The Medium is the Message

In the words of Paul Rand
"Good Design is the synthesis of form and content ‘without content there’s no form and without form there’s no content”.

Animation has the ability to express ideas on so many levels with its technical construction being able to control the sounds and images to 1/25th of a second; what gives the genre even more dynamic is when directors control and express their ideas with consideration to the medium. There are a myriad of techniques and medium that are open to animators - all mark making, image capturing is available. It's a matter of choice, convenience and in some cases time...it seems a shame however that the choice is often limited to a few techniques.

From an interview with Paul Rand is quoted, saying,

" “Play is tense,” says Johan Huizinga. “It is the element of tension and solution that governs all solitary games of skill.”

Without play, there would be no Picasso. Without play, there is no experimentation. Experimentation is the quest for answers."

So last week I tried to get my students to consider the medium as an intrinsic part of the message they wish to express. I introduced them to four animators whom I believe incorporate the technique and medium intrinsically into their message.

Alex Petrov is one of the worlds’s most talented animators, he incorporates fine art painting techniques into his work. With influences from Art movements and artists such as Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Seurat, Cubism, Leonardo Vinci, Sumdblom his work stands out as unique. The medium he incorporates, oil on glass allows for the painterly style gives a natural flow in an uncannily realistic cinematic style. The classic composition framing and metamorphosis transitions lend themselves to the epic tales. He has a long filmography, with The Cow and The Old Man and The Sea are particularly impressive.
The Old Man and The Sea (1999 Oscar winner) uses the technique of painting directly onto the glass with oil paints. The result is astonishing. The epic tale based on Ernest Hemmingway's novel is enhanced by the fine art painterly technique. Originally made for the enormous IMAX screen the format where the image projection is so large that it makes the paintings and details seem almost life like.

Yuri Norsteins amazing technique of layered cut outs, although painstaking in the production, give a perfection of appeal and magic to all his films. His topics draw on Russian Folktales and literature and his style reflects influences from the Russian Artists. His film ‘Tale of Tales' considered “the best animation film ever”. It certainly has an awe-inspiring appeal – and for animators a reverence at the amazing dedication needed with the medium. I chose to show 'Hedgehog in the fog' which has magical appeal and the fog and water are incredible, created without the aid of a computer, but using understanding of film, layers and light techniques.

'The Sandman' – Paul Berry's 3d model animation is an outstanding film which I saw in the cinema for the first time at Cardiff Animation Festival. It etched itself onto my memory in the way nightmares do. From this dark story of the Sandman coming to take the eyes of sleeping children, depicted brilliantly by Paul Berry’s eye for detail and getting the right sounds (check the bone cracking sounds of the hands), he went on to help design and animate on the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’. The amazing bird-like movements in the model, and the extreme angles in the set design all add to the atmoshere of innocence and nightmare. Again computer free.

Phil Mulloy is one of my favourite animators and is a perfect example of the medium is the message. His maverick approach to the outrageous and the offensive is dealt with in black and white rough painted style. The characters of the cowboys depict the base human qualities necessary for the satirical critque of the human condition.
He is not afraid to offend, in fact he revels in the vulgarity, laughing in the face of ‘common decency’ – even down to the school-boy base humor of the sex life of chairs.
He does, however, have a strong underlying message throughout his work, the seeming gratuitous violence and debasement serve a greater purpose – this can be seen especially in 'the Chain' which demonstrates perfectly in it's severe attack on the pointlessness of war.

Despite my fervent love of 2D animation, I am not completely against the 3D animation. My interest was enlightened many years ago by the inspiration of John Lasseter of Pixar animation at the beggining of their journey into bringing the life into the 3D graphic world. I saw him talk at I think it was Bristol Animation Festival. He screened Luxo Junior, who became the Pixar logo. His determination to bring the Disney philosophy of character into the 3D world has changed the face of commericial animation, some may argue to the detriment of 2D. I hope not. It is just another medium, and the creative techniques and processes lend themselves to a certain type of animator and a certain type of animation. I still cant see the point of recreating what you can jujst as well film, but that's where Lasseter made the good point of charcaterisation. The depth and subtlety of making the inanimate object come to life. I think this medium works best when used to create and add to the 'reality'. I really enjoyed recently the screening of '9' at the Bangkok International Film Festival, the influences of some of the greatest 3d model animators can be seen (Svankmayer/ Brothers Quay) and the computer rendering and techniques were quite awesome. But I still hanker for the gritty textures of the ' real' world models... maybe I'm just an outdated artist/animator who enjoys the flaws of getting messy with the medium. The computer creates a clinically perfect world. the random and the mistakes are taken out. Great in 'Wall -E' in a world that has yet to come... but it's not the only way to create animation.