Song credits: Circus Homunculus – Crazy Monkey
We have been tasked with creating a 30-second short film, animated in any way, that showcases our ‘point of view’ – namely, an issue that we feel strongly about, no matter how big or small. The intention is to make the viewers feel something, and also accumulate what we’ve learnt so far, in regards to how we’ve enhanced the way we see and approach things.
With a similar group of 7 to last time, we had one day to make a small film where we imagine the origins of Elephant and Castle and how got its name.
Ours was about a hubristic elephant king, who wanted to grow bigger than his castle, big enough to carry it on his back. However, he grew so big that he exploded, and his body parts became the Elephant&Castle we know.
We created this castle scene using a tower of boxes inked with the elephant’s story on the walls, and an origami elephant on top that could be pulled out with string. In the bottom, there’s the modern landscape.
(Video filmed by Ayan, props made by the whole group).
In our group of 7 (myself, Ayan, Iqra and Keyleigh from Group E and Layton, Ash and Carolina from Group D) we had 2 weeks to visit an exhibition, and create a 20-second film in our medium of choice, based on an artist’s work we find.
One week ago we took a visit to 180 The Strand, which had just opened ‘Lux,’ to the public, which is a one-of-a-kind virtual and interactive exhibit. There we discovered the work of Je Baak. His work titled ‘Universe’ (2019) showcasing a theme park really stood out to us – taking something that’s fun, exciting and childlike, and making it immensely foreboding.
This became our influence for ‘Born to Decay.’ We take pleasant items such as children’s toys and explore the dark history behind them, as well as the way that they enforce gender roles, whilst simultaneously leaving under-represented children behind. Together we filmed this mixed media piece (using animation and visual effects), and edited all of the clips together with an ambient voice over.
My roles mainly included researching galleries and organising the visit, as well as recording the commentary.
We also made a slides presentation explaining our inspirations more in depth.
This weeks’ homework was to take 20 photographs of objects in and around where we live, that didn’t necessarily belong to us. We then had to arrange them in a narrative on Padlet.
I like to think that my story is about a cat who journeys through different terrains, encounters all sorts of wildlife, and gets hurt but uses food to recharge, all before learning to fly. I’d say it’s pretty abstract.