Topic research:

For my animation for this workshop, I decided to base it around trans discrimination and trans equality because I feel it is a situation that need more awareness. Trans discrimination and hate is still a very prominent issue to this day and continues to be a serious problem worldwide.

Galop is a LGBT anti-violence charity based in London that was founded in 1982. According to their transphobic hate crime report from 2020, 4 in 5 respondents had experienced a form of a transphobic hate crime and 1 in 4 had experienced transphobic physical assault or the threat of physical assault among other statistics like only 1 in 7 respondents report their experience to the police and 7 in 10 felt that the police couldn’t help them.(1)

In a short video uploaded by the BBC on the 10th October 2020, the BBC’s LGBT correspondent Ben Hunte met with two trans people to interview and talk to them about transphobic attacks they’ve experienced that changed their lives who both said that they’d wouldn’t go back to the police again if they experienced another attack. One of the people, Terrell, had a partner turn violent in the bedroom who started punching and spitting on Terrell. Earlier in the year, Terrell was also raped and assaulted, their assailant screaming transphobic slurs at them. The police didn’t take the case seriously, the witness report painting Terrell out to be like they were wasting the polices time. They said regretted reporting it to the police. (2)

The other person, Jodie, felt like she had to leave where she was born after years of transphobic abuse. There was a solid year where Jodie didn’t leave their room out of fear. Jodie has been sleeping on a friend’s sofa bed for the past 5 years and hasn’t had a job since 2018. In any permanent job Jodie had, they experience some level of transphobia, whether it was explicit or implicit. They say that it’s no longer possible for them to do a job they like with people they like, that that’s not something they’ll ever get to do. When asked if they experienced another transphobic hate crime, would they go to the police, they said they wouldn’t. (2)

Towards the end of the video, Hunte says that their investigation found that transphobic hate crimes have surged from 649 reports in 2014-15 to 2,948 reports in 2019-20 which he says is a 354% increase in 5 years. That means, as the title of the video reads, reports of transphobic hate crimes have quadrupled in the last 5 years in the UK.(2)

Reading that and hearing those two trans people talk about their experiences broke my heart and shocked me to my core. It only further solidified my decision in making my animation about this cause as it’s clear that it needs further awareness, especially within the UK.

Animation research:

In terms of my animation, I want colour to be a prominent aspect as I feel it would help get the message I’m going for across to viewers. The colour differences will help differentiate the negative part and the positive part within the animation. In terms of the 12 principles of animation, I will be incorporating straight ahead action as opposed to pose to pose as I feel straight ahead action will allow me to keep better track of the movements within my animation. I will also try to include appeal and do my best to make my characters appealing to viewers. (3)

In terms of art style, I love the simple designs of the characters in “Butter Lover” and will most likely try to incorporate that type of simplicity into my own character designs. I also love that, even though they’re simple, they’re full of personality.(4) Another animation that I get inspiration from is “Welcome to Hell” as I love how simple and sketchy the artists style is. As much as I’d love to try a more sketchy style like that, I feel I’m too much of a perfectionist to keep it sketchy although I’ll definitely incorporate the simple but personality filled idea for character designs.(5)

 

(1) Transphobic Hate Crime Report 2020 – Galop [Online]. Galop.org.uk. Available at: Transphobic Hate Crime Report 2020 – Galop (Accessed: 6 March 2021)

(2) Transphobic hate crime: ‘You don’t feel protected’ [Online]. BBC News. Available at: Transphobic hate crime reports have quadrupled over the past five years in the UK – BBC News (Accessed: 6 March 2021)

(3) Coron, T. (2021). Understand Disney’s 12 principles of animation | Creative Bloq [Online]. Creativebloq.com. Available at: Understand Disney’s 12 principles of animation | Creative Bloq (Accessed: 30 April 2021)

(4) Kinga. (2016). BUTTER LOVER [Online video]. 9 May. Available at: BUTTER LOVER – YouTube (Accessed: 30 April 2021)

(5) Erica Wester. (2014). Welcome to Hell [HI-DEF Release] [Online video]. 17 October. Available at: Welcome to Hell [HI-DEF Release] – YouTube (Accessed: 30 April 2021)