Animated Narratives Wiki Premise week 05 - Stolen Dialogue

Wiki Premise week 05 - Stolen Dialogue 

Soup Bowl Storyboard 

This work implements themes of absurdist/abstract humour to harness the narrative concept of “stolen dialogue”. By using the mediums of storyboarding in an animated setting, I can implement timing and expression to great effect. This allows me to produce strange, almost irreverent comedic pacing and jokes. Using an elderly couple in this strange setting allowed me to use the one line of dialogue in a way that pushes the narrative forth (The Ethel character being hard of hearing) which in turn creates a frustrated reaction from the other character Harold.

This work is similar to the Monty Python films in which more stoic characters are placed in absurd comedic situations. 

YouTube. (2015). Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Black Knight. [Online Video]. 17 May 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRwCPUEND1U. [Accessed: 1 April 2021].

My character choices were made upon reflection of the narrative I wanted to tell. At first, the elderly couple were just an engine to drive forth the single line of dialogue (Ethel’s deafness acting as a sort of back and forth between the characters) but eventually they came to direct the entire development of the story. The characters sitting in a giant bowl of soup just seemed funnier because it seemed the last place you would find a bickering elderly couple. Because elderly people carry a distinct lack of self-consciousness, I felt a liberating sense of comedic freedom in the sense that these characters could perform absurd acts and there would still be a thread of plausibility to it.

I feel exploring these different types of narrative over the past weeks has given me a more liberal approach to my storytelling, with the narrative often developing along with the other aspects rather than being fully formed beforehand.

Downloads:

Download File: 1617763876_photo-30-3-21-2-50-15-pm.jpg
Download File: 1617763882_photo-30-3-21-2-24-22-pm.jpg
Download File: 1617763888_photo-30-3-21-2-42-48-pm.jpg