Stairs: Film Animation Idea

I appreciate that your idea can be described in one sentence. I always get nervous when someone tries to do that though. You have to be careful not to pigeon-hole yourself or set up too many limitations. At the same time, creative expression without limitations is
impossible to judge.

Don't call it a metaphor, and don't suggest meaning. Metaphor's are entirely subjective. Make a piece of beautiful work and allow others to read into it what they will. I think curating that experience in one way or another is possible, but only to a certain extent. I know you have thought long and hard about the role of
film/animation/media and it's potential use as a tool for teaching, but I would be cautious.

I think focusing on the experience and not on the message will be the most fruitful element of this journey. Relate the animation to the body, to the minutia of moving upward. What does it feel like, sound like, smell like, taste like. How can those elements be abstracted without being lost? How can they used without being "film." Animation synthesizes experience/meaning better than film.

I think the three stages you have pared down to are critically flawed.

There is one journey, separated into two conditions by a division.

Think about this perhaps...

The present is : "An infinite division, a point without dimension"
(Jean Paul Sartres)

Anticipation is always present, not only the top, but in the journey up and on the journey down. It is a focus that shifts, not from one point to another, but between an ever growing number of potentials. Like chasing a star, only to begin to see others and chase them too before you reach the first.

The peak is not a point, it is a transition.

If you get the "experience" right - the sound, details, looks, etc then it will be evocative and the metaphor will be apparent. But if you start with the metaphore, it will be half as legible.

"Walking" wasn't good because it starts with an idea, it is brilliant because it begins with perfect observation and twists it just enough to keep the viewer wrapped around the animator's finger.

Your film is going to be great, I have no doubt, but keep it simple.

Synopsis: The experience of ascending, and then descending stairs.


This simple action will act as a metaphor to demonstrate how most of life follows the same path. We struggle upwards. Slowly and surely building up a store of energy. The journey becomes more and more precarious as we continue to invest our effort into it. And then we reach the top. It is an ethereal, other worldly place, we have a moment to pause.

To our great satisfaction we can begin our descent. At first leisurely, but always accelerating, recuperating the energy we stored away earlier. Like an avalanche, it soon becomes unstopable. Our speed is not a matter of strength, it is derived from sure footedness and fearlessness. Flying near the brink of disaster. It is exhilarating


In all of the life's endeavors there is always joy in releasing hard work.

Why spend weeks setting up fireworks just to have them explode.?

Why pratice piano for hundreds of hours to have a moment of glory?

Why spend mountains of times on an animation that will be a fleeting moment of joy?



The film will have a very simple form.

Ascent. Anticipation at the Top. Descent.

The Ascent will present the struggle of climbing stairs. By presenting stair ascents of ever increasing difficulty. More and more struggle, more and more stored work.

The Top is about silence, beauty, observation, quiet, anticipation, ethereal. Think Wanderer above the Mist by Casper David Friedrich.

The Descent is a release. All of the stored energy gets blasted into motion. The speed begins controlled, but in an ever increase crescendo it breaks out. The control becomes more relaxed, going down stairs, becomes running, becomes falling, becomes flying.

And that is the film.



Sound Design: The rhythm of footsteps going up or down steps will serve as the basis for the audio.

Techniques: Cut outs, overlayed character animation, inspiration from slit scan photography, perspective drawing.

I'm not sure of how it will be made or look, but it will be a combination of a moving background of the stairs, and an animated figure most likely drawn in a very abstract gestural manner.

Here is a small collection of related images.

Stairs

Kyler

Drawings

Apocalypso

Self Portrait

Swallow Gulp

As self contained pieces of artwork, without any context, these pieces are difficult to dissect.

Apocalypso

The foreground figure is fairly easy to read along with the cityscape. The images on the right are far less understandable. Telephone poles receding into the distant are fairly cliche in perspective drawing. They do mirror the shape of the cross worn by the central figure but I am unsure if I should be drawing a connection between the power system, religion and the apocalypse. The figures of people on the right are mostly alright, except I don't feel that the dancing figures are very convincing. Their gesture doesn't evoke any of the fluidity I think they are supposed to.

Self Portrait

The colours are very interesting, yet they verge on simply being a mess. The very dark blacks are essential in making sense of the colours. However, the black used in the hair doesn't feel as though it is part of the figure. It is extremely unbalanced on the head and simply seems to suggest a half shaved head.

The text seems like an attempt to add meaning. It shouldn't be necessary if the meaning is already in the drawing.

Swallowgulp

The quality of the line and the use of the medium is extremely compelling. However they also hid a lack of precision in the anatomy of the drawing. It is difficult to see how the neck connects to the head. Also the neck could be angled in opposition to the head as to increase the contraposto.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of the text. The content is fine, but the presentation doesn't sit entirely well with me. It isn't bad, I simply feel it might be something that could be experimented with more in the future. Your drawings change often but I rarely see much variety in how the writing is done.

Kyler