An Animated Exploration In Memory Narrative By

An Animated Exploration In Memory Narrative
By: Claire Almon
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts
At
The Savannah College of Art and Design
March 2012, Claire Elizabeth Almon
The author hereby grants SCAD permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper
and electronic thesis copies of document in whole or in part in any medium now known
or hereafter created.
____________________________________________________________/___/___/__
Matthew Maloney
Associate Chair of Animation
Committee Chair
Date
___________________________________________________________/___/___/___
Tina O’Haily
Associate dean, School of Film, Digital Media
and Performing Arts, Atlanta
Topic Consultant
Date
__________________________________________________________/___/___/___
Matthew Burge
Professor of Motion Media Design
Editor
Date
An Animated Exploration In Memory Narrative
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Animation
Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Fine Arts
Savannah College of Art and Design
By
Claire Elizabeth Almon
Atlanta, Georgia
March 2012
Table of Contents
I.
List of Figures…………………………………………………… Page 1
Abstract…………………………………………………………. Page 2
II.
Body…………………………………………………………….. Page 3
III.
Works Cited…………………………………………………….. Page 22
1
List of Figures
Figure 1.1-1.6 - Stills from tango scene. Tale of Tales. Jove, 1979.
Figure 1.7 - Stills from the nurse sequence. The Street. National Film Board of
Canada, 1976.
Figure 1.8 - Still. Father and Daughter. CinéTé Cloudrunner Ltd, 2000.
Figure 1.9 - Visual development by Claire Almon. 2008.
Figure 1.10-1.11 - Stills. Grampa Kevorkian. Savannah College of Art and
Design, 2010.
2
An Animated Exploration In Memory Narrative
Claire E. Almon
March 2012
This thesis focuses on how memory is used as a narrative device through the
medium of animation. However, the thesis does not emphasize the scientific aspects of
memory. Rather it explores parallels in the characteristics of memory and animation,
which allows them to be used successfully in narration by filmmakers. This idea is
supported by careful analysis of works by master animators who have used memory as a
narrative device in their own works. The aim of the thesis is to explore why memory as a
narrative device works in such a symbiotic way with the medium of animation.
Furthermore, the thesis shows how a graduate student is able to apply these ideas to her
own work and create a successful animated memory narrative.
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Through a long tradition of animated films, directors have used memory as a
narrative device in animation to create stories that communicate powerfully by reaching
beyond a traditional linear narrative. This paper will look at successful examples of work
by notable animators, and explore the similarity between certain characteristics of
memory and animation to explain why they work so well together. Some of the major
similarities of these characteristics are the content of memory and the ease of nonlinear
structure in animation, the fluidity of memory and the fluidity of morphing in animation,
and the use of characterization of personal memories in animation to reflect the
selectiveness of how we remember people. Yuri Norstein, Caroline Leaf, and Michael
Dudock DeWit have used these qualities of memory and animation to create some of the
most powerful short films in animation history, all highly acclaimed both critically and
by general audiences.
Memory content refers to the thoughts, sounds, images, etc. that comprise our
memories and exist only in true form inside our minds. Describing the content of
memory visually works particularly well with the ease of nonlinear structure in
animation. Because of the tacit quality of memory, a medium such as animation becomes
an ideal mode of expression. It serves as visual poetry or metaphor, expounding on
memory through image what cannot be wholly described in words. Annette Kuhn states:
“Memory, it turns out, has its own modes of expression: these are characterized by the
fragmentary, non-linear quality of moments recalled out of time. Visual flashes,
vignettes, a certain anecdotal quality, mark memory texts as diverse as oral history
accounts…”. (232) Because animation is a medium that has a visual language of
metaphor, condensation, and associative linking, it becomes an ideal way to express this
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kind of imagery. It is especially useful when dealing with content in an un-orthodox and
non-linear way. Paul Wells touches on this when he states “Even in the most hyper-real,
stylized or simulated of animation, the reproduction of the physical, or the seemingly
non-tangible, in a material way, is provocative and incisive in illustrating apparently
inarticulable essences of meaning that are extraordinarily difficult to communicate in any
other form.” (93)
Yuri Norstein is an animation director who allows his narratives to be structured
by memory content. Norstein’s emphasis on childhood memory permeated the formation
of Tale of Tales (1979). In what is referred to as associative linking Norstein uses images
from his childhood, both real and imagined, forming relationships between objects and
characters to create meaning that is not about overt storytelling. Through this technique
Norstein unfolds the tacit quality of memory through his lyrical arrangement of animated
sequences. When speaking of Yuri Norstein’s use of animation Wells says “ Norstein
combines the familiarity of the language of live action film […] with the language of
animation (metamorphosis, condensation, synecdoche, symbol and metaphor etc.) to
authenticate the images preserved by memory, defined by history, located only in the
mind.” (97)
Prompted by the destruction of his childhood home in the Russian suburb of
Moscow, Maryina Roshcha, Norstein was moved to create Tale of Tales. Claire Kitson
says : “The news that the whole of Maryina Roscha was finally to be demolished to make
way for even more concrete blocks suddenly made it imperative for Norstein to take the
plunge and, by one means or another, capture on film a way of life that was about to
disappear.” (49) In essence, what Kitson is saying is that Norstein was going to attempt to
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create a permanent memory of his childhood home on film, a record of the life he
experienced as a child the way he remembered it.
Norstein described ideas that would comprise Tale of Tales as a “mix of microhistories, molecular episodes, metaphors, which had been living inside me, infusing each
other all the time.” (Kitson, 50) Here we can see Norstein referencing the unique,
intangible qualities of memory such as their malleability, the way they are informed by
imagination and culture, time and forgetfulness, their selectiveness, and how embedded
with emotions they are. According to Rossington and Whitehead in Memory: A Reader
“childhood memories can come as much from without as from within.” (6) Kitson says
about Norstein’s treatment of Tale of Tales “I feel, plain that the ‘poet’ section of the
script in its various versions, and of the final film, is as much steeped in Norstein’s
experiences and emotions as are the micro-histories of the Maryina Roshcha section” (58)
Lydumila Petrushevskaya who wrote the screenplay of Tale of Tales said about Norstein
“People were always pulling [Yuri] towards the heights of romaticism and magic. […]
But at that moment another direction came into his mind – poetry from garbage, the
poetry of the everyday, the poetry of insignificant things. And my own ideas coincided
with his. This is the most powerful material you could find.” (54) This idea of the
‘poetry of the everyday’ is clearly seen in the subject matter visualized in Tale of Tales,
such as depictions of his childhood home.
Approaching subject matter of this kind in an animated film posed a dilemma to
Norstein. He stated “I had an idea and some images in my head, but they were very
strange. Nothing fitted together and nothing seemed right for animation. Or not for
animation as we knew it.” (Kitson, 54) He was describing the unique qualities of
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memory that necessitated a unique way of describing them on film. Norstein decided that
his animation would have to break away from the orthodox storytelling of the time. The
proposal he wrote began:
‘This is to be a film about memory.
Do you remember how long the days were when you were a child?
Each day stood alone and we lived for that day –
Tomorrow would be there for tomorrow’s pleasures’ (Kitson, 55)
Yuri would go on to describe how his story of childhood memory would be presented as
visual poetry.
When looking at the imagery of the finished film and how it is sequenced
throughout Tale of Tales we can see these ideas of the visual poem fully formed. The
film is made up of related sequences interspersed with common elements that tie it all
together such as the little grey wolf, the poet, crows etc. Norstein has worked out how to
present the difficult content of memory in the way he sequenced the images together.
The result is a moving tapestry that evokes emotional reaction more similar to the way
music does. It reaches past the obvious signs and pointers of a traditional linear
storytelling and taps directly into the tacit knowledge that the mind holds as memory.
Just because this type of knowledge is not easily expressed in traditional modes does not
mean that it is less real or important than information more easily explained. That is why
modes of expression such as animation, poetry, music, etc. are so vital in describing
memory content.
Norstein’s film was screened both nationally and internationally to enormous
critical success and captured the grand prize at many of the most prestigious animation
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festivals in Europe and North America. Kitson writes “Never had any animated film
been so successful with viewers.” (111, 112) How could such an unorthodox film
captivate and move audiences the way it did?
Norstein’s use of collective memory through associative linking allowed many
people to connect in a personal way to Norstein’s own memories. According to
Rossington “Collective memory proposes that practices of remembrance are shaped and
reinforced by the societies and cultures in which they occur… Ways of remembering and
giving significance to what is remembered are seen to be fostered and shared by family,
religion, class, the media and other sources of the creation of group identities… In these
accounts, then, individual [remembrance] turns out to be inseparable from collective
remembrance.” (134) All this to say that there is a dialogue between collective and
individual memories which can be exploited in storytelling as Norstein demonstrates
throughout his film. This very idea is similar to the way associative linking works
visually in film by allowing the audience to make connections between seemingly
unrelated images. The relationships formed visually arise out of the collective memories
of the audience.
To illustrate this we can look at a scene from Tale of Tales in which
women and men are dancing at a celebration or party. They appear as white figures on a
nondescript black background. As they dance, one by one the men suddenly vanish from
the screen leaving their partners frozen in surprise. After all the men have disappeared
from the screen we see them re-emerge from the bottom of the frame, backs to the
camera, wearing capes and holding bayonets. They make their way past the women, still
frozen, up to the top of the frame and off camera. They appear to float almost as if they
8
are ghosts. The next shot is of the women now looking off frame where the men have
exited. Light flashes in front of them as if from a passing train off camera. Then with a
sound that could be either gunshots or a knock on the door, white papers descend in a
flurry from the top of the screen down towards the women who were left behind. The
women catch and open the papers and we see they are newspapers with headlines in
Russian. We know the soldiers will not return (See Fig. 1).
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
9
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
10
Fig. 6
Fig.1-6. Stills from tango scene. Tale of Tales. Jove, 1979.
Although Norstein created this film about a specific time of war, the imagery has
a reach far beyond that single event. Because war is such large part of history in many
cultures, it has the ability to speak to those around the world who have had the experience
of losing someone in combat and the horror of war. In an example of his mastery of
associative linking, Norstein is drawing on his specific memories and relying on the
dialogue between personal and collective memory to make his story effective.
Exploring the conception and execution of Norsteins’ Tale of Tales it is clear that
memory content was central to the formation of his film. Through the way he
implemented his imagery through the animated medium he was able to intentionally
exploit the dialogue between individual and collective memory to create ‘visual poetry’
which was highly successful in its reception by the general public and critical circles.
Another filmmaker who skillfully employs memory as a narrative device through
animation is Caroline Leaf. The symbiotic relationship of the fluidity of memory and
fluidity of morphing in animation are traits exemplified in Caroline Leaf’s The Street
(1976). Because memory images exist only in the mind, and are literally thoughts
11
fleeting one to the next in an instance, animation provides an ideal mode for expressing
these images through the actual medium with which it is depicted.
The Street, is based on the autobiography of Mordecia Richler when, as a child,
Richler experiences the last days of his grandmother’s life. In Leaf’s piece, memory is
brought to life by her use of medium, transitions and style of drawing. Leaf uses pen and
ink to visually suggest the abstract idea of memory images literally melting one into the
other. She takes it a step further by designing the imagery to reflect the who is
remembering (a child in the case of The Street). The result is a fusion of the qualities of
memory and medium that enrich the story while giving a powerful voice to personal
childhood experience with death.
Leaf uses the technique of manipulated ink on glass plates, painting each new
frame over the last. Using a fluid medium, with smoothly morphing transitions from one
scene to the next, Leaf actually likens the way in which the images are painted to
memory itself. Wells states “Leaf allies the idea of the son’s memory to the fluid
particularities of the form she employs.” (69)
Demonstrated in the illustration below, Leaf’s use of ink on glass allows for a
smooth transition as one scene melts into another. Here, the nurse who comes daily to
check on the boy’s ailing grandmother appears from a white background. As she walks
towards the camera and turns, the darkness of her hair spreads and turns the whole screen
to black. Out of that black screen her white shoes appear above us as if we are peering up
at her from the bottom of the stairs with the boy and his friends. Recreating memories in
this way puts the audience directly in the shoes of Richler as a boy. At the same time the
style of animation adds economy and interest to the transition.
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Fig. 7 Stills from the nurse sequence. The Street. National Film Board of
Canada, 1976.
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In addition to her handling of the medium, Leaf also draws the characters and
backgrounds in a naïve style, almost as if the boy Richler had drawn the characters
himself. Wells says “The style of the film enables Leaf to suggest the magical qualities
which arise from remembering a certain occasion in a particular spirit or mood.”
(70) By exploiting all that the animation technique has to offer, Leaf successfully adds
depth and understanding to the narrative. The result is a potently emotional story that
highlights the difficulty a child has in comprehending the gravity of someone dying.
Leaf reflects the fleeting vignette of memories so poignantly in The Street with
the execution of her flowing images, the fluid quality of her transitions, and the way the
scenes dissolve and emerge from each other. The rhythm of darks melting into light, her
mark making and use of space, all set visual cues that lead the viewer seamlessly through
a stream of consciousness storytelling as the narration leads. Without the expert
execution of materials and medium, the story would be left lacking, a cheap interpretation
or story rather than a re-incarnation of memory.
A third mode of expressing memory in animation is through characterization as
demonstrated in the works of director Michael Dudock DeWit.. The characterization of
memories of specific people adds to the nuance of memory making it more personal and
more universal at once. Perhaps more than Norstein or Leaf, DeWit uses a nuance of
character to bring his Oscar winning film Father and Daughter (2000) to life. Unlike
Tale of Tales or The Street, Father and Daughter is not based on first hand experience,
yet still employs the idea of memory and how it affects a character in an animated
narrative.
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In the film, a little girl says farewell to her father as he sets off to sea never to
return. The rest of the story is driven by the girl’s memory of her father and her desire to
see him again. Day after day, year after year she stops in the same spot they said
goodbye and looks out past the sea hoping for his return. DeWit brings unique
personalization to the story by implementing the subtle character acting that draws the
viewer into the story and gives life to the narrative.
For example, in the sequence at the opening of the film we can see DeWit develop
the emotional foundation of the story through the character animation. We see the father
and his daughter riding side by side in silhouette, immediately the closeness of their
relationship is established, as the daughter appears to be almost a tiny replica of her
father. As they get off their bikes the father bends down and embraces his daughter
tightly. There is a moment when they touch their heads together as if savoring their last
moment of closeness before he departs on his journey. Then, the father turns to leave,
but runs back at the last moment lifting his daughter into the air for one last embrace.
Finally, he turns and leaves as the daughter looks on, lingering long after his boat has
disappeared on the horizon.
De Wit was successful in his storytelling by placing emphasis on the small
nuances of the characters without letting the character development supercede the over
arching story. The focus isn’t on who this woman is, what difficulties she over comes,
and how she changes as a person. Rather, it is about the bonds of love between father
and daughter. As a result, the film is universal and broad in theme, but has an extremely
personal quality to it. He draws upon the collective memory of his audience as Norstein
15
did to make a deep connection, in large part established by the subtle development of his
characters.
Fig. 8 Still. Father and Daughter. CinéTé Cloudrunner Ltd, 2000.
In developing a film based on the ideas about memory and narrative previously
discussed, the short Grampa Kevorkian (2010) was created as an animated narrative from
memories. Its purpose was to employ the characteristics of memory to describe the bond
between my Grandfather and myself as a little girl. By employing the afore mentioned
characteristics, I hoped to create a narrative that would speak to a selective audience that
had similar shared experiences to the memories described in the piece.
To develop the content, the associative linking was utilized to create the sequence
of imagery and events. Visuals were based on images that came to mind on hearing the
name of my Grandfather with as little editing as possible. Further imagery was
developed by interviewing my siblings with a series of questions centered around my
Grandfather’s physical appearance and recording their candid answers. Once the raw
imagery was collected like Norstein’s collection of “micro-histories, molecular episodes,
and metaphors, which had been living in side me.” a mode of expression was needed to
16
tell the story without abstracting it completely. Following in Norstein’s footsteps the film
was pieced together as visual poetry in sequences that would explore my feelings about
my Grandfather as a girl, and end in my feelings about the loss of him.
To ensure that this poetry narrative would hold together, the look, medium and
use of memory form in Grampa Kevorkian would be important. Visual rules were set in
place to help tell the story and keep it cohesive. Heavily inspired by Caroline Leaf’s use
of memory form in her medium, a similar technique was used in Grampa Kevorkian.
For example, the imagery created digitally in a black and white pen and ink wash style.
As seen in Leaf’s fluid technique in The Street, the fluidity of the ink wash medium lends
itself to the abstractness and fluidity of memory images. Black and white often denotes a
feeling of nostalgia and things remembered; imagery that harkens to the past. This would
add to a feeling of remembering through out the story (Fig. 9). Limited, and
monochromatic color schemes were also used in Tale of Tales, The Street, and Father
and Daughter to evoke a similar mood.
In addition to technique, stylistic elements where inspired by the work of Caroline
Leaf. In particular, the characters where designed in a naïve style to lend to the childlike
quality of the narration of the film. As discussed before, by making images that look as
though the child narrators themselves created them, the imagery is likened to the actual
memory. Leaf demonstrates this successfully in her designs for The Street.
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Fig. 9 Visual development by Claire Almon. 2008.
Another visual rule employed in the narrative was the use of value to denote a
changing of feeling and mood. Positive memories would have lighter motifs: white
backgrounds with grays, and only minimal black. Conversely, moments of tension or
sadness would be much darker with black backgrounds and only minimal white. For
example, the moment of loss when the little girl falls from her Grampa’s hand. The
image sequence goes from an almost all white frame when they are embracing, to a frame
with more grey as the little girl is carried in his hand, to finally almost all black as she
falls from his hand into a black background (Fig. 10). Using this undulation of value
gives a visual cue to the changing moods and experiences when set as a constant
throughout the film. DeWit used a similar technique in Father and Daughter with the
rhythmic use of black and white to show ellipsis and the passage of time.
Finally, the last visual rule put in place for Grampa Kevorkian was the use of
detail as the Grandfather moved farther away and closer to the camera. Because he was
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the object of recollection, the images of him would become loser and less detailed the
further from the camera he moved. This was to add to the idea that not all memories are
in clear sharp focus. Time can erode certain memories, and certain memories seem to
remain clear no matter how much time passes. This technique can be seen for example in
the sequence when the Grandfather reaches down to touch his granddaughter’s face.
When he first enters the frame, his hand and face are loose and nondescript, but as he
lowers his hand and comes further into frame the detail becomes sharper and we can
clearly see his face (Fig. 11). The intention was to highlight the poignancy of special
moments of interaction between him and his granddaughter.
Fig. 10 Stills. Grampa Kevorkian. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2010.
Fig. 11 Stills. Grampa Kevorkian. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2010.
19
The final step to completing the memory narrative in Grampa Kevorkian was to
give a voice to the film. Each of his grandchildren were interviewed and ask the same set
of questions in order to get candid, authentic remarks about how they really remembered
him. They were not told in what way the answers were to be used and they were allowed
to answer any way they liked. In the end, over an hour of audio was edited to accompany
the imagery. The effect is of a group interview of his grandkids recalling memories that
work in tandem with the images as they freely flow from one thought to the next. The
quality of a child’s voice combined with the visual memories added a richness that would
otherwise not be achieved.
The final product of these efforts was a two-minute short film that plays like a
stream of consciousness narrative. But to find out if the film evoked the emotions from
an audience that were intended, the film needed to be screened. Grampa Kevorkian was
released in April 2010 at the Atlanta Film Festival and went on to be screened at more
than 20 festivals. It was shown to a variety of audiences from small groups of friends and
family, to large general audience, receiving a variety of interesting reactions.
Relatives of the principal character had a much deeper level of understanding of
the film because they have known him grandfather intimately. It was easy to see the
emotional reaction from his children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. His oldest
daughter noted that her favorite moment of the film is when he stands up from his chair
and turns toward the camera. She feels that the sequence captured the essence of her
father in his profile and the way he moved. There was also more laughter during the
short in reaction to the narration because there is an understanding both of the speaker
20
and the subject. This was the kind of reaction expected from those who had known him
as a family member.
More interesting was the reaction the film has received from complete strangers
of different ages. After screening Grampa Kevorkian in front of large festival audiences,
the reactions have been mixed. Instead of pulling a deep emotional reaction from a
broad range of audience members, it has a deep effect on selective members. People who
have been moved by the film have ranged greatly in age and experience. Most, said it
moved them because it evoked specific feelings about their grandfather, grandmother or
other loved one. The film has been accepted into two festivals as part of their family
oriented programs and has also been accepted into four children’s festivals. However, it
has also been accepted into a range of other film and animation festivals. This indicates
that it is received differently, over a broad range of ages and demographics, appearing to
have the widest appeal as film for children or young audiences, which was not part of the
original intent in creating the film.
In light of how Grampa Kevorkian has been received, it can be said that the
memory narrative has over all been a success. Although, not as wide reaching as it’s
predecessors such as Tale of Tales, The Street, and Father and Daughter, Grampa
Kevorkian has shown it’s appeal and ability to touch audience members through it’s
acceptance and invitation to 16 film festivals, and other various screenings. This is the
reaction anticipated in an un-orthodox animation that presents a narrative as a visual
poem, rather than a straightforward linear storytelling.
In conclusion, It can be seen that memory can be used as an effective and
powerful tool in animation as a narrative device. By exploiting the similarities of
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memory and animation, a rich narrative style can be created which speaks to specific
audiences. Memory, in its fluid and tacit state, can be drawn out by the specific
techniques animation has to offer such morphing, and associative linking. Yuri Norstein,
Caroline Leaf and Michael Dudock DeWit are just a few examples of animation masters
who have successfully employed memory as a narrative tool in their works. These
masters demonstrate that memory through animation can result in a beautiful poetry that
speaks to the core of humanity making it one of the most powerful forms art.
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Works Cited
Kuhn, Annette. Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination. Ed. Michael
Rossington, and Anne Whitehead. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2007. 232. Print.
Wells, Paul. Understanding Animation. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. Print
Kitson, Claire. Yuri Norstein and “Tale of Tales” An Animator’s Journey. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. Print.
Rossington, Michael, and Anne Whitehead. Theories of Memory A Reader. Baltimore,
MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Print.
Tale of Tales. Dir. Yuri Norstein. Jove, 1979. Film.
The Street. Dir. Caroline Leaf. National Film Board of Canada, 1976. Film.
Father and Daughter. Dir. Michael Dudock DeWit. CinéTé Cloudrunner Ltd, 2000
Film.
Grampa Kevorkian. Dir. Claire Almon. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2010.
Film.