CPS - Week 7: Character, Event, Place

By Amber Stacey

Context:

The idea that characters are shaped by place and events. How can we create or form a character through consideration of Places and events.

Personification is the action of applying personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation ofan abstract quality in human form. It is a technique used throughout different creative forms of storytelling, in order to create characters that the audience can empathsize with and relate to, by allowing us to create human emotion, connection and express information.

“Non-human connections can be very powerful,” - Dr. Epley. “A brain’s not so sensitive to whether it’s a person or not. If it’s something
that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be a human, then all the better for us, it seems.”

A great example of personification being applied in order to create character development is 'Wilson'.  A personified volleyball in the movie 'Cast Away' that becomes Chuck's best friend, whilst being stranded on an island for many years. It's just a ball, with a bloody handprint applied in order to represent a face, humanising it and creating  something Chuck can relate to, talk to and consider his best friend throughout the years. Wilson doesn't talk or move and yet manages to steals the show, through the relationship Chuck forms with him. Wilson is a major influence in the development of Chuck's character and growth throughout the movie. We are naturally drawn to the Nostalgia wilson projects through human imagination and providing an escape for lonliness.

Losing Wilson - A demonstration of human connection and a relationship between a volleyball and a human:

Cast Away (6/8) Movie CLIP - I'm Sorry, Wilson! (2000) HD

Personification can be seen through many animated films, whether it be teapots, candlesticks, flying carpets, volcano's', Cars, toys, or bao's coming to life, we are drawn to their human like qualities and the feelings created from the events in their story that help shape them as characters and experiences we might be able to relate to.

Method:

To generate a character from a response to an event, through applying personification and human emotion.

Response:

My response to this week's theme once again changed. I initially began with an idea of forming a mythical creature from some crytpic lyrics from an irish band, however the day after class, I experienced a rather unpleasant situation in the middle of the street in the city, being verbally abused and humiliated in public (note: I am ok). However - this experience really got me thinking about what Max spoke about in how events shape characters.

Throughout my discussions with people that day explaining what had happened, I kept referring to this feeling of being used as a punching bag. Something I have been one too many times over the years.

This developed into a thought of "how do I express the feeling of being used as a punching bag?" and thought perhaps there was an opportunity to use this experience as a response to this week's theme of Character. I decided to do a quick digital sketch in Photoshop of an old punching bag, with the application of personification, in order to humanise the punching bag and create human emotion behind what it feels like to be a punching bag and reflecting the idea of being abused over time whether it be physical
or verbally. I tried to demonstrate the idea of feeling beaten through physical pain and emotional sadness. 

Some pics from development below.