Writing Animated Documentary: a Theory of Practice

WRITING ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY: A THEORY OF PRACTICE PAUL WELLS Abstract ANIMATION ACADEMY, SCHOOL OF ARTS, ENGLISH & This short discussion provides some introducto- DRAMA, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY ry remarks on writing for the documentary form in animation. Taking into account theories of the place of animation in utilitarian films, avant-garde works and the essay film, the analysis, based on auto-ethnographic insights, provides some methods and approaches to developing animated documentary work. These include ‘Making Animation Choices’, ‘Staging in Space’, ‘Using Attachment and Detachment’, developing ‘Epi- sodic lists and Micro-Narratives’, and deploying ‘Transition and Associative Relations’. The analysis seeks to show that these approaches to the animated documentary reveal and evidence a theory of practice, and a practice of theory. Keywords: Non-Fiction Essay; Auto- Ethnography; Public Engagement; Occasion ;Purpose; Addressee; Document; Non-Fictional Dramaturgy 6 Documentary Stories… sion or as an application in its own right the crucial role of the practitioner in has not been fully considered. In the fol- choosing and organizing the material; Though animation theorists and histori- lowing discussion, then, I wish to identify a mode of practice in this instance that ans have long argued about the impor- specific approaches to writing animated borrows freely from what are arguably tance of animation per se in many areas documentary, using theoretical concepts the “guru” templates in defining structure of social and cultural expression over its as tools of practice, and identifying prac- in Hollywood narratives, written by Field, long history, it is only comparatively re- tical applications, illustrated through the Vogler, McKee and their like.1 Bernard cently that animation’s self-evident role perspectives of practitioners and my sees such work as plot or character driv- in public engagement has been proper- own screenwriting practice in the form en or question-led, but just as concerned ly acknowledged. Animation has been on a film entitledThe Oil Kid (Hakim Farai, with exposition, character arcs (devel- used in most production cultures world- Norway, forthcoming). One further, and opment and transformation), narrative wide in public information films, pro- significant addition here, is also the rec- spine, theme, and resolution as any typi- paganda, public display, infotainment, lamation of what are sometimes regard- cal film story-telling. Bernard essentially commercials, and to use Heidiger and ed as “How To” or “technical” manuals as treats non-fiction as fiction at the struc- Vonceault’s term, “films that work” (see formal theories of practice, hugely im- tural level, and in this way points the doc- Hediger & Vonderau, 2009), for over one portant in acknowledging the intellectual umentary towards an overt declaration hundred years. characteristics of creative endeavour; of its subjectivity, and its affiliation with so often unrecognised in traditional or the essayistic. Laura Rascaroli has use- Animation has also played a constituent orthodox approaches to understanding fully addressed and related these tropes part in many documentaries, in texts with and using (critical) theory. in her consideration of “the personal documentary tendencies, and in its own camera” (see Rascaroli 2009), while right as “animated documentary,” though To take but one immediate example, Scott Macdonald, extends this further again the latter’s very existence has only film-maker, Shelia Curran Bernard, refus- by looking at intersections of documen- but recently been accepted as proven es to deeply problematise documentary, tary and avant-garde cinema (see Mac- and valid. (see Skoller, 2011; Kriger 2012; merely arguing that documentary is an donald 2015) as a way of thinking about Honess-Roe, 2013). For those prac- act of storytelling like any other, but us- documentary when situated as “art” or titioners who have always principally ing “actuality” as its materials. She notes, as an experimental form, and within the worked in the documentary-styled form, parameters of arts culture. This perspec- animation has always been a ready tool Story does not have to mean tive on documentary has been reinforced of expression, and helped facilitate highly three-act drama, and it definitely by Julian Stallabrass’ collection of core progressive texts, but for the most part, does not mean artificial tension papers and essays that define the form the theorisation of documentary practice that is imposed from without. Sto- as a model of contemporary art. (see has been characterised by the address ry comes organically from within Stallabrass 2013). 2Crucially, these three of its core genres – travelogue, cinema the material and the ways in which texts are based upon and include the per- verité, fly-on-the-wall, screen-journalism, you, the filmmaker, structure it spectives of practitioners, and in all cas- docu-drama, observational actuality, etc. (Bernard 2007:10) es may be viewed as auto-ethnographic – and the place of animation, either used reflections on making documentary as an additional component of expres- This approach immediately foregrounds without any self-consciousness about 7 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS vol 1, n.º1 subjectivity, indexical relativity or the il- mated documentary, and to articulate form, and its overt artifice only signifies lusionist artifice in creating a documen- some perspectives upon the outset of a that someone has obviously crafted the tary text. This lack of self-consciousness project. It is clear that the animated doc- film, though this may not lend it “auteur- serves to authenticate such texts as umentary cannot be divorced from its ist” credentials at the level of a unique or authored works, privileging the creator conditions of production, since this may particular vision or style. It is pertinent of the work as an empirical presence, relate to a specific context, sponsor, or to consider though, that whoever has providing inquiry, discourse and point of socio-political outlook, but the contexts constructed the film, must indeed con- view. Not merely does this facilitate the of use may vary, for example, becoming sider occasion, purpose and addressee. idea that animated documentary has the a “festival” film, an artwork, a vehicle for It is this which starts to distinguish the same authenticity in sharing such terms information and training, an educational text from not merely being “art” by an and conditions, but also points to the text for knowledge transfer, etc. Indeed, artist but a text by a publically engaged way in which such texts reveal in their this may lend the films to be subject to animation film-maker creating a socially necessary need for research, procedural “aesthetic analysis,” and as such, authen- directed model of documentary work. development, signature expression and ticate themselves more within the orga- “Occasion” in this instance, should not implied argument, a direct audio-visual nizational power or institutional context only be seen as the inciting moment or analogue to written non-fiction essays. of arts culture, which essentially verifies reason for the film, but as the key point It is on these premises, and using the them, rather than sometimes the disci- in which is it is considered why the film cited texts and examples, that I wish to plines or social contexts they represent. should be made in animation. Animation discuss animated documentary practice To play “devil’s advocate,” this sometimes is a complex and labour intensive form, as a singular form of public engagement. diminishes their achievement because and ultimately, should only be employed the text is often more interrogated for its if its distinctive vocabulary is appropri- form, rather than its content. In recent ate to representing the topic, subject or Films That Work years, this is changing as the animated idea in a way that significantly differs As Hediger and Vonderau have pointed documentary gains increasing credibility from using “live action.” These may be out industrial, utility and public informa- for what the “form” can uniquely achieve highly pragmatic reasons related to the tion films “cannot be divorced from the in relation to “content,” an issue that is at need to re-construct events that have conditions of their production and the the heart of this discussion. no extant record, or providing visual ev- contexts of their use. Far from constitut- idence in support of anecdotal or statis- ing self-sufficient entities for aesthetic Further, Elsaesser insists that more util- tical evidence, or simply about preferred analysis [these] films have to be under- itarian films have auftrag (an occasion), aesthetic outcomes, but such consider- stood in terms of their specific, usually anlass (a purpose) and adressat (an ad- ations insist upon deciding what the use organizational, purpose, and in the very dressee), and not an auteur (see Hediger of animation helps to actually achieve in context of power and organizational & Vonderau (eds)19-34) It is immediately the film that cannot be achieved in any practice in which they appear” (Hediger & clear that the animated documentary other way. This in itself may be conten- Vonderau (eds) 2009:10). This perspec- benefits from self-reflexively foreground- tious – especially for those who might tive provides a useful starting place to ing its implied authorship. There may be hold a highly “purist” notion of docu- both delineate the differences between a finer distinction to make by suggesting mentary insisting upon the use of “as more utilitarian applications and ani- that animation is an inherently rhetorical it happens” footage – but as I will seek 8 WRITING ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY: A THEORY OF PRACTICE PAUL WELLS to demonstrate animation does have Their intention was that the film should situated, and as part of reclamation and distinctive tools and applications at its essentially talk to customers and clients. critical redress of such work, there is an disposal that privilege a particular enun- This was complicated further by the fact underpinning desire to resist its previ- ciative documentary register.

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