This week, we looked into animation analysis and during class, our tutor Yuan went through how to go into detail when analysing a production. Moreover, we were taught the basic definitions and steps to do so.
A film– A combination of many separate, interrelate elements that form a coherent whole.
Analysis– The act of taking something complicated apart to figure what it is made of and how it all fits together
Film analysis– Not only breaking down a sequence, a scene, or an entire movie to identify the tools and the techniques
(definitions above are quoted from the slides my tutor, Yuan presented)
One of the main things that I learned is the definition and use of the Temporal Order. This is the sequences in which plot events happen in a specific order. Some examples presented by my tutor are shown below:
1-2-3-4 → 2-1-3-4
3-1-2-4
1-2-4-3
In the short film, Late afternoon, it follows an elderly woman called Emily who starts the scene for asking for a cup of tea from her carer. She is memorised by the tea and it causes a flashback to when she was a child, and continues progressing to the present and back to memories of different stages of her life. I would probably say that the 2-1-3-4 sequence matches best of this film, due to it diving into the past and comparing it with the present.
After we learned about this, our tutor set us an in-class exercise to analyse the scenes from Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret Of Kells. I personally love how this animation uses colour, shape, composition and texture to convey emotions. For example, the third image shows a contrast between two opposite emotions. The first scene is calm, delightful and has a sense of serenity. The second scene is harsh, suggests danger and fear. One of the key elements of this change is the use of more angular lines and complicated patterns. The sea, for instance, is jagged, sharp and emphasises that the waves are strong and not safe. This is different from the first scene which has more curved shapes and organic linework, which depicts positive emotions.
Overall, the use of traditional mediums in these screenshots are my favourite aspect. It gives a more welcoming feel, especially since it is used in co-junction with digital means. Doing so, creates a balance and it is very pleasing to the eye- it seems as though this technique is used to convey a more natural feel towards the environment (e.g. the vegetation and water). 
At the end of the session, our tutor set us the task to create a presentation on an animated film in the same groups as last week. I was grouped with Neave, Una and Nicole and we were set to analyse the short animation, ‘Lost and Found’. We began planning this through a Google document, where we kept our roles and notes of context. This helped me feel organised, therefore I was more productive and focused in the project.
Below are screenshots of my notes from the document:
