriness of the animation.

After finishing the animatics, I immediately started animating without consulting with anyone and merely showed it to the people who had a clear idea of what's going on. Only after having finished my animation did I show it to my tutors on the day it was due for adding to the showreel. It made clear sense to me about what was going on. However, when showing it to a few tutors who didn't have a complete grasp on my theme, they got lost towards the end of the story. It isn't clear enough what was happening. I had to explain the storyline to them causing them to let out and "ah" and finally understand. We agreed that this was a bad point of the story because along with the lovely concept of the story, it's not very clearly shown through the animation which is a disappointing waste of a good message in a story. I just wasn't working well enough.

I hadn't spent too long working on the clarity of my story because I knew exactly what I was trying to do and forgot that the audience, who know nothing about what's happening, wouldn't understand a single thing and would just be thoroughly confused.

I took this criticism into account and went to think about how I could improve the storyline and make it easier to understand without having the audience have to leave with confusion and disappointment.

Attempting Stop-Motion

I never though stop motion to every be easy. Especially after watching the making of Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox, it's a very long and slow procedure that requires a lot of patience and endless motivation. You need to have a set goal of finishing and ignore the fact that you'll have to do hours of endless editing and cleaning tomorrow, before actually putting the figure into the frame that needs to be created.
I tried to work chronologically because during the film my model will have to get flattened and cut up so I wouldn't be able to switch the order of  photography sessions. Therefore, I made a list of scenes to photograph so I wouldn't possibly miss anything that is if importance to add.



Walk cycles are much easier said than done. Still I think a walk cycle done with clay is much easier than it it when drawn frame by farm for 2D animation, especially when the legs are touching in any way. I had to learn this the hard way, inset of a simple side view, I decided to make my first walk cycle of a 1/3 turn and have very slow movement so it took forever to animate a simple walk cycle. Each frame in the of just the walk cycle consisted of at least 8 layers if drawing.
The clay walk cycle was much easier to do, because moving the legs physically is a lot easier than redrawing it over and over again. A few test shots of people walking did the job and make it easy enough to make a walk cycle to actually look like the character is walking.
A downside to this was, as previous describe in a post, the high temperature of lighting making the clay extremely soft and malleable. So when moving the figure into it's next position it would slightly flatten down every time.



Along the way I had to add and remove scenes in accordance to relevance and because I was constantly thinking about my lack of identical model. So I photographed extra scenes just in case I needed to sue them at some point in the animation. Even if I don't use them, it won't go to waste; it would still be worth the photographs because it would cause me to gain more experience and practice more.
Realistically, not every scene recorded and animated goes into a film, depending on level of relevance, some scenes have to be removed and whether they're useful or not depend on how the film turns out in the end.



I quite like how this turned out when placed together and exported as a video. The hand in the frames appearing and moving as the clay model was moved, it just looks good in my opinion. I already really liked the consistency of the figure and how smooth the movements were. Although it meant much more frames to edit and clean, it also meant I could slow down the animation and still have smooth movement.



Sometimes it's just easier to record the action and import all the video frames into photoshop and turn them into still then. Although it is a much longer procedure, at the moment of doing it, it just seemed like the easier way out. I hadn't realised that the trouble would be the same every time. I either move the figure ever so slight slightly and take a new image every single time, or I record a video and go through 5 rounds of editing on phototshop to get it into the frame.



There wasn't much to this, but it does have significant relevance to the plot of the film, wherein she puts her 2D paper hair on and believes she's now a 2D beauty just like everyone else. Small arm movement and every so slight movement of the hair as she puts it on is what makes this scene.



Again, I used the idea of recording it instead of animating each scene. This was die to the fact that it would be much harder to pause and hold the model in the air and mange to get a smooth animation scene than to record and go the long way about it. It wouldn't be an accurate  get of photos if it wasn't recorded. I tried that method and it would work because holding the model in the air with tweezers was difficult enough. If I held too tightly it would make a hole and/or rip off and if I held it too gently it would slip right off and fall down. Therefore I had to record a quick few scenes so I could pick and choose which scene or frolic I preferred from the selection.

Clay model

Making a clay model isn't particularly easy, especially if you don't have the right clay. I used come cheap clay for kids to try and construct my first first model, but it didn't work out because the quality of the clay was horrible. It just wouldn't mix, nor would it get out of the shape it was bought it. It was too tough on the hand to work with such material so I had to change to a clay form I'm more familiar with.

Polymer clay is this beautiful, soft, easily blending and malleable, but it's most commonly used for making jewellery and can be baked hard. This had both it's positives and negatives.

On the bright side it was very easy to mix with other colours, gentle on the hands of rolls and can easily stick to other parts without having to press on it. Because it has to be baked to turn hard, it would remain soft without air drying like usual clay.

On the other hand, it was too soft so it'd catch finger prints very easily, it would also loose it's shape and flatten very easily went being constantly touched and moved. It also gets softer in a warmer environment so it had to be rather chilly in the room for the clay to not loose it's shape and be malleable at the same time.

Having long nails is also a positive and negative thing for figure making. It's easy to stick parts to the figure without too much trouble and damage, it's also convenient when trying to gently move the figure's arm for example.

However, because it is sharp, the nail more than often leaves a print of some sort, especially if the temperature in the room would increase too much suddenly.

I suppose I should have bought different clay for this, but for experience sake it was much easier to use something I'm very confident with. Because I often make jewellery that has to be flawless before hardening, I had the confidence not to damage the model too much.

It was very much on the difficult side because I'm not used to fiddling with the final model too much and hitting straight for the oven to harden.

I decided giving her facial features as they would be so much more easily drawn on as 2D animated images. It would also be much easier to manipulate than having to change the facial expression along without moving the body every few seconds for the next frame.

I chose the colour green because, looking back to the first questionnaire I did about my theme, people often considered been to be a colour that would disturb them in some way. Colours such as green, burgundy, grey, dark blue, mustard and black make for a very grimy looking animation, especially if they're desaturated and of darker shades. It gives a very good visual effect if the animation is to be disturbing in any sense.

Having a green screen and lighting system in a dark room was a very enjoyable feeling, even if it was at five in the morning. It looked so professional with all the technology surrounding the little figure as I moved it ever so slightly every few seconds.

This contained another struggled I had to face. Because the lighting had to be very strong on the figure and have a very strong light on the background, it would heat with quite a lot and cause the model to skin ever so slight and soften even more than it already was.

Overall, the experience was very enjoyable and kept me excited because I knew that the little insignificant movements would turn into smooth enough animation in the end. I only regret making just one model because it would be convenient to have an identical one incase I needed to animate new scenes. I did however keep the remains of the flattened and cut up model [along with her remains].

Character Design

Personally, character designing I my most favourite part of animating. This time it seemed a little awkward because I was going to work with stop motion, clay animation, which would be my main character. Therefore I couldn't draw really exciting characters because I'm not very experience with animating with clay and I would have to design something simple and easy to do. This left me without much choice of a large range of different characters to design because I'd have to make it in the end and edit it and animate it.

The easiest idea seemed to work with simple shapes like circles and squares.

Designing her 2D version was much more enjoyable because this is something I know how to do and can animate. I found that using colour pencils as the base to be a very convenient method. It makes for a simple and effective base for facial and body structure while also making the page appear more appealing. It also doesn't get in the way of easily making out the characters features that have been drawn in pencil over it but rather enhances them and makes them look more three diminutional and realistic.

For all my designs, I chose a hairstyle from what I thought would be most convenient and stuck with it throughout the designing, it made it easier to see what and who each character was, that along with the colour pencil I used for the base of the character.

I can easily say that I had the most fun when designing the other characters that could appear in the film. Simply because I went al out with different design styles for characters and simply had a lot of fun in the process. I also applied a lot of my live drawing practice into the body structures, making them appear more accurate and realistic enough. I challenged myself by stepping out of my comfort zone of my already established art style and tried to experiment with new styles that I could come up with. This helped me broaden my knowledge on character designing and made me see it on a more wide aspect.
Considering character designing is my favourite part of animating, I wouldn't usually spend a lot of time on it because I would simply use an already established art style, simple because I'm comfortable with it.
During this course, I've had one specific recurring style of character deigning in my doodles with I seem to really like doing and I do quite like the look of them. In all the drawings above, I have characters with long, displeased faces; looking back through my earlier sketchbooks I see that I've used this style quite often. It's a rather appealing style and shows enough body language and facial expression to understand what the character's personality would be like. If not now, I would like to try out and work with this style int he future.

Doll Face

While getting new ideas researching, I usually talk to my sister about them and ask for her opinions or just get her to listen to me. This helps me be able to let them ideas sink in by having to explain them to someone else, to also helps that she gives a lot of amazing ideas and spitballs with me as I think out loud in front of her. This means that she's very up to dates with what I'm doing in my project and often goes out of her way to find videos, articles, documentaries and books I could look at which would help me with my research.

Conveniently enough, she found this animated short called Doll Face by Andrew Thomas Huang. In this animation, the machine thrives to be just as beautiful as the face on TV.
She literally reaches and thrives for the perfection shown on TV while damaging herself in the process. It's a very literal representation of women in society but shown in a very intelligent and stylistic way.

This is an amazing piece of animation/film aided by visual effects which seems to reflect my spur of ideas very vividly. Although it hasn't caused me to stray too far from my initial idea, it's just gone a couple of steps further and deeper in my research to get to this stage of ideas.

Questionnaire: Character

1. Do you idolise characters? Or emotionally connect with them?

• Yes and yes, because I feel like if I’m going through the same thing and dealing with the situations they’re dealing with; except I think I things I would do instead of the ones they’re doing.
• Yes, only when they’re relatable.
• I don’t idolise them but emotionally connect with them instead.
• Yes, yes I do, I’m not sure if love is the word, id say I fall in deep infatuation with them. Idolise is too of a strong word. But I do connect emotionally with certain ones and I feel that many of them are good role model material despite being fictional.
• Sometimes, when the character is show to be so amazing in one way or another. Like they’re very diligent and don’t give up and generally set a good example to views to be influenced by in a positive way.

2. Do you fall infatuation with characters? Why?

• All the time! Because they’re hot. You know that it’s a movie and you know you can’t find a guy like that so all you can do is fantasise and know you could never find a guy like that in real life.
• I guess so, if I’m physically attracted to them then yes.
• Not really. I’m more interested in the plot.
• Oo just answered this, I guess because they are hot and I’ve always been attracted to people/things with character, and characters are caricatures so tick all the boxes really.
• YEAAAAAA. Cos they're hot and real life humans are flawed. But yeah art style helps (they look hot) and with fictional characters you can play with many character tropes that wouldn't really be considered acceptable in today's society.
• Very often. Animated characters just seem to be more attractive that real people; as weird as it is. However, I do accept that it’s not exactly healthy you see because it makes me set my standards way too high, it’s almost amusing.

3. What kind of characters type do you like?

• The old villains, because they’re different and confident to prove what they think is right and prove everyone else wrong. It’s funny and badass at the same time. They’re old and cool, that’s cool. Like Voldemort.
• The villains that aren’t exactly the villains but are kind of the bad guys but not the main bay guy. Like Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII- Advent Children and Draco form the Harry Potter series.
• Narcissistic characters.
• I’m all about the villains.
• I like characters who are strong willed, empathetic, who work hard and are optimistic. But I feel that I connect more with characters who are quiet and keep to themselves, who struggle with their goals. Characters who are considered more ‘human’.
• I don’t know, I suppose I could say a villain but are they actually my favourite character? I don’t find myself routing for them necessarily. I wouldn’t say the hero, I don’t dislike them but they usually aren’t my favourite…no matter how attractive they are.
I like a really quirky, crude and sarcastic character, like coldhearted and mean but they have good intentions inside or have a god side. I could say someone like me really. They are by no means the villain, nor are they necessarily the “good guy”, they’er just there with a huge role (in my heart) and a bloody sexy personality. For example; Ymir from Attack on Titan; damn that lady’s amazing. As of late, this character tends to usually be female and that makes me like them even more, because…heck I like girls.

4. Do you engage more with a male or female protagonist?

5. Do you ever connect with your character so much that see you yourself being them?

• Not being them, but being like them. Because they’re someone I know I couldn’t be or even be like, so all I can do is imagine.
• I imagine/wish to be like them. I want to live their lives but be myself. rarely.
• Erm no. I may aspire to think like a character or adopt a few of there characteristics but alas, they are just fiction so what works for characters doesn’t often work in real life- e.g; happily ever after? How the fuck do they make that work out every time.
• I take on board advice that a character may provide but I could never see myself truly being them. There is a barrier between fiction and reality and everyone is their own unique person. We should embrace that.
• Quite often actually, but more in the sense that “if I were in their situation I would do this and that, rather than what they’re doing”. I’m an animator and writer you see, I like to live my character and imagine what it’d be like to be them, feel what they feel and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Again, for your question about getting emotionally invested in films? Yes, oh so very much indeed.

6. What do you think about the lack of non-white characters as protagonists in films?

• I think it’s fine. I’m just so used to seeing white main characters and have been brought up that way that a sudden change makes it feel weird. Considering there’s now a category of film called Black Cinema, it’s completely divided the two and when watching a film with a black person as the main protagonist it makes it seem like it belongs to Black Cinema, which is almost considered a genre now.
• I think it’s kind of stupid because anyone can act and it’s just a part. Unless the film is based on a book and it’s specific on having a white-male protagonist, it isn’t fair that the choice of main character is so biased and narrow.
• Doesn't give a chance for other actors who have great potential and causes the same actors to appear too many times.
• I think that it is a form of racism, especially when poc are used in films to fulfil inaccurate stereotypes, I think when living in multicultural societies it is essential to represent everyone. I think that lack of self-representation in huge powerful industries such as the media can be very damaging and can actually perpetuate the inequalities that people of certain race/gender/disability experience.
• I think representation is very important especially within industries that millions of consumers. The fact that there is a lack of PoC protagonists in the movie industry upsets me. 
Even though I feel you can still relate to a protagonist regardless of their skin colour, representation is still very important and it just goes to show that white dominance is still a prevalent thing and still exists.
• This is racism right? I’m by no means being harsh but it is very racist, biased and highly disappointing considering we like in the twenty first century and we’re supposed to be better people who like equality. But nope, not at all. What’s worse is the main character is always a white male. In a society where male and female are supposed treated equally, are they really? Sorry, the equalist inside me is coming out, but you know what I’m getting at.

7. Does the characters clothes matter to you?

• Yes they do, I like them to dress well. Especially if they’re the main character and don’t dress well….I like well dressed main protagonists.
• Yes, sometimes I watch to dress like them. Not cosplay necessarily, like dress similar, something that I could wear down the road.
• Not if it fits with the era and characters personality.
• Not really, they have to be appropriate for the character and their part in the story.
• Clothes can say a lot about a character so I suppose so.
• I think it does, because I like to cosplay and so do many others. If the characters clothes aren’t distinguishable, not necessarily cool and flashy or sexy even, just as long as they’re clean enough to differentiate it’s good fun to cosplay because people can guess who you are when you’re all dressed up.
• This doesn’t mean that the character should have far fetched, amazing and unrealistic clothes, right? I just think their clothes should be different enough you know, but it should be crazy funky because who actually dresses like that in real life?
• As a fashion student, yes it matters so very much. It seems like such an exciting part of designing a character, their clothes define them and mean that they can thoroughly express themselves without actually trying. Especially since it’s animation, they’re most probably only going to wear one outfit through out the whole film or show, so why not work hard on that make it special.

8. Do you like movies that have a setting where the characters go around and travel to places as opposed to a claustrophobic kind of setting?

• Well it depends what kind of vibe the movie is giving off and the genre of the film. if it’s one of those free spirited movies then I want the character to go out and be free from the claustrophobia the characters are in. However, if it’s a scary film it’s better to have a more claustrophobic setting because it effects the audience in the right way.
• Who’d want to see a film so packed and thing, it’s kind of annoying.
• Go out and travel.
• I like travel travel travel, but also like a home location, that is recognisable.
• Uh, it depends on the movie really.
• I’ve got claustrophobia so I’d say no to that obviously.
• I’m a very outdoorsy person so I’d say a character who travels.
• Considering I’m very lazy person who stays indoors all the time, I like watching films were the character goes on an adventure and does stuff, it gets me all pumped for those two hours making me feel like “yeah, I can do this”… yeah, I like that feeling but don’t actually want to bother with doing something like that.
• I enjoy looking at beautiful animated scenery, like the sky in Attack on Titan, or the extremely detailed sceneries in Ghibli films….damn, it looks so bloody good and real! It’s almost more real that real life.

Final Story

After going trough all my ideas and asking people about their opinions for my possible animation story lines, the most favoured idea was the one that hit me off the spur which I am, for the moment, calling Idea 3.

My story is inspired by an advert I overheard, selling Scholl’s Velvet Smooth Express Pedi. It was a rather word advert because not many times do they advertise products to make your feet “beautiful”. Something I’ve started noticing that’s been happening quite often of TV; adverts that show products to make your feet appear better.

Being in a society where looks are everything; the world revolves around physical appearance. In my story there’s a woman who watches and advert where she sees a product that makes your skin smooth and clean. This is through gently removing dead skin by rolling a contraption across your skin. Loving how the results felt, she got addicted and continuously performed the task to her skin everyday.
She’d watch more adverts to perfect her appearance and buy more and more products for the cause.
However this doesn’t take the best of turns. She abuses the products and over uses them on herself. This progressively gets worse to the extent that all she lives for is making herself look perfect. She’d be seduced by magazines and models and thrive to look like them.
This turns to an illness where in she will do anything to loose weight and appears as a porcelain doll. She now has body dystrophia and constantly questions her looks and tries to improve them by buying more products.
In the last scene we see her smoothing her foot away and the as the objects move, we see a bone through the skin of her heel. The scene changes to a view of her battered up face as she recites the only form of speech in the whole animation “I’m finally perfect”.

I think this story appeals to more people because many people go through it; not necessarily to such an extreme but it’s not far from reality. Stages of body dysmorphia include: depression, self harm and in worse cases; death.

In my animation, I want to emphasise the struggle of a person with body dysmorphia, but I also want to show people that striving for perfection is wrong in the worst possible way so the message is definitely across.

Public View

• The results were ever so close to vein exactly the same but just by two votes, idea three won.
• Idea three effects more people in the world so it would make for a better message to teach the viewers.
• I still think idea one would be an interesting story but also the techniques you would use in it, maybe you could incorporate or merge the stories together.
• I like idea three because personal I like a story with a moral to it at the end and this one would teach you a lot, I like stories of films like that.
• For me, idea three is very personal because my best friend had body dymporphia and it's not a beautiful sight. It upsets me so much and I just can't seem to get through to her no matter how hard I try.

It is important for me to listen to the publics opinions while injecting my own ideas into it, because it'll be the public that will be watching it and if I create something they don't enjoy it obviously wouldn't make a lot of money if it was a film. It naturally wouldn't have many fans because I haven't taken in the publics opinions into consideration at all.

Questionare: Animation Style

1. What's your favourite animation style?

• 3D because it’s realistic enough while being cartoon.
• 3D because it’s like I can reach out to them.
• Clay animation because that is some freaky shit.
• 2D animation, like anime you know? Attack on Titan. SNK, Free!, Avatar: The Legend of Aang, hmmmm... I feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh! I also love Disney animations, like Tangled and Frozen. So basically 2D and 3D.
• Maybe 2D or I dunno the terms but like mixing drawings with real life backdrops.
• My favourite animation style is 2D, Cartoons and stuff.

2. What comes to your mind when seeing the following animation styles?:

3. Does the animation style/visual appearance of an animated film evoke different emotions from you?

4.Where you aware of the different animation styles there are?

5. How do you feel about people thinking animations and cartoons are only for kids?

• THEY’RE WRONG! There are different animations/cartoons that also appeal towards teens and adults in many ways. Especially since there are different genres of animations out there like action, thriller, romance, etc.
• They have become more varied than animation in the past.
• I think that the view is honestly stupid, because why would you restrict the world of media and stuff to certain age groups when it’s open to all ages, excluding porn…
• They obviously don’t know what they’re saying- I turn a blind eye to such ignorance.
• It’s so silly to be honest, because why can’t adults watch cartoons and be equally or more entertained. I think anime is a brilliant example of letting teenagers and adults watch cartoons without being shamed by other people. However, even though it is accepted enough in society, there still are some people who look down at other who like to watch animations at an older age because it’s supposedly “for children” and the people watching are usually “man-babies”. This annoys me so much.
• I don’t really care….because I know it’s not true.

Body Dysmorphia and Trichotillmania

Because my storyline involves such mental illnesses I haven't looked into earlier I had to do some research to see what I'll be working with and how to express them in my animation to be able to get a positive message across.

Trichotillomania

What is it?
Trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder that include strong urges to pull out your own hair. An ICD is a type of psychological condition.
Doctors believed trichotillomania was rare. That way of thinking is now changing as experts gain more understanding of the condition and more people have come forward for help. Trichotillomania affects more girls than it does guys. Most people with trichotillomania develop it during adolescence, but it can can start in kids as young as 1 year old.

What causes Trichotillomania?
The exact cause of trichotillomania is unknown. It may be related to abnormalities in brain pathways that link areas involved in emotional regulation, movement, habit formation, and impulse control.
Some people with trichotillomania may also have depression or anxiety. Trichotillomania is slightly more likely if it runs in your family.
It is not know what causes trichotillomania but there are several theories.
Some experts think that hair pulling is a type of a diction. The more you pull hair out the more you want to keep doing it.
Ttrichotillomania may be a reflection of mental health problems. Psychological or behavioural theories suggest that hair pulling may be a way of relieving stress or anxiety.
In some cases, trichotillomania may be a form of self-harm, where you deliberate injure yourself as a way of seeking temporary relief from emotional distress.
Research into causes and treatments from trichotillomania are still in the early stages. Evidence indicated trichotillomania is a neuro-biological disorder and that genetics may play a role in its development.

Besides hair pulling, other symptoms may include:

• Feeling tense before pulling hair or when trying to resist the urge to pull hair.
• Feeling relieved, satisfied, or pleased after acting on the impulse to pull hair.
• Distress or problems in work or social life due to hair pulling.
• Bare patches where the hair has been pulled out.
• Behaviours such as inspecting the hair root, twirling the hair, pulling the hair between the teeth, chewing on hair, or eating hair.

What complications are associated with Trichotillomania?
Possible complications of trichotillomania are infection, skin damage, and permanent hair loss. The hair loss and skin damage can lead to problems with self-esteem and body image, even body dymporphia. In extreme cases, some people might avoid social situations in order to hide the hair loss or just not go out, like hikikamori.

Is Trichotillomania just a nervous habit?
Hair pulling is not purely a nervous behavior, though it is sometimes triggered by stress. The pulling of hair is just as often associated with other emotions such as boredom. The strong impulse to pull out hair exceeds the normal idea of a habit, that can be controlled through simple will power.


Body Dymorphia Disorder

What is it?
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is an anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance and to have a distorted view of how they look.
For example, they may be convinced that a barely visible scar is a major flaw that everyone is staring at, or that their nose looks abnormal.
Having BDD does not mean the person is vain or self-obsessed.
You experience concerns about your appearance that causes you significant anxiety and have a disruptive effect on your life. You may also develop routines and habits such as looking in the mirror a lot or picking your skin, to deal with the worries you have about the way you look. These habits usually have a significant impact on your ability to carry on with your daily life.

Low confidence turning int BDD?
Almost everyone feels unhappy about the way they look at some point in their life, but these thoughts usually come and go and can be forgotten.
However, for someone with BDD, the thought of a flaw is very distressing and does not go away.
The person believes they are ugly or defective and that others perceive them in this way, despite reassurances from others about their appearance.
BDD can lead to depression and even thoughts of suicide.

Who is affected?
It is estimated that up to 1% of the UK population have BDD, although this number may be an underestimate as people with BDD often hide it from others. It affects more females than males.
BDD can affect all age groups, but usually starts in adolescence, when people are most sensitive about their appearance.
It is more common in people with a history of depression or social phobia. It often occurs alongside OCD or generalised anxiety disorder, and may also exist alongside an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.

Typical behavious of someone ith BDD:

• Spending a long time in front of a mirror, and even avoid mirrors altogether.
• Constantly compare their looks with other people's.
• Spending a long time concealing what they believe is a defect.
• Becoming distressed by a particular area of their body.
• Feeling anxious when people are aroung
• Seeking medical treatment for the perceived defect - for example, they may have cosmetic surgery, which is unlikely to relieve their distress.
• Excessively dieting and exercising.

"People assume you are 'vain' but this is a serious life threatening illness."

New Story Idea

• Thriving for perfection

- the heel advert; imagine someone doing so much of it everyday that it ruins them
- they clean so much that one day they touch bone and say "I'm perfect"
- their face could also be battered up, causing their voice to sound creepy as hell

• Self harm
• Body dysmorphia
• She could be dying at the end, or at her deathbed but be happy because she's finally perfect
• Watch Doctor Phill

- girl would spend hours peeling skin and/or spots on her face to make the surface perfect

• Girl could be clay/stop-motion but wants to look beautiful like everyone else who are 2D animated

- she flattens herself and cuts parts of herself to slim down, just they way they are

• How did she develop this disorder?
• What's her past?

Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi

While watching TV today, my sister and I watched an advert that was trying to sell the new Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi. When the advert ended, as a joke, I said “imagine if someone was so stupid enough to do this to their feet everyday and run out of skin?” Because the process is that it sands down the dead skin, making feet feel smooth. But what happens when your feet are perfect clean and there’s no dead skin? Does it remove your healthy skin? “What if one day they’re sanding their feet away and suddenly touch bone and are finally relieved.” After a seconds worth of laughter, the both of us paused at the same time and stared at each other, suddenly realising how good a plot this was for my Final Major Project, along with fitting the creepy element very well.

“I rely on professional to do my hair and makeup looking great. And for my feet I rely on a professional too. New Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi’s advanced micro rollers softly remove areas of hard skin so thoroughly that your feet are left luxuriously soft. And for aftercare try Scholl Intense Serum to keep feet feeling silky smooth. Perfect for when your feet need to look their best. The new Scholl Velvet Smooth Pedi; our new effective way to softer feet.”


I think this would be a very effective topic to cover, especially in todays day when everyone, especially girls strive to be perfect in every way. Having the best clothes, the most trendy hair, pouty lips, slim yet hourglass figure, tiny hips, big boob and a big butt, fresh manicures and pedicures. Now, the feeling of the skin is also being advertised and perfection is encouraged yet again.

Therefore I’d like to show people something that could encourage them to not follow these trends and join the race to perfection because it does not exist. Having tiny hips with big boobs and a big butt is illogical and you physically wouldn’t be able to hold yourself up because of that uneven distribution of body mass.

I would like to show people something serious and shocking that does happen today. Not only to the people who have the mental illness, but to everyone else too; on a smaller scale of extreme. I want to give people a positive message, for them to learn something positive and apply it to their lives and tell others about it. I want my work to effect people in a story way and I believe this sudden spur of inspiration can be of real help and fit my brief along with my belief in story morals and animation style.

Story Ideas and Public Views

Story Ideas

Coming up with story ideas isn't the most easiest of tasks, especially when you feel like you have a billion amazing ideas and can't seem to choose one. But because I've taken up the idea of discussing my ideas with people, I managed to narrow down to a few ideas which I can elaborate on and add more to, to give structure. From my initial ideas, I gathered a few [as seen above] that I would discuss in class for our weekly group critiques.

___________

Group crit

• Look at Louis Wein, the artist that paints weird ass cats

- people think he has schizophrenia
- his mental illness is merely a theory

• Look more into the dark [original] version of Alice in Wonderland

- inspired or rather uhm...
- Louis Wein's cats are weird and remind people of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland

• Look at video game of crazy Alice in Wonderland
• It'll be interesting to see the progression of mental illness developing

- how did he/she get it?
- what do they go through?
- what caused them to get the illness?

• Possibly look at hat Tumblr post about you, the player, being the main character in a video game and while going through the levels of the game it gets darker and darker but you're convinced what you're going is the right thing. At the end of the game you realise you've turned into the villain.

___________

STORY: Idea 1

• Girl stays in her room all her life because if she leaves, she won't be in control of her life. She'd look out of her bedroom window and see people walking around seemingly happy but randomly changing from 2D animation to 3D, black and white, pixels or some sort of stop-motion ect.
• The story breaks the Fourth Wall because only the main character is aware that she's not real and everything is controlled by me, the animator. No one else understands that they're controlled by me and they don't know I exist.
• They think the protagonist has some sort of mental disorder like a type of schizophrenia.
• She'd figured out that I can't get to her when she is in her room so she doesn't ever leave in order to protect herself.
• Hikikamori.
• In order to be free she has to isolate and hide in her room, away from me. This way she choses what kind of animation to be like.

- maybe have physical/human objects to animate, like puppets or hands, stones whatever.
- Maybe this doesn't need a set narrative or storyline, like trying to achieve something. It doesn't have to be a show or film, it could just be an outside view on something happening inside, like documentaries?

STORY: Idea 2

• A marionette doll going about living her life. She's a star, a performer. However she's controlled by her puppeteer and made to do whatever he wants. She wants to break free and cut off her strings so she can move on her own.
• She sees all these other people who are free and without strings, they are able to do and move and do as they please.
• She has to deal with the puppeteer's anger issues [agressive behaviour] and obsession with owning her/
• At the end she manages to break free and cut off her strings and dies.

- on the bright side, she's free [Y/N?]

• The puppeteer could have been a good guy all along and wanted to protect her so she wouldn't die.
• Could switch genders to represent the role of women in society [the boss for real]

- could also be a fun and new/interesting switch on character and gender role 

___________

Public View

• Idea one seems like more of a challenge and generally sounds more interesting than the other.
• The different animation styles seem like a challenging concept but would be fun and interesting to do. Something to learn from.
• Idea one requires more skill.
• Idea two sounds a bit cliché, to be honest.
• Idea one is more original and can show a lot more potential.

Initial Plot Ideas

Usually when I start coming up with story ideas I literally just spitball and write down everything that comes to my mind. This shows me how much all my research has influenced me since most of the ideas will be derived from it one way or another. It helps to just start with some words and write them down, eventually you start placing words together and forming sentences, while writ little phrases your mind gradually comes up with different scenarios or scenes that could turn into good story lines.

Hikikamori:

- staying in your forever and developing social anxiety.

Hospital setting:

- mental institute where you hear children's laughter, happy music, see and hear rocking chairs but the hospital is empty

- there could be a little girl [refer to Courage the Cowardly Dog gif]

- she could get a visitor often who comes over and hangs out with her

- draws friends on the wall, even her parents are drawn on the wall

Toys:

- a toy is given to a mentally ill child

- it has to deal with the abuse it gets, like limbs being pulled and replaced, so when the child isn't looking it struggles to move and looks gross when it does

- it cares for the child and wants it to get better so it's fine with the pain that's inflicted on it, because it always accompanies the child to hospital appointments and sees the pain and suffer he/she goes through

- it'll move closer to the child when they need to vent out something, so they don't have to keep it in

Nightmare disorder:

- person prefers dreaming, over real-life because they can do what they want, they can let out frustration

- they could develop insomnia!

- one time someone pisses them off in their dream and they decide to hurt them to let out frustration and kills them in the process. People get shocked.

- the person tries to fall ect. to wake themselves up but it was all real
Trichotillomania:

- a girl lives in a rich household, where everything is perfect

- parents would always be at work; abandonment

- older sibling is someone who she should be like

- she loves her hair, pulls out her eyebrows and is just happy that it's more physically with her in her hand, rather than on her face

- getting at the age where all girls talk about makeup; mascara, eyebrow pencil and make fun of her because she doesn't have any

- she covers her face and progressively it gets worse whens he runs out of eyebrows and eyelashes to pull, turns to the hair on her head

- parents are ashamed "why can't you be like everyone else/your older sibling?" "hiring a psychiatrist will make my name look bad".

Art Styles

Although I only analysed the few of the animated shorts I had watched, I couldn't ignore the ones with particularly amazing art styles or characters designs. Though many of them may be 3D animations, they do still have distinct and very interesting art styles.
A few that a found particularly interesting were:

• Sebastians Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin
• Behind Closed Doors by Jonathan Button
• Mighty Antlers by une Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt, Jouko Keskitalo
• Who's Hungry by David Ochs

A cold splash in the face: characters don't have to be humans. I always seem to forget this, considering it's a very important fact that I mustn't every forget. Just being so used to constantly drawing human figures and characters, I seem to forget that  characters don't always have to be human or even animal. They can be beanbags, a chair or even something that simply doesn't exist. It does not have to be something that exists in real life and that lives or moves in real life. It does't even necessarily need limbs, those are just there to give the object some sort of personification.
An important point I always forget.
The extreme detail in the texture of the voodoo doll is also something that must be praised. Even if it's a puppet used to animate, it's still amazing to get so much emotion of of an object without a face. The heavy breathing of the character is given so much attention since it's one of the only ways of showing how extremely afraid the little doll is of, who we're assuming is, Sebastian.



I don't exactly understand what exact animation style this is. Cut out animation? It seems the closes in my eyes at least, with some help from maybe 2D animation. The movement of the characters is so strange, it's freaky on it's own even if the storyline wasn't there. Being something that could easily be either choppy or too slow, it's very smooth and flows brilliantly.
I also love the touch of dark circles on all the characters. A very common thing found on most peoples faces that is just ignored in animations. It also emphasises the distress of each member in the family and the depth indicates their stress levels. Even the small child, our main protagonist, his them at such a young age. It's a simple but amazing touch that gives so much perfective into the characters life.



I wouldn't call it my favourite animation or storyline but I do love the evident skill of understand how lighting work. The shadows and angel of light is perfect in every scene. The contract is high and the facial features/body structure is very sharp, both these elements come together and produce such high quality results when accompanied by the lighting in the animation.
The character designs and scenery aren't bad either. They're rather grimy and rough looking, while being very detailed at the same time.
Altogether it's a very messy looking animation but it seems to fit very well with the scenes we see. Most of which are action and of the two characters fighting. These are emphasised with beautiful sound effects and slow-motion action shots to give the short and quick scenes of action a lot of justice.


Disturbing is a brilliant word to sum it up. Creepy as hell fits very well too.  All the scenes are hand drawn brilliance. The storyline is of an ice-cream who takes kids, locks them in the freezer and grinds their frozen bodies up and eats them.
Everything being hand down in a detailed but scribbly manner and in black and white adds to the feel of uncomforted to the animation. There's a lot of shadows filled in with a very dark black contrasting with some very white areas.
The backgrounds and scenes are generally just very detailed and fills up the whole screen, where as the characters are very simple looking and not very detailed. Round enough heads with small and very 2 diminutional bodies. I really like this method because you can easily differentiate between the character and their surroundings, rather than loosing them in all the detail. It's just a smile method that I think works and looks good to me.

Animated Shorts

As an animator, it's important I watch as many animated shorts as possible. Because they're not full length block buster films they have a different format, something we can learn from and work with. For example the length of the films, they're short and quick to the point, however, they do still have a very well constructed storyline, giving just enough information for the audience to be able to understand everything in a short amount of time. This also means that the animation has to be very precise and mistake proof, because of it's short length of viewing tim there can not be any visual effort for views to stick and poke at.

I watched a long list of animated short which I found interesting by title or just stumbled across when growing the interest. The list contains:

• Who's Hungry by David Ochs
• Emi by Gwendoline Ancelin
• Alma by Rodrigo Blass
• Almighty Antlers by Sune Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt, Jouko Keskitalo
• Memoria by Elisabet Yr
• Children by Takuya Odaka
• Caldera by Evan Viera
• Behind Closed Doors by Jonathan Button
• Sebastians Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin
• The Colours of Evil by Phillip Simon and Alyse Miller
• Just Delicious by Brian Bear

Out of the list I was particularly struck by five of the shorts because of the well constructed story lines, animation styles and the range in art styles. 

Alma is a film that I would think is a work of DreamWorks or maybe even Pixar. I would have though that had it not been the very dark storyline. Because it's a very childlike looking film, with a child as the main protagonist- the only character rather, and it being based on dolls, accompanied by the rather joyful. Although, in todays day and age, dolls do come with very negative and creepy images, this is merely due to their connotations in horror films, it is still without a doubt a child's play thing. Just the imagery on it's own is a PG rated film I would say.
Although nothing deserving a higher rating is necessarily shown in the animation, the storyline is of a very dark kind. A creepy doll appearing out of no where, looking and dressed exactly like the child might I add, and trapping it's soul in itself upon physical contact is no laughing matter.
But I just love that.
I love the juxtaposition of the animation style with the storyline itself. As an animation student I find it hilarious how people would think that because it's an animation it's a kids show, but upon seeing it they realise how incorrect they were but it's too late because the adult, along with the child, are now traumatised. I suppose it's rather sadistic.



I'm not so much into politics and I'm not insisting that this animated short is about the government, but that's just what I get from it. Children is a film seen from the perspective of a non-human child who looks just like every other child in this world and the only thing we can identify him by is the number on his forehead. Everything they do and that happens is absolutely the same leading the days to be on a constant loop in which everything is even and "fair". The children also have zips on all their mouths, where as the adults [teachers] have a mask with a smiley face on.
Everything I see just seems like, us as the public are the students while the government are the teachers trying to control everything, make it all fair by not giving any chances to being with and insisting everything be the way they want while we check to see if what we're doing is correct.
One could say the teachers could represent anyone in the form of higher authority. Whatever it may be is up to the viewer to decide, it's what they get from it because they film is purely symbolic and leaves many open ends which we  can fill by ourselves. Considering the animation only last just over four minutes, it's brilliant how it can arouse such an amazing reaction from the viewers and leave them questioning so much. For example I started question politics when I don't exactly have the slightest bit of interest on the subject.



Although it doesn't particular relate to my them very much, similar to most of the animated shorts honestly, it does however have a particular wonderful storyline conveyed in a matter of six minutes. The thing that kept me watching it was during the first minute when the main character is seen drinking, tipsy, the cursing and gore. Not very common things seen in animation, more common now than it used to. I'm honestly glad a lot of people feel the same way about animated films and cartoons not being aimed at only children.
The intense build up of storyline and character is also amazing. The music and flashbacks do work so well together, alongside the general animation style. It's realistic enough in the sense of body movement, it's very natural. The way the main character get up or walks, especially when he's drunk. It's fluid and life-like.



Here's a film relating very closely to my Final Major Project theme; Caldera. An animated short about a girl. It's very abstract and not easily understandable even if you re-watch it, unless you read the description nothing properly clicks in place. Even after reading the description  I didn't fully grasp the situation, but I wouldn't call myself the sharpest tool in the box to base the complexity of the plot on my judgement. I'm sure there's been a lot of research put into the and that everything would mean something. Through I do understand that the images are a close representation to the ones the directors father has seen in his life.
The animated short is of a girl with a mental illness called schizoaffective disorder. Discovering this led me down the path of research and got me thinking about how expressing personal things in films do go a long way and turn out of be very effective and can have you be very passionate as you pro due your final piece.



I do really have a thing for either psychological or sad films. Not that this film relates to my theme in particular in any way, but researching doesn't mean everything has to connect perfectly; I've learnt that it's good to explore the other realms to broaden my way or thinking and research. After watching this film based on a father and daughters car crash and seeing everything as a seen that would take place when a death god has to take a soul. The father naturally gives his own in place of the daughter so she can live on.
There is no form of dialogue what so ever although a lot would be needed for the animated short to make sense. Everything is convened through boy language. I have no words to express  how absolutely flawless and on point all  the body language is. It would require so much research and experiment to see if the actions don't seem artificial, unnecessary or overdone. It just leaves me speechless how flawless the information is conveyed. My personal favourite is when the guy in the uniform changes his gaze from the child to her father, indicating he will take one or the other. This is shown through the reflection in the glasses and I think it's just such an intelligent idea.

Cartoon

Having really thought about the last question in the questionnaire I had just taken; "Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for this question all my life. I think cartoons generally have changed so much and are mainly targeted at older people, like teenagers or even working adults. The kids are almost an accessory to take with you to the cinema so they can watch the sequel to the film you grew up with. I wouldn't say it’s an excuse because at this point in time, I’m sure everyone’s proudly admitted that they watch and enjoy cartoons no matter what age they are.
I think this, in many ways, links with the generation we were brought up in. Our parents watch it because when we were kids they’ve grown accustom to it always being on TV because of us, that they’ve become addicted to them.
On the other hand, us [late teenagers - people in their late 20s/30s] as people who’ve grown up with watching cartoons on Cartoon Network and such, it’s a lifestyle to us. It’s what we grew up alongside, the characters, the stories and everything. Because it’s practically engraved into our minds as a form of entertainment we enjoy it very much and do not take it for granted.
However, children born in the twenty first century take cartoons for granted and ignore them almost. With the increase of technology and other forms of entertainment, kids have forgotten the old ways of leisure. Though the same could be said for our generation, from running around in fields and climbing trees to sitting at home and watching TV while playing with toys bought from the store. Our parents must have though the same thing we thing of kids now days.
But being the snobby and complacent teenager I am, it really does annoy me that children at the age of 4 have iPads and tablets. What could they possibly need them for when they could have such wonderful things like toys, play good ol’ boardgames and watch some cartoon on Cartoon Network." I managed to stumble across this post while blogging.

This really had me thinking very deeply about the huge change that's happened in cartoons, a change I would't refer to as positive and good in any way. The image above consist of all the 90s and early 2000s Cartoon Network characters, and in the same seating as above, characters from shows made in the 2010+ era. I found it very interesting to see that the amount of good shows have decreased so much that the cinema is almost empty.

This bothers me in so many ways because cartoons are just gold and the amount of good shows on Cartoon Network have decreased so much that only about four or five shows are actually work watching anymore.

I think cartoons now are mostly aimed at older people like late teenagers and adults in their 20s or 30s. The generation that were brought up with watching cartoons all day/everyday; it's a culture for us.

The 2000s kids not appreciate cartoons as much as we do because they were brought by in the era of technology. Four year olds, today, have iPads and Tablets...what exactly do they need them for? When you could do so much better and watch a good ol' cartoon. Our parents much have seen us in the same way "ugh, all they do is watch TV and cartoons all day. Unlike us; we had to play outdoors in the trees and such."

This is why I think cartoons being aired now are still aimed at our generation while still being appropriate - enough - for kids. The more we grow, the less views Cartoon Network shows gets. Meaning the amount of shows seem to decrease. That means the shows being aired would be argued to have higher age ratings, had the 2000 kids parents had their way.

Shows such as Adventure Time and regular Show really do have many adult jokes, messages and themes - not that I'm complaining.

Knowing that most of the audience watching cartoons are 80s and 90s kids, they're remaking old shows and airing them. Classics such as Power Puff Girls, Teen Titans and Xiaolin Showdown. I wouldn't say that it's a good because because the remake completely ignores the original one and simply "ruins it", I'll be quoting many people when saying that.

All the shows seem to focus on the comedy aspect and ignore all the other genres you should have to make an amazing series, such as: action, suspense, romance and more.

The general storyline just isn't as exciting and intense as it used to be, instead it's far too playful that that's all theres is.

This seems to be a recurring factor with cartoons today. They've dumbed down. However, with new shows like The Amazing World of Gumball, although they're extremely unintelligent seeming, they're very well though out. Cartoons have become more stupid and intelligent at the same time, compared to how simple and easy they used to be. I personally think this is because most of the views are now university students who like "cool, fun and stupid things" to watch, but enjoy a sudden deep moment because everyone should think a little and exercise their mind once in a while.

Questionnaire: Film

1. What kind of ending do you prefer in films?

• Hopeful.
• The kind that leaves me thinking “what the fuck…?”
• Unexplained answers,I want to be able to think about what could happened. I just like the mind boggling feeling.
• I prefer endings that leave the audience questioning what caused it to end that way.
• I like endings that make me say: "that was amazing.”
• I absolutely adore cliff hangers, people often hate them but I just can’t. But I don’t mean like a completely unnecessary one, but something that’s justified and would actually be of sense and impact me is a good reaction to leave a film or story hanging.

2. What genre of film do you prefer and why?

• I like many genres. Comedy because it makes me feel good and I don’t have to use much brain power; easy going films. At the end of the day, my top films are very serious films that impact me lot. And animation and things aimed at kinds because of the messages that are given and how important they can be in life. Musicals.
• Horror, because I like the tension. I like sitting there, hugging a pillow and knowing— or rather, not know when I’ll get scared.
• Psychological thrillers because I like giving movies extra though about what’s happened. It makes them seem more that a movie to me.
• I prefer action or crime films.
• I don't really have a preference with films genres as long as they're enjoyable. But if I had to choose, I guess I like films that make me cry the most and provide good, heart warming messages. I feel that these types of films can really impact your way of living and teach people very important things.
• Ah, I refer to this genre as “brain ticklers” but I’m pretty sure it’s along the lines of thriller or psychological or something. Like Inception, that was one heck of an amazing film.

3. Do you get emotionally invested in films?

• Yes, in every way possible, I get too emotionally invested in films.
• So much….
• No because I know nothing is real. Even so, it’s their life and not mine so I don’t really care as much. Except for The Passion of Christ, that seriously gets to me. Oh and Harry Potter.
• Yes, if the movie itself is made well. If the characters are believable and if the plot is believable.
• Not always.
• Depends on the film.
• Very much, I really do.

4. What kind of music do you like in films?

• Cheesy stuff that makes me want to sing a long, like Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Disney films and my favourite; Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• I like music that’s eery and makes me feel uncomfortable.
• Anything, as long as it fits the scene.
• I like when music doesn’t fit the scene actually, when someone’s dying and there’s happy music playing. I really find that very interesting and confusing and makes me think “what the hell’s going on”. It also makes you feel all twisted and uncomfortable…I like that feeling.
• Soundtracks.
• Music from orchestra mostly.
• I like music that fits well with the scene it's being played in.
• Is this like a trick question only media students can answer correctly? I’m aware that sound controls the whole film and is what produces a reaction from the audience. But what I find interesting is when the music doesn’t by any means match the scene going on, because that can get a completely different reaction from the audience in which they’re disturbed, while finding it amusing and weird. Now that is a reaction you want to receive from your audience.

5. What is your opinion on plot twists?

• I love ‘em. I like it when you don’t expect something to happen it happens.
• The feeling of being proven wrong while watching a film is wonderful; especially in todays day when movies are getting so predictable.
• It makes the film exchanging and makes you want to watch more. Like, you just pause and try and get everything together and maybe even guess what’s going to happen now. Especially if you’ve been predicting the whole film and suddenly because of the plot twist it messes up all your thoughts.
• Everyone starts predicting films as they go along and when the plot twist happens it suddenly becomes so interesting and gets the audience to engage more.
• Now days people get bored with predictable plots and stop liking films. But if theres a good plot twist it can change the opinion of a person watching.
• They’re enjoyable, however when it’s overused it gets annoying.
• Plot twists the best! Especially unforeseen ones like in wreck it ralph. They are mind fuck that turn the cliché and mundane to fucking masterpieces.
• Plot twists can sustain interest to a great extent depending on how they’re implemented. If it leaves too many plot holes and is perhaps too far fetched then it can have the opposite effect. Personally, if a plot twist can make me go “OMFG YOOOOOO” then i’m all for them.
• I literally live for plot twists!
• But plot twists have become a trend so haven’t they just become a paradox? People expect a plot twist but in doing so they know that there’s going to be a twist in the plot, taking away from the original meaning and intention.
• I don’t like when plot twists are unnecessary like just for drama sake.
• I love plot twists. it makes you want more, especially if it's a episode type of animation but if a movie ends with a plot twist, then i don't really like it much because you have to wait for another year or something till the next movie come out.

6. Do you like backstories as intros of a movie? For example; Up.

• Depends on the movie really. If it’s valid then of course it’s important, if it’s not relevant to the rest of the film then it’s very useful. Like you could show an intro based on a girl getting bullied and then the movie ends up being about zombies.
• Yeah I do, because it gives a secure base to a film and helps the viewer to know what to expect. It’s just something to look back on and for you to say “ahh, that explains why that happened in the intro”.
• I prefer figuring out the back story as the film goes on.
• Yes, even though I haven’t seen up, I think backstories are so great but I also like them at the end, y’know like when everything be revealed! 
• They can be pretty cool and help drive character development/story.
• They’re cool, if you want to make a sequel in the near future you know. Like Up could have an amazing sequel with what we know form the intro about their lives, it could be a movie on it’s own had there not been too much detail in the intro show in the film.
• Yes I don’t mind it so long as its useful to the rest of the story.
• Back stories at the intro is good but I kind of prefer back stories like in the middle of films so your like “OH I GET IT NOW, THATS WHY THIS CHARACTER IS LIKE THAT” and so on, if you get me?

7. In animation, what film/show/cartoon, in your opinion, has the best art style?

• Attack on Titan.
• Tim Burton’s films. The characters are weird as heck and it creeps me out.
• Ghibli films.
• Anime.
• My favourite art style would be anime ones (I know there are loads but as a whole genre I love because they are just so beautiful!)
• I’m fond of the animation in Makoto Shinkai’s movies. For shows I like anime art style. I particularly like KyoAni and P.A works. Cartoons, ATLA and Adventure Time.
• I really like the cute chubby kind, where their body types are more realistic and varied like in real life. I also like the little bit of red on the tip of the nose. I’ve noticed it’s a very common trend for online artists that design cartoon characters.
• Chibi, small, squishy looking and cute.
• I don’t know if you’ve seen Yami Shibai, watch it. It creeps you the fuck out so much and it really suits the genre of which the animated shorts are.
• I love animations drawn like Free!/Nisekoi but also I love Avatar styles animation as well.

8. Do you prefer:

9. Why do you like films that deal with real life issues are so popular?

• Because they’re dealing with things people are aware of that are happening right now.
• Because the person watching it can connect with the character more. Like while watching it the audience can just be like “oh my God, yeah. Yeah. Yeah oh my God YEAH!”
• Because they are relatable, and therefore evoke more of an emotional response from the audience.
• People look towards recreational activity to distract themselves from the reality they’re currently in. But, I feel that films which deal with common issues are able to resonate well with audiences as there are mutual feelings shared between them and the characters within the film. Consequently, this provides a more immersive and emotional experience for the audiences. People dig that shit. I think.
• Hmm, I think they could be really popular amongst parents because children don’t necessarily do things like watch the news or pay attention in school [stereotypically at least], so through watching the cartoons they can lean something, lean about what’s going on around them. For example something so common as bullying can be shown so negatively [as it should because bullying is just so stupid honestly] that it makes the child clear that it’s not something they should adopt in their life. Or something like that.
• I think it's because you sort of can relate to it as well, or there are those real life issue films that are so interesting and you need to watch for you do get a grip on how serious it is and it makes people want to help out in return.

10. Do you think films/cartoons now days are loosing their “magic”?

• I think they are, because it seems like they’re running out of ideas and things to do. It almost seems like they’re forcing it.
• No, I really do not. Because if you still think about it, they’re finding the smallest things to make films about. Like back in the days everything was new so whatever you made would be amazing. But now because every thing’s been done it’s harder to come up with a plot so people try much harder and the films that come out are amazing and different because it would require a lot of though to come up with something new and not done before.
• They seem to be remaking a lot of films lately, for example The Amazing Spider man.
• Disney seem to have started this trend where in they find old stories and such, alter the version a bit to make it their own and make a film out of it.
• There are actually too many sequels now. Film that came out 10 or more years ago are getting sequels now.
• Most film plots have already been done so there’s a lack of what’s fresh.
• NO NO NO no just no….. just…. sigh…
• It all depends on the viewer. I could say that shows today aren’t the same as they were when I was a child because I find the content ridiculous but I could be purely taking in my childhood nostalgia and disregarding current shows without giving them a chance. 
Nevertheless, current shows and previous ones both have their hits and misses. There are still very good films/cartoons that have recently been aired that have given me the same feelings that I felt with my childhood ones so I wouldn’t particularly say that they’re losing their “magic.”
• No man, like they are magical to children. Eye of the beholder and thing.
• In terms of Japanese animation, I don't think they're loosing their magic at all but I don't really watch American animation although I loved Adventure Time and… oh my God, i forgot the title! The Simpsons is good too, in my opinion it gets better and better.
• Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for this question all my life. I think cartoons generally have changed so much and are mainly targeted at older people, like teenagers or even working adults. The kids are almost an accessory to take with you to the cinema so they can watch the sequel to the film you grew up with. I wouldn't say it’s an excuse because at this point in time, I’m sure everyone’s proudly admitted that they watch and enjoy cartoons no matter what age they are.
I think this, in many ways, links with the generation we were brought up in. Our parents watch it because when we were kids they’ve grown accustom to it always being on TV because of us, that they’ve become addicted to them.
On the other hand, us [late teenagers - people in their late 20s/30s] as people who’ve grown up with watching cartoons on Cartoon Network and such, it’s a lifestyle to us. It’s what we grew up alongside, the characters, the stories and everything. Because it’s practically engraved into our minds as a form of entertainment we enjoy it very much and do not take it for granted.
However, children born in the twenty first century take cartoons for granted and ignore them almost. With the increase of technology and other forms of entertainment, kids have forgotten the old ways of leisure. Though the same could be said for our generation, from running around in fields and climbing trees to sitting at home and watching TV while playing with toys bought from the store. Our parents must have though the same thing we thing of kids now days.
But being the snobby and complacent teenager I am, it really does annoy me that children at the age of 4 have iPads and tablets. What could they possibly need them for when they could have such wonderful things like toys, play good ol’ boardgames and watch some cartoon on Cartoon Network.