COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 18/11/19)

At the beginning of the week, I had a one to one with my lecturer.

Later on in the week, I worked on expanding my essay, by triangulating some primary and secondary research. One being a film I watched at MAF and the other, a blog I came across while researching my topic.


Recently, Netflix released a Christmas film titled 'Klaus' (2019) which is one of the brilliant examples of varied character design from this decade. Each female design is unique; it doesn't suffer from "sameface syndrome" which many films released within this generation have done, including those produced by highly respected corporations such as Disney. Every design in 'Klaus' is distinctive and provides an insight into the character's personality. This extra context helps the audience to understand each character's motives, backgrounds and actions better, and also provides a refreshing adaptation of a story the audience should be familiar with. While the designs are all varied in regards to: body types, face shapes, ages, etc. this doesn't stunt the viewer's enjoyment of the film. On the contrary, the style suits the tone of the story perfectly and every character is still aesthetically pleasing to look at.

While 'Klaus' demonstrates an understanding of the importance of representing a variety of body types and face shapes, alternatively, there are still major films that do not. Tumblr user Turbomun was shocked and disappointed after finding out the posters that were released for 'Frozen' (2013) were official, after being convinced that they were fake, "I seriously believed that someone […] had photomanipulated some screenshots of Rapunzel and tried to pass them off as the official Frozen designs". They argued that the female characters in Disney's recent cache of films such as 'Frozen' (2013) and 'Tangled' (2010) all had the exact same features, "the same facial structure, the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth... and while we're at it, the same body too" and this became even more discouraging after seeing how much potential the original concept art had to offer.

They criticised this trend, calling it "disturbing" and argued that it is more prevalent when analysing female designs than the male counterparts. They do note however that designing a character that is skinny and/or pretty isn't where the issue lies, as it's an artist's job to exaggerate certain features that represent certain traits. The aim isn't to eradicate stereotypically pretty designs all together, but there is a problem when films, particularly those that are directed at a young and impressionable audience, continuously, and arguably subconsciously, promote an unrealistic and unhealthy body image as the most desirable while always depicting the evil characters as fat and ugly, "the problem doesn't occur when a character is given a small waist or large head, it occurs when design after design after design portrays these traits as the height of beauty".

Compare this recent trend of character designs to that of the 1980s. Has there been an evolution or are we still producing the same results?


Bibliography:

Klaus (2019) Directed by S. Pablos [Film]. Spain: Sergio Pablos Animation Studios.


I also collected the results of my survey.

Then, I typed up my conclusion.

Throughout the week, I continued to work on some paintings in my sketchbook.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 18/11/19)

At the start of the week, I nominated myself to create and present this week's weekly. I also continued to work on the werewolf transformation shot. I really wanted to portray a sense of agony and discomfort, especially at the start of the transformation however, there were a few issues I encountered during this exercise.



Firstly, I came across the issue of timing. As I only have seventy frames (just under three seconds) in total to animate this sequence in, I feel a lot of the action looks rushed, especially the transition from him lying on the floor to getting to his knees.

Another problem I realised when I got home was that this action takes place in a small cage, so there wouldn't even be room for him to be rolling around on the floor. So, in order to overcome both these issues, I am planning on cutting the first part down so that way, I can give him more time to transform properly and also won't have to worry about the space. By the end of the week, the set should be nearing completion so this means I can start animating this scene properly, rather than just testing out the line art.

Halfway through the week, I ran into another problem as on the same night I finished the shot above, I got a migraine and had to stay home the following day, which means I couldn't continue to work on the scene like I had planned.

As the next shot shows a close up of the eye that hair is still growing around, that also restricted me as it meant I couldn't animate a complete transformation. To overcome this, once back in university, I experimented with colour to see what the hair would look like still growing.



Next, I need to animate the pants ripping off and I also need to add some eyebrows. I sent what I had so far to the group chat and they were all happy with the result.

Around about the same time, another member of the group sent a shot they were working on, as seen in the weekly PowerPoint below. I was immediately concerned with the fact they had gone off model, so I messaged them about changes they needed to make. We then continued to message back and forth and eventually decided that it would be worth making a 3D puppet of the turn-around to help them get an understanding of the character design.

I also feel this will help us later, as there is a tricky shot where the camera zooms into the cage so using the 3D model here as well may help me get a better understanding of the shot as the perspective changes.

Nearing the end of the week, I made the weekly presentation and delivered it to the class.



The feedback I received was exactly what I expected: the transformation is too fast/rushed.

So, after the presentations were over, I spoke with the director and negotiated that the scene be extended from what was originally two seconds, to eight seconds. We also talked about what the shot would consist of, so rather than one shot of the wolf's profile, like the original storyboard and animatic shows, the director has now updated the animatic to make the transformation more interesting.

After a few updates to the animatic, I now have even more time to experiment with the wolf's transformation, which will show close ups of the hands, feet, and spine morphing.

For the rest of the lesson on Friday however, I decided I needed a fresh scene to animate, so I began to key frame the shot below.



Next week I will continue to work on both this shot and some of the close ups of the transformation.

Study Task 7 - Developing a Rational

For this task, I have to write up a plan of action.


Primary Research:

I am attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I hope to find some primary research, such as films that either demonstrate the advancements in modern female character design, or lack thereof. I am also planning on making a survey from my practical development where I ask the audience to compare four different character designs and silhouettes that each represent a different decade's common design traits. In lesson we have also broken off into focus groups for certain tasks to get feedback directly.

Secondary Research:

Whilst writing my essay, I have gathered up several secondary sources such as: books, articles, interviews, and blog posts. I then triangulated these sources to form an argument that answers my essay question and alternative opinions. Information I collected here also helped guide me when painting my practical responses.


Plan:

At this point in time, I have written the main body of my essay, and need to now find a way to tie the paragraphs into one another and write a conclusion. In my visual journal, I have been comparing silhouettes of iconic characters to my own designs based on the shows from the same decades. Over the next few weeks I will continue to work into these drawings. Based on this evidence, I then designed four original characters and made a survey. After I have enough participants, I will collect the data and add this to my essay. If I have time I will do some more practical experiments based on the feedback I received in a group progress review.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 11/11/19)

On Monday we had a lesson on how to structure a formal essay. Then, I went to Manchester for the Animation Festival.

On day one I went to the Tricky Women/ Tricky Realities Showcase as I felt this would help me gather primary research for my essay. Two films in particular stood out to me: 'Sleepincord' and 'Egg'. The first featured a women with a unique, refreshing design, in which she had leg hair, hairy armpits and fat rolls. The second was a story about a woman with anorexia. All the films in this showcase were made by women.

On the second day of MAF I attended a screening of 'The Happiness Machine' with a Q&A at the end. Again, this featured films that were directed by women, with accompanying music that was composed by women. At the end, I asked the members on the panel whether or not during production, did the animators see what each team was working on or was it revealed to them after the project was over. They said that at the start they had a group chat where they became familiar with one another however they didn't see any other group's work until the film was made and premiered.

On the final day I went to a screening of 'Klaus' and a panel called 'In The Frame: Diversity in Animation'. I found 'Klaus' extremely useful as all the female characters in the film had different face shapes, body shapes, ages etc. which is unlike many films that the Sameface Syndrome blog dissected. I feel that I may be able to triangulate this.

During MAF, I continued to work in my sketchbook.

I think in the future I need to work on what colours I choose as some combinations don't look very good together. I could paint a colour wheel and see what compliments and contrasts with one another.

Then over the weekend I designed a character in four different styles based on the practical work I have been doing. Each character has elements from female characters over the last four decades.

I then changed the order and made a survey asking people to rank the designs from most to least appealing.

I then added colour to the designs and also made silhouettes to see if this effected the results.

I posted the survey and will wait until a decent amount of people have voted before I work out the results.

Link to Survey

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 11/11/19)

At the Manchester Animation Festival I made sure to keep an eye out for any short films that I could take inspiration from.

In the Student Films screening, there was one animation called 'The Kite' which could be helpful if we encounter any problems down the line. Two elements of my group project that my team seemed to be struggling with were how the clouds should look and how we were going to make stop motion puppets fly. In 'The Kite', cotton wool was used for the clouds and was very effective, and it also featured puppet birds flying. I made notes throughout and will fall back on these if my teammates ask for help.

While at MAF, I messaged my group asking for updates to make sure they were still on track being one member down.

Then in class we had our first session of weekly's.



Once they were over, I got to work on a more difficult shot. As I wasn't sure how to approach this, and our set still hasn't been built, I thought it would be best to do a few tests.



This isn't finished, and I am still not happy with it so next week I will continued to key frame, and refine this shot.

After the weekly, I made a list of shots based on the storyboard and labelled it with who was in charge of animating each scene. The director initially suggested I animate all the shots with the characters while Joseph, the other 2D animator, focused on the shots of the moon and any scenes with lightning/fog. However, after breaking these shots down, it was very unbalanced so next week I will probably update this sheet as I am concerned about this, as is the director.

Study Task 6 - Practical Approaches

For this task I need to write a proposal for what I intend to create alongside my essay.


I am intending on investigating how the designs of female characters in animation has evolved over the last several decades as more women begin to speak up about representation and diversity. Based on the areas I have researched so far for my essay, I have began to create practical outcomes that break my question down and help me visualise the differences.

The practical side of this module is going to consist of me analysing the evolution of women in animation over the last four decades. For each decade, I have studied the silhouettes of iconic characters from that decade and then on the opposite page, I have sketched, outlined and painted my own character designs based on shows from the same decade. This way, I can see the evolution for myself by picking apart the trends such as: body types, clothing, hairstyles, and face shapes, as well as how diverse the characters are.

My initial idea for the final outcome was to focus on the best aspects of the designs from each decade and then create a character turn around sheet showcasing a unique design. However, I wanted the practical outcome to be more symbiotic and as my essay focuses on the evolution, I didn't feel like this would translate very well. So I considered going in a different direction.

From here, I am planning on designing a female character using the common elements I found from each decade. I will then create a survey with all four designs of the same character and will ask the audience to rank the designs from most appealing to least. This way, the evolution should be more clear.

I will also be attending the Manchester Animation Festival halfway through this module so I am planning on finding primary research here.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 04/11/19)

This is our first week of production. As we are animating in TVPaint and I do not have much experience with this particular software, I have decided to start with a simple shot from the animatic. Once I have the hang of it, I can move onto more complicated scenes. I watched a tutorial to teach me the basics.



Listening to the music over this shot, I felt a Dutch tilt would work really well, especially with the zoom. At the moment however, I am focusing on the animation, and will add these effects later in post.



When I first animated this shot, I was worried the emotions were too exaggerated and didn't make sense within the context of the scene. So, I tried to tone these facial expressions down. I still had these concerns with my updated line test however, the director and the rest of the team were happy with them so I decided to move on and add colour.



I added the main block colours to the man, and will come back to this scene later to add extra details such as the shading and dirt, once I have an idea of what the background and lighting will be like.



I moved onto another shot where you see a close up of the beast's eye.



The animatic shows the beast's eye looking around however I was worried this shot didn't have much movement as the previous shot shows the beast's transformation so I decided to have the hair form around his eye instead. I showed the director my line test and she was pleased with the results so I went on to refine this and colour it.



Throughout the week I found TVPaint wasn't as difficult as I dreaded it would be. If I have time at the end I might add a hairy eyebrow to this shot to make the wolf look more angry.



In the next lesson however, we encountered some issues.

In a tutorial, I was questioned about my character designs. When I initially designed this character, I interpreted the story in a different way to my teacher. I felt this was a man who, once every full moon, took responsibility to lock himself away so he wasn't a danger to those around him. Even though he turns into this hideous beast, he is still a person going through something horrendous. So, for his design I dressed him in pants, something small, cheap and easy to replace every full moon. I also felt this was more dignified than being completely naked and also made sense in this context.

The lecturer however had originally thought that someone else had locked the man away. Arguably this could be considered miscommunication within my team however I would like to argue that that is the point of the piece; to leave the audience with questions. Who is this man? Can the crow be trusted in the telling of this story?

Throughout all stages of pre-production, I regularly updated my teammates and the director with any changes to my designs, asking for opinions, and I only continued after the whole team said they were happy, which they did. However, after showing one lecturer my early concepts, they actually preferred these designs. My director feeling torn, approached me about these changes however as the producer, I recommended that they consider some alternative routes that were less time consuming as we had already animated two shots at this point, so changing the designs this late into production would only raise more problems down the line.

I was also questioned why the character's design was very cartoon-like as another concern was that this style wouldn't suit the mood of the piece. However, as the director originally took inspiration from shows such as 'Over The Garden Wall', I would argue that cartoons that are more horror-esque or creepy don't necessarily have to be realistic to still portray that uneasy atmosphere. Even so, isn't it our job to challenge these overused and predictable tropes in films?

Still, as our lecturer didn't like the pants, I decided to remove them to see whether my team did prefer this design or whether we should return to the previous one. I did the same with the wolf turn around.

I do prefer the naked wolf design to the one with pants because I feel this is more accurate to other transformation scenes, such as the protagonist in 'An American Werewolf in London' when he tears his clothes off, or 'The Incredible Hulk' whose clothes rip as he grows.

I only added the pants to be show consistency between the two turn arounds as I wanted it to be clear they were the same character. However, I trust in the audience to work this out and therefore I am more than happy to remove the pants from the wolf's design. Then in the animation, I will have them rip off as he's turning.

I discussed these changes with my team and we had a vote on what would look best. We are deciding to keep the pants on the man and have them tear off for the beast.



At the end of the week, I looked at another scene in the animatic. As the character is in the cage for this scene, we put two halves of the cage on a greenscreen to see whether we could make it work with this particular shot. Firstly, I filmed the back half, then the front and then I sent this footage to Joseph who experimented combining the two.



Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival which means I haven't got as much time to work on this moudle. As the producer however, I will continue to message my group to make sure everyone is on track, especially with one member down.

Study Task 5 - Writing an Introduction

This lesson aided us in writing an introduction to our essay. I started by writing a list of bullet points of things I wanted to talk about and then, moving away from the first person, I began writing my introduction, crossing the points off as I went.

Overview:

- women (female characters)
- character design (blonde, tall, skinny, white, etc. vs varied designs)
- sexism/ feminism (strong independent women characters vs real feminism)
- representation/ diversity (breaking the mould)
- society (standards and opinions)
- body image (important issue to raise or purely aesthetics?)
- evolution (80s - now)
- character turn arounds (practical outcome)
- body or narrative? what is more important (empowering)


'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'


Over the last several decades, the depiction of women in media, particularly animation, has continued to evolve as the standards of society have transformed. While most forms are a reflection of the times, there are still some films being released in this decade which aren't as diverse or inclusive as its competitors. Likewise, not all films that were released thirty years ago had characters that fit into the same, arguably sexist mould that was often present in that time.

This generation of animation has introduced various designs for male characters that have consistently been diverse and unique. However, when considering the female roles from the same era, more often than not, the only time the designs deviated from the norm (roles such as the mother figure or the love interest) was when the woman was the villain. Characters such as Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" (1989) or Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000) were given unique designs that didn't restrict them to the same skinny, young, model. These double standards are also visible when analysing the face shapes alone. Kat Brown, a writer for The Telegraph, expressed concern in her article "Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face" (2015) after Tumblr user Every-Flavored-Bean noticed a pattern emerging from recent Disney and Pixar films. While the male counterparts had expressive, diverse and unique designs, the women all seemed to have the same round face with large, doll-like eyes and a small button nose. The blogger calls the lack of diversity "lazy sexism" and argues that something needs to change

In 2013 Lino DiSalvo, the head animator for "Frozen"(2013) was heavily criticised after claiming it was "really, really difficult" to animate female characters as "they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty". A year later in an interview he claimed he was misquoted and never meant to imply that only the women were difficult to animate, "It's not difficult because they're girls. It's difficult because when you're exploring animation and getting characters to look unique like Olaf, doing that range of emotion test and trying to identify what that emotion is is very very difficult" (2014).


Bibliography:

Amidi, A. (2013) "Frozen" Head of Animation Says Animating Women is "Really, Really Difficult". Available at: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/frozen-head-of-animation-says-animating-women-is-really-really-difficult-89467.html (Accessed: 4 November 2019).

Bailey, I. (2014) Q&A: For this animator, working on Frozen created a tricky career legacy. Available at: https://www.globeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/qa-vancouver-film-school-alum-ready-to-move-on-from-frozen/article20072363/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).

Brown, K. (2015) Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/inside-out/disney-pixar-characters-same-face/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).

The Emperor's New Groove (2000) Directed by M. Dindal [Film]. California: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.

The Little Mermaid (1989) Directed by R. Clements and J. Musker [Film]. California: Buena Vista Distribution Company, Inc.

Tumblr. (2015) Every woman in every Disney/Pixar movie in the past decade has the exact same face. Available at: https://every-flavored-bean.tumblr.com/post/112569173199/every-woman-in-every-diseypixar-movie-in-the (Accessed: 4 November 2019).

Tumblr. (2014) Sameface Syndrome and Other Stories. Available at: https://turbomun.tumblr.com/post/80012362197/sameface-syndrome-and-other-stories (Accessed: 4 November 2019).

Women and Hollywood. (no date) Statistics. Available at: https://womenandhollywood.com/resources/statistics/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).

Study Task 4 - Images, Examples and Theories

Following on from the previous task, I refined my poster by adding more images that related to my theme. This allowed me to start writing about the main differences I could spot. I separated the images by the decade they were created in. Whilst doing this I also compared the silhouettes of certain characters in my visual journal.

The poster allowed me to see where the changes in female character design began to occur. In the nineties, more cultures and races were explored, but the bodies and faces were still limited to the same, tall, slim form. From the 2000s onwards, while skinny characters were still being created, we began to see a wider range of body types emerge. The designs themselves were also more experiential and unique.

In class, we learned about the process of triangulation.


Jerome Vincent, an author for Medium, criticises the unrealistic body standards in animated films in his article, "The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations" (2017). Films and television series that are aimed primarily at children will often be criticised if the main character is morally ambiguous or a potentially bad role model for younger viewers to look up to. Vincent argues however, that characters shouldn't only be criticised for their actions but also for what they say about positive body image, "this form of media can lead to eating disorders among kids who […] do not fit the unrealistic body image of their favourite princess". Vincent goes on to argue that directors and animators should be held responsible for creating these unattainable standards as the designs could be potentially very harmful to a young, impressionable audience, "these characters have an influence in our lives […] what do they portray about a healthy body image?". Catriona Harvey-Jenner, a reporter for Cosmopolitan shares the same concerns in her article "Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great" (2014) where she praises the work of artist Loryn Brantz who edited images of animated female characters to look healthier and more realistic. Harvey-Jenner believes it's imperative for young girls that "a message of unattainable thin-ness isn't sent out as an image of the most desirable body shape" and rather designs should encourage healthiness over skinniness. Both articles provided examples mainly from films that came out in the 1980s and 1990s however there were cases for films that came out more recently, one being the live-action "Cinderella" (2015) film where actress Lily James, despite being naturally thin, wore an extremely tight corset which restricted her from eating solid food. It was so tight that many believed her waist had been animated.

Vincent holds the animators responsible for these artistic decisions, arguing that they shouldn't always follow what society deems acceptable at the time as this can lead to creating harsh biases against something that has been stigmatised, "because of the rise of the stigma against being overweight and obese, it is believed that being impossibly thin or having an incomprehensively thin waistline is socialy acceptable and aesthetically pleasing". He believes creators of such content should be more representative and instead should shine a more positive light on those who don't fit the mould, "it is hard for kids to understand what is healthy or not, but they can see what is stigmatized vs. socially acceptable".

However, should these controversial choices fall directly on the artist or are these decisions merely made because the outcomes are more aesthetically pleasing? An audience may argue that the designs for characters from the 1980s and 1990s, even if they aren't what young children should be looking up to, may be more appealing to look at. Even the silhouettes of characters from then to now are arguably more recognisable and portray more character than more recent character designs. Vincent admits that "one of the goals of the movie animator and director is to make the screenplay as aesthetically pleasing as possible".


Bibliography:

Cinderella (2015) Directed by K. Branagh [Film]. California: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Harvey-Jenner, C. (2014) Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great. Available at: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/news/a30901/disney-princesses-given-realistic-waistlines-look-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).

Puckering, C. (no date) Artist Creates 'Realistic Disney Princesses' and the Pictures Are Amazing. Available at: https://twentytwowords.com/artist-creates-realistic-disney-princesses-pictures-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).

Vincent, J. (2017) The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations. Available at: https://medium.com/@jmvincent12/the-unrealistic-body-image-in-many-famous-tv-animations-80e02d0dbd1e (Accessed: 3 November 2019).

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 04/11/19)

In class we were set two new study tasks. I found this a little overwhelming as I am struggling to find ways to incorporate the written essay into my practical outcome. So, I decided to take a break from my essay this week and focus on my paintings.

I continued to make my way through the decades; first looking at the silhouettes and then, using shows from the era as inspiration, designing characters that look as though they could have come from the same show. I am hoping to produce my own character turn arounds for this module so I feel drawing a range of character designs from different decades will help me.

Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I am hoping to collect primary research.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 28/10/19)

This week we discussed building a rough set for when we start production. I was intending on making an updated Gantt sheet for this extra task however we instead had a group meeting where we weighed up the pros and cons of this extra task and decided it would be better to revert to our original plan of just making one set which would be used for the final animation. I still made an updated sheet and marked off where we were to make sure the team was still on track. I also fixed any mistakes that were in the first one.

In class I learned about lip syncs and what remapping is. I also had a lecture on sound and it's importance in animation.

I then worked on updating my blog as next week I will begin production.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 28/10/19)

At the beginning of the week, we had a lecture on writing an introduction and were set our fifth study task.

I stayed behind to add sound to my looping animation. I found a cartoon blink noise to add to the eyes in the background, and as we were advised to listen to sounds that could be used for other actions, I searched for footsteps walking in snow to use as the cat walked across the carpet. The last sound I added was a cat happily purring.



Link to Animism Animation

I feel as though the purring may be too loud as it seems to overpower the rest of the animation. The blink is also very harsh and sharp, and the footsteps seem too loud. I will ask my peers for a second opinion but I feel as though as the weeks go on I will go back to this and refine it.

Nearing the end of the week, I continued to work in my visual journal. I started by looking at characters from the 1980s. I painted their silhouettes on one page and then designed and painted my own characters inspired by the original designs on the other. I also updated my blog posts.

Study Task 3 - Reading and Understanding Texts

Part 1

This task involves finding a text and analysing it in various stages. First, I have to skim read the text. Then, re-read the text, finding additional information that relates to my theme. Finally, I have to read the text thoroughly, and repeat these steps until I understand exactly what the author is trying to say.

One of the books I found in the library was titled "Women, Feminism and Media" by Sue Thornham. I decided to read the second chapter of the book, "Fixing into images" as this focused on how women have been portrayed in the media.

Step 1: Skim Reading

- exploitation
- the male gaze
- feminism
- two roles: sexy and mother
- women in advertising
- equality
- what is 'image'?

Step 2: Re-Read

I feel the author is trying to convey a sense of understanding for the lack of representation of women in media as these characters are often created by men to fulfil men's needs.

Step 3: Read Thoroughly

- "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions"
- "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"
- "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and marriage-oriented passive person"
- "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable"


In chapter two of "Women, Feminism and Media" (2007), Sue Thornham, a British film professor, is arguably trying to communicate a sense of sympathy for the unrealistic standards women have been held to, by exploring the way in which women in media have been categorised, "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"(pg.23). An argument Thornham raises is how, due to the lack of representation of women in the industry in the past, men have distorted this idea of what the image of woman should be as the stories were told from their perspectives. Thornham quotes Rita Felski here, saying "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions" (pg.23). Thornham uses similar examples of this, to really demonstrate how women who look to these warped ideals as role models, may be left with a sense of unfulfillment, "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable" (pg.43).

This theory surrounding the way in which women are portrayed in media has been explored before. Feminist and film theorist, Laura Mulvey named this concept 'The Male Gaze' and argued that as most films are told from a man's perspective, this could often lead to sexist overtones. A teacher on SlideShare called Mr Smith explains this by writing "events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events" (slide.4). By exploring this concept, this may allow the audience to recall similar instances where the male gaze is present in day to day life, such as film posters. Many examples of movie posters have been shared when debating equality in media, particularly those that have been designed in a way that only the actress' body is shown, while her face is cut off. Comedian Marcia Belsky first brought attention to this when she made a blog on Tumblr dedicated to posters and promo art that featured women's bodies called "The Headless Women of Hollywood" in 2016.

Within animation, the same issues occur. In Thornham's book she references "Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women" (1979), explaining "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and a marriage-oriented passive person" (pg. 24). As times have changed, women in animation have arguably become more diverse and inclusive, however there are still cases where young children are looking up to models with standards that are unattainable.


Part 2

Then in class we were briefed on the second part of this task, which was to write a summary or create a research poster relating to the themes of the text. As I had already written a summary, I decided to create the poster for this next task.

I looked at female designs from the 1980s to the 2010s. I also wrote a list of sources, such as: books, articles and films I could look into, as well as trips I could attend to gather primary research.

Overall I felt the first part of this task was more helpful than the second part as I prefer writing my thoughts down over creating something visual.

Bibliography:

BBC Three. (2019) These film posters of headless women are going viral, again. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/42cae8ac-5ca6-4672-93b3-d3235f0f384a (Accessed: 20 October 2019)

Ceulemans, M. and Fauconnier, G. (1979) Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women: A Collection and Analysis of  Research Materials. Paris: Reports and Papers on Mass Communication.

Felski, R. (2000) Doing Time: Feminist Theory and Postmodern Culture. New York and London: New York University Press.

Lanquist, L. (2016) Women's Faces Are Often Missing From Movie Posters. Available at: https://www.self.com/story/womens-faces-are-often-missing-from-movie-posters (Accessed: 20 October 2019).

Smith, M. (2009) The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).

Thornham, S. (2007) Women, Feminism and Media. Edinburgh University Press.

Tumblr. (no date) The Headless Women of Hollywood. Available at: https://headlesswomenofhollywood.com/ (Accessed: 20 October 2019).

University of Sussex. (no date) Prof Sue Thornham. Available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/166435 (Accessed: 20 October 2019).

Wikipedia. (no date) Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).

Study Task 2 - Writing a Research Question

For this task, I needed to write up a prototype question based on the themes I mentioned in the previous task. The main themes I am exploring are history and society; specifically how society's standards have changed over time. My first proto-question is:

'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved over the last fifty years?'

Based on the feedback I have received, I am continuing to refine this question so that it isn't too broad, as I need to be wary of the word count.

My second draft is:

'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1989 - 2019?'

Something I realised while looking at animated films and shows, and also something that was mentioned within areas of my research so far is that the main change began to appear in the nineties. So, I decided to change the question once more so I can compare the designs that came before the nineties to the designs that came after.

My question is now:

'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'

I am going to focus on character design in my visual journal. At this point in time, I am hoping to produce some character turn-around sheets comparing previous character designs to the more diverse and inclusive designs of today.


Update:

The final question is:

'How has the portrayal of women, in western animation, evolved over the last forty years?'