Animation Characters and Narrative - Week 2: RnD Exploration

AND142 Animation Characters and Narrative

    Week 2

    This post is of week 2 of the first-year animation course AND142 Animation Characters and Narrative because I did not attend the first class. I was recommended to attend this course after the first week by my tutor Aspasia Kazeli in order to aid my exploration, research and development for EXD300.

    Notes

    CHARACTER

    Well-developed characters help the audience experience a film's story/world.

 Character Roles:

  1. Protagonist- main character
  2. Antagonist- villain / opposing force
  3. Deuteragonist- sidekick
  4. Foil- brings protagonist’s qualities into sharper relief
  5. Mentor / Confidant- protagonist’s goal flows through them
  6. Love Interest- person or item of desire
  7. Secondary Characters- like deuteragonist but less important
  8. Tertiary Characters- in story, but not necessary to main storyline
  9. Narrator- voice-over
  10. Stock Characters- function in the background

 Character Types:

  1. Dynamic- changes over the course of the story
  2. Static- does not noticeably change
  3. Round- shows fluidity and changes from the moment we meet them
  4. Flat- no depth or complexity
  5. Stock- archetypal character with a fixed set of personality traits
  6. Symbolic- represents a concept or theme larger than themselves

    We then watched the film Happy End by Jan Saska.

 Character ↔ Story

                                                Character ↘

 Character handles Conflict                    Motivation creates Character

Conflict ↗                                     🔄                                     ↙ Motivation

 Obstacles create Conflict

                                               ↖ Obstacles

    We then watched the film AU REVOIR JÉRÔME ! by Gobelins.

 Determine the main character's:

  1. Motivation - Jerome is looking for his wife Marylin in the afterlife.
  2. Conflicts / Obstacles - After finding her, Jerome finds out that she doesn't want him back.
  3. Final Resolution - Jerome jumps from a high place, breaks into pieces, and is put back together by ants. He then sits by the sea and accepts his new reality.

    Next we watched Łaźnia (Baths) by Tomek Ducki.

 BONUS - Psychoanalysis in Films

  • Id - 100% unconscious (the devil)
  • Superego - mostly unconscious (the angel)
  • Ego - mostly conscious (the self)