09 November, 2011

Review of Panorama 1 at BAF 2011

Guest blogger: Ayesha Farooqui, Bradford College Animation Student

The cinema was filled with a healthy number of people - I had the right idea when I sat on the front row! Panorama 1 was an amazing collection of animations, all with various emotions and drawing techniques. It was enough to persuade me to watch the other Panoramas, the films were that inspiring.

A few of them really stood out for me.

The Saga of Biôrn

The Saga of Biôrn, a 3D animation that is not only funny, but full of talent. A Viking is determined to get into the heaven of the Viking gods by heroic death. His attempts fail several times, for his enemies always end up killing themselves before he even touches them. My favourite technique in this animation is that it blends 3D animated characters with 2D backgrounds.

Ishihara

Another delightful animation is Ishihara, a simple animation made from coloured circles, telling the story of a boy who is colour blind, and later completely blind. David Lockard is the narrator, and his voice makes sense of the animation, even though it's a bunch of dots moving about. It really captured my attention and it was definitely an eye-opening and intelligent animation.

The Lighthouse

My eyes set upon a pretty lighthouse illustration with 'The Lighthouse' in a beautiful swirly typeface. This animation is made of flat browns, creams and cherry blossoms. The story is of parents supporting their children and making their children's dreams a reality.

A father and son live in a lighthouse and spend time together playing the piano. As the son grows up he spends less and less time with his father, and more time pursuing his dream. His father evidently gets older but is still happy his son has reached his goal.

When the father dies, the son with his wife and child continue the cycle, with the son supporting his family. This was an extremely emotional animation for me to watch, and I had tears in my eyes.

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