FatBoy

here is my final piece "FatBoy"



this upload is very dark and the quilty is bad so i will send in a high res dvd of all my animations.

Bringing Aesop's Fables into the 21 century

A Review of Relevant Research

In this single project I plan to bring the moral concepts of Aesop’s fables into the 21st century but before I do this I must understand what a moral is and why it is so powerful.
When I started thinking about this assignment I planned to create little stories showing morals and animate them. Whilst Researching I found out that I wasn’t creating stories I was creating fables. So I decided to research into Aesop’s fables and tried to understand his work.Aesop's FablesThe Aesop's Fables refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620—560 BC), a slave and story-teller that is believed to have lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals.

The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. There are many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.

(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop)

Aesop’s Fables contain a short narrative try to illustrate a hidden message.Each of his fables has a simple moral that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. For example, the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare declares that: slow and steady wins the race.I asked myself what is the secret of his fables' appeal and how they are still around today. I started by reading some of his fables and noticed that they are all short, sometimes only a few lines and are never longer than a page. I think that this is why they are still remembered and thought of today.I also think that part of the appeal is that not only humans, but animals, rodents, fish and even the trees and plants talk within his fables.

In stories animals often make more sense than humans. When the animals do something controversial they seem to get away with it. I think that by using animals as characters, People can speak freely and frankly without offending anyone.FableIn its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale embodying a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim.

"Fable" comes from Latin fabula (meaning 'conversation', 'narrative', 'tale') and shares a root with faber, "maker, artificer." Thus, though a fable may be conversational in tone, the understanding from the outset is that it is an invention, a fiction. A fable may be set in verse, though it is usually prose. In its pejorative sense, a fable is a deliberately invented or falsified account.(Oxford Dictionary)

Maxim Maxim. A fundamental principle or rule. A maxim is a wise saying, especially one intended to advise or recommend a course of conduct. In comparison to its approximate synonyms: saying, adage, saw, motto, epigram, proverb, aphorism, the term maxim stresses the succinct formulation of an ultimate truth, a fundamental principle, or a rule of conduct. The word derives from the Latin word maximus, "greatest", via an expression maxima propositio, "greatest premiss(Oxford Dictionary)

I really enjoyed reading and trying to understand Aesop’s fables, I would like to capture some of the magic of his work and translate it into the 21st century. I will try to make my animations more grey than black and white morals so that people can interpret them in different ways. I will start to create more story boards and more surreal morals.

I then realised that I still have not found out why these morals are so important to people and why they have stood the test of time. To find out this I had to research into more historical and philosophical areas and how morals have evolved.
I read the Philosophy book ‘The Evolution of Morality’ by Richard Joyce and it answered all of the questions I had about morality.

The main reasons why we have morals are that they are mutually beneficial for the survival and evolution of the Human race. Over the centuries the Human race needed to adapt to its surroundings therefore more morals came to exist.
If you compare the lifestyle of the 19th century to the 21st century the morals of day-to-day life would be considerably different. I personally think that the main reason for this would be the creation of mass communication devices such as the Telephone, the Television and the Internet. Today, most children spend more time on the communication devices than with their own family and friends. Family and friends have been the moral guidance for children throughout the existence of morals but now with these communication devices they have the most influence on all people today.

Joyce’s book explains how morals have evolved to what they are today, he explains in detail how innate emotions like motherly love and sacrificing ones self to help others are now embedded into our genes to allow the human race can evolve faster.
“It might be objected that a person enters into a reciprocal relationship for self-gain and thus is motivated entirely by selfish ends (albeit perhaps “enlightened self-interest”)-the very antithesis of moral thinking.” (Pg 142 The Moral Sense, The Evolution of Morality)
Here Joyce is describing ones self-gain as the basis of all moral thinking. I believe this to be true as he later describes in the book that some morals are community and socially helpful which means that in the end they do benefit each individual.
Joyce also talked about the morals that are imbedded within us.
“If the human moral sense is prepared for any particular subject matter, it is surely this. It therefore seems eminently reasonable to assume that reciprocal exchanges were a central evolutionary problem that morality was designed to solve.” (Pg 228 Living with an Adapted Mind, The Evolution of Morality)

I found that through evolution humans have developed an extensive range of inborn mental characteristics including memory, emotion, perception, deliberation, will and understanding. This implies that 10% of children’s character is innate. The child’s flexible mind is then drawn to learning morals rather than relying on natural mind set.
“John Locke, the father of the idea of the tabula rasa, credited humans with an extensive range of inborn mental faculties: memory, emotion, perception, deliberation, will and understanding etc.” (Pg 007 Human Nature, The Evolution of Morality.)
The first basic forms of morals are seen in primates when they are grooming each other. We can only speculate as to how and why this mutually beneficial grooming evolved. As we are animals ourselves we can learn by observing the behaviour of our evolutionary cousins the primate. Primates live in groups and learn from their peers. Each clan have different behavioural patterns and when it is time for the young to leave the group they take their learning experience with them through their genes the same could be said about morals within humans.
“In the words of Michael Ruse (1986:253), “Morality is a collective illusion foisted upon us by our genes.”” (Pg 002 The Nature of Morality, The Evolution of Morality)
The conclusion of this is, morals have been tried and tested over the years and the successful morals have been passed down through evolution to progress society and prosperity within the human race.
Through this research I discovered what a moral is, where they came from and why we need them. I also now also see that nearly every cartoon contains some sort of moral in some way but strangely enough we don’t see the darker more important morals that every child should know in current times e.g. Safety within a community, sexual consequences and the importance of family structure.

I looked for animations containing these morals and found an animated series on BBC Three called ‘Monkey Dust’
“Monkey Dust is an animated TV series that satirises the darker side of life in the United Kingdom. It deals with taboo subjects and has drawn controversy for its portrayal of murderers, paedophiles and single parents. It is often described as a "darker" version of Little Britain (a more mainstream British satire, ridiculing lesser controversies such as transvestitism and homosexuality). The first episode was aired on BBC Three on February 9, 2003 and there have been three series to date………… Each episode features animation by several different companies including Slinky Pictures, Nexus, Sherbet and Picasso Pictures, but is linked by recurring themes and jokes, and by seamless transitions between sketches. The episodes are untitled but instead are known by the characters introduced or the one-off sketches included. The principal writers and creators of the series were Harry Thompson and Shaun Pye, …………….The animation goes alongside contemporary music which helps the scenes to flow.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Dust)

Monkey Dust is a cutting-edge comedic animation created by a team of writers and is visualised by some of London's young animators. The series is set in a permanent urban nightmare that could be described as a nocturnal world inhabited by the sad, the lonely and the emotionally crippled.

From watching the animation in ‘Monkey Dust’ I found that the creators were very morally observant and not afraid to portray their controversial views. I will take this on board when developing my animations as it has taught me not to obscure my thoughts to please other people.

I also did some research on some other 20/21st century animators who have based their animations in some way on emotionally and morally surreal situations.

Richard Goleszowski.

Richard Goleszowski joined Bristol-based Aardman Animation in 1983, and began working on the likes of Morph and Peter Gabriel's ‘Sledgehammer’ video. He has also brought us the award-winning frolics of ‘Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire’. He's also directed Aardman's hugely-successful "Creature Comforts" series.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Goleszowski)

Goleszowski uses animals to portray his stories in the same way that Aesop did in the past. I like the way the characters move on his animals in ‘Creature Comforts’ and ‘rex the runt’ which are both made using stop motion claymation.

After studying his works on facial movements in his animation I have been able to further my understanding about lip sinking and emotion. The thing about rex the run is that it’s surreal but believable and that’s what I am trying to achieve in my animations.

Don Hertzfeldt has also produced interesting animations that are surreal. I intend to use this surreal stylised environment to portray my moral story’s.

Don Hertzfeldt

‘Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is the creator of many short animated films. These films typically feature hand-drawn stick figures acting out combinations of slapstick and black humour along with heavier existential themes.

Hertzfeldt creates his films with traditional pen and paper animation, without the aid of computers. Instead he works mainly with 16mm or 35mm film cameras and occasionally employs relatively out-dated special effect techniques.’

‘In 2001 the animator's fifth major film "Rejected" was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. In 2002 Hertzfeldt was named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "Top 25 Filmmakers to Watch".

Don Hertzfeldt is one of the funniest and sickest modern animators working today. I plan to combine his style with my style then create some cool animations.’
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hertzfeldt)
Don Hertzfeldt likes to use 16mm or 35mm film cameras as he can't see himself making a film in front of a computer. I am going to animate using flash as I have made some animations with it before and liked them.

Conclusion

By analysing the evolution of morality I believe Aesop’s fables are still relevant learning tools today and it is necessary to keep pursuing moral subjects within animations as people rely on television and the internet for guidance in life. Without these morals society would and will eventually break down. Animations like ‘Monkey Dust’ have attempted to bring current moral situations to life and I intend to do the same. This ends my exploration and research into bringing Aesop’s fables into the 21st Century.


Bibliography


Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 11Rev Ed edition 2006.

Joyce, R. The Evolution of Morality. The MIT Press 2006.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Dust)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Goleszowski)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hertzfeldt)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop)