FA7031 - Ideas for Essay and Essay Film (Updated 18/1/16)
- Nov 11, 2015
- 3 min read
For my essay I am going to look at narrative. I am going to study diferent types such as folk tales, myths and fairy tales as well as how it is used according to Campbell and Vogler and Propp. I am also going to produce an essay film using clips from WALL-E, Brave and Enchanted along with my life story as parallel narratives. The film will be made in a similar style to the video below, which will serve as inspiration for the essay film:
This video uses clips from The Wizard of Oz (1939), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (2001) and identifies the narrative stages according to Campbell and Vogler in the clips. For example in the Mundane World (otherwise known as Ordinary World) Harry Potter is living with his uncle, aunt and cousin before he goes to Hogwarts. Also in the clip certain narrative stages have been changed or omitted, for example the 'Tests, Allies and Enemies' stage is known as 'The Path of Trails' but the 'Refusal of the Call' is omitted.
What I find particularly inspirational about this clip is that is uses diffrerent genres of film such as fantasy, science fiction and horror-fantasy since I initially chose to use three different types for my essay film such as CGI-animated sci-fi, CGI-animated fairy tale and fairy tale spoof/fantasy in a combined 2D-animated, CGI and live-action film.
I have made a full-length essay film using clips from WALL-E and Enchanted but have decided to omit clips from Brave due to its animation similarities to WALL-E and genre similarities to Enchanted. I have also uploaded the film onto YouTube but had to remove it due to a copyright claim from Disney because of the usage of the clips. Instead of film clips for my final version I decided to use stills from the films. I uploaded the first narrative stage of my remade essay film with stills from the films and YouTube did not issue me with a copyright claim let alone block my video from worldwide viewing.
I made another full-length essay film using film stills instead of motion clips as well as additional music to suit the mood of particular stages and again I was not issued with another copyright claim.
In addition to the film stills I have also used illustrations based on the part of my life where I move from my family home in Newport, South Wales to a care home in London. During my transition I have met people who have helped me along the way such as Dan, who was initially a support worker but soon became the team leader for my unit,then the manager of my home and now he is my landlord in my current supported living establishment; Alistair, a fellow resident with whom I mostly got along with due to his dry sense of humour and artistic talent; and some staff and a particular resident who I preferred not to name because I did not get along with them. My transition from living with my family to living in care home is esentially a starting point for my MA project of an animated documentary about how my Asperger syndrome affects my senses since parts of it can take place in my current home and certain issues that have affected my senses at home inlcude too many people looking at me at once, fellow tenats talking loudly and unpleasantly and communal spaces becoming too crowded.
Below is a timeline I created in Word and edited in Adobe Photoshop of each narrative stage in WALL-E, Brave and Enchanted as well as my life story. This shows that each story has parallel narratives.
Below are the storyboards I produced for the life story part of my essay film:
References
Films
Brave (2012). Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Enchanted (2007). Directed by Kevin Lima [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001). Directed by Chris Columbus [Film]. UK and USA: Warner Brothers Pictures.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). Directed by George Lucas [Film]. USA: 20th Century Fox.
WALL-E (2008). Directed by Andrew Stanton [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The Wizard of Oz (1939). Directed by Victor Fleming [Film]. USA: MGM.
Online sources:
April Slocombe (2015). Narrative Essay Film Final (with improvements) [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Gv3Bo8xis (Accessed: 13th January 2016).
Hero Production Company (2011). The Hero’s Journey [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGV1BvnyvGo (Accessed: 10th January 2016).
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