Earlier in the week Annabeth and Johny mentioned a trip to the HOME in Manchester to see a seminar on the making of a television show called Sarah and Duck. Given all the stress we had been experiencing lately with our module work it seemed the perfect way to blow off steam. There were
extra tickets so we first years could attend. I was going to focus on finishing my essay, but Johny convinced me that an hours worth of free time was what I needed and so I took up the offer. Upon arrival we had a talk with the shows creators, who stated that the origins of the Sarah and Duck came from childrens drawings and that all they needed was a simple tune to create their first episode. I felt that this shared similar origins with Wallace and Gromit as they came from simple sketches that Nick Park did in his book.
When I was watching the preview episode which we couldn't record for legal reasons I could see the rough animation and the medias used such as watercolour paints for the backgrounds as I recognised the textures. They showed us how the show began to develop from those rough sketches including some of the additional characters such as Flamingo and Jon which were the antithesis of Sarah and Duck. In some of the characters like Scarf Granny I could tell her design was revolved around wool and thread judging by the ball of wool in her hair and the design of her house. This seemed to reflect the down time habits of elderly people.
I could tell from the sketches shown to us the development that the characters underwent before reaching a final design. This I felt related to the character developments in our storytelling module, and some of my past work. Whilst watching the presentation though I couldn't help but feel the creative cogs in my head turning giving me ideas for some of my old projects to develop over the summer into animations, after seeing the work that they had produced in this series.
I did find some funny elements to the characters
such as an umbrella who's afraid of rain which did feel a little ironic but it was a good use of the character that its afraid of the job it was designed to do, it gives us their perspective on things much like the city life project in Creative play.
Looking at their background art I could see that they were taking a rather pattern like approach in their designs such as fruit in the parasols or buildings or even in some of the buildings that looked like cosies from dinner tables. I was amazed with the composition and how the character was voiced by a little girl who, as she was getting older the character of Sarah began to talk more and gain more confidence, like it was trying to make a bridge between reality and fantasy, much like Twirlywoos.
Looking back over this seminar I would think it has been very beneficial as it has given me inspiration to approach and further develop my own ideas over the summer and how I may wish to look at my modules. I would've taken the time to ask questions to the creators of the show to ask about what made them approach a textured/pattern like effects for their background art and show them some of my own work. However I was hesitant as these were actual television producers and wasn't sure how best to approach my questions. In hindsight I should've just plucked up the courage to talk to the producers and get some answers and advice about my own work in University and at home. In conclusion I found that today was most insightful and has made me think about a few things such as my work and it has relived a lot of stress from my work on the video essay.
In future I shall try to ask the producers questions and see how their advice could help me further develop as an artist/storyteller.
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