Proposal for a Animation Dissertation Essays

Proposal for a Animation Dissertation Essays Proposal for a Animation Dissertation Essay Proposal for a Animation Dissertation Essay Three initial ideas for dissertation. 1. Analogue film and its imprint on the digital era. This thesis for a dissertation would have set about to analyse the relationship between analogue and digital filmmaking and the differences in these practices since the rise of the latter’s popularity and usability. The paper would have evaluated digital filmmaking practices and the new range of techniques that modern technology has brought about, giving reference to the rise of importance in editing since the development of red-one and the response to this of various filmmakers, Lars Von Trier etc. New aesthetics would have also been explored, looking at films such as Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006) and Trash Humpers (Kornine, 2009) and the ways in which contemporary films utilise imperfections of the digital medium to create new aesthetics in opposition to that of the cultured visuals of Hollywood cinematics. The essay would also have devoted a chapter to Marshall McLuhan’s theories of the postmodern effect of globalisation through the Internet and how new media has changed the face of film and the way practitioners can operate within visual culture. . Auteurism – career momentum that outlasts the diminishment of practitioner’s talents. This dissertation would have explored the effect on a director that being branded an auteur can have. The paper would have formed a discussion on how being branded an auteur early in a filmmakers career can end up inadvertently damaging their product. The dissertation would have utilised case studies on directors such as Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson and M. Night Shyamalan to form the basis for an argument on the view that the directors films are so highly praised for aspects of cinematography and narrative that, in later projects, revert to conforming to what they believe audiences expect of them and begin to display a distinct impression of ‘style over substance’. It would go on to suggest, backed up by aforementioned case studies, that directors can have the tendency to become lost within their own visuals and thematic traits and loose sight of what got them branded as n auteur in the first instance. This idea was formed through watching M. Night Shyamalan in chronological order and forming an opinion that he has utilised the ‘twist’ ending to such an extent that it no longer shocks an audience and creates the effect that garnered him so much critical acclaim after the release of The Sixth Sense (1999). Stemming from this realisation the paper would study other auteur branded director’s films and form ed an opinion on whether the tag of an auteur can damage a practitioners brand. . Hasta la vista†¦ movie – the effect of ‘geek culture’ on the modern day movie experience This paper would have studied the effect of geek culture on the modern day viewing experience when anticipating and watching an upcoming film. The paper would have drawn on statements made by Marshall McLuhan about the rise in usability of the internet and new media and how this has affected the way in which modern day audiences participate in the movie going experience. The dissertation would have utilised examples such as the modern trailer, blogs, the film website, critics reviews and events such as film and comic book conventions to introduce the thesis that curiosity and commentary on films through these mediums destroy the feeling of ambiguity experienced by cinema goers who previously could enter a film not knowing a thing about the film they were about to watch, and how this is an era that now lies well within the past. It would analyse the modern day climate in which a person can read a magazine and scour the Internet for 30 minutes and have already found out the main events, listened to the soundtrack and know every stylistic trait of a film before viewing it. The paper would have presented this view but also attempted to present an unbiased argument by stating that it is because of this ‘geek culture’ and its positive promotion on the Internet that many modern day films are produced and received so successfully. As reference for this argument a case study would be conducted into the promotion of film through viral videos, and a further case study would be conducted into the forthcoming film Tron: Legacy (2010) and how the internet may have facilitated its production. Word Count: 701 Abstract This study addresses the viability of auteurism in the contemporary moving image industries and the significance of this in relation to whether or not an animator can be considered a genuine auteur within the wider context of general artistic practice. The purpose is to provide an up to date and comprehensive, analytical framing of auteur theory and enhance the arguments laid down by critics, thinkers and theorists on both the psychoanalysis concerned with the consideration of the ‘original’ self in a postmodern society and whether the collaborative, creative nature of the animation industry lends itself to the term auteur. The dissertation will provide a social, historical and theoretical study of a number of discourses concerned with the animation industry, examining distinguishable personalities within the medium and formulating a thesis on arguments limiting auteur theory to the status of â€Å"high art† whilst questioning the genealogical construction of understanding surrounding the bourgeois construct of authorship. The paper sets about to provide an unbiased argument on the authentic nature of auteurism within contemporary perceptions of animated cinema, it attempts to present two sides to arguments that concern the author and audiences of a ‘text’ and their role within a process of cognitive perception. It will instigate discussion on aspects of auteurism by presenting case studies on Pixar and they ways in which the corporation operates in contrast to non-western animators such as Hayao Miyazaki and The Brothers Quay. The central argument is concentrated on an animator’s ability to experiment and diversify, create new perspectives on the interrelations between the highbrow and the popular, aesthetics and ideology. Word Count: 263 Methodologies Report This paper is a theoretical and historical study of the animation industry, how it has grown and blossomed from the advent of Joseph Plateau’s Phenakistoscope in 1832 and the early animated films of Reynaud And Melies in the late 1800’s, through to the modern day industry dominated by the market conditioning animation studios such a Pixar and Disney. Alongside this contextual background the relativity of auteur theory will be discussed in relation to its possible existence in a contemporary business that competes against contemporaries often seen to exist on a plane artistically above that of the mainstream animation industry. This question of authorship within the animation practice has been widely disputed and contended by a range of commentators throughout its short history and this study will serve to provide a conclusive framing of the topic. The first problem with thinking about animation and its broad stable of directors as a base for authorship can be traced back to its association with ‘high art’ and the origin of the word auteur in conjunction with media studies, Cahiers du Cinema. During the 1950’s, a period in which French film enjoyed widespread artistic acclaim, this influential film journal, written by, among others, Jean Luc Goddard, Francois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette, attempted to emphasise the role which a filmmaker assumes in the direction of their film and the significant way in which they acquired a distinguishable signature style from production to production. This became further associated with terms such as camera-stylo or metteur en scene. The Cahiers du Cinema insisted that if a director was to become recognised as displaying the traits of an auteur he must be recognised as contributing a signatory licence across a series of films, that clearly defined both aesthetic and thematic trends and offered a conclusive view of the elementary principles of an ‘art form’. Problems arose with the theories concerning auterist film practice in the late 1960’s almost a decade after the Cahiers had coined the phrase during the French renaissance. The collaborative and procedure orientated nature of making a film was called into question and â€Å"became subordinate to the critical parameters that determined film as a directors medium and as the significant voice of the film† (Wells, 2002 p. 72). Notable screenwriters such as Nicholas Kazan and Ernest Lehman have voiced their discontent with the notion of the director as the singular contributor to the stylistic and thematic contents of a film. Supporting this, since the late 60’s, few film historians have onoured the notion of a director as a singular contributing factor within a film and note other practitioners – the screenwriter, cinematographer and producer – to having mounted a substantial challenge to the directors claim to the romantic concept of the author. It is obviously true that the animation director’s influence can have a large effect upon the films artistic direction but it is interesting to consider whether or not they alone hold the pen or camera-stylo, as it were. Inevitably because of the range of opinions that exist within the subject of auteur theory especially considering the spectator and the sociological connotations that are implied by the author and audience existing alongside the text and inhabiting it (Barthes, 1982) it is hard to provide a definitive account of authorship in animation practise and the discussion of this theory remains challenging within media studies. The addition of thinking about the animation director as an auteur further complicates the debate of authorship. It can be said that in one frame of mind the animation industry perfectly echoes that of filmmaking practice in relation to production process and artistic conditioning implied through this range of processes. On the other, it further complicates the argument concerning the ability of the filmmaker to work within an arguably even larger creative environment or completely alone. It has been argued (Wells, 2002 p. 73-74) that this allows animation to be seen as one of the most auteurist of art forms and that’s its methods of production, especially when considered to be at its most collaborative, insist upon the strict intervention of a singular voice that acts as an authorial presence. Frustratingly few animation directors have been praised as auteurs within the medium, with their identities often becoming swallowed up by corporate image, in the case of animation houses such as Pixar and Disney, being debased with the appeal of consigning it simply to a petty form of narrative or, again, falling victim to the acceptance of the mutually reliant process of production. Connected to this is the concept that animation has been, and will always be, produced for a predominantly immature audience and that auteur theory cannot be applied to a film practice that concerns itself with providing articles for such a demographic. This has become a tired argument as there a huge variety of ways in which a director can be described to be an auteur. Drawing arguments from a wide variety of sources and assisted by specific case studies it is this dissertations aim to provide a vocabulary for how the animation auteur can be addressed. It is this papers intention to, utilising a variety of modes and methods, signal the opinions of scholars that have campaigned for the existence of a recognisable auteur within the media industries and then go on to transplant these theories into that of the modern day animation industry. The essay will touch on contemporary titans of the animation world such as Disney and Pixar whilst also giving special consideration for the foundations that have been laid by the historical forbearers in crafting a profitable industry in which today’s practitioners of mainstream animation operate. Alongside the mainstream, consideration will be given to the independent or ‘experimental’ animator, working outside the confines of an industry that, it has been suggested, limits they way in which a director can remain in control of the artistic and thematic outputs of their film. Special consideration will be given to the eastern European animators such as Jan Svankmajer, The Brothers Quay and Yuiry Norstein and the ways in which we can regard them as auteurs through the methods of production in which they practice their ‘art’. It will also analyse how the work of Hayao Miyazaki is differentiated from that of its western counterparts not only through its visual and thematic styles but also through the sociological boundaries in which it is released. Thought will be given to a society, and the pschoanalysis that accompanies it, in which audiences flock to the cinemas to see the newest releases from a highly recognised and respected animation house, but also, a director that is considered to be a genuine auteur and one of the artistic powerhouses of contemporary Asian cinema. Following this, my final chapter will concern itself with the major discourses in animation today. It will utilise a case study instigating investigation into the way in which the modern animation houses conduct their modes of production and whether or not this can be seen as adding to or detracting from the auteur model laid down by Cahiers du Cinema. The theoretical background for this paper will cover many areas of film history and criticism and point to key areas in which the auteur theory has come under contention, drawing on key sources it will analyse their relevance within the contemporary animation industry and provide current case studies of animation auteurs and production houses to provide a coherent context for the theories that it attains to underpin. The dissertation will cover well-known critics ranging from Cahiers du Cinema to modern day articles from film journals such as Sight Sound and The Online Animation Journal. The writings of these authors will be used to give context for some of the statements that are made concerning auteur theory and to assist in cultural references to animated movies and cinematic movements from the last 130 years. The paper will also reference the work of cultural theorists such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, whose work has been invaluable in the affirmation of what constitutes a genuine author and the ways in which we can view them in a modern day society. The dissertation aims to provide a spread of criticism from a wide range of historical periods during the 20th century, and, as the essay is concerned with the shift within the understanding of an auteur and its place in the industry of today, it was considered to be important to include opinions from more than the contemporary to demonstrate the shift that has occurred in our understanding of the director as an author. Alongside a wide range of scholarly sources directly concerned with film criticism that have been implemented the essay attempts to utilise areas of psychoanalysis and cognitive deconstructions to attain some idea of how sociological boundaries have been built up concerning the idea of the individual self, especially situated within a creative industry and within the confines of a post modern society. The study borrows and reconstitutes ideas and theories from such well-known thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida and Richard Harland. Although not directly connected with the world of cinema the ideas put forth by these thinkers have greatly influenced the way in which proportions of society think of the ‘unified self’ and the case for ‘original thought’. It was important to consider dialogue provided by theorists working outside of the filmic world as it has allowed the paper to gain a more conclusive view of aspects that can affect auteur theory more concerned with the workings of an audiences conscious thought, rather than that of cinematography and narrative alone. During the course of this essay the proposed theories will be analysed through a variety of method and, as mentioned, the sources come from a wide range of authors to provide many different opinions on auteur theory. These include; cultural theorists, directors, film critics and psychologists. In addition to the wide spread of authors that have been used the material has been drawn from a variety of qualitative and quantitative ources that comprise of scholarly books, newspaper articles, film journals, blogs, online critics circles, websites providing information on box office receipts, films and other visual resources. These methods have been undertaken to avoid the time consuming necessity of providing a source of self-produced data such as interviews or focus groups conducted with individual interviewees and focus groups. The data provided through this wide range of sources should compensate for a lack of self produced data and give a clear indication of the criticism and ideas that exist across a wide range of society. The main critical ideas that are analysed and enforced within this essay is an affirmative opinion that auteur theory is alive and well within the modern day film industry and that this also translates through into the contemporary animation industry. The essay sets about to deconstruct misconceptions concerning the negative reception that auteur theory receives from both cinematic and cultural theorists, and whilst the focus of the essay is very much on the promotion of the auteur director and the analysis of the cultural surroundings in which he operates the paper is careful to provide a balanced view of the topic by framing the question with both positive and negative responses. In summary, the main critical ideas to be analysed will be animation aesthetic and message as well as the existence of the auteur within the film analysing both his, or her, impact on the messages, narrative and aesthetic of the their work from film to film. It reviews the sociological structures that we are surrounded with and brought up through that allow, or disallow us, to consider the director as a true author, taking into consideration industry, modes of production, aesthetics, messages, fluency, consistency and cultural impact and finally the shift in style of animation throughout the years and how it should be considered an equally important and valuable cultural artefact as that of the live action cinema. Word Count: 1980