Anna Ginsburg aka my current favourite animator

This film After Moby's combination of stop motion animation and live footage is really interesting, sometimes using live footage like stop motion, reversing and cutting frames. This creates a really interesting effect where it seems nearly impossible to see where the two techniques meet and therefore what is real and what was created. The film is quite abstract showing two characters, however the film does not present them as characters of action, but explores who they are through makeup, costume and lighting. The film is about representing who they are through imagery not through scripted action. This is a really cool idea, the actors become more like illustrations, they cannot explain themselves, only the creator has the power the move and manipulate them to reveal themselves. I like this as it makes the viewer work harder and leads to more interpretation. For example one character is very much of the dark and enclosed, and the other light in every way; dressed in a billowy dress in a expansive hall. One seemingly confined, the other free, I think she is representing in the inner and outer self, both move together and interact, shown by the black lips painted in the same way and flickering between the two, but one is looking inward, the other out.

As well as animating the expanding and diminishing black paint, the girls white collar is also moved between frames. This is a brilliant idea as it makes the cloak seem like a living part of her and thus helps to further show who this character is. The white cloak, could represent her purity or that lightness of spirit shown in the delicate way she handles the butterfly in the end.

This editing is really inspiring, as she uses stop motion animation but blends it together with previous frames to make it look like layered film footage. I think this further shows that this character is hard to define and intangible. It also further blurs the lines between reality and stop motion 'magic' to create this surreal world.

I really love this sequence that is trying to represent how it feels to live with depression. The imagery is fabulous, of this brain dripping into a black pool which eventually sucks in the rest of the body. The blue is very well chosen, blue always have connotations with sadness, but this particular shade makes me think of deep space and deep sea, furthering this idea of being dragged into an abyss. The illustration around the head is really interesting as well, the blue swirls and storms but is always contained by a clean blue line. This reads really clearly that you can feel so much inside and just because it doesn't show on the outside, doesn't mean that you are not struggling with something real.

This one just makes me smile, so I thought I would share it

http://www.annaginsburg.co.uk/index.html