FROM POE TO BURTON

Gaiman led me back to Burton (and Henry Selick).

And Burton has lead me back to Poe.

http://static.tumblr.com/b2c5898705f24edd06778877152e5961/cojkonw/Oq8mqplqx/tumblr_static_timburton.jpg

Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe have similar themes:

Madness, darkness, monsters,
Death, undead, love and loss

GOTHIC STORYTELLING
gothic novel - gothic film

Poetic, rhyme, dark romanticism

The eerily catchy musical scores from Burton's films follow an almost identical pattern to that of Poe's stanzas.
I really admire how LAIKA has 'rebooted' gothic storytelling and would love to do something similar, but how do I avoid COPYING? How do I make sure that I DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
I've been following Laika's work so closely, falling in love with the characters that I worry I might end up just regurgitating the Gothic style they have perfected.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/5f/bb/81/5fbb81ee70e6501aaaa2597cd35b72e8.jpg

I saw this photo on Pinterest of Selick and Tim Burton on the set of 'The Corpse Bride', captioned 'Nightmare Making'. <  5/5 for that caption!

In effect, Tim Burton is the modern day Edgar Allan Poe. He has mentioned and referenced his love for Poe, how he has been influenced by Poe's work, but I think that these two creatives really do have a connection.

This project isn't just about Poe, it's about his works, his words and his legacy. His mark on the world brought us the weirdness of Selick and Burton.
It has brought us stop-motion horror and it has brought back the fascination with death/the undead.

Coraline Doll

Making a Coraline doll

WORRIES:

is this just copying? 

The same character, recreated through my hands and my methods of doll making

THE SAME PROCESS I ALWAYS DO - Am I falling back on habits? PLAYING IT SAFE?

Just wasting time? I know that copying Coraline isn't where I'm taking this project, so by doing it am I just wasting time? Making it just BECAUSE?

PROCESS:

Started off looking too angry/evil

toned down the eyebrows and found smaller buttons for her eyes to soften the expression

For the actual film, they had individual faces that could be clipped on/off to change from frame to frame - I could have a go at making changable face appliances

FEEDBACK:

Terrifying (a couple of people found her scary. Coraline was critiqued as a book and a film as being way too scary for young viewers and for containing disturbing themes. I like Gaiman's approach to horror and enjoy the nightmarish visuals it provokes. So being TERRIFYING is a good thing! I've successfully created a spooky Coraline doll).

CORALINE! (People really love Coraline. So recreating this character and posting it online meant that I got lots of responses from people who share a love for the film/book, who recognised my interpretation and who appreciated it. I also got two requests from people asking if she was for sale)

POST-CORALINE FEELINGS

Yes YES YES - very happy, I really love her

Even though she is just a re-hash of the FILM VERSION of a character, I am really impressed with her. She's one of a kind.

She's still MINE and she's cute and tiny but also a little bit creepy.

I must admit I have had a couple of bad dreams after having her watching over my bed.

Gaiman Haul

OFF TO THE LIBRARY WE GO!

(I came home with two bags of books, plus a random book that my sister picked up accidentally when putting them in my bag. We accidentally stole a book from the LIBRARY. Who are we?!)

Started with this one because it's super short and a kid's book so I knew it wouldn't take long at all.

Familiar story, well-loved and recognisable, re imagined through Gaiman's distorted vision and dark worlds.

I think Gaiman takes a little pleasure in scaring children and took the opportunity to scar kids a little with this cautionary tale.

The sense of setting in this book is introduced in the first sentence ' 

I especially loved the character of the Lumberjack father and felt he had a really strong role. The idea of him being rather sullen and needing time out of the house but always providing for his family and bringing home meat to eat painted a clear picture for me of who this man was and how he would have felt in his situation. Also super gross details about the famin and about how all the creatures in the forest were starving. Lovely and gruesome. 

The Choice

GAIMAN

A relatively 'ordinary' life. He's just a good guy doing his thing! Writing and living. There's nothing particularly adventurous (like Leonora Carrington) or mysterious and interesting (like Poe).

This means that I'd be relying on his words.

Which is fine because he has written a whole bunch of incredible material

BUT I do worry that if I'm ONLY focusing my research on his writing that I may end up simply illustrating his stories.

I don't want to do that! I want to study someone whose life/context INTRIGUES ME. I want to feel the magic and unfortunately, Gaiman, you're just a little vanilla.

I sound so picky and awful and terrible and I'm sorry Gaiman because you're great! It's nothing personal. It's not you, it's me.

I thought Leonora was too crazy and now that Neil isn't exciting enough.

Oh Jay.

So I guess I'm going with Poe.
I think.

I don't know.

Darn I hate decisions so much!

But it's something that I need to do and need to practise doing! So I'm going to keep sketchbooking and collecting and making. Making an INFORMED decision.

Caws and Effect

Whilst immersed in the magical land of Pinterest, I came across this theatrical production called CAWS AND EFFECT. The performance discusses the relationship and similarities between crows and humans,

When I read that the performance used shadow puppetry, I expected a small puppet theatre, with little crow models. I was surprised to see that the shadows are actually formed by the actors themselves on stage. The actors perform as birds not just through their hands or through a puppet, but through their entire body. They are the puppets.

It's an atypical form of shadow theatre and something I've never come across before. It's actually quite unnerving to see the crows at such a large scale, like Hitchcock's 'The Birds'.

http://wpmedia.thestarphoenix.com/2016/07/chloe-ziner-and-jessica-gabriel-star-in-the-fringe-show-caws.jpeg?quality=60&strip=all&w=840&h=630&crop=1

The costumes are so very simple, which is what makes them effective.
The masks used don't cover the human faces allowing the actors to emote without relying on the movement of a hindering mask. The masks sit on top of the head, so when the neck is bent over, the tip forms a beak.

The actors have obviously spent time studying the movements of crows. The costumes require the actors to bend their back, mimicking the curved shape of the corvidae.

http://thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/local-arts/a-show-to-crow-about-caws-effect-uses-non-traditional-shadow-puppetry-to-tell-story

I had a dream after watching this that there was a human-sized Raven in my front garden, but it was also someone I knew. I couldn't establish whether the beak was a costume or part of their anatomy.

CORALINE ON SCREEN

Neil Gaiman talking about the stop-motion film:

"I think Coraline is perfect for stop-motion because:

THERE IS A REALNESS

BUT YOU CAN ALSO STYLISE YOUR REALITY"

mice could be fluffier but would that take away the creepiness and the hand-crafted, sculpted 'feel'

made to fit the rest of the sets and puppets?

Look more like gerbils to me, but they are supposed to be exotic jumping mice... not what I envisioned from reading the book

"It allows us to get really scary, in a way that if you did it in a live-action movie and shot it properly, nobody - adult or child - would want to go to sleep in the dark after they'd seen it."

I'm really enjoying learning more about the process of professional stop-motion and the work that goes into making a movie of this scale. watching how it's made EVEN JUST THE HAIR!

Henry Selick (LAIKA)

"I'm from the same planet, if not the same neighbourhood as Tim (Burton)"

GAIMAN, KAFKA, CARRINGTON AND POE ALIKE have written stories that belong in these worlds. Fantastical, creepy and magical. They were written to scare and spook readers, and work so well on screen in this medium because they can haunt in 3 dimensions, moving and performing beyond the limits of human bodies.

Mr. Crow

Another little crow I made using paper mache.

This model didn't work the way I wanted it to:

the material does not look real or move the way feathers would

the black paint I used is too thick and tacky - it comes off when the model is touched

the proportions and anatomy of the bird is wrong - needs more attention and research

the legs bend all wrong - ran out of wire

the beak doesn't open - would be fun to make a model that actually opened and closed its beak for stop motion

it has little character - I need to develop drawings and concepts first before jumping into making

Next Steps:

TRY AGAIN

Back to the sketchbook

learn more about crows

get some bird feed and make friends

Grip the Raven

Poe's 'The Raven' was actually inspired by Charles Dickens's own pet Raven.

Dickens named him Grip and he could speak.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150820-the-mysterious-tale-of-charles-dickenss-raven

http://www.ushistory.org/oddities/images/grip.jpg

Reading Coraline

I didn't think I was going to look at Neil Gaiman because he's so popular.

The thought of other people knowing more than I do makes me feel like I wouldn't be able to do his work justice. I'm a newbie and don't know too much about him. Fake fan.

But my little sister borrowed 'Coraline' from the Library and she finished it before it was due for return. I couldn't resist giving it a read.

It's only a short one so it didn't take me long at all, but I'm so glad I did read it. I thought the film was good and then BAM here's this incredibly disturbing and visually delectable story.

I was genuinely scared and moved by the book.

I love the idea of the mice circus and it made me think of these little chaps:

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZmTmlWOjB4F0c/giphy.gif

So Neil Gaiman has surpassed Kafka and maybe even Carrington. As much as I love Carrington's stories and artwork, I don't think that I respect her as a person. 

I don't know if Gaiman contends with Poe, but I would like to look at more of his work. I'd like to know more about him.

Another Flying Thing

The Art of Dying

A huge theme in Poe's work is DEATH.

I knew that he lost his mother and wife to TB and wanted to learn more about the context of Poe's work in terms of the attitudes towards death.

Was Poe's fascination normal?

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-death/victorians-and-the-art-of-dying

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-death/the-rise-of-the-body-snatchers

Victorian Gothic

Poe wouldn't technically be classed as a Victorian author because he was American.
He falls into the American Dark Romanticism category, but worked during the time of Queen Victoria's Reign.

I'm going to research both the American context and the Victorian Era.

Science and Supernatural

http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-victorian-supernatural

http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/religion/spirit.html

http://reframingthevictorians.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-victorians-and-spirituality_15.html

'Spirit Photography'

Hoaxes?

http://blog.tavbooks.com/?p=909