ASFF: The Brothers McLeod - The Aesthetics of Animation: Combining Technology and Storytelling

At the start of November I decided to attend The Brothers McLeod talk at ASFF in York, as I felt that it would be beneficial to me as an animator and possibly my CoP work. The talk overall was very interesting and it was really nice to meet both Myles and Greg in person and listen to them talk about their process and their upcoming new short MARFA: An Animated Travelogue. However, I don't much feel that the talk was on 'Combining Technology and Storytelling' but more on storytelling and showcasing what they had done, why they had done and their new project. Despite this however, I still massively enjoyed the talk and I was really interested in hearing what they had to say about their work.

MARFA is an animated film about memory, more specifically about Greg's memory of visiting Marfa, Texas to see their film 365. In the beginning, Greg was going to animate the short in the style of 365, but felt that as the tests progressed, the lighting was off and he wasn't 'feeling it', so moved on to using traditional media such as watercolours and pencils, which he will be using for the final film. The drawing style itself will be in the style associated with The Brothers McLeod, a really quick, loose line that contains lots of energy and movement. When asked why Greg chooses to draw this way he simply answered that "when working on our own projects we like them to be natural and to 'find themselves'", which is something that can't be achieved when working for clients, as you need to be able to produce work quickly and to a standard that your client is happy with. This is something that has always played at the back of my mind when I've considered what it would be like to conduct freelance work, so it was nice to hear that even as professionals, The Brothers McLeod still enjoy creating their own work for fun and use commercial work as a way to fund their own personal projects. (The Brothers even have their own term for it; the Creative Feedback Loop).

They then went on to talk about how important it is to get a gag right in a story (if your story contains gags). When animating a gag, it is important to set the gag up correctly in order for it to be understood and funny. Greg suggests that having lots of white space around your character helps the gag to stand out and prevents the audience from getting distracted. He also pointed out that there has to be a point to a camera change, otherwise it is just pointless. Although he was focusing on gags at the time, I feel that the camera point is a very valid one and one that I will definitely take into consideration when I come to develop my extended practice piece.

In terms of animation aesthetics, the brothers spoke about how they believe that aesthetics are chosen based on personal preference and appeal, rather than a choice based on what is popular at the time or what an audience wants. Particularly for them, they choose to draw because that is where they started and they felt that they should stick to be good at one thing rather than trying to be good at everything, as it is important to enjoy what you are making. Greg personally chooses 2D simply because he likes to draw and he enjoys the energy of the line and the 'crapness' of the paper, the way it wrinkles and creases when you add water to it and the way the pencil smudges.

Overall, I had a really good afternoon and I enjoyed the talk. Although I feel that the talk was mostly about what they had done more than anything, I still feel that I have come away having gained knowledge as an animator. It was also really  nice to hear about their work and what they do and what they are working on in the future. I feel that the main thing I have taken away from this talk is that animation is not about technique, but about story and motivation, which are things I will thoroughly consider for my final film.