The main studio brief for this module is a collaborative project; to produce a 1-2 minute animated documentary revolving around one of four themes: Sustainability, Science, History or Politics, with crossover if applicable.
'For Arguments Sake' Presentation Study Task
However, most of this week was spent on the first study task, which was to be completed individually. For this we were tasked with presenting, visually and in a convincing way, an argument which we picked out of a hat, ranging from the straightforward (In favour of non-violent direct action) to the outlandish (In favour of Brexit). The argument I was asked to present was in favour of 'Banning all guns', though I was allowed to set my own parameters as it did not state as to what extent or whether it meant in the UK or the US. I chose to interpret my argument as arguing against the general arms culture, taking aim at rural American gun culture as well as British Arms sales. However, not wanting to simply be quoting mass shooting statistics for the duration of my presentation, to lighten the mood I opted for a more comedic tone to make for a more engaging presentation and not bore or depress my audience too much.
One of my main documentarian inspirations for this task was Adam Curtis, whose documentary style works more anecdotal and cultural evidence into the broader political narratives he weaves throughout his films. For example, in his 2015 film Bitter Lake, Curtis uses clips from Andrei Tarkovsky's film Solaris to emphasise a point he is making regarding the Soviet's cultural attitudes towards truth and ideology in the aftermath of it's failed invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
In keeping with that spirit, I opted to open my presentation with quote from George Washington regarding the second amendment of the American Constitution before juxtaposing it with a clip from comedian Jon Lajoie's 'I Kill People' music video in order to make a point about how gun culture in the United States has evolved and been bastardised since the days of the founding fathers, before diving into a slide of statistics regarding gun ownership. This loop of anecdotal evidence followed by dry statistics to back it up is one I have stuck to for the most part in this presentation, as I find it to be an engaging and humorous way of presenting an argument.
The next few slides then dive right back into an anecdote, this time about James Madison, one of the founding fathers. I then go on to infer his support for the right to bear arms is related to his sexual impotence, using admittedly flimsy evidence I read from Wikipedia that he couldn't have children, before implying the musket is a phallic symbol, calling out gun owners in the US as being sexually insecure and then talking about the disproportionately small amount of gun owners who own the mmajority of the guns in the US.
The final part of my presentation breaks from this established structure somewhat, however on a still follows it on a more micro level as I sarcastically say we in the UK are above the sort of violent culture seen in the US, before talking about UK arms sales in the middle east. Overall, I do feel my presentation will be a success when I present it on Tuesday in the form of a powerpoint. I may have exceeded the number of slides required by quite a bit, but I feel the loose script I have written should be engaging enough to make my point. I have taken into consideration the tone of how I want to argue my point and I will probably be taking cues from David O'Reilly in his presentation masterclass on Creativity and Advertising.
Getting into Groups
This week we were also required to get into groups of up to 3 to work on the animated documentary. While there are a lot of people in my class whom I would love to collaborate with at some point, I have been talking to Tess for a while about working on something with a comedic bent, and we both felt the Animated Documentary brief, which we both knew about ahead of time would be a good opportunity for the both of us to work together. At MAF back in November, we were both massive fans of RoryWT's 'Mr Madila', a series of increasingly comedic animated conversations between a documentary filmmaker and eccentric spiritual healer Mr Madila. While it's questionable whether the documentary is real or if Mr Madila is a character, the animation itself follows a lot of the conventions of documentary, incorporating elements of Live Action outside of the conversation as well as visuals to clearly illustrate the topics of conversation. We both want to create something of a similar tone and style, something comedic and character-centric which incorporates various mixed media techniques and I feel working together would be a good way to accomplish this. Our skill sets are fairly complimentary also, we both have similar aesthetic interests for this brief and we both have similar approches to pre-production and workflow which should serve us well.
Gantt Chart/Project Plan
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