JONATHAN HODGSON (ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY)

I was keen on using animation techniques in my Anonymous documentary idea and also for elements of my Nature Of Love documentary idea with my Grandma. I wanted to seek out who had used the animated styles and techniques in documentaries and my tutor put me onto Jonathan Hodgson.

Jonathan Hodgson is one of the directors of Sherbet a highly successful animation production company and this biography is directly lifted from here.

Jonathan Hodgson is an internationally renowned, BAFTA winning animation director based in London. He was born in Oxford and studied animation at Liverpool Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. In 2011 he directed the animation for Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, the first full length animated documentary on British TV. After leaving the RCA in 1985, he went on to be a director at various animation studios before co-founding Sherbet in 1996. At Sherbet he directed numerous high profile advertising campaigns and collaborated with legendary illustrator Maurice Sendak.

His short films have won numerous awards including a BAFTA in 2000 for The Man with the Beautiful Eyes and a BAFTA nomination in 2002 for Camouflage. Jonathan’s work is featured on numerous books and DVD compilations. He has lectured extensively including the Royal College of Art, University of the Creative Arts Farnham and Film Akademie Barden Wurtemburg, Germany. In 2008 he became the programme leader for the new BA in Animation at Middlesex University.

I have looked at a lot of his work and he uses a multitude of styles, techniques and collaborators. His work whilst not always pure documentary is factual based and has often campaigned with organisations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty or for issues such as Guantanamo Bay and women's rights. He has a knack of marrying visuals and voice over excellently always complementing and enhancing the message through the style and never simply showing what is being said on film. His films have a universal appeal and the use of animation allows in my opinion more access into tricky political issues and debates. Something I could really capitalise on too. I am sure he works with the voice first honing and editing and then working on the visuals and there is much food for thought from his work. I have selected a couple of his works I have enjoyed underneath.

The Man With The Beautiful Eyes is a semi documentary as it is based on a short poem by the writer Charles Bukowski of whom I am a big fan. Whilst not a pure documentary Bukowski's writings were all semi auto-biographical so there is certainly a documentary element and feel to the story as well as be a fairytale fable quality too. Hodgson collaborated with illustrator Jonny Hannah on the film.

The Vimeo description is thus: A gang of kids find a strange house with an overgrown garden where they play. Only once do they meet the man who lives there, a dead-beat alcoholic with a free and easy spirit who welcomes them. The children see him as a romantic character in stark contrast to their neurotically house proud parents.

The Man with the Beautiful Eyes from Jonathan Hodgson on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed the film and the hand-drawn style works well the images not just pictorially representing the voice over narrative but adding to it with charm, wit and creativity. It was obviously a time consuming process but the result is bright, interesting and feels contemporary although the story somehow does not.

What comes after religion is a similar piece but utilises a different animation technique. The script is written by the philosopher Alain de Botton and questions what is religion, what purpose does it serve and do gods really exist.

The Vimeo description of the piece is: The debate between believers and atheists usually goes nowhere. The real issue is: what should fill the gaps created by the end of widespread belief? What should fill the God-shaped hole?

WHAT COMES AFTER RELIGION from Jonathan Hodgson on Vimeo.

The style and tone is different from The Man With The Beautiful Eyes. This feels more like a lesson than a narrative story but the tongue in cheek comedy is still there. As before the visuals not just pictorially representing the voice over narrative but adding to it with charm, wit and creativity. The style is very thematic largely based on old religious etchings in style for most of the film and these look like they have been animated using largely cut-outs (and a few other techniques) in a program such as Adobe After Effects. This is less time consuming and is a very old fashioned but quick to create style of animation and some elements have a real flavour of Terry Gilliam about them but a little more subtle. The movements of the characters is really interesting and at the same time the voice over manages to walk that fine line between pointing out the absurdity of religion and it's flaws whilst appreciating the virtues and moral compass it provides. This is done cleverly through both the visuals and the thought provoking voice over which work exceptionally well in tandem.

http://www.sherbet.co.uk/
http://hodgsonfilms.tumblr.com/
http://animateprojects.org/
https://vimeo.com/search?q=jonathan+hodgson