PPP2: Research into Form - Gil Alkabetz

Scrolling through a book I checked out called "Animation 2D and Beyond" by Jayne Pilling, I stumbled upon Gil Alkabetz's work and focus on the general form of animation. Alkabetz claims that "if you have a particular style, you create a particular world whose rules you know, so you can play with breaking them". However, he also proclaims that "by not being committed to any one style, you somehow have to reinvent the wheel every time", which subscribes to the notion of the style fitting the narrative, and not the other way around. I've always been interested in narrative oriented animation hence I believe that as an animator one must experiment and explore the different and plentiful conventions of the art form and not just stick to one's comfortable style - nothing is learned in that manner. Thus, I shall start utilizing this schematic of animation where the story is created first (be it absurd and defiant to reality or not) by using a phantasmagoric idea, developing the plot, and then choosing the form of animation which will carry the flow of the story through naturally (in order to perpetuate experimentation). Considering this, I was flabbergasted by his film "Swamp" hence it explored the many narrative levels of animation instigated by color, movement, and flow. The film portrays the absurdity of war, however, it does so in a really abstract and minimalist manner, relying on the suggestibility relayed by action and not by visuals. In other words, the film creates tension between the characters and the environment and uses that tension to drive the unique story along. The swamp that sinks the soldiers is never shown, yet we comprehend its existence solely because of the story's descriptive progression - it introduces us to the environment by having the characters interact with the invisible surroundings. This form of storytelling is imperative to the full exploitation of animation as an art form since it's breaking through the film frame of reality. Afterwards, I went on watching more of his films, giving me an inspiration to do an animation that uses watercolor as the main medium hence I really love the aesthetic of the texture.

"Swamp" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWQ5led8BA0