In the last Friday Workshop of 2020, we first looked at the class’ “homework”, a video showing everyone’s walk, with added sound. I drew my original drawing on my phone, so I went with something different: showing my walk’s path along a map of London that I bought in October, the day after moving in. I used a laser pointer to show my position in the map, and got sounds from past videos I took in London and a few sounds recorded in my home here in Italy (such as the leaves rustling).
Once that was done, we went on to talk about our books more. Jane and Stuart showed us a variety of examples of extravagant books we could base ourselves off of, and then proceeded to answer some questions from students.
When I first started considering what to do with my book, I thought of separating the book into 2 sections, my life inside and outside of animation and storytelling. However, after some thought, I considered that doing that wouldn’t really lend well into the project’s theme, “You Are Here”.
So I started thinking of another concept to do. And after a while, I realized that it’s hard to explain where I am now without first explaining where I once was, and how I got here. So now, I’m planning of dividing my book into “What Got Me Here?” and “Where Am I Now?”. The former would cover things like my cultural background, people who inspired me as a kid, the hobbies and pastimes I had growing up that influenced me to take on drawing as a career, my school and hometown, etc.. The latter, on the other hand, would cover my current life: my goals, my work, who and what inspires me nowadays, my new locations and university now that I’m essentially living in the UK… there’s a lot to cover in both areas, so I’m thinking of splitting the pages 50/50, 6 pages for each.
For its physical structure, since we have to be creative with it, I decided to get inspired by some works from Judy Barrass and Helen Malone, specifically their works on folding up papers like accordions (photos below). By doing that, there are two distinct sides to work on, and I think that could be a perfect way to show the two sides of my work, both literally and metaphorically: one side isn’t complete without the other, I can’t have my present without my past. I want my work to reflect that.
As for the animation aspect, I got really inspired by Feeling My Way, a short film we watched for Stuart’s class that incorporated 2D animation into a recording. I think I’m going to do something similar; draw and write the general concepts on paper, film me flipping through the pages, and then add some animation onto the recording to enhance the messages and viewing experience.
I’m pretty optimistic so far. It’s a lot of work, both traditional and digital, but I genuinely like my idea, and if I manage to properly create it it’ll be something I know I’ll be proud of for a long time. So I’ll do my best with it. I’ll keep updating my blog as I work on it more.