Skip to main content

BSA106 Emile Cohl.

Image result for emile cohl

Emile Cohl was a french animator. His film "Fantasmagorie" (1908) is considered to be one of the first all-animated films in history. Even though the film appears to have been made by drawing on a chalk board, it was actually done using paper and the blackboard effect was achieved by shooting the 700 drawings onto the negative film. 



The film consists of little in the way of narrative structure, instead it all seems to be random things morphing into one another. Emile Cohl was a member of the incoherents, a precursor to the surrealists, and a group that were interested in the power of the ridiculous and the lucadrous. 
Image result for emile cohl
Image result for emile cohl fantasmagorie


Cohl was one of the first to distort, stretch and compress his characters which can be seen in "Fantasmagorie". These techniques have later been used by disney, along with the abstract absurdity that 'Fantasmagorie" is full of because of its lack of plot. 

I liked "Fantasmagorie" because I found it humourous and because of the constant morphing and changing of characters and situations, it held my attention. I also think that although it was quite old and it did show it's age, it still manages to appear timeless and relevent to modern day standards of animation because he uses many techniques that modern day animation uses.   

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BSA106 German Expressionism.

German Expressionism in film came about after WW1, after Germany lost the war. Germany wanted to revitalise the film industry and to create a better impression for the country. The German government subsidised the UFA (Universum-film AG), whose studios were the largest and best equipped in Europe. This became Germans golden age of cinema. German Expressionist film lasted from 1919 to 1933 when Adolf Hitler came into power. Unlike other Western films of that period that focused more so on creating realism, German Expressionism distorts reality to create an emotional effect. Expressionism films employed stylised set design, elaborate costuming, shadowy lighting that emphasises bold contrasts of dark and bright highlights and unnatural make-up. The settings are typically distorted and exaggerated, with key themes being madness, criminality and fracturing of identity. German Expressionism was a huge influence in developing the horror genre. They began to tell the story

BSA126 Animation Character - Tim Lockwood, Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs.

Tim Lockwood Tim Lockwood is Flint's father in 'Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs'. I picked him because I think he is interesting because he doesn't have any eyes that we can see but the animators are able to show us his emotions purely by his eyebrow movements. Structurally, Tim's face is made up of very simple shapes, His eyebrows are a simple rectangle shape that has been given a hair-like texture design to show they are very bushy. His nose is also a rectangular shape with little realistic design apart from the flat rectangular shape. His mustache is similar to his eyebrows, only a slight curve to show gravity and to make his face seem more realistic. It also doubles as a mouth shape in many ways, similar to how his uni-brow doubles as eyes. The head shape itself is basically a conical shape with curving lines which indicates a chin. Tim Lockwood's personality is quite bland and conventional. Therefore, the shirt he wears is a pale, greyish b

BSA206 Animation History 1990s

Due to the success of The Simpsons , more experimental TV animation began emerging. The Tick was a 1994 animation that was based on Ben Edlund's absurdist superhero comic and adapted into an animated series by Fox. The Critic (1994) was created by The Simpsons writers. It is about a critic who hates contemporary films. Duckman  (1994) was created by Everett Peck and it was based on characters from his comic. It was aimed at an adult audience and Duckman was voiced by Jason Alexander from Sienfeld . The Big Story  depicts an argument between young Kirk Douglas and old Kirk Douglas. Quentin Tarantino liked it so much that he requested it to be played before Pulp Fiction screenings. The Big Story is a 1994 stop motion film that was nominated for an Oscar. It was created by Tim Watts and David Stoten who went on work on other films including working on the storyboards for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride . In 1995 Dave Brothwick created The Secret Adventures of T