~ Animation ~

The Polish Language by Alice Lyons

On 27 July, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 2 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems, Concrete and visual poetry
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This is just about the most inventive typographic animation I’ve even seen — a gorgeous and moving tribute to the power of Polish poetry by American-Irish poet and artist Alice Lyons and Irish artist Orla Mc Hardy. The film has its own website at thepolishlanguage.com, whence the following description:

The Polish Language is an animated film-poem about the subversive force of art and the renewal of poetry in the whispery language of Polish.

Based on the poem of the same title, the film pays homage to the revitalization of poetry in the Polish language in the 20th century. Using hand-drawn, stop-motion and time-lapse animation techniques, the poem unfolds onscreen, with typography as a key visual element. It visual style is loosely based on underground publications in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s, known as Bibula. A chorus of voices sampling poems in Polish, woven together with original music by sound designer Justin Spooner, combine to create a powerful score in a film of ’emotional depth and technical sophistication’ (Jury, Galway Film Fleadh 2009, award for Best Animation).

The Polish Language is at once a playful and solemn journey into the sensuality, beauty and power of language.

Lyons wrote the poem, while Mc Hardy took the lead on the animation. For full credits and a list of screenings, see the website’s About page. The poets sampled in the soundtrack are Tadeusz Różewicz, Zbigniew Herbert and Wisława Szymborska.

Saffron by Kate Ruse

On 9 July, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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A striking animation by Zhiyu Zhao for a piece by UK poet Kate Ruse.

The Art of Drowning

On 2 July, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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This film by Diego Maclean is currently one of the most popular poetry videos on Vimeo, with 3,294 likes and 97 laudatory comments. Though the rotoscopy succeeds in mimicking the effect of a graphic novel, assuming that was the intent, I personally find it less interesting as a video interpretation of the poem than the student film by Lindsey Butler which I shared two years ago.

According to Jason Sondhi at Short of the Week, this too was a student production:

Maclean created this short film as his graduation film from the Emily Carr Institute in 2009, and it has wrapped up an impressive festival run, playing at Sundance, Annecy and SXSW among others.

I spy by Martha McCollough

On 28 June, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems
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Martha McCollough writes: “A love poem in the voice of a surveillance satellite. Built in aftereffects, Sound design in Logic.”

Ecclesiastes 11:1 by Richard Wilbur

On 5 June, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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Faith Eskola created this month’s Motionpoem for a poem by America’s preeminent contemporary formalist poet. See Motionpoems for the text and some process notes by Eskola in the comments.

The Trees by Philip Larkin

On 30 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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Animation by Amy Swapp and Fiona Hobson. (For the text of the poem with proper punctuation and such, see The Poetry Archive.)

London by William Blake

On 29 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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This student film by Alex Robinson offers a new take on Blake’s “mind-forged manacles.”

Underwear by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

On 23 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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An animation by film student Aja Rose Matthews, with the reading of course by Ferlinghetti himself.

Thoreau and the Lightning by David Wagoner

On 21 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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See the Motionpoems website for the text. The animator and director is Adam Tow. As with April’s Motionpoem, the free email newsletter contained additional content not archived on the website — an interview with Tow.

Motionpoems: What made you choose this poem to work with?
Adam Tow: After reading all the poems available for this year’s event, ‘Thoreau and the Lightning’ was the piece that I had the strongest connection to. As I read it, I was reminded of my grandfather’s home in the country and the land around it. He was a hard working midwestern man that for some reason I felt had a lot in common with the character in the poem.

MP: What is this poem’s most important moment for you?
AT: For me, the lines that ask if he should “feel humbled” and “give thanks” are the crux of the story. The moving truck and estate sale sign are references to my experiences watching my grandfather’s estate being sold as his health deteriorated. Visually speaking, the tree exploding is my favorite shot.

MP: What was the biggest challenge in turning this piece into a film, and what was your solution?
AT: I struggled with how I wanted to interpret the final sentence of the poem. I had two ideas for what meaning to imply with the visuals (one involving a hearse, the other a moving truck). As far as how to depict things, I wasn’t sure how to show both the positive memories of the past as well as the farm’s abandoned state at the same time. I decided to use a shimmery effect to illustrate his memories overlaid on the farm’s present day appearance.

MP: What did you find most surprising in this process?
AT: It was interesting to see how much you can change the implied message of the poem just by altering a seemingly minor visual element. Also, hearing the music and voiceover for the first time was one of the most exciting moments I’ve had in the last year.

MP: Is there anything else you want to add?
AT: I have to give loads of thanks and credit to Scott Yoshimura (music composition/performance, voiceover) and Logan Christian (audio recording and mixing). I intentionally gave them zero direction and they knocked it out of the park, as I knew they would. Also, many thanks to David Wagoner for agreeing to let me humbly interpret his poem.

A heavy hand in the black sky by Martha McCollough

On 17 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems
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Another animation from Martha McCollough‘s erasure project Grey Vacation.

Written in My Dream by William Carlos Williams

On 7 May, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Concrete and visual poetry
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This kinetic text poetry animation by Nikolaus Lesnik uses a reading by Allen Ginsberg.

innocent beat by Martha McCollough

On 25 April, 2012 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems, Concrete and visual poetry
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An interesting kinetic-text animation by Martha McCollough, a painter and animator from Boston, who notes in the description that it it is “Based on a page from my erasure project Grey Vacation. The wrongest thing ever said.”