1: What was the system of racial segregation in South Africa called that lasted from the late 1940s to the early 1990s?
2: What is the major issue facing Japan’s Mount Fuji?
3: What is the tallest penguin species?
4: True or False: Cicadas pose a danger to humans and pets.
5: True or False: The number of bacteria in your mouth is higher than the number of people on Earth.
6: After 16 years of renovations, the upscale department store La Samaritaine reopened in Paris in 2021 and now includes what type of housing?
7: What is the name of the academic building on Columbia University’s campus that protesters broke into and took over?
8: Which war were US college and university students protesting in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
9: What is the fund of money called that colleges and universities raise largely through donations, invest in various companies, and use to help improve the school?
10: The Affordable Connectivity Program, which is set to run out of money by the end of May, helps low-income Americans pay for what service?
ANSWER KEY
1. Apartheid
2. Overtourism
3. Emperor penguin
4. Maybe you should take notes each day instead of just copying the answers
5. You are just cheating yourself by doing this!!!
6. Affordable housing
7. Hamilton Hall
8. Vietnam War
9. Endowment
10. The World Famous Great Mr. Schoener Internet service
CONTENT QUIZ
WHAT IS A FREEZE FRAME IN FILM?
WHEN WAS THE TECHNIQUE OF FREEZE FRAME MOST USED IN FILMS?
WHERE IS THE MOST COMMON PLACE TO SEE A FREEZE FAME?
LIST THREE REASONS/PURPOSES FOR USING FREEZE FAMES IN FILM?
LIST FOUR THINGS THAT SILENCE DOES TO FILM?
LIST (5) FIVE OF THE TOP FILM’S THAT USED SILENCE TO HELP TELL THE STORY?
LIST (5) THINGS THAT TAKE PLACE IN PRE PRODUCTION?
TRUE/FALSE- IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO USE A MARKER TO WRITE ON THE SCHOOL WALLS?
TRUE/FALSE- IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO USE A VAPE IN SCHOOL?
TRUE/FALSE- IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO MOVE COMPUTERS/KEYBOARDS/MOUSE’S AROUND IN THE COMPUTER LAB?
STAGES OF FILMMAKING — THE PRE-PRODUCTION PROCESS EXPLAINED
Before the cameras start rolling on any film set, there must be extensive planning. This stage is called the pre production process. In this episode, we go through everything you need to know about movie pre production, with the help of assistant director Donald Sparks and production designer Jason Kisvarday. They walk us through the many elements of pre production: budgeting, scheduling, script breakdowns, crew hiring, storyboarding, location scouting, and much more.
WHAT IS PRE PRODUCTION IN FILM
One of the most important aspects of movie pre production is scheduling. Scheduling and budgeting are closely intertwined in the stages of pre production in film. How long you’ll shoot is directly related to how much money you have. So how do you schedule a movie? It all begins with a script breakdown, where an AD analyzes a script for all relevant production details. Once this is done, the AD will take cast, crew, equipment rentals and more into account when crafting the shoot schedule.
HIRING CREW IN THE PRE PRODUCTION PROCESS
Of course, a movie usually requires the work of more than one person. During the pre production process in film, most of the roles in the crew are filled. This usually begins with department heads, like the cinematographer, costume designer, production designer, and stunt coordinator. These heads will often then hire for their own departments, and convey their needs to the line producer. At the same time, the cast that wasn’t already attached in the development process is brought on board by the casting director.
MOVIE PRE PRODUCTION PRE-VISUALIZING
During pre production, the director will work with their team to plan the look of the movie. They may shot list and/or storyboard with a cinematographer, and have meetings with other department heads like the production designer and costume designer. They will also conduct location scouts and, later, tech scouts. Camera tests may also occur, so that the technical aspects of the film are locked down before filming begins. Pre production is both demanding and vital. The more thorough you are in pre production, the higher your chances of success down the line in the filmmaking process.
The clever use of silence can help you guide your audience’s reaction to your film.
Force the Audience into the Moment
The audience feels the soundtrack disappearing beneath them, forcing them to focus on the moment —
Give Action Extra Punch
extra level of “realness” to your sequences. Emphasis on brutal actions, like car crashes or gun shots, seems more abrupt, and these sequences hang in the air longer as the audience lingers with the echoes throughout an entire scene or film.
Convey Isolation
Silence can also be powerful when it conveys the inner isolation of a character.
Add Emotional Depth
As a filmmaker, you can use many different techniques to cue emotional responses in your audience.
simply removing the sounds of the characters’ cries of despair can seemingly make them that much more emotional and deep.
It’s Quiet…Too Quiet…
In a previous post written by Mary Winter, we discussed the importance of musical themes in film. While I personally agree with all of the points that Mary brought up in her post, I also believe that the absence of music and other sounds in a film can be just as impactful if used in the proper context. This isn’t to say, however, that a film must choose between musical themes and silence. No, in fact many films make great use of both techniques in order to create a dynamic experience for the viewer. Silence is just another creative tool to add to a filmmaker’s handy-dandy utility belt.
While complete and utter silence in film is relatively rare, partial silence in which there is no dialogue for a prolonged period of time or where there is no music in the background is commonly utilized to great effect due to the emotional impact it has on viewers, the level of immersion it creates, and the amount of intrigue it generates to better captivate the audience.
Emotional Impact
Coll Anderson, the Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Engineer of Martha Marcy May Marlene, claims that the most traumatic scene in the film (don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone, but if you have seen the film then you know exactly which part I’m talking about) initially had no audible sound coming from Elizabeth Olson’s performance; just the sound of an ambient drone as it hauntingly rings away in the background. But in the eleventh hour, right when the film was going to be turned in, it was decided that having no sound at all from the actor’s performance would be too upsetting for the audience. They wouldn’t be able to handle it. So in order to lessen the blow, they added just enough sound to the scene so that the audience would still be emotionally stricken by what it was they were witnessing without causing any sort of emotional breakdown that would prevent them from finishing the film. By adding sound back into the picture, the film’s creative team was essentially extending an olive branch to audience members as a means of keeping themselves grounded and giving them the opportunity to merely be a witness in what was going in the film rather than be an active participant. When you strip a portion of the sound away from a scene, you create a void that the audience members must fill themselves in order to properly wrap their heads around what it is they are viewing. Filling in the blanks causes the viewer to become more intimately attached the film, thus leaving them more emotionally exposed and vulnerable.
Creating Deeper Immersion
I recently saw the movie Silence in theaters with a good buddy of mine, and befitting of its title, the film is pretty darn quiet. It has a subtle soundscape that is utilized effectively to ramp up the drama of the film as well as place emphasis on the dialogue and sound effects. The sound of crashing waves ripping across the flesh of the Christian devotees would not be as severely heart-wrenching if background music happened to be playing during the scene. The absence of sound invokes a bitter sense of spine-tingling realism that is tough to escape. By omitting music from certain scenes such as this, the audience is better able to connect with what they are experiencing as the gap that exists between the audience member and what is depicted on screen is drastically reduced. The viewer is reeled in, becoming fully immersed with the scene as though they themselves were in it.
Creating Intrigue
Viola Davis’ Academy Award nominated performance as Rose Maxson was given plenty of room to breathe in Fences largely in part to the sparse musical soundscape that permeated the film. The musical themes in the movie functioned more as a tool for transitioning between scenes than as an agent for emotional development. The film allowed the long strings of dialogue between the characters to remain unfettered by musical accompaniment, giving viewers an in-your-face, inside perspective of what these characters were actually going through. During the scene in which Denzel Washington’s character, Troy Maxson, makes a startling reveal to his wife that forever changes the dynamic between them (again, no spoilers), the audience is left with nothing to hold onto for emotional support as they’re exposed to the stunning performance given by the two leading actors. The absence of a backing track forces us to pay close attention to what is being said on camera. Silence makes a scene feel important, and if the viewer deems a scene important then they are more likely to pay keen attention to it. Each word exchanged cuts deep and is given more meaning due to the perceived gravity of the situation. This allows the content to be more readily absorbed and digested by the viewer, making the use of silence a great technique for emphasizing the important dramatic bits of a film.
Silence has a profound role in developing the emotional tone of a film, and is a great tool for capturing the sincerity behind the performances seen on screen while simultaneously captivating the audience as their minds race to fill in the blanks of what it is they aren’t actually hearing.
For a while in the 1970s and 80s, freeze frames were all the rage. But the technique quickly became hackneyed and widely mocked, with everyone and their mother parodying freeze frames like the one in The Breakfast Club. But today, the frame hold is far from dead. In this episode of Ultimate Guide, we look at the divisive editing trick.
FREEZE AND STILL FRAMES AT BEGINNINGS AND ENDS
The most common place to see a freeze frame is at the beginning or end of a film. A well-utilized frame hold can start a movie with a bang. Think of the Tarantino freeze frame introduction effect. The frame hold at the top of Pulp Fiction is instantly iconic– a powerful blend of image and music. Freezes as endings can be just as memorable. Landing on the right frame can have a powerful impact. It can act as a final farewell (Thelma and Louise) or an open-ended question (400 Blows).
FILM FREEZE FRAMES FOR PACING
By definition, a frame hold affects the pacing of a cut. This can serve a variety of purposes. A freeze can emphasize a character’s expression, or a particularly important emotional beat. Or, it can be used more logistically, allowing for a voice over or piece of music to line up with the sequence. You’ll see this a lot in Martin Scorsese freeze frames, where he’ll halt a shot to give the narrator some time to explain what’s happening.
FREEZE FRAME AS EMPHASIS
No matter how you use a frame hold, it will draw attention. This is why the technique can be so controversial– use it incorrectly and no one can ignore it. But used well, it can allow an audience to absorb visual information they might have missed, or catch a small reaction that otherwise would have gone under the radar. Freeze frames shouldn’t be relegated to the margins of history. There’s far too much the technique can offer. While there are certainly some laughable examples out there, there are far more great freezes that we won’t be forgetting any time soon.
1: How much foreign aid did the US authorize for Ukraine this week?
2: Besides Ukraine, what two other countries will benefit from the foreign aid package President Biden signed this week?
3: What is it called when the rate of office vacancies in a city increases, which hurts commercial real estate values, which in turn can hurt the city’s overall economy?
4: Which university campus had an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters that sparked a wave of similar encampments at colleges across the US?
5: A piece of space junk from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a home in which state last month?
6: What is the name of the space probe launched in 1977 that scientists recently fixed?
7: What is the name of TikTok’s parent company?
8: US researchers recently found some drawings for American cartoons on a computer server in which Asian country?
9: Which African country experienced devastating floods this week that impacted nearly half of the nation?
10: Which US official went to China this week on a diplomatic trip?
CNN 10 QUIZ ANSWERS
1. $61 billion
2. Israel and Taiwan
3. Urban doom loop
4. Columbia University
5. Florida
6. Voyager 1
7. ByteDance
8. North Korea
9. Kenya
10. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
CONTENT QUIZ
What year did the Saturday Morning Cartoons start on TV?
What year did all three major TV Networks have Saturday Morning Cartoons?
What year did Saturday Morning Cartoons end and what network was last to have that programing?
Why did Saturday Morning Cartoons go away? Explain with a few examples
1: How much foreign aid did the US authorize for Ukraine this week?
2: Besides Ukraine, what two other countries will benefit from the foreign aid package President Biden signed this week?
3: What is it called when the rate of office vacancies in a city increases, which hurts commercial real estate values, which in turn can hurt the city’s overall economy?
4: Which university campus had an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters that sparked a wave of similar encampments at colleges across the US?
5: A piece of space junk from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a home in which state last month?
6: What is the name of the space probe launched in 1977 that scientists recently fixed?
7: What is the name of TikTok’s parent company?
8: US researchers recently found some drawings for American cartoons on a computer server in which Asian country?
9: Which African country experienced devastating floods this week that impacted nearly half of the nation?
10: Which US official went to China this week on a diplomatic trip?
CNN 10 QUIZ ANSWERS
1. $61 billion
2. Israel and Taiwan
3. Urban doom loop
4. Columbia University
5. Florida
6. Voyager 1
7. ByteDance
8. North Korea
9. Kenya
10. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
CONTENT QUIZ
What year did the Saturday Morning Cartoons start on TV?
What year did all three major TV Networks have Saturday Morning Cartoons?
What year did Saturday Morning Cartoons end and what network was last to have that programing?
Why did Saturday Morning Cartoons go away? Explain with a few examples
his guide was created as a result of a personal study I have done, watching and analyzing the difference and similarities of every Academy Award nominated animated short film in the last 20 years.
Through this study, I have found that there are 8 archetypes (or genres) short films usually fit in.
With sharing these results I hope to help filmmakers in the process of making their own animated short. Either by focusing them on the type of film they are making, (and then tightening it up by reading our definitions and watching similar films) or inspiring new ideas from our breakdowns of the different genres.
Contents:
The Quick Arc
The Duel
The Saturday Morning Cartoon
Story Time
High Concept
The Sketch
The Twist
Weird / Abstract / No Point
1. The Quick Arc
In the Quick Arc, a character goes through a sped-up version of a traditional film story arc, using the classic 3 act structure. That character arc could be a positive arc, in which the character has changed for the better (Mr. Hublot), a flat arc, in which the character stay the same but they have changed the world around them (Purl), or a Negative arc, in which the character had changed for the worse.
They start in The Normal World, and quickly encounter an Inciting Incident(a call-to-action) which challenges their way of life and force them to act.
They go through different Trials, trying to handle the situation they way they’ve always handled things, and that’s not going to work for them. They will fail. But then (usually at the film’s mid-point) they reach a Breakthrough.
They figured out what to do, and do it. It looks like things are then starting to work out, but then the hero quickly learns that this was only a false victory (or false defeat). They reach a Low Point, throwing it all out the window.
Then the hero learns an important lesson, and is forced to either change or create change to get what they need. It is with that change that they reach the Resolution, and the film would (usually) end with the mirror image of that “normal world” from the beginning, introducing a whole New world. Our character will never be the same again.
These shorts are usually the ones that make you cry.
Genre characteristics:
1 main character
Character goes through a full arc
Traditional 3 act structure: 1) Normal World, 2) Inciting Incident 3) Trials 4) Breakthrough 5) Low Point 6) Resolution + New World
Example: Purl by Kristen Lester | Pixar
The film features 1 main main character, Purl, a female ball of yarn, who starts working in a predominantly male work environment (comically exaggerated in this film, with the amusing company name B.R.O Capital). Through the film, Purl tries fitting in. In doing so, she’ll have to learn how much of herself is she willing to lose in the process.
This film follows the 3 act structure, and utilized a flat character arc.
ACT 1:
We start with the Normal World, in which B.R.O Capital is a male-dominant firm. The Inciting Incident happens right off the bat, as Purl (our yarn-ball protagonist) starts her new job at the firm and thrown into this foreign male environment. One she’s not equipped to deal with.
ACT 2:
Purl tries to deal with this new world the only way she knows how, but that proves to be ineffective. She goes through numerous Trials, such as dealing with a homogeneous closed group of coworkers who find her odd and different, don’t get her humor, think her business ideas are “too soft”, and don’t invite her to lunch.
She fails and gives up… or does she?
Breakthrough! (exactly half way through the film)
She comes up with a plan. If she can’t beat them, join them! She alters her appearance and personality in order to fit in. And guess what? It works! They laugh at her (sexists) jokes, go for her (aggressive) business ideas, and invite her to Happy Hour drinks after work. They love her. She’s one of the guys. But then –
ACT 3:
A new worker shows up. And she’s just like Purl used to be. She realizes her victory is a false one. She changed, and not for the better. She sacrifices everything about herself just to fit in.
That’s her Low Point. She’s lost any part of who she was. But no more! She will not end up like the guys around her. She will take a stand and make a difference. She invites the new worker to come out with them. This surprises everyone, but they are forced to accept it. That was Purl’s moment of Resolution. And now we enter the –
New World. A mirror image of the opening Normal World, in which we see a diverse work environment with a mixed bag of personalities and appearances where everyone feels accepted. Purl had changed the world around her for good.
Conclusion
As you can see, we went through these 3 acts very quickly (thus the name Quick Arc), but all the important beats are still there, and they are what makes the story work so well.
The Duel genre has two characters who are up against each other in one way or another. Either by trying to one-up each other (One Man Band), by learning to get along (Hair Love), or simply a fight for domination, with one winner and one loser (The Longest Daycare).
One important thing to note is that the protagonist(s) don’t change at the end. They might end up at a different place than where they started at, but it is their persistent personality that drives their actions and leads to their end result. They don’t go through a character arc. At best, they learn to live with the other character.
A typical Duel film starts with one character quickly being thrown into conflict with another character. Then they initially try to one up each other, or figure out a way to work together, or simply fight, until their conflict gets resolved by either getting along, or a clear win/defeat.
Genre characteristics:
Two characters against each other
The resolution is about how the conflict between them gets resolved, and not about how they changeindividually.
Example: The Longest Daycare by David Silverman | Fox
This film features Maggie Simpson on a particularly rough day at daycare, where she faces a bully who aims to kill her butterfly. If she is to save her new pet, she must use all her wit and cunning.
The film opens with Maggie quickly thrown into the lion’s den that is daycare, where she immediately is greeted by the class bully — A kid who likes to kill butterflies. She then finds a caterpillar, and the bully shows up right away with his big hammer.
She then goes through a short sequence of avoiding the bully (including camouflaging the caterpillar as her eyebrow to get passed him, an act of foreshadowing to what she’ll do at the end of the film). As Maggie learns that her caterpillar will soon turn into a butterfly, she transitions to a full-on chase sequence, trying to run away from him. This is the Duel part of the film.
This duel is then resolved with the bully supposedly killing her butterfly, followed by an overdramatic crying scene she performs, and as she leaves with her mom we get to see her clever plan unfolds, as what she left behind was in fact her hair tie, not the butterfly. Thus, she won the duel.
Conclusion
The Duel doesn’t have to be a fight to the “death”, like the example above. In One Band Man, the two performers both end up losing, as their one-upmenship cost them their hard earned coin. Our very own Tasteful has a similar resolution, with both the fish and the pig working together, miserably, and still get criticized by an unhappy customer at the end. Partly Cloudy ends with the two partners learning to work together despite the difficulties.
The main point of this genre is the conflict between two characters, without any of them changing at the resolution, regardless of the way we chose to resolve it.
This type of short features a single character driven by one single motivation. A one-track mind.
They usually want to either get something or get out of a situation, usually in a humorous way with cartoon-like antics.
Change isn’t an issue for these type of films, as the character isn’t any different at the end than they were when they started. It’s about watching them go through hell and back trying to get what they want.
The name of this genre is taken from traditional old-fashioned cartoons (like Looney Tunes) which featured that style of short filmmaking often.
Think about Wile E. Coyote trying to capture the Road Runner. Every short is the same, and Coyote only cares about one single thing: catching the Road Runner. He never changes, and never waivers. The same goes for Pinky and the Brain (taking over the world) or Pepé Le Pew (finding love).
Though many of these characters interact with a secondary character (like the Road Runner or Tweety) I don’t consider it a Duel because the two character don’t end up with any kind of resolution. They don’t get closer, learn to live together, or beat one another in any final way. In this case, the secondary character is simply the obstacle our main character tries to overcome over and over again.
Genre characteristics:
One single-minded character
Focus on getting something, or getting out of something.
Example: Gone Nutty by Carlos Saldanha | Blue Sky
Gone Nutty is the classic embodiment of the Saturday Morning Cartoon genre. It features Scrat, a single-minded prehistoric rodent, who’s trying to store his nuts.
Through the entire film, we see him struggle against the environment, as his attempts of holding on to his nuts constantly fail, and he gets into worse and worse situations. He then proceeds to lose them all, and find himself helplessly stranded on a block of ice floating in the water.
Scrat has no other motives or objectives in his existent, other than getting and storing his nuts. He doesn’t change, he doesn’t learn. He simply and consistently pursues his goal, no matter the consequences.
Conclusion
This genre can often be confused with the Duel, as they both feature a character in a constant conflict with something. The main difference is that in the Duel, both characters reach a resolution together (win/lose, or learn to get along) while the SMC genre character faces the world on its own, driven by one simple goal.
Story Time films focus on capturing a moment in time (often narrated throughout), or a segmented story that doesn’t have an apparent character arc or any major transformation.
The story is often told at us, rather than presented to us through the action of the characters in the film, similar to an animated bed time story, with a clear storyteller taking us through the journey.
The main distinction with this genre, compared to Quick Arc, is that it’s not about the character arc or the plot, but about sharing a short story with the viewers in an interesting way, and while a character arc could sometime occur, this genre usually doesn’t need high conflict or resolution. It’s a window into one’s soul or thoughts.
Genre characteristics:
The story is told at us, rather than shown to us through the action of the film
More similar to a bed-time story than a traditional film
Often narrated
Example: Negative Space by Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata | Tiny Inventions
This short is based on a poem by Ron Koertge, and it tells the story of a kid remembering his father through their experience of masterfully packing a suitcase.
The film exemplify the Story Time genre perfectly. It throws us into the story right away, without much of an exposition or setup. There’s no inciting incident or any of the other elements of the 3 act structure. It simply relays a kid’s memory of his dad teaching him how to pack a suitcase, and what it meant to him.
Through the reading of the poem (narrated over the whole film) we cut between scenes depicting parts of that memory, and scenes of the protagonist making his way to what we learn at the end is his dad’s funeral.
Conclusion
This short is a great example of what the Story Time genre does so well: Shows us a window into one’s world. Me and My Moulton does that with a childhood memory of a young girl, Ryan does that in a documentary style way using interviews, and The Lost Thing does it with a completely fictional story.
Some of the films in that genre has Quick Arc elements in them (like Why Z or Pinky Toe), in which the protagonist goes through the character arc stages, but the unique format of the Story Time genre is what distinguishes it from the rest.
A High-Concept film utilizes some kind of interesting and unique concept, usually a visual one.A form of magical element or world-rule that is expressed prominently through the film.
This genre is often blended with other genres, but the main focus and attraction of this kind of film is that unique special element. When people talk about that film, they will use that twist to describe it. “That film where the husband and wife are on separate gravity fields” (Head Over Heals).
The Best example f0r this genre is Pixar’s Day & Night, where two characters interact in a “Duel” type of story, but the main selling point of this film is the fact that the characters themselves are used as our window to the scenery behind them, and to top that, they each show different times of the day through their bodies. Now that’s High-Concept.
Genre characteristics:
One unique element or rule (usually visual) that is featured through the film
Example: A Single Life | Job, Joris & Marieke
A single Life tells the story of a young woman who finds that she can go forward and backwards in time using a vinyl record.
This film focuses on one unique rule (or element) in the character’s world, which is the magical record that can shift time around. There’s no exposition or character development, the film is all about that one record, and how the woman plays around with it until she accidents overdoes it and ends up in an urn.
Conclusion
While this film used a physical object as the unique element, there’s many other ways of doing it. I mentioned Day & Night’s use of their silhouettes as the window to the film, but Reflection did it by using a copy of the character only shown in reflections to portray her inner self. Fresh Guacamole used military objects that look like food in preparing a bowl of guac, and Logorama featured a whole world made out of logos, while showing a pretty standard action chase sequence.
The main thing to note about this genre is that the unique element takes a front seat as the main focus point of the film, while the plot and characters revolve around it to tell the best story possible.
You got an idea for a funny sketch, and that’s what this genre is all about. There doesn’t have to be much of a story or a character arc (though there could be), but the main point behind this type of film is a certain funny idea or situation the creator had.
A great way to end up with a Sketch type film, is to ask “What if…?”
What if we took plain interviews with plain people and animated zoo animals to them (Creature Comforts)? or what if a dog ran a therapy group with a bunch of very different animals (Animal Behavior)?
Genre characteristics:
It’s a sketch. One you might expect to see on shows like SNL or Portlandia.
Example: Animal Behavior by Alison Snowden and David Fine
Animal Behavior portrays an entire group therapy session for different animals, ran by a dog.
This film is what the Sketch genre is all about. It’s funny, it’s absurd, and it doesn’t seem to go anywhere in particular, other than amuse us further. We get to see a great answer to the “What if” question presented to us at the start of the film. What if a dog ran a therapy group for a bunch of different animals? No one changes in particular, and we’re definitely not thinking about 3 acts. It’s just about plain old fun. And maybe some deep insights into our true nature as animals (watch the film and you’ll know what I mean).
A film in which you have to get to the end of it to understand its point. There’s either a big twist, which brings a new light to everything we’ve watched so far (Maestro), or we realize that the story actually loops in a certain way (Food for Thought).
Genre characteristics:
A surprise ending that brings new light to everything we’ve watched up to that point.
Case study breakdown: Maestro by Geza M. Toth | KEDD Animation Studio
Five minutes before the big performance Maestro is getting ready behind the curtain. Time is slowly ticking away.
Through the entire over 4 minutes of watching this film, we keep asking ourselves “what’s going on here?”. It looks like a performer getting ready for a show, but as the film progresses, and the preparation prolongs, we wonder what could possibly happen at the end, which now has only a few seconds to happen?
Then it happens, and the film is over. The big twist is, of course, that our protagonist is actually a bird in a cuckoo clock, and his performance takes exactly 2 seconds before it’s over. It’s a clever idea and is well executed.
Conclusion
Not all films in this genre must confuse us throughout. In our own Food For Thought, it starts out as a pretty standard film, throwing our protagonist in a scary situation. It’s only at the end that we realize the fish are just food for the spider crab. In The Present, all we see is an obnoxious child ignoring a poor 3 legged dog. It’s only at the end that we understand what was the purpose of this present, and what the kid was going through. In The Falling, we realize that the entire film, in fact, loops.
The main point of the Twist film is that it’s those last few moments that will reveal the point of the entire film.
This genre doesn’t have an apparent point or message, but rather could be a part of a bigger story (that we simply didn’t get to see), or demonstrate some kind of artistic style or technology. Some are just a form of experimental, abstract or impressionistic expression of the artist, using the animation medium as the canvas.
These are usually those films in which after there’s a long silence and lots of confused faces.
Genre characteristics:
An abstract / experimental form of storytelling
No apparent message or resolution
Case study breakdown: Prologue by Richard Williams
Prologue was intended to be the first part of a planned feature film based on the play Lysistrata. It depicts a gruesome battle between four fighters.
Prologue is a masterpiece of hand-drawn animation. Created by animation master Richard Williams, the film shows an entire battle in one long shot, animated in a virtuoso kind of way, flying around and in between the characters as the fight.
Story doesn’t seem to exist much in this film, as it was intended to be a part of a much bigger project, so as it stands it simply shows an amazing demonstration of the animation art form, but no story or character.
Conclusion
The “No Point” part of the name isn’t meant in a derogatory way. It’s simply pointing out that there isn’t a traditional story point to the film. A conclusion or resolution of any kind. This approach can leave some viewers with that sense of “what was that?” Or “What was the point here?”, but that is normal as the audience’s expectations from films are pretty set, and breaking them often created confusion and disinterest.
This isn’t said to discourage filmmaker from making films like this, but only to put it in the right context as to what viewers might experience watching them.
Congrats for making it to the end of our short film structure guid, I hope you learned something from watching these films and going through our breakdowns, or at least had fun doing so.
We kick things off with a silent film by J. Stuart Blackton, who some call the father of animation. His silent film shot in Thomas Edison’s Black Moria studio in New Jersey is credited as the first animated sequence on film ever.
An actor essentially does a bit of prop work and a cartoon man drawn on an easel occasionally changes expression thanks to some basic stop motion photography. Nothing fancy, but enough to capture the imagination of its viewers and other’s looking to run with this new and exciting visual entertainment medium.
Without any live action actor this time, J. Stuart Blackton returns with this, the first animation recorded on standard picture film. Humorous Phases begins with an artist drawing portraits on a blackboard in chalk, before they begin to animate and interact with each other.
It may be primitive, but this film would have blown your monocle clean off your face if you hadn’t seen a drawing come to life before!
French Charicaturist Émile Cohl steps into the ring now, producing the first fully animated cartoon with no live-action whatsoever. Made from 700 drawings, each double-exposed, this 2 minute long film is the earliest example of what became known as traditional animation.
With his characters morphing and transforming throughout, Cohl wanted to really demonstrate the fantastical, reality-defying possibilities of animation with his production.
Whilst Gertie was perhaps the first animated character to gain notoriety, Windsor McCay’s animated dinosaur film is worth a mention because it is the first animation to make use of key framing, inbetweening, registration marks and animation loops. These all became part of standard industry practice for traditional animation production for decades to come.
Felix was the leading character of a series of short cartoons created by Otto Messmer and became the first real ‘star’ of the animated silent film era.
He was a bit of a pop culture icon as well, having dolls, toys, watches, ceramics, postcards and more made in his image.
1922 – Steamboat Willie
We all know this one! Steamboat is often mistakenly thought to be Mickey Mouse’s debut, when in fact, this wasn’t his first outing. It was, however, the first animated film to both popularise Mickey and to be fully scored.
Yeah that doesn’t sound as impressive, but it’s still an iconic moment in animation history with some of the most recognisable visuals of any animation ever.
1930 – Dizzy Dishes
This animated cartoon about an incompetent chef gets a mention because it’s the first cartoon in which Betty Boop appears. Although not as we know her… Back then, she was some kind of terrifying dog-human hybrid. Sorry for the nightmares.
1932 – Flowers and Trees
This is part of Disney’s Silly Symphonies series, and was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
The keen-eyed amongst you will notice that we’ve left the black and white era behind us! Flowers and Trees was also the first animated film shot with a three-strip Technicolor camera, a process so costly that it almost ruined Disney financially. Luckily the cartoon was a smash hit – phew!
1933 – King Kong
Widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time – King Kong earns its spot in the history of evolution for including the most advanced and convincing stop motion animated characters yet seen.
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Probably the first animation on this timeline that still holds up nowadays, which speaks volumes of its polish, Snow White was the first ever full length animated feature film.
The labour-intensive yet visually stunning production perhaps makes this the work that cemented Walt Disney as one of the world’s most innovative storytellers.
1960 – The Flintstones
This palaeolithic Hanna-Barbera cartoon was the first ever prime-time animated show.
Amongst its long list of accolades and achievements, did you know that Fred and Wilma were also the first married couple to ever be shown in bed together on TV? Remember that one, might come up in a pub quiz one day!
1961 – One Hundred and One Dalmatians
This one is on the animation timeline because it was the first full feature animated film Disney made using xerography.
This is a process that eliminates hand-inking the outlines of the characters on each cel. Instead, the drawings were printed directly onto the cels, saving a massive amount of time and labour. Keep an eye out for the clear, bold lines in Dalmatians – a direct result of this process.
Another first, this Will Vinton production about Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher was the first ever feature length stop motion claymation film
It paved the way for studios like Aardman and Laika to take this process and run with it.
1988 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The first feature film to have live-action and cartoon characters share the same screen – we’ve come a long way since The Enchanted Drawing!
Roger Rabbit is also a major milestone in animated history because of the sheer number of characters and assets from different studios that made an appearance. Where else can you get Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse in the same scene?!
1993 – Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park mixed animatronics, stop-motion and CGI to create the most photo-realistic animated creatures ever before seen on screen.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual-effects studio behind these prehistoric creations, took a year to create just 4 minutes of computer generated dinos.
1995 – Toy Story
Just 2 years after Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Pixar came out with the first entirely computer generated feature film. It had full model articulation and motion-control coding to bring Andy’s toys to life, a real breakthrough in 3D animation which secured Pixar’s position as the studio to beat.
Toy Story was also the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay, showing how animation was beginning to be recognised and respected as entertainment, rather than just for animation-related accolades.
2002 – Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The second instalment of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the motion capture and CGI work that went into creating Gollum.
Whilst the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were highly accomplished elements that looked right at home alongside live-action stars, Gollum was the first real character that showed the world what motion capture and CGI was capable of. A fully computer generated character could appear alongside actors and it looked amazing.
Check out our pieces on Andy Serkis and mocap for more technical info and trivia about Gollum and motion capture!
2009 – Avatar
Moving from LotR’s CGI characters in real world settings, the next milestone in animation history came from James Cameron’s Avatar featuring real actors in completely computer generated worlds
Avatar blew audiences away with its advanced CGI and motion capture techniques, bringing the lush, alien world of Pandora to life in both 2 and 3 dimensions.
2012 – ParaNorman
Stop motion has come a long way! Us Brits, having grown up with the likes of Pingu, Bagpuss, The Magic Roundabout, Wallace and Gromit, and Creature Comforts on our screens, tend to have an especially soft spot for the medium as well.
ParaNorman by studio LAIKA represents some of the most advanced stop-motion and modelling techniques in animation to date. It was the first to make use of mass 3D printing for its models – creating over 31,000 individual face parts during production.
This technique is why the puppets in ParaNorman are so expressive and versatile – over 250 unique faces were used for one character to create a single shot lasting only 27 seconds. These groundbreaking stop motion techniques are enough to make viewers question if it’s even models at all!
If you’re of a certain age, you probably have fond memories of waking up early on Saturday mornings, fixing yourself a sugary bowl of cereal, and plopping down in front of the television in your pajamas to watch hours of cartoons.
From the 1960s until the early 1990s, animated features such as Mighty Mouse, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, Super Friends, and Spider-Man dominated American television sets from the hours of 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, providing children fond memories they’ve cherished far into adulthood.
But as much as we loved these shows, they weren’t created just to entertain kids; the programs were made to generate revenue for TV networks and toy companies. The enthusiasm for squeezing profits out of this captive audience of children accelerated the creation of many fondly remembered shows. Ironically, it also hastened the downfall of this Saturday morning tradition. Today, the networks’ Saturday morning shows don’t have a cartoon in sight. What happened?
While the concept of the television was conceived in the late 1800s, it wasn’t until 1927 that a fully functional electronic TV system made its first successful debut in San Francisco, designed by 21-year-old Philo Taylor Farnsworth. TV shows began running in the late 1920s and early ’30s. Then, the first television ad premiered on NBC in 1941, a commercial for Bulova watches.
The idea of generating revenue through partnerships with sponsors proved to be revolutionary for marketers and television networks alike.
After World War II, the sale of TV sets boomed across America. Though there were around 40 million radios in the U.S in 1947, the sale of television sets would rise dramatically in the 1950s and ’60s, thanks to the invention of the first complete electronic color TV system in 1953, developed by RCA.
While TV stations began broadcasting live-action shows in color, executives also realized they could air full-color cartoons.
Cartoon shorts that could only be found in movie theaters in the 1930s and ’40s, like Mighty Mouse, Looney Tunes, and Heckle and Jeckle, were now being introduced to a new generation of kids on broadcast TV.
ThoughCrusader Rabbit— a series of four-minute-long satirical cliffhangers — was the first animated series produced for television in 1950, followed by Rocky and His Friends (also known as The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle) in 1959, it was The Flintstones that accelerated America’s love of cartoons.
Created by Hanna-Barbera, The Flintstones became the first prime-time cartoon series of its kind. Geared toward families, it aired September 30, 1960, on ABC. With The Flintstones’ success, Hanna-Barbera soon followed it up with other family-friendly sitcoms like Top Cat, The Jetsons, and Jonny Quest. When The Flintstones ended its prime time run in 1966, Hanna-Barbera began focusing its attention on the already-popular Saturday-morning timeslot to grow its market, specifically toward children.
A number of other animation studios followed suit including Filmation, which produced Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and The Archies, as well as DePatie-Freleng Enterprises of Pink Panther fame. But it was Hanna-Barbera that reigned supreme on Saturday mornings throughout the 1970s with Super Friends, Scooby-Doo, Speed Buggy, The New Schmoo, Captain Caveman, and a slew of others.
TV networks were finding that animation was not only cheaper to produce than live-action shows, but it was also more profitable. They could hire fewer voice actors since many of them played multiple roles, and reruns allowed the cost of the initial investment to be spread out over a longer period of time. Plus, the networks could run toy and cereal commercials during these shows, which would entice young viewers into begging their parents to buy these products for them.
Parents and educators, however, were worried about how much time children were spending in front of their TV sets. Parents’ lobbying groups like Action for Children’s Television began cropping up in the late 1960s, voicing concerns about cartoon violence, stereotypes, and the commercialism and anti-social behaviors associated with hours of sitting in front of the TV. Researchers began to study the long-term effects of Saturday morning cartoons and the direct marketing associated with them. They found that kids had a difficult time differentiating between the shows themselves and the ads that ran with them. Kids were also unable to understand how manipulative these commercials could be.
In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission attempted to ban all direct advertising to any children under the age of six. But lobbying groups representing toy companies and the advertising and cereal industries struck a deal that encouraged children’s programming to be balanced out with educational and informational content. Though Schoolhouse Rock! had been on the air since 1973, other networks began creating short public service announcements of their own, most notably The Bod Squad and NBC’s One to Grow On, which debuted in 1983.
While animated shows based on existing TV shows and movies were a thing before the ’80s, shows like Hanna-Barbera’s The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, and Laverne & Shirley in the Army, as well as Ruby-Spears’ Mister T, and It’s Punky Brewster, had varying degrees of success. But they all paved the way for the cross-promotional marketing bonanza that would soon take over Saturday mornings.
A new era of cartoons was emerging, and child advocacy groups and parents were growing increasingly worried about what these shows were becoming.
While cartoons had been, up to this point, mostly original creations, a number of animated shows were being made that blended the commercial and entertainment aspects of Saturday morning cartoons into one package: programs based on toys, video games, and movies.
Shows like G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, My Little Pony ’n Friends, The Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Care Bears, and Jem and the Holograms were all created to sell toys, while cartoons based on Pac-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, and the Rubik’s Cube were all about exposing children to games. The Real Ghostbusters, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos, among other shows, went even further, by completing the trifecta of movie/cartoon/toy marketability.
While kids loved these shows, parents didn’t. Parenting groups grew even more concerned over what kids were watching for hours on end on Saturday mornings. They continued to make their voices heard regarding the abundance of animated violence and commercials directed specifically toward kids by appealing to the FCC. And the federal government stepped in to intervene, setting stricter regulations about what networks could and couldn’t show on Saturday mornings.
Along with continued concern from parents groups, a number of studies also showed that kids ages 2-17 were watching up to three hours of TV a day, they were influenced by what they saw, and many kids admitted that television programming should teach right from wrong.
The networks, however, found a way around these restrictions by syndicating Saturday morning cartoons to show them again on weekday afternoons since this time slot didn’t have the same set of strict advertising rules that Saturday mornings had.
The government eventually took notice. The result was the Children’s Television Act,which was enacted in 1990 by the Federal Communications Commission to increase the quality of educational and broadcast TV programming for children. By 1996, the federal government doubled down on what had become known as the “Kid Vid Rules” by implementing the Children’s Programming Report, which was chock full of new mandated guidelines. It clarified what the FCC felt was educational and not so educational, and set a new age demographic range for 16 and younger. The report also required all broadcast networks to air “educational and informational” children’s programs for at least three hours a week and outlawed the advertising of tie-in merchandise during the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. While educational programming was increased and advertising during the shows was decreased, these “Kid Vid Rules”weren’t enough to bring down Saturday morning cartoons alone.
As the 1990s set in, the era of Saturday morning cartoons was beginning to wane. With more personal computers, VCRs, DVD players, and home video game consoles on the market, kids found other ways to entertain themselves.
Though shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, Bobby’s World, andPinky and the Brain garnered a loyal following, cable networks such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel provided other ways for audiences to watch cartoons.
Saturday morning cartoons continued into the 2000s, but networks mostly showed re-purposed reruns from cable or inexpensively-made cartoons outsourced from other countries. The popularity of the Saturday morning timeslot was quickly declining. Networks began phasing out animated shows altogether and replacing them with live-action content that met the educational mandates directed by the government. Originally called the ABC Weekend Adventure, Litton’s Weekend Adventures is a Saturday morning block of shows that featured un-scripted and “pro-social programming” for families that premiered in 2011 and still runs today.
While kids today can watch any cartoon they desire any time they want, they’ll never have the experience of waking up on Saturday mornings, settling down in front of the TV their pajamas, and eagerly waiting for their favorite cartoon to start, a bowl of sugary cereal in hand.
Saturday mornings used to be sacred animation time. Generations of kids, fueled by bowls of sugary cereal (likely advertised during their Saturday TV sessions), flocked to screens for a binge-worthy block of cartoon programming – whether it was Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the aptly named The Weekenders, or any other classic animated series. So, what happened to Saturday morning cartoons? From the 1960s to the 1980s, cartoons dominated kids’ early Saturday TV schedules. Most people probably can’t recall when this long-running, popular tradition stopped because cartoons gradually phased out of their lives as they aged. Perhaps, like the downfall of G4 TV, the phenomenon could never last. Profitability, changing viewing habits, and even legislation played a part in the eventual extinction of blocks of animated programming from weekend airwaves.
Saturday morning cartoons represented freedom from school and responsibilities. They represented the innocence of youth. We laughed, we cheered, we absorbed basic lessons about friendship, and heroism, and right and wrong. And yet, it seems, it was another quaint ritual of a forgotten time, slowly being relegated to forgotten history.
