Don Herzfeldt
 |
| (Fig. 1) Don Herzfeldt |
Born on August 1st, 1976 in Alameda County,
California Don Herzfeldt has been noted for creating a number of independent
influential films. Some of these films include: It's Such a Beautiful Day,
World of Tomorrow and The Meaning of Life.
It was at a young age Herzfeldt started animation using a
camera but found that the film was too expensive. As a result he quickly
changed to using hand drawn frames that are now used as his main form medium
today. It is the choice of traditional methods of animation that have made him,
as an animator, stand out finding new animation techniques upon the principles
of the old ones.
Herzfeldt quoted, “We have over 100 years now of amazing
film technology to play with, I don't understand why any artists would want to
throw any of their tools out of the box” (New York Times 2008). Herzfeldt
strongly believes that it is not how an image is captured but the end result
that truly matters in his art.
 |
| (Fig.2) Scene from "Rejected Cartoons" |
Despite being limited in resources from a young age
Herzfeldt has managed to create animation capable of capturing the audience’s
attention. The simplistic hand drawn characters allow his dark humour to be
conveyed without causing too much controversy. It is the use of a simple art
style that makes it easy to enjoy. Alongside being easy to enjoy it shows an
achievement to aspire to despite any animator’s background and material
available.
Lotte Reinger
 |
| (Fig. 3) Lotte Reiniger |
Lotte Reiniger was born on the 2nd of June 1899
to a German family. From a young age she became interested in the concept of
using silhouette puppets inspired by those used in Chinese art. It was later in
life when she was introduced to cinema seeing films created by Georges Méliès.
From here Reiniger delved further into the possibilities of animation.
 |
| (Fig. 4) Still from Reiniger's film Däumelinchen |
(Fig. 5) Example of shadow puppet in use
During Reiniger’s lifetime she was able to produce over 40
films using her own creations. The style of animation shown can be compared to
puppets as cut outs of silhouettes are manipulated to form frames. Due to the
nature of early cameras most of the films feature black and white film reminiscent
of shadow puppets. Despite looking on from a 2D side view the work create has a
warm fairy tale feel, the feeling of nostalgia is only increased with the
stories portrayed sometimes being selected from such stories like “Puss in
Boots”.
Illustration List
Fig.1 http://www.denofgeek.us/sites/denofgeekus/files/3/06/don_hertzfeldt.jpg
Fig.2 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ab/49/c1/ab49c1bfb2e099a4ea12d3daba1c77ab.jpg
Fig.3 http://www.animationresources.org/pics/achmedreiniger.jpg
Fig.4 https://europeananimation.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/lotte_thumbelina_1954.jpg
Fig.5 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f2/c4/4c/f2c44ce5add4726356349d6456474835.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment