Jenny Schmid + Patrick Holbrook Response
In Patrick Holbrook and Jenny Schmid’s animation, nothing is what it seems in this cartoon. Objects that normally would be stationary move and have personality. It’s an interesting mix of photography and hand drawn images.
The settings used as backdrops for the animation add a lot of depth and detail. The girl and guy that were drawn had a lot of detail as well. They each had a certain facial expression that I don’t think changed throughout the animation, but it still had quite an effect. The girl seemed to be a bit on the wild side, which became even more apparent as she’s parachuting through the sky, and skateboarding so quickly the background becomes blurred. I thought the blurry background was a great way of showing the speed of the girl; she really looked like she was moving.
The guy had a look of curiosity and sweetness that is displayed through his constant reading of books. You feel kind of bad for the guy-he is abducted by an alien spacecraft and has all of his books knocked out of his hands at which point they fly away. The All Seeing Eye fluttering around like a butterfly had a discernible personality as well. It flies off the wall in order to light up the book the guy is reading, and when he is abducted, the pyramid stops and faces directly at the viewer. I felt that it was surprised and bummed out that the guy was gone. There was a lot going on in this animation. I would be really interested to learn why the artist put the things she did into the animation, and how it’s all connected.