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End of a University Saga
That's it. The Saga of Turkish Animation Student, ends here. Will it be a tragedy or a fullfilling happy one? Can it be an epic ending that everyone shall remember?
Find out, on June 2020.
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1848 Revolution in Hungary and Imre Madach
https://hungarytoday.hu/may-peace-freedom-accord-message-1848-still-important-72066/
https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=resources&s=war-dir&f=wars_hungarian
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23212482
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Fog Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoqCJFw-K4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXA99YwUS-k
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Cultural Erasure in Soviet Union and Cultural Revival in Hungary- a notepad
Atheism became the official “religion.” Religious holidays were banned totally, although restrictions got lighter after Stalin’s death and people still celebrated behind closed doors.
Hungary’s Cultural Revival and how it affected design
Via music: Taking what was endangered (this case, folk music) and reinterpret it.
Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly toured the country to record folk music, to sincerely incooparate themes and elements into their more contemprorary techniques.
Bartok described his techniques as, a) accompany the folk tune, b) invent an imitation of a peasant tune (rather than recycling the tune, or c) distill the atmosphere of a tune.
While this search made their music unique and help the durability of folk music, they also improved the music research. (Science!)
While the research went on, all researchers noted down the influenced (or “impure”, depending on perspective) nature of these songs (Romani, other Western influences, other nationalities living in Hungary)
“They discovered and placed Hungarian folk music in the centre of national culture and subsequently developed a monumental new art in the spirit of this folk music.” - Szabolcsi.
Hungarian Design
Aspiration towards West, influenced by rather relaxed borders between Vienna and Budapest.
While ‘productivity’ level was low compared to other Eastern Bloc countries, commercial readiness and ingenuity in design made it special and easier to export to West (ex: Biro’s ballpoint pen and Ernö Rubik’s cube
Sources:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/30/how-soviets-came-to-celebrate-new-years-like-christmas-and-why-russians-still-do/
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2016/01/christmas-soviet-style/
https://apnews.com/eb41530c9104657ccfedde54e77425ca
Slezkine, Y. (1994). The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism. Slavic Review, 53(02), 414–452.
Aldersey-Williams (1992) World Design: Nationalism & Globalism in Design. New York; Rizzoli.
http://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02172/html/index.html
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memory inspo
https://vimeo.com/237396474
https://vimeo.com/209094978
https://vimeo.com/247166151 (just to watch later)
https://vimeo.com/182971593
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Icelandic Language Sources for Ghostly Writings
https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?o76338 (Legitimacy check)
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/IcelOnline/Search.TEId.html (main dictionary)
http://www.nativlang.com/icelandic-language/icelandic-grammar.php#h31 (grammar help)
https://en.glosbe.com/en/is/remember (simple words)
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm (reminder of Elder Futhark)
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Night time lighting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y4PtqUpiJ0 (hotel transylvania 2)
https://www.videomaker.com/light-the-night-how-to-light-a-realistic-night-scene
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Cultural Identity, Globalism, Nationalism- What do these mean?!
With Peter’s suggestion, I decided to do a bit of research on definitions of cultural identity. I already wanted to shift my lens more towards cultural identity rather than national one for sometime. But like, what does all these really mean? What does it encompass? Are they the blue of the same thing or totally different? Where are the overlaps? Everybody has their own ideas but it’s important to be exact to avoid conflict and confusion within the paper.
What is culture?
Culture is generally said to be the shared characteristics of a group. It usually determined by birthplace, religion, language, customs and arts.
Language and customs seem to be the main spiel in here.
It is a very man-made thing- it “begins at the point at which humans surpass whatever is simply given in their natural inheritance.” (Sedgwick and Edgar, 1999)
It is usually gets pronounced when two cultures clash or a person of one culture moves to a place of a different culture (mood.)
What is identity?
Basically how a person compares and put themselves in a group compared to the world.
Cultural identity happens when an individual identifies with a set of customs, practices, artefacts, language and environment.
Nationalism- Is it bad? Good? Does it belong in the trash? Or a healthy dose is good?
National identity: An individual identifying with their birthplace and place where they grew up, in the context of legal national borders. Those borders they grew up in is where their identity lies.
Nationalism: The ideology that claims autonomy and shared common identity within legal national borders.
Ethnic identity: A group of people identifying with shared cultural characteristics, most notably language (but also history, belief, food.)
In national identity, portrayal and representation is important. A representative person (historical or political) is what the people of the nation can identify and take pride; or simply someone the nation chose it to become their “spokesperson”, someone who can speak for the entire nation.
Failure of democracies; since those spokespeople are chosen via vote of the majority, who speaks for the minorities, especially ethnic ones? What about the refugees or “aliens”, foreign people who have been living in a particular place for so long but haven’t gotten their citizenship due to circumstances or simply constant rejection? (Philosophy Tube, 2019)
In small doses, nationalism simply asks autonomy of a nation and unity of people; in extreme situations, it might include ethno-state and racism against minorities within national borders, as seen with the current cultural phenomenon of rising Neo-Nazism.
Is pretty modern in terms of philosophy; Scholars say it started with American Declaration of Independence (1776) and The French Revolution (1789) developing national consciousness.
During Middle Ages, borders weren’t strict and cultural exchanges were much more free. After 18th century, it became more political.
Globalism- Do we all lose our identities? Or is it our hope to world peace?
Globalism: a national policy of treating the whole world as a proper sphere for political influence (Merriam-Webster)
Internationalism
After two World Wars, an interest in internationalisation arose.
People and commodities got more mobilised.
Tech brought people together.
Media and destruction is more widespread.
Globally recognisable object/design- Doesn’t mean that it’s “global” in terms of design, the design still carries its localities but has the distribution power of going wide in global market. (Capitalismm)
Art in All These- how to achieve le results?
It is usually thought that only way to express national identity through design is through local materials.
This discussion can link to “minor language”- using a major language to challenge the major language (using the same weapons to challenge the majority.)
National design spreads through knowledge, belief and attitudes gained by education and media.
All these aspects are encouraged and can even be controlled by government, industry and influencial people.
Architect Kenneth Frampton
Regionalism and insensitive usage of local iconography and styles can just become appropiation and mindless revivalism. With educated incooparation within context and symbolism, local styles can be molded with materials of choice in a modern way.
Sources
Basic intro:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-cultural-identity/?q=&page=1&per_page=25
https://www.kent.ac.uk/cewl/documents/external/talking-cultures/W2/Talking%20Cultures%20Week%202%20Unit%201%20-%20Cultural%20Identity1%20-%20handout.pdf
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095652855
Sedgwick, P; Edgar, A. (1999) Key Terms in Cultural Theory. Routledge; London.
Papers & Books
https://placebrandobserver.com/theory/national-identity-imagined-communites/
Questions of Cultural Identity : SAGE Publications
Ethnic and Cultural Identity : Perceptions, Discrimination and Social Challenges
Narrative, Identity, and the Map of Cultural Policy : Once Upon a Time in a Globalized World
Storry, M; Childs, P. (1997) British Cultural Identities. Routledge; London.
Aynsley, J. (1993) Nationalism and Internationalism: Design in the 20th Century. Victoria & Albert Museum; London.
Commentary
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/24/national-identity-fake-toxic-intolerance-italy-fascism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QuAok_Xiyg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1dFU4ktNfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-ZeToI4R8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRnlVSXYlwk&vl=en (Harbi Getto Bölüm 1)
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There has been bit of house moving and mental health issues, so I decided to take things slow.
I tackled a slightly small thing (Olaf’s horse’s general design and colour comp) I looked into general colours of Icelandic horses, as well as the stocky-ness of the horses. They seem to be like Yakutian ponies; sturdy, short, steadfast, strong chunks who are good with farming and winter. I honestly like those stocky horses. Funky strong equusi.
I planned it accordingly to the night and day scenes. I feel mostly reddish-brown or beige. I named the horse “Burden” in Icelandic, which went hand in hand with ugly-naming of Icelandic superstitions and the story’s direction.
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Sprengisandur: New Ideas, New Horizons
Inspiration is a weird thing. It sometimes takes a few thoughts to come up with a lot of stuff, sometimes it takes months of thinking to come up with single good idea.
And then sometimes it turns into a full Ruth Stone. You know, the well-known anectode of her, coming of inspiration for a poem like “a sound of thunder” and only thing she could do, is to “run like hell” to her house to get a piece of paper fast enough to “catch it by the tail”.
To me, it was me, laying in my bed at around 3am, just finished my midnight scrolling, at the edge of snoozing til midday*. Then it... slipped into my mind, in a way. A simple yet concrete thought bubble.
“What if Sprengisandur was actually Olaf’s psyche?”
*Also, please don’t judge my sleeping habits during summer.
While I was half-awarely typing it in my note app, this fit a lot of things in and now I’m feeling more excited about the project. The story suddenly have a different energy, a different way of reading. It is actually interesting how it came so... unexpectedly.
For this direction, I decided to turn Sprengisandur into Olaf’s psyche, his inner voices and memories coming back at him. Souls/Ghosts following him on his tail, never truly leave; no matter if you see it or now, no matter how much you ignore or run away from it.
Now we have a lot better script, a better idea of what I want, what to do with these bits and ideas. Of course I also have my [bracket notes] on sound and storyboarding to help both me and my sound designer.
From writing, the film might take around 1,5-2 minutes but once I solidify the storyboards in an animatic, I can tell more.
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Sprengisandur: Old Man Olaf, Initial Look
So I decided to go ahead and deknot one of the questions- what will the main dude look like?
I decided to go ahead and do some iterations based on some Pinterest-surfing and two of my favourite characters from God of War (2018), Sindri and Mimir. They are the sort of older guy I’m looking for: Slender, bit on vulnerable side.
I especially got some beard inspiration since it was one of the most important parts. Olaf will have a rather muted clothes with main speil is a medieval hood, suitable for travelling- also to cover up... things.
At some point I want to finalise the clothing, character turnaround, style choices and the story, even if the main beats are pretty much set and done- it’s the small details and how that I’m still bit muddled about.
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I’ve been losing momentum with the Personal Showcase. I didn’t felt much for the “Björn” version while I was storyboarding- I liked more the story and mystery aspect of the “Olaf” version. Yet even when I sat down for the storyboarding, I felt empty and unpassionate.
I start thinking: Is it because of the technical aspects of the short (ghosts, mist VFX, glitches, horse-riding) is the story too dull, or is it just summer time slacking?
I start reading the 2nd draft again, and I thought maybe some more spice-ing the script can largely fix some of the techical aspects, while add more spice.
I think spending almost all the time in horseback really narrows the expressive capabilites of the character, while unnecessarily restraining me technically. I mean horses are fun but will they be easy to animate? In a roughly 5 month production window? In a good quality? With another character plus all the Ghosts all around? WHILE doing other projects? Too much strain for a single person.
It can also add up more drama and isolation to the main character, while he is facing literal demons of his past.
Of course, there’s still the question “Do I really want this story or another story awaits me?” It is a possibility, but I can’t see than other story on the horizon.
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Reading Notes: “Post-Second World War Hungarian Cinema as a Reflection of the Communist Struggle for Power” by Peter Kenez
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Watching Notes: The Tragedy of Man (2011)
“The end is death, life is a struggle, and man’s end is the struggle itself.”
The Tragedy of Man is considered an opus, and it’s easy to see why. It is an almost 3-hour, slow-burn, dense work of animated art that has quite a lot to say. It encapsulates why Jankovics prefers Animation, even for such big, adult subjects. It would be almost impossible to tackle subjects talked about in this film in 3 hours in a live-action film, unless we have a giant budget and/or decide to make the film 6 hours- and even then we wouldn’t be able to make it into a spectacle as much as this film.
Now, for initial note I have to say, this is not an easy film to watch. It’s very dialogue-heavy, and not the easy type (at least, the subtitles have me that impression) Both the visuals and the words cover so much, one might be inclined to watch it in smaller chunks (which I did.) It made my viewing experience more bearable in summer laziness, while I got to think more about the previous chunks and think this movie as a puzzle.
So, what does this film really about?
Film Notes
The Tragedy of Men follows the story of Adam, Eve and Lucifer travelling through history in a dream, after Adam and Eve got casted away from Garden of Eden.
The film starts with the Creation, with God and Lucifer. Lucifer mocks God’s creation, even when God seems to be pleased by it. Those creations are Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, Lucifer calls Adam and Eve to be “self-concious”, rather than “living like worms”. Adam seems to be timid and unsure, while Eve seemed a lot more open-minded about it.
Though after the banishment, they become ordinary cavemen, getting cold, hungry, having to find food, etc. Eve is quite alright with the change while Adam is annoyed. Thus he asks Lucifer to grant him the ultimate wisdom: The future. Thus the long, agonising dream thoughout the history.
Thoughout the film, we see a lot of repeated ideas, evil and corruption (mob mentality & failure of democracy, pervasive nature of material lust and interests, “fake news”, corrupted science and progress killing joy and living matter, etc.) starting from Ancient Egypt, into 6000AD but having no difference from prehistoric Earth. Adam takes charge of important historical figures, while Eve usually takes part of a love interest who tries to enjoy life or tries to have certain quality in life- usually in material ways. Lucifer is always on Adam’s side commenting on the vainless of Adam’s thoughts and acts. While Lucifer tries to help take care of everything, Adam refuses with pride, to push for his free will and tries to exercise more philosophical things like science, democracy, nice-guyness, righteousness- only to see them get corrupted or end up with nothing.
Finally, Adam wakes up from the dream, getting into depression and despair, that none of the things will ever matter since all will end in vain. But Eve drops the bomb: She is pregnant with their first child. Suddenly, light hits upon things, and God is happy and forgiving. Satan still mocks them, alluding to Abel and Cain story, yet Eve points out “Even then, this will be the beginning of brotherhood on Earth.”
Thus the film ends with the Christian worldview of struggle being a part of life.
Production Notes
This production took about 20 years, although this is a dragged number- Jankovics tells the actual production took about 6 years. It’s due to the changing industry, the funding took a lot longer than expected. While Jankovics has done a lot between productions, it’s easy to see where the money went and got cut. Though it seemed to be helped with the visual condensation and clever usage of frames, something that also had happened during the production of 1995 anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Meanwhile, the original work by Imre Madàch has also haven’t been staged for a while, for it was too ambitious technically for its time.
The play is also seems to parallel Madàch’s ideas for the turmolous life he had led. During the failed 1849 Revolution in Hungary, he had lost almost all his loved ones, right after he couldn’t marry his first love due to difference in religion. This bore his long-time depression and search for the meaning of life, within himself and his nation. He read world history to see patterns and meanings.
Random Thoughts
This film really made it concrete that Jankovics is an old school experimentalist who likes epic narratives, the cycles and “rhythms” in narratives of literature, folk tales and history. I want to see if it’s something personal or has a root within Hungarian folktales and myths, it needs bit of research.
I also feel a bit of fear in terms of progress within this film. It might be due to the Communist disillusionment.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/movies/the-tragedy-of-man-by-marcell-jankovics-animator.html
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/marcell-jankovics-interview-feherlofia-why-would-one-imitate-reality-112926.html
http://www.fulbright.hu/book5/paulmorton.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23212482
https://youtu.be/FDIXgj1CGO8
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Reading Notes: The Politics of Animation and the Animation of Politics by Eric Herhuth
From the very little research I did, Hungarian Animation is pretty wrapped together with politics of its time- expected from a country under Soviet rule. During my research, I saw this paper and take a look if it will help.
These notes are from some of the skimming and scanning I did, which means I didn’t read everything the paper has to offer. But it’s summer, so bear with this poor Aegean trying to plough through the harsh academia and weather conditions. Also, the English and some concepts in the paper was way too challenging to that also worked in.
I also add a few more comments and questions in [brackets], just to make sense of some parts.
Animation as a minor aesthetic form
‘A minor literature doesn’t come from a minor language; it is rather that which a minority constructs within a major language.’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1986) [aka: Using the major language, minor challenges the major aka. Minor challenges the major using the similar weapons major created. I suppose.]
Challenges literary norms and conventions.
Examplified by Kafka’s status as a minority within German-speaking literature.
Indexicality = What is actually in the frame.
Film and photography is more about the indexicality; Animation works more with movement [?]
Because of the “realistic” aspect of photography and live-action, Animation wasn’t taken… that seriously. [The “artifice” argument?]
What is Animation? Technique, genre, subset?
As far as we know, it’s just used to differenciate it from live-action works. Otherwise, what is even Animation?
Animated CG films of late ‘90s and early ‘00s depicts status qou challenging things like revolution, rebellion, taking down hierachies and disorders. It is shown in an anthromorphic, family-friendly way.
But also, it is monetised and still expresses neo-liberal values like individualism and maintains similar hierachies in the end. [Bastardising important social movements like war and revolution? Demeaning their importance and its underlying consequences, so it doesn’t give the wrong implications to youth and doesn’t actually end up in a real revolution, wihich actually challenges the socail norms and tears down the established hierachies, in order to maintain order? I guess.]
Expansion of “Animation” term expands in terms of philosophical, cultural and political implications, and it shifts constantly. According to Jacques Rancière, this means a redistribution of perception, sensation and political possibilities. It can bring new aesthetics and voices but due to the undemocatic nature, it means there will be winners and losers in such shift. [Can we examplify the current age of reboots and “Calarts Style”? One good example could be Dreamworks’ She-Ra: It was chosen and rebooted in a way that brings more of the Western left views of identity, empowerment and warfare in ‘10s aesthetics. ‘80s original brings a whole other view of femininity, power and war, in its era’s aesthetic sense. This indeed causes a rift that is getting pronounced day by day, usually getting thrown-off as “nostalgia” or “alt-right trolling”. Can we solve this? Can these two sensibilities come together? Does it have to be “winners vs. losers”? How is this “winning/losing is determined, by creators or by the consumers?]
Extra Sources:
https://thefunambulist.net/literature/deleuze-the-minor-literature
https://www.pantagruelista.com/blogeng/deleuze-guattari-minor-literature
https://cphmag.com/i-vs-i/
Gunning, T. (2007). Moving Away from the Index: Cinema and the Impression of Reality. Differences. Brown University and differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies.
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