Monday, June 04, 2012

IDEAS FOR STUDENT FILMS

This is a post for animation students. If you're taking a summer course that requires you to make a short pencil test film, then you could do worse than to start with a story like the ones you see here. I'm not suggesting that you swipe these ....they're just for inspiration. See what you think.

Here's (above) a great idea performed by comedienne, Lotus Weinstock. It's in a YouTube video called "How to Use Body Signals a Man Can't Resist." The video wouldn't embed, so you'll have to use this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTDSGv4J8w&feature=related


Here's (above) the classic elevator sequence from "The Errand Boy." Something like this would look great in animation.


More Jerry (above). This hat routine is one of John K's favorites.


Still more Jerry (above).  Nice, huh?


Joke books are a good place to find visual gags. I can picture this gag (below) in animation:

"How did the blind kid burn the side of his face?

He answered the iron."

"How did he burn the other side?

They called back."


3 comments:

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

I'm Just Sayin' wrote this comment on the April 20, 2009 post entitled. "Happy Tree Friends:"

I'm Just Saying... said...
To "Anonymous".
Maybe there are so many creators and animators because of all of the ideas and new ways of torturing characters. Honestly, one person could not think of all of that. The people credited were probably just helping come up with new ideas.
Don't bash a show just for the amounnt of people working on it. It's new, creative, and a really...(in a sick way) good idea. The characters all have personalites, angst, and PLENTY of character development.
It's wrong if you just point out something as futile as the amount of animators. It isn't something that takes away from the show, and maybe if you thought a little bit you would see how you're jumping to conclusions incorrectly.

Joshua Marchant (Scrawnycartoons) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

While I haven't watched all the clips yet, I remember watching the Jerry Lewis elevator scene quite a long time ago. Watching it again reminds me of the great power funny visuals can have on a cartoon, especially one with good dialogue in it already. It really enhances the scene and keeps animation from becoming the "illustrated radio" Chuck Jones warned everyone about. Illustrated radio is everywhere now except the dialogue of a lot of these new cartoons is really uninspired and insipidly written in my opinion.

On an unrelated note, you were exactly right about college Eddie. I started my first classes yesterday and I'm loving it a lot. One of my professors even went to the University of Chicago and I was surprised by how modest and humble he was about his undergraduate education. The other professor even let the whole class out early because it's only the first day and there wasn't really much to talk about except what's on the syllabus. I only have to go to class Tuesdays and Thursdays, which makes it even better. You'd never get away with that kind of schedule flexibility in high school. I have one of my finals on July 19th, since this is a summer semester.