Planning on going up to Mount field next weekend take photos and recordings the entire day. Also, I've been reading a fascinating book called
The Illusions of Life - Essays on Animation. It's a really good book, quite verbose as it's an academic collection of essays but it's been very enjoyable. It's solidifying many of my ideas and understanding of the conceptual theories behind animation. The book looks at cartoons and animation has been thought of the 'step-child' of cinema, and aims to prove that animation is not only more than a subspecies of cinema, but argues animation helped the growth of live action cinema. It suggest that Film Theory needs to more commonly look at animation as apart of film history, and a medium worth analyzing in an academic sense. I read a very colourful essay last night about Chuck Jones' experience in the industry, talking about his connection with art and referring to animation directors as artists.
The book actually reminds me of an essay I wrote years ago called 'Animation Art: Examples of When Animation is Art', which was somewhat of a mini-thesis for my final written project in Art Theory for college. I kind of wish I read that book during that time, but I'm thinking maybe I could rewrite my essay at some point, or at least include some of this information in my project summary.
