1. Respond to the following questions
This dissertation contributes to practice/knowledge by...
specifically looking at how imaginary characters the are the personification of emotions helps children work through their problems.
The key research question is...
How does the personification of emotional states in the animation of Girl's imaginary friends address tween growing pains?
The sub-questions are...
How does personal point of view/heuristic learning/auteur theory impact my project?
Why have I chosen the "junque aesthetic" and the Imagination Warehouse to represent the working/problem-solving spaces of the mind?
2. Draft chapters synopsis/key learnings
Chapter headings synopsis
Each chapter should have at least one key learning in it. Under each chapter heading, note the key learnings in the form of a brief synopsis of up to 200 words. This synopsis explains what the rest of the chapter will be about.
Then make a list of the material you will include in the chapter as dot points. Don't worry about the gaps yet- just make a note of them. These should be short sentences. You may include subheadings.
Now ask yourself: if, at the end of the chapter, I want the reader to be convinced of the validity of this key learning, what needs to appear first? What comes next? And so on. Rearrange of write new subheadings as you go until you have arranged all the subheadings of the chapter in a way that tells the research story.
Conclusion
Make a rough list of points you think at this stage will go in here.
These should be the resolves to the practice/research questions you have posted.
These points will be the projects key learnings and the main ideas you want your reader to understand.
Key learnings
the audience that bits fits my project's edgy and difficult issues is not small children 3-7 but tweens 8-12.
The "junque aesthetic" in the IW and the imaginary friend characters means that they're not just cute but that the stuff they're made of relates directly to the emotional states they personify.
Script writing, for me, is not straight forward. As the audience has changed, I've been able to release myself from the formula .
What have I learned about the personification of emotional states? What have I learned about bringing in puppetry aspects ie. the textures and the look of puppets. They're not just animated because I MUST turn in animation. It's easier in some ways to animate because I can do it myself and don't need puppeteers, sets, lights, and cameras to get the story done. I have brought in the concepts of puppetry design and performance. Puppetry is an old human art form. People have always sought to anthropomorphize animals (get research to back this up). They're both parts of the natural world and explain things to us and also resemble us in some ways. American Indian spirit guides? How far back do stories of animals talking to humans go? Wasn't there a story about a donkey talking to Baal in the Bible? And the story of the Garden of Eden and Satan taking the shape of the serpent to tempt Eve.
Why THOSE objects?
Goldie and pasta: She's made from the fancy pasta that comes in decorative jars and sit on shelves until they get moved out into the garage. Why don't they get eaten? Do we just love straight spaghetti too much and can't handle the "weird" stuff? That pasta should be useful, edible, wanted, but it's not. Goldie shares that insecurity. She's pretty but put aside and disregarded. Her binge eating herself (the pasta) is how she acts out when she's stressed out and worried. She never completely consumes herself, though, and the relief from gorging is short-lived as the tension ramps up again. The cycle goes on and on and on.
Flash is made from discarded computer parts. The modern house is full of excess computer cables, cords that were shoved into an old drawer and their original appliance long gone. Op shops are full of these cables and old keyboards- at least they were until the shops refused to take them anymore. Nobody wants them. They go into landfills now. Flash doesn't confront his problems head on, like the rabbit, he runs for it. He runs to the internet, the world's biggest playground/place to get lost. It's not all bad, you can learn a lot from the internet and he certainly tries to make connections, social and literal, when he plugs in but its at the cost of the people that are right there with him.
Jellybean is based on an armadillo that protects itself in the wild by rolling up into a ball, allowing it's armoured outside protect itself from threats. J is made from an old, soft and furry beanbag. The self-defense armour roll up is unsuccessful- J can retreat but is still available. The beanbag is a favoured sitting place for kids and finds its place in many family rec rooms and bedrooms. It is supportive but molds itself to the body of whoever is sitting there. Jellybean's personality also shares these traits: the best friend, everybody's best friend, J's greatest hope is that everybody can come together and get along. Jellybean will work hard to make sure that all of the parts of Girl's emotional make up get her through to adulthood.
Teppy changed from a crocodile to a tuatara and is a hybrid of the croc's defense mechanism and the tuatara's exterior. The real tuatara is known for freezing in place when a threat is determined. This isn't great for drama or storytelling and maybe she'll freeze up someday, but for now she's a snapper and has an aggressive, take no prisoners personality. She's made from mismatched silver that has fallen out of popularity with people today who don't want the hassle of polishing all the time. She's valuable,and knows it, but neglected. She is fully armoured on the outside but can hold great quantities of boiling water making her "soft" and "hot" on the inside even as her outsides appear cold and hard. The teapot had the funny belly shape and the tail is the teapot's spout. In many designs involving a teapot, like Mrs. Potts? in Beauty and the Beast, the spout is the nose. I wanted to keep her face clear of this distraction and to emphasize her lizard qualities. The teapot's form follows its function of representing a lizard. She became a tuatara at the same time Goldie became a possum. Tuatara's are native to Southland in particular and NZ in general and I wanted to give the show some characters that were native as I was going to be first looking for funding and support locally.
Prickles is made from yarn and knitting needles. He's a tough little boy with a soft heart. The objects have the same function. Nothing about these characters is coded or invisible. Some viewers may see the objects and some may see an extra layer of meaning there.
Don't try to talk about everything!!! Talk about what's relevant to "personification of emotional states". Why animals and not just objects? Why a blend of animals AND objects?
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