I love everything - except the filing cabinet! Obviously animation is famously anarchic and random, but this does feel like a bolt-on, and really, as an object, it's not even truly exploited: for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW54W9y6-eU
I mean, if you're going to use a filing cabinet, there's lots of kinetic opportunities for 'in and out' stuff between the tamer and lion as they go at it between the drawers (for example).
But - what's the filing cabinet doing there in the first place? Right now, it's an entirely arbitrary object -I mean, it could be a baseball bat or an ironing board - it's function has no bearing on its role in your story. This makes it an unsatisfying fit. It would be more interesting, for example, if Sergio had filing cabinet in which he had an alphabeticised guide to taming lions - and he keeps stopping the fight to consult his files (for example).
But what would happen if there was no lion - just a ferocious filing cabinet that needed taming by its user - complete with chair and whip - a character having to assume the role of a lion-tamer in order to access the files (this is animation after all).
Or what if the filing cabinet was a magical filing cabinet - and if you looked under 'L' for lion-tamer, a lion tamer would leap from the cabinet and into life?
What if the action starts on a film set - in which the existing lion-tamer is killed by a lion - the director needs a replacement, consults his filing cabinet of resumes...
Or what if a desperate jobbing actor breaks into a casting director's office and substitutes his resume in place of a rival actors in the Big director's filing cabinet; guess what, he get's the part and he's proud a punch - only, in the Act 3 reveal, he (and the audience) discovers the role he's stolen is the role of 'lion tamer' - with a real lion - cue sticky end and story of 'cheaters beware'...
It's all about the filing cabinet - and making it work harder.
Your essay worries me a bit, because it does seem to have a very eclectic menu of movies. For the purposes of producing a strong 1,500 word essay, I'd consider rationalising your case-studies - and making less do more, and in a more rigorous and contextualised way.
Interim Online Review 15/02/2011
ReplyDeleteHey Ryan,
I love everything - except the filing cabinet! Obviously animation is famously anarchic and random, but this does feel like a bolt-on, and really, as an object, it's not even truly exploited: for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW54W9y6-eU
I mean, if you're going to use a filing cabinet, there's lots of kinetic opportunities for 'in and out' stuff between the tamer and lion as they go at it between the drawers (for example).
But - what's the filing cabinet doing there in the first place? Right now, it's an entirely arbitrary object -I mean, it could be a baseball bat or an ironing board - it's function has no bearing on its role in your story. This makes it an unsatisfying fit. It would be more interesting, for example, if Sergio had filing cabinet in which he had an alphabeticised guide to taming lions - and he keeps stopping the fight to consult his files (for example).
But what would happen if there was no lion - just a ferocious filing cabinet that needed taming by its user - complete with chair and whip - a character having to assume the role of a lion-tamer in order to access the files (this is animation after all).
Or what if the filing cabinet was a magical filing cabinet - and if you looked under 'L' for lion-tamer, a lion tamer would leap from the cabinet and into life?
What if the action starts on a film set - in which the existing lion-tamer is killed by a lion - the director needs a replacement, consults his filing cabinet of resumes...
Or what if a desperate jobbing actor breaks into a casting director's office and substitutes his resume in place of a rival actors in the Big director's filing cabinet; guess what, he get's the part and he's proud a punch - only, in the Act 3 reveal, he (and the audience) discovers the role he's stolen is the role of 'lion tamer' - with a real lion - cue sticky end and story of 'cheaters beware'...
It's all about the filing cabinet - and making it work harder.
Your essay worries me a bit, because it does seem to have a very eclectic menu of movies. For the purposes of producing a strong 1,500 word essay, I'd consider rationalising your case-studies - and making less do more, and in a more rigorous and contextualised way.
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