Introducing: Clown

Here's Clown. This was the last project of the direction module I took in the second year. The project involved creating a video piece from a third party script, in this instance done by the lecturer Jools Ayodeji. The students interpretation of the script was the most important thing so how it was brief was approached was entirely down to them. For me, animation was my first interest and as soon as I read the script I immediately felt an animation would be best suited. My reasons for this were that the characters, the Clown and the Compere, came across as cartoon-like in their dialog anyway. There was a subtle sub-realism about their demeanor. At least, that is the way I interpreted it anyway.

Still, I have problems with this animation. This is the reason I'm giving Clown another look on here. I felt I missed a massive opportunity to explore some elaborate scenery and characters. I chose to animate it because I was aware that gathering a large audience in a theatre with two characters was going to be a big undertaking. So being able to draw an audience, theatre etc I got around real world logistics. However, why didn't I actually take it further and add some fantasy to the piece?

There was one example in my early pre-production where I drew a stage that was like a thin cliff edge that went into the audience and the curtains were a skin-like leather. The whole scene was very dark and depressing. Looking back, I'm not entirely sure why I didn't run with it.

The closest reason I can think was that I was very literal to the script. There was no experiment on my part. It was by-the-books. It did the job. But it didn't show off what I can truly do.

So, this evaluation is here to remind me in future projects to have fun with whatever I'm doing. To make sure I don't feel like I'm just fulfilling what I think needs to be done.