Before I started my ideation, I wanted to take a look at what had been done in term of poetry animations i.e., what type of visual story tellings were effective e.g., literal or symbolic ones. One thing that was clear from the very beginning was that no matter what approach I take I have to justify the source material while giving my own rendition.
Death and Mother by Robert Lingford (1997)
It is a Black-and-white, etched-wood animation tale about the Grim Reaper. In a remote forest, Death in disguise calls on a woman and her baby daughter. When the mother realises the identity of her visitor, and his intention to claim her child, she tries to flee the inevitable. Of course, try as she might, she cannot evade Death. Eventually, she accepts her fate when confronted with a window into her future. It is actually a short film that aired on Channel 4, but the concept is remotely similar my poem. The major selling points of this film are the transitions and I might take a note from this one in term of keeping the audience engaged through such means.
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (1871)
Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” is a nonsense poem (from the 1871 novel “Through the looking glass”) in which many of the words are invented out of the author’s imagination. As a result, readers depend on Carroll to explain the meanings of such words. The story recounted in “Jabberwocky” is, at its heart, a very traditional heroic narrative in which an unassuming hero sets out to defeat an improbably dangerous enemy. For this reason, the boy’s success in slaying the Jabberwock evokes the most classic theme of heroic narrative: the triumph of good over evil. The animation is done at 3s (8 frames-per-second) with a stop motion and type feel. You can notice that there are moments when the words are independent of the imagery and this allows a more fluidity in the animation and I believe that a points where a more abstract approach is taken it turns out more effective.
“Humans” by Meghann Plunkett
The speaker boasts of human sophistication while addressing a silenced goldfish. It represents a sentiment of the vulnerable or the often unheard. It reveals a sense of arrogance in the human so boastful, impressed by human achievements and privileges, until midway through, the speaker flips the poem upside down. It encourages humility while exposing human fragility from the perspective of God looking at us as if we are now the goldfish. The poem confronts our assumptions about humanity and encourages us to ponder our perspective of self-centered importance in the universe. In this animation an additive combination approach is taken i.e., where the words amplify or elaborate on an image or vice versa.
“The World” by Rumi, A Poetry Film by Ella Dobson
The animation is made on the teachings of Rumi and a very challenging to animate as well because works by Rumi are so multi layered that there are many ways to interpret it. The above animation is very abstract and implies the method that, the more is said with words the more the pictures can be freed to go exploring and vice versa. Hence it relies on very crafty transitions.
In most of the animations I saw all of them either had an additive combination or Independent combination and one thing that was common throughout was that all employed crafty transitions when changing scenes (or lines) and these methods keep the audience engaged.
References
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). ‘How to Be Alone’ by Pádraig Ó Tuama, A Poetry Film by Leo G Franchi. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgZT6UJocRs.
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Meghann Plunkett – ‘Humans’. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP_xG0TiSD8 [Accessed 9 May 2021].
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Lamya’s Poem | Official Trailer. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rtVkvAkgEc [Accessed 22 Apr. 2023].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). The Country – Billy Collins Animated Poetry. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xovLpim_1s [Accessed 22 Apr. 2023].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). South – A Visual Poetry. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4T1Lpx3pNI [Accessed 22 Apr. 2023].
TED-Ed (2020). ‘Jabberwocky’: One of literature’s best bits of nonsense. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQos7-Vq8M.
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). LA MADRE Y LA MUERTE (Death and the Mother) Ruth Lingford, 1997. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR5zJrP0JkQ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2023].
Arsalan Awais 