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The Secret of Kells in 2010 and for Song of the Sea in 2015

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The Secret of Kells in 2010 and for Song of the Sea in 2015 The EDUCATIONAL KIT Secret of Kells Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey CONTENT p.3 GENERAL INFORMATION p.4 Synopsis p.5 FILM ANALYSIS p.5 p.6 Film context Expressive means p.6 p.8 Historical context Recognition Image 1 p.10 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES p.10 p.13 p.15 Starter activity Animated colours The “real” face of and shapes the Vikings p.11 The hero’s journey p.14 Filmic means and director’s choices 2 GENERAL INFORMATION TOMM MOORE (1977, IRELAND) NORA TWOMEY (1971, IRELAND). The film, which is set in the early ninth-century monastic settlement of Kells, is based on a concept which Moore had been exploring a decade earlier while a student of animation at Ballyfermot Senior College in Dublin in 1999. With his co-director Nora Twomey, Moore and the Cartoon Saloon studio have achieved international acclaim for their work, including nominations in the Best Animated Feature Film category at the Oscars for The Secret of Kells in 2010 and for Song of the Sea in 2015. More recently, Twomey’s The Breadwinner (2017), which is set in Afghanistan and stylistically encompasses a more naturalistic and real- world look, also received an Academy nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2018. Moore is currently co-directing a third animated feature, Wolfwalkers, a mythic tale set in Kilkenny that is inspired by local history and legends and is due for release in late 2020. Image 2 Image 3 Twomey is currently directing the 2D American-Irish animation film My Father’s dragon, due for release in 2021. TITLE The Secret of Kells COUNTRY, YEAR France, Belgium, Ireland, 2009 FILM GENRE Animation, Fantasy, Adventure THEMES Adventure, friendship, environment, literature, childhood, vikings, folklore DURATION 71 minutes COLOUR / RATIO Colour / 1.85:1 LANGUAGE English 3 Image 4 Synopsis The Secret of Kells is a beautifully crafted animated feature film set in the early ninth-century Irish monastery of Kells. The peaceful agrarian community lives under threat of attack by marauding barbarians from the north, forcing Abbot Cellach (voiced by Brendan Gleeson) to oversee the construction of a defensive wall against the encroaching forces of evil. Young Brendan, the abbot’s orphaned nephew, is unconvinced by his uncle’s obsessive faith in “a wall to save civilisation” and resents being forbidden to enter the mysterious forest outside the abbey walls. The young hero’s life takes an unexpected and adventurous turn when a master illuminator, Aidan, after fleeing a Viking invasion, takes refuge in Kells, bearing an unfinished book that promises to illuminate the darkness with its secret powers and wisdom. The responsibility to complete the decorative manuscript falls on Brendan, who disregards his uncle and sets off on a perilous quest into an enchanted forest, the forbidden hiding place of dark, mythical creatures. There, he encounters the fairy Aisling, a mysterious wolf-girl, whose knowledge of the forest lights a way for Brendan’s quest. But, with the imminent approach of evil forces, can Brendan complete the manuscript and illuminate civilisation against the darkness? 4 FILM ANALYSIS Film context The Secret of Kells is an animation film that uses still pictures, called frames, running at speed to give the idea of movement. The first animation dates to 1832 when the Fenachistoscopio (detto anche Fantascopio) was invented by Belgian Joseph Plateau. It consisted of a cardboard disc with several figures in sequential positions drawn around the centre. When looking through the slots around the disc rim at the spinning disc reflected in a mirror, the figure appeared to move. It is the same principle as a flipbook or, more recently, animated GIF images. Traditional animation: the illusion of movement is created by several drawings, usually 24 pictures per second, each differing slightly from the one before it. Originally it was done by photocopying the original drawing on transparent acetate sheets, which were then coloured. Today, computer software allows animators to draw the frames much more easily. Stop motion: This is the manipulation of real objects such as paper figures or common objects. Photos of the object in different positions are taken and then assembled using software to create movement. Image 5 Animations can be in 2D, that is flat drawings, or in 3D. In the former, the camera movement is not as important as the frame and camera angle. There are two ways to draw a frame: a) by placing the character in the centre, thus focusing on emotions; b) by using the rule of two thirds, which divides the frame into three parts and places the characters on the sides, avoiding the centre. In 3D animation, camera movement is also possible since the world is at 360°. 3D animation rests heavily on digitalisation. A special type of 3D animation is when live-action actors wear special suits that allow computers to copy their movements. It is also possible to create animation films in virtual worlds, such as in video games; this technique is called machinima. 5 Film Analysis Historical context The film takes place in Early Christian Ireland, around the beginning of the ninth century. Kells was one of the most prominent Irish Columban monasteries of that time. It was founded most probably in 554, that is nine years before Saint Columba founded Iona. The abbey on Iona was renowned as a centre for learning over the following centuries and its scriptorium produced many important documents and books. Indeed, the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript Gospel in Latin, is thought to have been started there. The monastery practised the traditions of the Celtic Church but as the Roman Church became more powerful the role of Iona and Celtic Christianity diminished. In the latter part of the eighth century Iona was plundered many times during a series of Viking raids. Consequently, the monks decided to abandon the island and move their treasures to the monastery at Kells. The movie depicts the simple life of the agrarian, monastic community in Kells and on that canvas traces the fictional story of our young hero, Brendan. Image 6 Expressive means The Secret of Kells is an extraordinary 2D animation film.1 The producers used mainly traditional hand-drawn techniques sometimes with the help of computer animation. The digital techniques were used for complex or difficult sequences and were specially designed to support the hand-drawn style. Moore and Twomey’s animation were influenced by Richard Williams’s unfinished work The Thief and the Cobbler, the Disney film Mulan, and Hayao Miyazaki’s films, which take indigenous traditional art as the starting point for a beautiful 1 Les Armateurs, Vivi Film, Cartoon Saloon, France 2 Cinéma, The Secret of Kells, France: Celluloid Dreams, 2018. ‹http://ftp.celluloid-dreams.com/ uploads/pdf/films/Brendan-Press-Book.pdf›. 6 style of 2D animation.2 The cultural style and influence of those films inspired Moore to make a similarly styled film based on Irish art and culture. As a result, the visual style of the film draws upon ancient Celtic Art and illuminated medieval manuscripts. Moore focused on The Book of Kells, as a uniquely Irish tradition, and medieval art in general and tried to translate them into Film Analysis a style that suited 2D animation. This choice reflected the creation of the original book of Kells in the centuries before the discovery of perspective during the Renaissance. The human characters appear not so realistic and in some cases they resemble science-fiction robots, or characters inspired by Japanese anime. In other cases, they tend to be stereotyped. For instance, the only black character, Assoua, is drawn as tall, large and with emphasised large lips while Aisling the female protagonist is white with green eyes and long hair (image 7).3 Shapes are geometrical and exaggerated. The head of the cat is half a circle. The hands have long fingers and are out of proportion to the bodies. All these aspects reinforce the handicraft visual style. The frame is a beautiful painting where every detail is meticulously crafted, echoing Celtic illumination art. For instance, Celtic knotwork appears on many occasions. Following this link you can see the actual making of the hand-drawn characters of the film, the styles, the Image 7 shapes and the strokes. COLLECTIVE MEMORY There are several references to Irish folklore in the film. Aisling, the fairy, is represented as eyes surrounded by leaves at the beginning of the film and on the film poster. This is the representation of the Green Man, the god of spring and summer, associated with death and resurrection, life and creativity. Aisling takes Brendan to “her forest”, that is, the world of the Tuatha de Danann, the fairies, where he will find the oak tree whose berries make emerald ink. The oak tree is the Crann Bethadh, the tree of life, with top and roots of the same importance, which connects the world of humans with the Otherworld (Tír Na nÓg). The Celtic name of the oak tree is Daur, meaning door. Nowadays it is not unusual in parts of Ireland to see ribbons on trees to honour their role as intermediaries with the world of the fairies. 2 Karl Cohen, “‘The Secret of Kells’ - What is this Remarkable Animated Feature?”, Animation World Network, 16 March 2010. ‹https://www.awn.com/ animationworld/secret-kells-what-remarkable-animated-feature›. 3 A.O. Scott, “Outside the Abbey’s Fortified Walls, a World of Fairy Girls and Beasts”, The New York Times, 2010. ‹https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/ movies/05secret.html›. 7 Film Analysis “Aisling”, which means dream, vision in Irish, is a poetic genre developed in the 17th century in Ireland.
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