John Wood

Collaboration is the key to “Love and Forgiveness”

Posted by John Wood, Aug 22, 2014 1 comment


John Wood

John Wood John Wood

The “Love and Forgiveness Project” at Detroit School of Arts, a recipient of the 2014 VANS Custom Culture grant, involves a collaboration between a variety of media and disciplines. Poet and educator Suzanne Scarfone is the lead curriculum writer for the Afghan Women’s Writers Project Lessons from Afghanistan: A Curriculum for Exploring Themes of Love and Forgiveness.

Suzanne choose the poem “Small Heart” as the starting point for our collaborative project. The poem was shared with musical composer Marilyn Perkins Biery, who created a composition for soprano, chorus, piano, and flute. The full composition will be recorded by Scott Koue at Detroit School of Arts in May 2014 with students and professional musicians from the community. The audio track will be used as the score for the animation project.

The animation process began with students discussing the realities of the lives of women in Afghanistan and reflecting on the conditions of people around the world in relation to their own lives. Students then read and discussed “Small Heart” in class, created a treatment outline for the animation project, and began storyboarding segments of the production. A segment of the animation will involve handmade paper puppets. Shoshanna Utechnik, an International puppeteer, worked with students on creating a storyboard and designing puppets. The puppet sequence will be choreographed and shot by animation director Gary Schwartz.

During the month of May, Suzanne will be visiting our classroom as a writer in residence. Students will be guided through the Love and Forgiveness Curriculum. A culminating activity will be held at the school and local venues celebrating Love and Forgiveness. The events will include poetry readings, art displays, and screenings of the animation.

Several shots and sequences have already been developed by students. The shots below are video only and will be assembled to the final animation once the soundtrack is recorded.

“AWWP Hand Study”

The hand study depicts two hands opening, recorded using iStopmotion. The movements were choreographed in class. Each frame was then formatted as a single, printable image. Students then began the process of creating a Roto-Scope version of the recording, drawing each frame of the hand recording. The shot incorporates 120 drawings by 31 students.

“AWWP Spin Cycle”

The spin cycle animation in the video below was created by having a student model stand in the center of the room while the rest of the class formed a circle and drew the subject from a variety of angles. When the drawings were complete and shown in sequence the model appears to spin. The background was created on a role of paper two feet high and 30 feet long. The shot was created on a multi-plane camera. The figure drawings were transferred to transparency film and were changed between each frame while the background image was moved a predetermined amount of centimeters.

“Colorful Export”

The 'AWWP Colorful Export' is also a version of the spin cycle animation. This version was colored with oil pastels on paper and shot with iStopmotion.

“Heart Export”

The heart export is an animation study of a variety of hearts. The images are all similar in size. Students were asked to reflect the line “I have a hidden world in my heart” by creating a visual description of something a person would hide in their heart. The next step in this project will be to create a metamorphosis between each heart.

UPDATE: The final video can be watched below!

1 responses for Collaboration is the key to “Love and Forgiveness”

Comments

August 26, 2014 at 5:51 pm

Most excellent!

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