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Overview of animatic draft September 2021

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Overview of animatic draft September 2021

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‘Tupa Tupa’ (the drunkard) is based on photos from role plays on gender issues in the households by women and men coffee farmers in a Fair Trade cooperative in DRCongo. Women and men did separate plays on what happens to the money from coffee. – women do most of the work. Men ‘own’ the money and spend on alcohol and women in town. Money also goes to corrupt lawyers and the police because of men’s lack of responsibility.

I chose to work with these images because the role play narratives were very powerful and highlighted some differences between women and men's perceptions. These stories and effects of men's control of coffee money, alcoholism and adultery and corruption of officials are common across all the coffee sector in East Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. So these role play stories have wider implications as advocacy in the coffee sector - Fair Trade as well as private sector companies. Woman on woman violence is also a common issue because of women's vulnerability. Divisions and arguments between married and unmarried (ie girlfriends) women are often at least as significant at participatory workshops as between women and men. According to hospital admissions, leading to extreme violence and even murder - including murder of a friend of mine by her husband's girlfriend.

Apart from its importance in advocacy, I selected this photograph series because it gives an example of dramatic community narratives. Also one of my best photo resources for dramatic sketching beyond stereotypes and collage. This was the only clear set of visuals I have of farmers’ complete stories, as opposed to vignettes from drawings that I then interpret from interviews and other contextual information.

The photos are of variable technical quality as they were taken in difficult bright lighting while I was focusing on facilitation and documenting the narrative. But many are very expressive and dynamic when edited as the basis for sketching and further development for animation. The photos provided a basis for developing my ability to draw local expressions and body language so that animations could abstract and clarify without resorting to stereotypes and potentially racist tropes. They also highlighted both the ways in which women and men perceive their own and the opposite gender – both seriously and as comedy.

Creative translation assessment and future steps

This animation is still very much an animatic, manipulating photographs in Procreate on my iPad with final compositing in Adobe Premiere. I am aiming for theatricality and exaggerated movements that combine comedy with poignancy, rather than consistently smooth animation. Something in between Tartakovsky and Terry Gilliam.

Technical quality: Procreate was a good initial RSI-friendly software to start to develop the ideas, making cutting out the characters and draft backgrounds easy. But it is not the best software for refining professional cut out puppet animation. All the clips still need much more fluidity and better dramatic timing of the line animations to work with the music, incorporating squash and stretch, camera and viewpoint var. Squash and Stretch. I should have identified an audio source much earlier in the process.

Fidelity to community voices and context? The narrative structure combines, but is faithful to, the original women and men's role plays.  The original role plays combined humour with anger and sense of inevitability of men's failings. The main issues were:

sequencing and narrative format for dramatic effect

how to process and clarify the photographs to enhance the drama

how to simplify consistent characters based on those in two merged role plays, and how far do I follow as opposed to countering local role play stereotypes in the light of what I know about realities?

I needed a linking narrative thread but had no audio. I selected a Swahili song by women from another similar workshop in another coffee cooperative in Tanzania. So this could also be understood in DRCongo.

Visual magic and creativity? I find the general puppet Stop Motion style dramatic and engaging - if I can do it well.

But there were also many other narrative and stylistic option I could have chosen – see Creative Translation questions below.

In taking it further in response to audience feedback, I would consider a bigger range of narrative options and ways of intensifying dramatic impact. I would do this using puppet animation in Adobe After Effects and/or TVPaint for artistic scene, with final compositing in Adobe Premiere.

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Portfolio animation 2: Supporting information blog post

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Portfolio animation 2: Supporting information blog post

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Overview assessment with full details of evolution of animation and technical skills to March 2021.

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Box 5a 'Tupa Tupa' Key Questions

Different possibilities of narrative sequence eg starting with the women's fight - explanation of woman on woman violence or picture of Tupa Tupa all alone, rejected by his family.

Use of humour

G rammar of the shot:

Increasing drama through simplification/clarification of composition

Directing the gaze eg girlfriend feeling man's pocket to see how much money he has, lawyer putting money from police chief in his pocket

How relevant are the Illusion of Life animation principles?

Need to look at camera moves and lighting

General style

Maintaining clear link with 'reality' of the story through using photographs. Photographs edited and cropped versus collage/digital illustration from the photos?

Use of colour and line

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Box 5a 'Tupa Tupa' Key Questions Different possibilities of narrative sequence eg starting with the women's fight - explanation of woman on woman violence or picture of Tupa Tupa all alone, rejected by his family.

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Padlet purpose:
This padlet provides an easy entry overview 'map' to the animations, there evolution through different styles and contributory community sources and inspiration.

Contents

Portfolio animation and supporting sketchlog and overview blogpost (in red centre top, larger file size version)

Community sources, overview blog post, key drawings used and sketchlog (in blue bottom left)

Creative translation questions and visual narrative inspiration of options for animation format (in purple top right).

Sequence of stylist experiments (in orange bottom from left to right. Inspiration sources for each in black)

To open the padlet:
Click on the square with arrow on the top right below.

To open the 'paddles':
Click on the paddle title or image, whichever shows a ‘hand’.
If no hand shows, click on three dots top right and expand.

To close, check whether or not the ‘paddle’ has opened in a separate window on your browser. Closing that will bring you back to the overview padlet.

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I did not have any video or audio of the DRCongo role play as I had been focusing on photographs for the workshop report. The participants spoke KiSwahili. So I selected audio from a similar workshop from Tanzania with women and men from a cooperative in a private coffee company.

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Men's 'Challenge/Action Tree' for alcoholism

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Men's 'Challenge/Action Tree' for alcoholism

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This is the sources for some of the drawings at the beginning of the video.

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Inspiration 1: Clarifying Visual Narrative

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Inspiration 1: Clarifying Visual Narrative

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Scene 7 Women Fight the girlfriend not the husband.

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Scene 7 Women Fight the girlfriend not the husband.

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The women then all go and attack – not the husband – but the girlfriend (a point of much discussion).

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Scene 6 Lawyer and Police take the money and man released from jail

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Scene 6 Lawyer and Police take the money and man released from jail

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when the family hear he is in jail they do to find a lawyer

the lawyer and police chief work together to extort bribes from the family to secure his release

the family has to mortgage their land to pay the bill

the only winners from the whole coffee production are the corrupt officials

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Scene 5 Tupa Tupa gambles, fights and is taken to jail

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Scene 5 Tupa Tupa gambles, fights and is taken to jail

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The man then goes on to the next bar to gamble and drink

He gets into a fight and gets put in jail

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Scene 4 man goes to bar to see girlfriend and is seen

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Scene 4 man goes to bar to see girlfriend and is seen

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The man goes to the bar, buys a drink and calls his girlfriend.

His girlfriend persuades him to buy her not only drinks, but also fancy clothes in the market.

A neighbour goes past the bar and sees him with the girlfriend.

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Scenes 1-3 Women do the Work and man gets the money

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Scenes 1-3 Women do the Work and man gets the money

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Wives and daughters in the family are working in the fields while the man sits back

The women carry the coffee to market. The man accompanies them and keeps the money.

The man persuades them to go home, promising to come soon.

His wife tells him not to be late and come straight back.

He leaves and the women go back home.

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Storyboarding process and ‘narrative kernels

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Storyboarding process and ‘narrative kernels

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I think this narrative has a lot of dramatic potential, although the work required to fully develop it is probably outside the scope of this research and may need to be left until a later stage after my degree. The aim here has been to develop something that I could propose as work in progress for advocacy, and to get feedback on style etc if I were to work on it further.

As the farmer stories were very clear, I need a very clear simplified story to which can be added comic touches and very selective cut out or drawn animation. The idea was to combine the two role play stories into one, experimenting with different ways of sequencing of the storyline - as in Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story.

The photos straight from the camera were of variable quality as I was taking them in difficult very bright light and shadow, and having to concentrate on facilitating and understanding translation of the role plays themselves for the job I was paid to do. Some of the most interesting images in terms of story were not always of the highest technical quality. My first task was therefore to edit them in Lightroom to get more consistent colour and tone. And to make a selection for a narrative.

In terms of visuals there were a number of ways that the photos could be used:

cropped photos – what colour/saturation/tone? simplified? edit in Photoshop filters? put together in Premiere.

shape cutout collage on plain/simple background as cut out animation in Stop Motion

simplified composites animated in Procreate/TVPaint

I printed out and edited the Lightroom images, dividing these into separate narrative elements and pasting them into my Sketchlog. I then drew and painted over these, and did freehand sketches to get a better idea of the dynamic potential of each scene.

I then use these photos as the basis for exploring issues in visual narrative, using framing, editing and camera movement to tell the story rather than animating movement itself. Using pencil, ink and crayon sketches, refined in Procreate 5 on my iPad for the sketches and Adobe Premiere.

I only had a photographs of the drawings, as that had been delegated to someone else to free me up for trilingual facilitation. I no audio from this workshop - songs were religious Christian songs because the local leaders were preachers. These were quite powerful against the backdrop of the bombings and daily violence that people were experiencing at home.

But for the animations I used other relevant drawings and audio from similar workshops from Tanzania I could edit and add to increase the power and clarity of narrative. These were also in KiSwahili so understood in DRCongo.

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"The other woman": Women’s role play story

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"The other woman": Women’s role play story

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Wives and daughters in the family are working in the fields while the man sits back

The women carry the coffee to market. The man accompanies them and keeps the money.

The man persuades them to go home, promising to come soon. The women go back.

The man goes to the bar and his girlfriend.

His girlfriend persuades him to buy her not only drinks, but also fancy clothes in the market.

The daughter goes to the market to find the father and see him with the girlfriend. Then goes back to tell her mother.

The women then all go and attack – not the husband – but the girlfriend (a point of much discussion).

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‘Tupa Tupa’ Creative Translation questions

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‘Tupa Tupa’ Creative Translation questions

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In terms of creative translation a challenge was to combine women and men’s stories into one narrative. The role plays themselves combined humour as well as serious commentary, but also based on community gender stereotyping for comic effect. I have to make decisions about how far to exaggerate this further for greater dramatic effect, and how far to have something more gender neutral.

The following were some interlinked parallel underlying questions relating to creative translation options - pointing to other potential animation interpretations for future experiments following post-COVID crisis feedback from colleagues and communities in East Africa.

Narrative

Different possibilities of linear and/or non-linear narrative sequence eg starting with the women’s fight – explanation of woman on woman violence or picture of Tupa Tupa all alone, rejected by his family.

Alternative sequencing and contextualising of narrative? Currently different scene 'nuggets' are linked through changing visual dynamics as in 'Primal'? There could be other linking formats eg scenes are pushed, or represented by page turns? or linked with characters moving between frames as in 'Merlot'? Looped cycles to present repetitions eg visiting girlfriend, fight scene that would then emphasise final story elements of corruption or women fighting.

Narrative balance between comedy and tragedy to counter 'not all that feminist whingeing again!' reaction and attract attention from different audiences 'outside the already converted'? Importance of dramatic timing?

A key issue is the need to clarify the characters - this is currently confused because the photographs come from different role plays.

General style/message medium

Should the whole animation be in collaged Stop Motion of photographs? Or a more mixed approach with more drawn animation?

Vary use of colour and line in the drawn elements and colour in the photographs to show different characters and mood. Use of colour and line

Illusion of Life: realism/magic balance

More dramatic application of 'grammar of the shot' framing and viewpoint to simplify/clarify composition to enhance the narrative, exaggerating Tartakovsky's techniques and facial expressions. eg directing the gaze eg girlfriend feeling man’s pocket to see how much money he has, lawyer putting money from police chief in his pocket.

How relevant are the Illusion of Life animation principles to eg squash and stretch of collage, varying posture, increasing drama of fight scene?

Which global visual conventions are necessary for clarity across audiences? How can clarity, drama and 'magic' be enhanced by selective use of colour? camera moves and lighting?

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‘Tupa Tupa’ means ‘drink, drink’ – the man’s nickname.

men take all the money to gamble, drink and buy presents for his ‘girlfriend’ in town

the man gets put in jail because of a fight

the lawyer and police chief work together to extort bribes from the family to secure his release

the family is left without money

the only winners from the whole coffee production are the corrupt officials

….till they use the GALS participatory visioning methodology

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'Tupa Tupa' What happened to the coffee money? DRCongo   Portfolio animation

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'Tupa Tupa' What happened to the coffee money? DRCongo   Portfolio animation

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Community Voices and Context: DRCongo Role Plays and Drawings

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Community Voices and Context: DRCongo Role Plays and Drawings

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The visuals I chose for my first set of creative translations are from stories already composed by farmers in two role plays – one by women and one by men – from a GALS gender training for Muungano Fair Trade coffee cooperative from DRC.

The workshop itself was held in Rwanda because there was too much bombing in the area the farmers came from. Also to link them with women and men in Rwanda who were doing the same methodology.

The role plays were to look at differences and similarities between women and men in how they perceived women and men's roles in coffee production and benefits from coffee. Participants were divided into one men's group and one women's group and given props so that women could play men and men could play women - adding a lot of laughter to the proceedings.

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The visuals I chose for my second set of creative translations are from stories already composed by farmers in two role plays - one by women and one by men - from a GALS gender training for Muungano Fair Trade coffee cooperative from DRC. I chose these images for in depth analysis because the role play narratives were very powerful and highlighted different things about women and men's perceptions - echoing many of the issues about gender inequalities in the coffee sector from Uganda.

This was also the only clear set of visuals I have of farmers' complete stories, as opposed to vignettes from drawings that I then interpret from interviews and other contextual information. The photos are of variable technical quality as they were taken in difficult bright lighting while I was focusing on facilitation and documenting the narrative. But many are very expressive and dynamic when edited as the basis for sketching and further development for animation. Importantly the photos provided a basis for developing my ability to draw local expressions and body language so that animations could abstract and clarify without resorting to stereotypes and potentially racist tropes. They also highlighted both the ways in which women and men perceive their own and the opposite gender - both seriously and as comedy.

These stories and effects of men's control of coffee money, alcoholism and adultery and corruption of officials are common across all the coffee sector in East Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. So these role play stories have wider implications as advocacy in the coffee sector - Fair Trade as well as private sector companies.

For the Creative Translation: Tupa Tupa See:

The Role Plays

The workshop itself was held in Rwanda because there was too much bombing in the area the farmers came from. Also to link them with women and men in Rwanda who were doing the same methodology.

The role plays were to look at differences and similarities between women and men in how they perceived women and men's roles in coffee production and benefits from coffee. Participants were divided into one men's group and one women's group and given props so that women could play men and men could play women - adding a lot of laughter to the proceedings.

The idea was to combine the two role play stories into one, experimenting with different ways of sequencing of the storyline - as in Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story. Although I did not have good drawings or audio from this workshop, I did have some relevant media I could edit and add to increase the power and clarity of narrative.

The photos straight from the camera were of variable quality as I was taking them in difficult very bright light and shadow, and having to concentrate on facilitating and understanding translation of the role plays themselves for the job I was paid to do. Some of the most interesting images in terms of story were not always of the highest technical quality.

My first task was therefore to edit them in Lightroom to get more consistent colour and tone. And to make a selection for a narrative.

Women's Theatre original photos: women do all the work, men get the coffee money and spend it on alcohol and women in town. But fight the woman, not the man.

Men's theatre original photos: men use coffee money for drinking and gambling. This leads to fight and involvement of police. All the money - include mortgage of land - goes to paying off corrupt lawyers and police chiefs to get the men released from jail.

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The visuals I chose for my second set of creative translations are from stories already composed by farmers in two role plays - one by women and one by men - from a GALS gender training for Muungano Fair Trade coffee cooperative from DRC.

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Stop Motion animation of cutouts

Link to Blog post of other links

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Emma Calder: Everyone is waiting for something to happen

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Emma Calder: Everyone is waiting for something to happen

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Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/106039965

Emma Calder, Everyone is waiting for Something to Happen (2016). Half way in this uses very interesting cut-out collage animation overlaid as motion graphics to create narrative.