Animation Practice, Process & Production - Current Issue

The early-1990s satellite TV revolution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) brought foreign media broadcasts into the limelight, and Japanese anime and American cartoons dubbed in Arabic became the most-watched content in Emirati households. Currently, the trend is continuing. Providing an overview of animation trends in the UAE, through the collection of qualitative data, this article explains the popularity of foreign entertainment products that have impacted young Emiratis in recent decades. It also describes how local animation industries are reacting to this phenomenon by slowly trying to find a window into the local market. The article elaborates on how regional industries will boost their local production and live up to the expectations of these young Emiratis along with new audiences. Focus groups interviews were conducted in which Emirati youths shared the reasons behind their entertainment preferences of animated products and identified how foreign media positively affects the UAE animation industry. Interviews with members of the local animation and gaming industries were also carried out to discover their vision and how they are trying to create professional opportunities for young people interested in working in the field of gaming, animation or content creation.

This study of 144 short UK animated documentaries, exhibited between 2016 and 2020, identifies frequently occurring characteristics in the films’ content and production contexts. Analysis of the films shows that the majority of these films are made by directors from an animation background, rather than from a documentary background, and also shows a high occurrence of films made by female and disabled filmmakers. It also shows that self-funding is frequently adopted in the production of these films, and that the films in the study favour 2D digital and traditional animation techniques over 3D animation. Funding and finance contexts are shown to be broad, and to correlate with trends in theme, for example social issues, health and mental health were more common in films supported by trusts, charities and foundations than those made in other finance contexts. In general, the findings support many of the suggestions and observations that have been made about animated documentary by scholars such as Annabelle Honess Roe, Paul Wells and others. However, they also raise questions, for example the high rate of self-funding, often alongside other sources of funding, suggests potential barriers to entry for those from diverse social-economic backgrounds. This study suggests areas for future research that can be taken up in the field of animated documentary, and contributes to an increased focus on quantitative research alongside qualitative analysis in the study of animated documentary, of short-form film and of films made outside of commercial contexts.

This article provides an analysis of representational issues associated with interview-based animated documentary productions directed by non-autistic filmmakers, attempting to represent one or more autistic participants. The article draws insights from three case studies: A Is for Autism (Webb 1992), An Alien in the Playground (Glynne 2009) and the author’s own practice-based research film, Drawing on Autism (Widdowson 2021). Drawing insights from psychoanalysis, film theory and ethnography, the article will examine animated documentary practice in terms of the risks of Othering participants, look for evidence of the filmmaker’s unconscious bias and consider how the cinematic gaze can be used to decode ideological systems that informed their construction. From this analysis, the author reaches the conclusion that the properties of documentaries, that rely on animation rather than live-action cinematography, present a specific set of ethical responsibilities that skew towards issues of representation.

This study explores non-fiction animation as a creative practice. It specifically engages with practitioners’ creative intervention and their reconstruction of the world we inhabit as human beings. Beyond artistic and expressive illustration, animated documentary strives towards an augmented representation of real narratives. Such a representation demands a felicitous approach from the practitioner/s for a heightened evocation of emotions, as in Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir and Nina Sabnani’s Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitches Speak). I examine these two animated documentaries, and my investigation offers in-depth analyses of the practitioners’ engagement with memory and reconstruction. I employ Aumont and Marie’s (1988) film analysis method, especially the iconic analysis technique, followed by the filmmakers’ insights to understand the embedded characteristics of the filmmakers’ creative approach. I argue that the practitioner is central to the practice of eliciting emotions embodying animated subjective testimonies and manifestations. In addition, the practitioner–subject association is inclusive in the practice and evokes an affective exposition of the narratives through the creative narrative design in the animated documentary.

Shakespeare’s global reach is undeniable; one only has to look to Shakespeare’s role in the western literary and cultural canon for proof. With the variety of people staging and watching Shakespeare all over the world, it is to be expected that Shakespeare’s plays are also the target of many adaptations that take advantage of evolving technologies to reach new audiences in new ways. This article briefly addresses common modes of adaptation and its impact on audience engagement before moving onto considering newer technologies – specifically virtual reality (VR) – that have yet to become as well utilized. Investigating the advantages and disadvantages of VR animation allows us to contextualize our own work: ShakesVR, a mash-up of three Shakespeare plays into an animated VR experience. This article also discusses the importance we place on the viewer’s interactions with Shakespeare’s world, our own goals for audience engagement and how these goals influenced our design decisions in ShakesVR.