Making an animated documentary (a what?)
Recently animation has been gaining a
foothold in the documentary world as a distinctive approach to filmmaking.
Within the documentary genre, animated documentaries are unique in that though
they remain rooted in real people and situations, they transcend the literal
representation of live action filmmaking. Through the animator’s artistic
interpretation, the viewer experiences a new level of emotional and symbolic
understanding. In Conversing with Aotearoa/New Zealand, New Zealanders and
tourists speak about why they are drawn to wilder places and what they
experience there.
Pre-production
Aldo Leopold observed in A Sand County Almanac that “the rich diversity of the world’s cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth.” There is no doubt that in a country where 1/3 of the land is dedicated to National Parks, wilderness shapes New Zealand culture on both personal and communal levels. Through the research of Dr. James Higham's at the University of Otago, I began thinking of the ides that 'wilderness' is not merely a legislative concept, but a subjective term that is dependent on one's cultural background, personal landscapes and experiences. This idea intrigued me and drew me to New Zealand, where landscapes collide in a very short distance and cultures mingle through tourism, immigration and indigenous cultures.
My foundational questions:
- Why do we go to the wilder places?
- What makes a wilderness experience?
- How do our past experiences affect our current ones?
Through the generous support of Fulbright New Zealand and the Harvey Fellows, I spent 15 months in New Zealand, traveling to the remote areas in search of wilderness stories. My wandering route took me from the very tip of the Island to the southernmost bays of Stuart Island, and a lot in between. Many places and people couldn't be found just off the road so I hit the tracks and open seas, tramping, sailing and kayaking in pursuit of the unique voices of Aotearoa.
But before I packed my bags, I did a lot of tests and preliminary work to determine my visual and thematic approaches. I read papers on The State of New Zealand Wilderness (pdf) published by Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai. I experimented with a few short pieces. You can see them here:
The Great Yosemite Adventure
A painting Story
Trio en plein air
Sound
How does one go about creating an animated film? Most animated films start with the sound, since, when working frame by frame, it is much easier to match animation to an already established soundtrack than to try to match sound to completed animation.
To record the sound I used a neat little set-up called PDAudio-CF created by CoreSound. I used high-end binaurl microphones both for mono voice recording and stereo environment recording. New Zealand birds are unique and very vocal!
Tuis have two voice boxes so can call and answer themselves. They often
imitate other birds.Sound Editing
Having gathered more material than I could handle, I staggered my way back to Auckland to begin piecing the most interesting bits into a flowing narrative that would lend itself to animation. I originally thought I would structure the film around the around six elements of the wilderness experience described by the New Zealand Department of Conservation: freedom, challenge, discovery, solitude, romance and connection with nature. When I started reviewing my conversations and processing my own experiences in the backcountry, I realized that I couldn’t box these stories into six neat compartments. There was too much overlap and undercurrents. More importantly, there were personal stories. People had shared some of their best memories, most challenging moments and spiritual discoveries with me. I found those to be far more interesting than my intended academic exploration of the meaning of wilderness. Working in Adobe Audition, I started with 15 hours of interviews and slowly whittled it down to 14 minutes. There was a lot of good material that was hard to cut out! But the longer the film the more animation I would have to do so I was motivated to get it down to a manageable length. As I went, I catalogued the clips and began planning the animation to go along with it.
Visuals
With the sound edited, I created a storyboard, which is my reference point for the visual images. A storyboard set to a soundtrack is called an animatic. This helps me see how the timing is working within the piece and where things might be too short or too long.
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On the glacier |
Animation
Once
an animatic is established, it is simply a matter of filling in the gaps with
animation. Hardly a simple matter! Animation is a long process. 12 drawings add
up to 1 second of film. For this film I to created roughly 10,000 separate
images! And don’t thing the computer does it for me. Though I use Adobe
AfterEffects and Photoshop and Painter 6 to manipulate and combine photographs
and drawings, I end up scrutinizing nearly every frame.
I believe that the method in which I create the artwork should be interrelated
with the thematic content so I used different artistic styles for each section
of the film. In addition to hand-drawn animation, I wanted to investigate
creating animation directly in a wilderness environment. Having grown up in a
hiking and backpacking family, wilderness has had a profound influence on my
artistic approach to beauty. My grandmother is a Plein air watercolor artist and
I've always loved being out in the environment and influenced by the elements as
I create. A rugged landscape moves me in the same way it moves artists such as
Van Gogh, William Wendt and Ansel Adams: I want to be outside and surrounded by
it while I create.
One of my favorite artists is Andy Goldsworthy, who creates amazing sculptures
in nature. I met another artist in New Zealand, Martin Hill, who works in a
similar manner, combining transitory sculpture with landscape photography.
Andy
Goldsworthy
Martin Hill
Until recently, animation on location was impractical because of the time and
equipment involved in creating and recording hundreds of original drawings. Now,
with increasing lightweight digital technology and digital photography, paint
and editing programs, the possibility of en plein air animation is within our
grasp. Creating animation on location brings the spontaneity of fresh experience
to an art form that can be overly methodical in its production.
One sequence I shot on a beach near my home in Devonport. I set up my tripod and a bunch of shells and began moving them around, taking one frame at a time. Animating this way means each frame is destroyed in the process of creating a new one so there is no going back if you make a mistake. Several people gave me some curious glances over the course of the afternoon. At one point a dog wandered over and I thought all was about to be ruined because he was very curious as to what I was doing. After about 4 hours I had 10 seconds of animated shells. It is one of my favorite sequences, not only because it turned out well, but each time I watch it I can remember the smell of Takapuna beach, the sound of the waves mingling with laughing kids, the warm sun on my back and hands balanced by a cool ocean breeze. Even though I spend a lot of time in front of a computer to make my films, it is moments like this that remind me why I do what I do.
The New Zealand wilderness was my inspiration and I spent a lot of time out in the bush being inspired. I captured timelapse and pixilation footage with my Nikon D70, as well as still images for the background images. These I combined with digitally painted characters, stop-motion animation and compositing effects.
To create a scene I might start with these elements:
And end up with this:
Top
Post-production
Once the animation is finished, the film is ready for final sound design, (effects, ambience, and music) and mixing. Amy Davidson from sounddesign.co.nz composed an original score for the film and Greg Townsend mixed the final soundtrack using the facilities at University of Southern California. The final version was output to HD and DVD and now it's on to the wide world! Short animated films like these usually tour the world through international film festivals and if they are well received, end up on TV or DVD distribution. If you would like to keep track of the film, please check the upcoming screenings page.
