Research videos i looked into...

`Body bueatiful`part 1 and 2 animation by Joanna Quinn

`Ladies` animation by artist Candy Guard

`The street` Caroline leaf part 1 and 2

My essay progress draft 1...

Before going any further to read my first essay draft I must say this was writing before I managed to get hold of the `woman in animation` book. I basically based my essay on just the videos which were advised to be looked at by particular artists. Personally it could do with alot more work I just need to put more time and thought into it.

Why do woman appear to be more successful in animation than in any other areas in the film industry?

Animation is one of the world’s leading industries in the 21^st century. I intend to elaborate on why woman appear to be more successful in animation than other areas in the film industry. There’s a number of recognised woman in animation such as Joanna Priestly, Joanna Quinn, Candy Guard, Erica Russell, Caroline Leaf

Woman history animation goes way back into the 1920s, Lotte Reiniger one of the first prominent woman in animation, known for her consistant strong silhouettes and her famous animation ` The Adventures of Prince Achmed`. Candy guard was also a 1980s animator who earned her stripes producing adverts for channel 4. Erica Russell also did a number of free lance work gaining knowledge and experience which led her to set up her own studio. Caroline Leaf also known for her amazing silhouetted techniques using materials such as sand over a light box she developed a technique which of animating which was an on going process drawing and redrawing movement. Woman in animation has had its starting point, has grown with a number of woman being successful threw this path in the industry and who are well recognised till this date which may off had an influence on Joanna Quinn herself.

Furthermore `Body’s beautiful` one of Joanna Quinn’s animations, starts off with a group of working women who appear to be friends 1 of the lady’s who’s fairly big in size experiences abuse and physically and verbally which drives here crazy and even to join the gym but doesn’t last long as she breaks her diets with doe nuts `Aye what’s that a whale costume? ` 1 of the verbal abuses she comes across as pictures herself in a tight bal lay costume which she knows she will never be able to fit into. The message I believe Quinn was trying to put across was about how woman’s weight can really affect them emotional or physically. woman over weight are treated different verbal abused, neglected because of their weight and body size `Oh she`s so big` this character is constantly abused until she loses self confidence and even to hide herself from her own husband Quinn wanted this reality story to be animated because it’s a similar issue we have to date now.

In Addition woman issues have affected the way they think, woman constantly care and observe, indecisive on how they appear to others, being pressured to be good at everything they do.   

However woman have limited routes when it comes to careers, woman cannot work in any careers which persist physical force, simple not just that it’s a sexist opinion but due to the fact that woman are not initially  because woman are muscular or big boned. Which limits them and there paths in what they would like to be or do.  In our day and age woman can only reach a `glass ceiling` in other words a woman could have the same job as a male but being able to progress further to the top to reach roles as owners wouldn’t be possible This could also be progress further related to woman issues and why males should decide wether or  not woman should be able be above them in job roles.

Moreover personally I its extremely sexist for woman not be able to pursue in the career they desire, limiting them to jobs such as hairdressing, social workers, plus more they should be giving a equal chance and allowed to progress further in life, but there is the argument of woman being woman and that could be a problem if we were to have a woman leading the country as they may not tackle the main issues of our day in age but refer or tackle mainly woman issues.

Research resources...

Berfore breaking up for the chrismas holiday I managed to get hold of the one book that would help me `woman in animation` in depth on my essay question I had found out someone in my class hand loaned it so i had to ask them to lend it to me for an hour so i could scan in pages which i would need relevant to my question.

some web research likes below of woman in animation such as Joanna Quinn, Joanna Priestly and more general research.

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.3/articles/moritz1.3.html

http://www.independentexposure.com/filmmaker/1506/

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/470719/

http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho8/russell_e.htm

http://www.dshed.net/joanna-quinn-desert-island-flicks

http://openlens.proscenia.net/07archive/Joanna_Priestley.htm

Joanna quinn

"Since her debut, Girls' Night Out (1987), Joanna Quinn has established herself as one of Britain's most distinctive animators - as much for her vivid, often raucous depiction of women's issues as for her instantly recognisable, highly detailed hand-drawn artwork with a strong sense of visual rhythm and movement."

Caroline leaf

Caroline Leaf's animated films are renowned for their emotional content and graphic style, which evolves from the innovative handcrafted animation techniques that she has invented. Her art is tied to storytelling and to exploring the unusual materials that she uses for drawing and making movement. At different times, this has been beach sand manipulated on a lightbox, watercolor and gouache fingerpainting on glass, and images made by scratching in the soft emulsion of exposed color 35mm and 70mm film stock.

Leaf began to make animated films while she was a student at Radcliffe College, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It was 1968 and 16mm film technology was becoming relatively cheap. Processing labs were proliferating. The craft of filmmaking was more widely accessible than ever before. Liberal arts colleges and universities were starting to teach filmmaking. Harvard offered a class in animation taught by Derek Lamb. Leaf’s first film, ‘Sand or Peter and the Wolf’, was made with a jar of local beach sand poured out onto a light box. Lit from below and manipulated with her fingers, the film’s black and white silhouetted sand figures move in a fluid and shadowy world. The camera was fixed to the wall above the lightbox.  From these beginnings, Leaf developed a style of animating that was an ongoing process of drawing, shooting and redrawing the images to create a sense of movement.  Her subsequent films are refinements and extensions of this handmade straight ahead under-the-camera technique.

brief outline Faith Hubley....

Faith Hubley broke away from hollywood in the mid 1950s to form their own independent small scale studio in new york city with her husband John hubley.They planned making animated films in an anti disney visual style, that was closer in form and spirit to European surrealism and impressionism.

Brief outline Mary Ellen Bute....

Mary Ellen bute painter, animator, feature film director in a career of more than fifty years. Bute began her filmmaking career collaborating with Joseph Schillinge on the animation of visuals. Her later films were made in partnership with her cinematographer Ted Nemeth whom she married in 1940. In the 1960s and 1970s Bute also worked on two films which were never completed: an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth.

brief outline Charlotte reiniger....

Charlotte reiniger was born in berlin 1899. At the age of 23 she began work on one of the first feature  lengh animation films `The Adventures of prince Achmed` which she became well known for. Although it is a narrative film there are semi abstract sequences in which she experimented with wax and sand on backlit glass.

Alice Guy Blaché:

Woman in the film industry is not jus something which accured in the 21st century I came accross an french pioneer film maker from the 18th century im really proud of the research i came across.

Alice Guy-Blache born July 1st 1873 died March 24, 1968 she was a French pioneer filmmaker who was the first female director in the motion picture industry and is considered to be one of the first directors of a fiction film.

Brief reasearch on woman and in the film and animation industry...

I looked into the industry from way back in the 90s, to see how far back woman were involved in the industry and how well known or succesful they were compared to today.