Final Major Project - Billy Films

YouTube link. This is the main piece I made for my final major project.

This spring, I went on a puppetry performance course at the Little Angel Theatre.  There were nine weeks of preparation and then a free performance for family/friends at the end.  Our main tutor was Oli Smart of Folded Feather, who specialises in found object puppetry, and we also had classes on shadow play with one-time artistic director of the Little Angel Steve Tiplady, and multimedia puppetry with Nic Rawling (aka Nic Beard) of Paper Cinema.  I was particularly inspired by the two tutorials with Nic, and decided to use the techniques he'd taught us to create my final performance. 

Which looked something like this:

YouTube link.  (Although to be honest, I did re-film some stuff that I couldn't get on the night.  I think film people call those 'pick-ups'.)

I used that puppetry course at the Little Angel as the starting point of my final major project at MK College, and ended up making five little films, which were to be presented on a loop at the summer exhibition.

Here are some of the themes I looked at in my FMP: 
*- Exploring the grey area between animation and illustration.  
*- Taking one of the intrinsic aspects of both forms -- that they're all finished and polished before they reach their audience -- and turning it on its head.  What if illustration could be a live, dynamic, interactive thing?
*- Most art / illustration / printmaking is concerned with mark-making.  The images I've been making, the stories I've been telling, were only supposed to exist in the moment. Does the fact that they're impermanent make them more precious to the audience?  If I have to film everything to make a record of it and have something to put in the exhibition, are the exhibition-goers (or internet viewers) getting something less special than those who were there on the night? Or is it just different?
*- I always try to make things perfect, but perhaps the more slick, glossy and perfected an illustration is, the less individuality and charm it has.  When something is handmade with care and love, it's best to show off and celebrate that.  What you see as your mistakes are your handwriting.  (My key inspirational figures on this note were Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.)

I'm glad I got the chance to think about these things at the end of the Foundation course.  I'm doing an MA in Children's Book Illustration next, and I expect that'll be more focused on books and creating work that can be published, so the FdA could well be my best chance of exploring these more conceptual / performance-orientated ideas.

I was keen to credit Nic clearly, because the Paper Cinema puppetry style is his creation -- I knew many people visiting my exhibition would never have seen this sort of thing before, so I didn't want them to think I'd completely invented it.  (I haven't mentioned the company in the blurb of my YouTube videos, though, because otherwise my work would come up every time somebody searched for them.)  I also don't intend to make any more films using this technique, although this has sparked ideas for other multimedia illustration/animation work that would be more my own original thing. But do go and look at Paper Cinema's work on YouTube, or better still, see them perform if you can -- they are truly remarkable. 

I hope Neil Hannon would like my take on his song if he ever saw it.  I chose this one to illustrate because I find the story in the lyrics incredibly moving and uplifting, so I hope that comes across.  All along, the ironic chorus 'international business traveller' suggests this suave guy sailing with ease through luxury airport lounges; not the one described in the verses, sweating and begging and panicking, being led astray by rogue Belgians and bossed around by airline staff.  But while Billy's not debonair, he's got his priorities absolutely right.  That swell of strings on the big reveal about why he's been rushing to get home, always leaves me in bits.  I also think Billy's probably missed other special moments in his family's lives, and he's learned from that, so I think it's also a song about redemption.  It's all about knowing that family has to be top priority and trying to be a better dad and person, even if other things get in the way.  I thought that was a very powerful message.  Billy doesn't sprout feathers in the lyrics, but as a frustrated commuter I often wished I could just grow wings and fly home, so that was my little addition to the story.

I'll post my other films here in due course, although they're already online at my new YouTube channel.