Framework, and Tangled: A Case Study

My critical framework is very simple.

It came about during and after a meeting with Ryan a few weeks ago. I know I've touched on this before, so again, sorry if I'm being tedious. We basically went back to the roots of my project and strengthened the foundations. This helped me clear my head of all the miscellaneous thoughts flying around inside my head.

I realise my critical framework here doesn't have much flair. But it does the job well.

But it has proven hugely beneficial to my work, and has allowed me to carry out an effective case study, and be much more critical and reflective in my practice-based research.

Disney's "Tangled", (2010), is an adaptation that I've always been drawn to. I've owned "The Art of Tangled" for quite a while now, and it's one of the few "Art of" books that I find myself re-reading over and over again. Each area of the design process has been so carefully and intricately considered - from the incredible appeal of Glen Keane's character sketches, to the quaint, dream-like scenario concept paintings of Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder. the book just overflows with inspiration and charm.

The conceptual art and design process is so illustrative and well thought out that the final movie itself seems almost like a motion graphics version of its "Art of" counterpart. (Does that make sense?)

Anyway, as I mentioned before, my critical framework is extremely simple. The reason for this is because my project is focused on the entire recognition of a story's visual interpretation. Therefore, my framework needs to be able to digest characters, environments, scenarios, creatures - everything.

In the case study I looked into the staging, lighting, and colour of the environment compositions. I also scrutinise the scale of the Tangled world. As I mentioned in my last post, this interpretation of Rapunzel sees the story revolve around the footloose desires of the young protagonist. She dreams of the great unknown, and fantasises about leaving her tower. (Only after dressing up her trusty companion, Pascal, the chameleon, amongst other things.)

Not your day, huh, Pascal?

But I digress, 

Because the plight revolves around getting from point (A) to point (B), the scale of the world, and the importance of each location became an important design challenge. 

The "Tangled" Set.

This is something which struck me as hugely beneficial to the design process. This story only has a handful of basic locations (Pub, Valley, Castle, Dam, etc.) I feel this painting worked so well at demonstrating the context of the story and frames the journey in such a charismatic way (it's so PRETTY!!), that I really wanted to adopt something similar within my project to determine the scale of the world I was realising. 

Another thing brought up within The Art of Tangled was the inspiration behind the visual style. 

It goes into a fair amount of detail concerning the design roots of Disney's adaptations and the staging and composition of its films. Mainly it touches on shape theory and the idea of repetition in shape within the composition and stills of the films.

This is something I decided would be an excellent template for the Tangled case study and indeed my practice-based research for my Fundevogel adaptation.

I'm going to stop rambling about case studies now and post some art.