Flo Bender – Flo Bender

Industry – Cartoon Series

“What helps them to be funny is to not have any allegiance to any organisation”

One example of a Cartoon Series that I have a deep interest for is South Park, an American animated TV series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The show is a satirical commentary on the western world and pop culture. Due to Trey Parker’s passion for Monty Python and Terry Gillingham’s paper cut out style of animation, it began this way and has since evolved into digital animation, whilst remaining true to their simple home made aesthetic.

South Park is a unique example of animation in today’s culture and what has become a fascination to animators is their formula. When using physical paper cut out they would take 2 – 3 hours to get one shot, now the animation is entirely digital and the process sounds nothing less than intense, creating an entire 22 – 25 minute episode in the space of 6 days.

Here is my breakdown from watching ‘Six DayS to Air: The Making of South Park’:

Day 1 = The writers room. This is where Matt and Trey spend a day reflecting on pop culture, ideas and fresh jokes. Trey has referred to this space as “weirdly vulnerable” as everyone shares any and all ideas they might have, with 99/100 of them being rejected by the group.

Day 2 = Storyboarding and scripting. This where they crack down on the mains beats of the episode.

Day 3 and 4 = Voice acting and animating. Both Matt and Trey make up most of the voices for the show, which is interestingly how the show came about in the first place, as they would make up voices to each other when bored on set in college.

Day 5 = Editing, this I where the team knuckle down on making sure the gags are communicated effectively.

Day 6 = Finished touches/delivery, occasionally if pushed to a deadline, the team will do an all nighter.

Each day requires extreme effienciey and talent to pull off what they do. In my work, I prioritise the writing over the technicality of the animation itself, which in reflection is probably inspired by my love and interest for South Park. Using my imagination to influence storylines, reflecting on pop culture, satirical humour, is where I see myself going forward in my career whether freelance or as part of a company.

In the documentary, SNL star Bill Hader refers to Trey and Matts political stance as “what they want to do… that’s it, that’s the priority, they don’t worry about anything else” and Dan Sterling goes onto say. “What helps them to be funny is to not have any allegiance to any organisation”. This is an extremely rare culture to have in todays society where watered down risk averse writing is taking centre stage, but South Park stand strong still today, releasing an episode a week, with humour as crude as ever.

References:

How South Park is Animated?

‘6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park’ – Youtube

Industry – Independent Animator/Teacher

For the LIAF project, I had the luxury of directing a team. I gained valuable insight as to what it means to complete a brief for a client. Animating has been a gateway for me to share my ideas in the form of moving image.

My goal is to be an Independent freelance filmmaker/animator. This appeals to me due to the freedom this role gives you. Global companies have an innate risk adverse culture due to client politics/culture.

Ozzy Parker

Ozzy Parker, an independent stop motion animator, has been a huge inspiration for me. Having access to his craftsmanship and creative opinion has helped to develop my animations. One project in particular I want to expand on is ‘SCALA!!! Tentacles’ a fantastical retelling of a woman’s story working behind the ticket office. This short film uses a unique daring approach to stop motion, by using real squids. He has an unafraid attitude, willing to disturb his audience by taking things further.

This role as independent filmmaker and part time teacher is something I am interested in. Other than being a child, Art University I believe is one of the only places in which you are permitted to play again. This sense of play is innate to the way I work. What Ozzy has shown me is through attaining both freelancing and lecturing, you can keep that play alive.

Chris Shepherd & David Shrigley

On 4th November I had the chance to attend ‘Bar Shorts’ an event run by Chris Shepherd. Chris & David revisited past projects, collaborative and solo, going back some 15 years ago. They also spoke about what independent filmmaking has meant to them. From 20 minute long documentaries about screaming goats to minimalist animation shorts about smoking blunts, the pair showed the importance of collaborating with friends.

Industry – Commercial

During Year 1, I wanted to explore mixed media, and what that could mean for me. Through experimenting with stop motion, pixelation and 2D, I know I want to work in a role that encapsulated hybrid forms of animation.

Awkward Animations

‘Awkward Animations’ a creative agency in London, work mainly in techniques such as pixelation and stop motion for global brands. It is refreshing to see techniques like this used on a large scale for corporate clients with the current climate of AI and as increased emphasis on efficiency. This says something about their ethos and creative approach.

Second Home Studios

Based in Birmingham, Second Home Studios have a long history of experimental stop motion projects for corporate clients. I see the commercial animation world as shiny and risk adverse, however what attracts me about Second Home is their ability to balance between corporate shininess and edge.

One project in particular ‘Make Me White’ in 2008 featuring Anita Rani, is a commercial pixelation advert about the dangers of skin whitening products. The brand use this stop motion technique to create a time lapse of a woman gradually being consumed by white paint. The project is of course a commentary on racism in the beauty world.

A + C Studios

A + C Studios is a stop motion studio based in both London and Margate. They have a unique use of hybrid animation. One example being their TKMaxx advert, that turns everyday kitchen objects into lively characters, such as flying toast and singing blenders. The role of character design is interesting in this context, as it requires the animator on set to understand how to apply animation principles such as follow through, anticipation to still life objects.

Simulated Work Experience

For the simulated Work Experience, I was grouped up to help Year 2 student Saba with her 2D animation project. Her project is a story about a girl breaking free from the constraints of her family and country, in order to follow her passions.

Saba communicated to the group that she wanted to focus on getting some rough animation completed, as she hadn’t decided about voiceovers or scripts as of yet, which is a skill I offered to the project (voice acting/acting.) Saba mentioned that due to a script not yet being written, that the voice acting would be for a future collaboration if she ever needed me.

So, with my skillset, I decided to create some frames for her, using the LAV’s she provided as reference. For this, I used Adobe Animate. This was if anything, good for me to do, as my style contrasts with Saba’s work. As I work mostly in stop motion with materials like sand and paper, it was a breath of fresh air to return back to 2D and for me to reflect on the translatable skills between stop motion and 2D.

What was challenging about this was not having many options when it came to helping Saba, as the majority of what she wanted was to be completed in Blender or Maya, which is out of my depth. Also, being in limbo with whether Saba needed voice overs from me, was part of the reason my work for her has been limited.

Although, positives to take from this experience, have been I’ve understood how imperative life drawing is to 2D animation especially. Sabas LAV’s were not dissimilar to movements you would find yourself drawing in a class with Vanessa. And being able to have a fluid, light hand when capturing the essence of a movement is so imperative to 2D animation.

Tests

STOP MOTION:

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Cut Out

I began using the cut out medium in the stop motion pathway and carried on experimenting with it afterwards. Below are a set of tests I did following on from my lip sync project. I wanted to be able to provide evidence I could also hit certain pronunciations. The first set of tests were not accurate enough, so I redrew them plus more in-between mouth shapes and created a 7 second skit over a green screen. Important to note here that the audio was recorded first and then I created the visual to match it.

The original test drawings helped me to look at how animated the mouth really is. And so using my own mouth as a reference, helped to capture, reference and include more in-betweens which can sometimes be easily forgotten about in stop motion because the environment is more fast paced than 2D animation.

I also experimented with flipping this process on its head and instead of recording audio and then creating the visual, I created a visual for me to voice-over afterwards in post-production. This is one of my more successful pieces, I believe due to the fact It was a spontaneous experiment, with no expectations, which allowed my improvisation to flourish with more freedom.

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Clay

Below are visuals from the clay stop motion group project. As a group we wanted to keep the storyline as simple as possible, and we quickly learnt that with clay, less is more. Additionally, with help from Lucia Wang, follow through was successfully incorporated. From this I began understanding how important follow through is for the viewer, as it creates small moments after a large moment, to make sense of direction and physicality.

Group project: Flo Bender, Alice Beghatto + Lucia Wang

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Sand

Using sand as a medium, in reflection, helped me with my 2D animation. It forced me to understand important things like frames of apprehension, as once a frame is taken, you ‘can’t’ go back, so you notice your mistakes with more intensity! Whilst frames can’t be returned to in sand, it can also be very forgiving. Techniques such as morphing become very attractive and easy to depend. So, Improvising becomes very simple with sand, literally anything can become anything with a seamless transition.

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2D ANIMATION:

Walk Cycle

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Push, Pull + Lift

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Quadruped Walk Cycle

Cut out & Terry Gillingham

“The technique itself doesn’t really matter, whatever works, that’s why I use cut out, it’s the quickest and easiest form of animation I know”. (Terry Gillingham on Cut Out Animation – BBC Archive)

Terry Gillingham, a cut out stop motion artist, is best known for his attention grabbing work on Monty Pythons “Flying Circus”, “Life of Brian”, and “The Meaning of Life”. His most notorious, scenes from ‘Baby Carriage”, in which old ladies repeatedly get devoured by prams.

His work didn’t directly influence mine, but as I began experimenting in stop motion, using clay, sand and cut-out, I realised there were similarities in the absurdist type narratives I was creating. Having taken to cut-out, I have, on reflection, been able to better understand why my work was more successful and engaging.

“You can be silly with your walks”. (BBC Archive)

At the start of Year 1, working on 2D software such as TV Paint, learning basic technicalities like walk cycles, I didn’t feel as though I was producing interesting or playful work. These basic understandings are imperative to gaining deeper understanding for character development but as I began experimenting in stop-motion later on in the year, I engaged with a lot more enthusiasm. Mostly because I was able to use my improv skills with more freedom, I felt as though I had suddenly been given permission to engage with absurdist narratives, on the basis that I was able to pick and choose different parts of a magazine apart promptly and in the moment.

Gillingham talks about how walk cycles can be created in many ways, “The camels legs never moved, just simply slid across”, as he describes the Christmas card scene from the ‘Three Wise Men’.

Cut out animation allows for quick thinking, improvisation and organised chaos. My priority as an animator is to tell stories, cut out allows for these stories to be understood even if body language or walk cycles don’t make real world (life-like) sense.

‘Baby Carriage’, as mentioned above, is an interesting moment in the animation, in which a hand appears in scene, altering the narrative by changing the direction of the pram. This creates a very meta moment, as what would automatically be thought of as a accidental take, and not in keeping with the scene, Gillingham decides to actually incorporate it, making this piece feel very ahead of its time in terms of what can and can’t be done in stop motion. The experimental nature of his work gives me a sense of freedom, as though I can work by my own rules and make use of what “goes wrong”.

Below is a mood board video from a cut-out experiment partner (Ori) and I created as inspiration for our Final piece in the stop motion pathway.

We gathered some more cut-outs and created a final version.