Why paper

Why paper

Initially I wanted to tell a story about children’s disobedience leads to punishment in a supernatural way, much like Grimm’s fairytales. After some revisions I decided to keep it simple; it is just a ghost story. What got me started (again) with fairytales and supernatural subjects was when I read some short stories written on the Internet about the ancient black magic that happens in some native tribes of China. The stories may be fictional, but they were based on common believes and folktales. I started to research more about superstitions and storytelling.

One of the most common stories that are told in many cultures is about the danger water. Because we humans cannot live underwater without air and its cold and light impenetrable qualities bring mystery and imagination to our mind. The story of my animation is based on the belief of the haunting spirits that take victims to replace themselves in order to move on to the afterlife, thus creating a loop and making the locations filled with cases of “accidents”. The setting of my animation is within a city with water running throughout it in forms of canals and tunnels. This is my solution of combining both water and living environment into the same setting. From the last panel I got the comments that there were too much settings and the audience was getting lost. Over the summer I travelled to cities with canals running through them, getting my inspiration for the environment aesthetic.

I thought I was attractive to beautiful things visually (who isn’t) but it seems what really gets my head wrapped around the matter is the story. Ironically, comparing to my drawing skill, storytelling is not my forte. I often complicate things, adding too much unnecessary information and details, causing confusions among the audience. It is the reason they first story idea did not work out. I simplified the concept down. What is the main idea of the story? In this case, a spirit of a drowned victim is getting another unfortunate soul to take its place. How can this story be told with a twist at the end? A group of children are playing alongside the water, a girl with a strong resemblance of a fish joins in to the game of tag and she is ‘it’. Her position of being ‘it’ reflects her role as a drowned spirit, with the task of passing down her position to someone else. The participation of the girl in the game triggers the “accident” that would soon happen along the story. I try to keep the settings as simple and obvious as possible. It is usually the transitions that throw the audience off. My goal for the story aspect of the film is comprehension; as long as the audience can understand the plot without extra explanation.

The aesthetic of the animation has been mostly inspired by storybook illustrations. I am drawn towards the compositions of flat shapes and colour, using layers to create illusion of depth. Illustrations in many books are decorative with elaborate details. Yet those decorations are also part of the storytelling. While Alphonse Mucha’s illustrations amaze me with the elegant Art Nouveau style of the Victorian Era, I also adore the round and childish style of children’s picture books. Watercolour and collage have been the major inspiration as well by incorporating textures and patterns into the images. The artists I find myself praise recently are mostly from the Internet, therefor I cannot learn much about the artist except their artworks. Artworks by Cynthia L. aka ‘Deathofrats’ on Deviantart are colourful watercolour pieces with loose line strokes and repetitive patterns. She plays with negative and positive shapes to generate compositions that hold the images together. The subjects are often childish and playful while also being settle and peaceful. ‘Pettrybyos’ has similar technique and subject but with different style. Her use of colour is not as bright, though she uses the wash of watercolour to create luminous effects.

What I want to achieve is a visually appealing animation with a simple concept for a story. The aesthetic of the animation imitates the pages of storybook, as if the illustrations are animated to the story. I am relieved that the current plot for the story is quite clear and apparent to the audience. Although I did not want to make the hints at the beginning of the animation too obvious, it does not reveal the ending and is still able to surprise the audience.