To Conclude

In order to conclude on the work I've done for this project, I think I successfully experimented with new methods that I hadn't necessarily worked with before, that allowed me to capture a vintage and historical atmosphere that the story told enhanced. Although I am impressed with the overall finished product as an aspect of experimentation, there are obvious improvements that need to be made.

• Transitioning- I feel that although a lot of my time went into the Photoshop elements and the collage intricate puppets, I needed to have spent more time on carefully ensuring all the elements ran smoothly. An example is in the pilot scene in the cockpit, the pilots seem to be moving rather jerkily so aspects such as Ease In etc. could've allowed a smoother outcome and overall made it look better as a whole.
• Movements- I think as I've said the movements could've been less jerky, but maybe other more complex movements could also be added to the piece. I also think it's important to point out the fact that the moving of the collage pieces isn't really very obvious in terms of noticing it in the opening, which is disappointing with the intricacies that are involved in doing this part of the project.
• The hesitation in some areas is a bit too long and so I'd like to shorten some of the areas to increase the effectiveness of the piece.

War Story Final Audio & Planning Visuals

When buying books for a possible aspect of collage animation, I was influenced by old war images to try to capture a war story effectively and perhaps using the collage animation to illustrate it. When I thought of such an idea, I got reminded of the fact that my Great Grandad (My Mum's Grandad) was a pilot in the RAF, and that before he had died, he'd written an account of writing that shared his memories in detail of his experience in World War II in the planes. As a starting point, I read this piece of writing and realised it had within it a range of stories of his past, some of which were hilarious. He'd written one about his colleague being shot down in a Spitfire, and for his funeral, my Grandfather and another pilot were given the job to fly over the sea in the Wellington Bomber and drop their colleague's ashes, however, the lid fell off the urn and ended up covering his fellow pilot in ash. I decided this would be a nice, lighthearted story to be told for my animation, so asked my Mum to retell it remembering him speaking to her about it.

Visual Response From Audio

"I was 22, it was November, I took a day off work, thinking nothing about it, until I got that phone call, first thing in the morning, from the hospital, your Dad's died. The world seemed to end, how was I going to tell my Mum? It was my brother's 21st birthday the day after, and I'd just got engaged. Time heals they say- it doesn't. the pain just gets number, yesterday I remembered how bad it had been. A white cyclamen reminds me of my Dad"

This was one of the first recordings I did and an audio I thought I may want to develop further, so I began making collages to show the audio in a visual respect. In order to visually respond to this audio I chose the aspect of using old collage illustrations from old books I collected, within these books I found a book on World War I & II which inspired me more, and realised my family have connections to such an era. When talking to my family about the war, my Mum started telling me about my Great Grandfather, who was a pilot in the RAF for World War II who flew a Wellington Bomber Plane. Collecting such books gave the inspiration for my Mum to retell one of his stories, which I recorded. Although I have produced some visual content for the first audio, it has inspired me further for this audio that I am really inspired by. 

"My Grandad told me this true story that happened to him while he was a pilot in the RAF during World War II, one of his colleagues had been shot down in a Spitfire, and they'd conducted a funeral service and were asked if they would go and fly over the sea in the Wellington Bomber and drop his ashes over the sea. This they dually did, and at 2 thousand feet they decided to drop the ashes, they'd already decided that they needed to put this through the camera chute as it was safer than dropping it through the hole in the floor, so, a guy went to drop the ashes, my Grandad carried on flying, and then turned round and was horrified to see this same guy come back covered in white powder. He said to him: "The Lid Fell Off"