Engaged practice and authorship: Inquiry into the process of animation filmmaking as a practitioner and critical researcher.

MPhil thesis by Natalie Dekel.

I would argue that artistic ‘information’ is rushing through one’s body and mind, driving one to express in animated language of symbols and images what is ultimately a personal interpretation of subjective authorial nature.

My MPhil research aims to explore this sense of authorship through my own artistic practice, by observing my experience as an animator in the process of filmmaking. My films explore personal experiences, within commercial non-personal elements – they are script driven, narrative driven, using a strong graphic line that links them to the commercial world of animation film. In that way, I explore both the personal and the commercial aspects of animation making. Read full thesis… (opens PDF file).

Abstract

Animation has always been intrinsically authorial and intrinsically self-reflective (P. Wells, interview, 11 April 2006). Wells argues that animators are artists and are authorial, despite the fact that commercialism tends to dismiss this. Yet, even though commercial animators may feel that the scripts and ideas for the animation films are never precisely their own due to collaborative work in the studios, the animator actually acts as a vehicle through which these ideas take shape and materialise on a screen.

I would argue that the information is rushing through one’s body and mind, driving one to express through animated language of symbols and images what is ultimately personal and is in fact an interpretation of subjective authorial nature. My research aims to explore this sense of authorship through my own practice, by exploring my experience as an animator in the process of filmmaking. My films explore personal experiments, within commercial elements – they are script driven, narrative driven, using a strong graphic line that links them to the commercial requirements of animation film. More importantly, my practice as discussed in this research will raise the issue of being a critical self-conscious and self-reflective practitioner, aiming at opening up a much needed path for further inquiry into this issue in animation practice. Looking back on the literature on animation, I have encountered either “clinical” technical accounts of the filmmaking “inventory” or a focus on historic, commercial and industrial aspects of popular animation, thus overlooking the experience of an animator.

Authorship was discussed from the point of view of the result of the filmmaking (Wells, 2002), and to this I would like to contribute a discussion of the process and from the point of view of an animator. Read full thesis… (opens PDF file).

3 August 2010. Update 8 Nov 2015.
MPhil thesis by Natalie Dekel.