The Ebullient Pepper Mill - The Treatment and The Step Outline

 Here is the first draft for the treatment and step outline of my story.

Animation Timeline: Winsor McCay

Fig. 1 Winsor McCay (1869 – 1934)

Winsor McCay (1869 – 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator who created the very first animated films, which would go on to set a high standard for those that followed, such as one Walt Disney as well as others in later decades.

Winsor McCay was born in 1867 in Canada. From a very young age McCay was interested in drawing, against his father wishes, who wanted him to learn a real trade. So unknown to his parents, he worked as a portrait artist in a "Dime Museum" while attending business college. His facility for observation and his amazingly ability to draw quickly made him a popular attraction. McCay left college, to work for Kohl and Middleton Dime Museum creating advertising poster and it was here were he began to create a name for himself as a talented artist. Due to the economic hardship of supporting his family McCay was forced to take a job as a cartoonist/reporter for the Cinncinati Commercial Tribune. It was here where he learned to fine tune his talent and by the end of 1903, he was being courted by the New York Herald, prompting him to move with his family to New York. It was a time when the newspaper comic strip was becoming popular and McCay himself began to experiment with his own original comic strips.

Fig. 2 "Little Nemo" Poster 

But when he moved to New York in 1903 it wouldn’t be until two years later, that he would final have success with his 1905 comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland". This strip is considered by many to be McCay’s masterpiece and increased his popularity, and began performing in Vaudeville. His act consisted of speed drawings of various characters, included some from pasted comic strips. But after eight years, McCay left the New York Herald and went to work for William Randolph Hearst at the New York American. It was when working for Hearst that McCay began to experiment with the idea of using animated pictures as part of his act, creating a number of animated short films.

His first attempt was "Little Nemo" which debuted in 1911, using the popular characters from his "Little Nemo" comic strip. McCay used four thousand animation drawings and then hand-coloured the 35mm frames to achieve a very striking effect. There is no story line, it is more an experiment in movement. "Little Nemo" was a huge success and it captivated audiences everywhere he went.

Fig. 3 "How A Mosquito Operates" film still

McCay then began work on his second short animation, "How A Mosquito Operates" (1912) taking him one year to complete. It is a cartoon about a giant mosquito with a top hat and a briefcase, who invades a man’s home as he sleeps. The mosquito sharpens his proboscis, repeatedly sucking blood from him until his body is a giant bulb. Then, suddenly aware of the audience, he performs some tricks on the man’s nose. Then it has one suck to many and bursts. Unlike his first film, this film was able to take a great leap forward for Winsor because he actually gets the animation to tell a story. That is because "How a Mosquito Operates relies on a simpler, less intricately graphic style in order to tell the story of a large mosquito's encounter with a sleeping victim." (Rabinovitz, 2010)

Fig. 4 ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ Film Poster

Two years later, McCay completed his third animation ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ which is certainly is his most famous one and still has the able to entertain new audiences today. The beginning is all Live-action and in this live action portion, McCay during a visit to a natural history museum bets a friend he can make the dinosaurs live again by a series of hand drawn cartoons and six months later, the 10,000 drawings are done. When the actual animation begins, we finally see McCay’s creation Gertie the dinosaur. Lasting five minutes, we are shown Gertie performing simple tricks for the audience, being distracted by a sea serpent, munching down a tree, encountering a mammoth, dancing, being hosed by the mammoth and throwing a rock at it, scratching her head with her tail, drinking a lake dry and as then finally taking onto her back a live action McCay and then walking off screen with him. "The short is impressive because of its fine animation and command of perspective, but what it really makes it a milestone of animation is that Gertie the Dinosaur is the first animated cartoon character with personality." (Grob, 2010) Gertie is not just a dinosaur but a female dinosaur that is behaving half like an animal being trained and the other half as a spoiled little child. The interaction between Gertie and McCay is impressive and makes the animation a classic.

Fig. 5 ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’  Film Still

McCay’s fourth animation ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’ (1918) is even more curious than his preceding three. An animated account of the sinking of the cruise ship the Lusitania on May 7 , 1915 by the German submarine U-39. With the ship carrying approximately 1,500 passengers, many of they were American. Two torpedoes sank the ship and took 1,500 lives. It starts with about a minute or so of live action showing McCay settling in to a document the tragedy, plus narration boards and a few still photos of the famous who died. Then the reminder is occupied by animation (a 25,000 drawing to be exact). The Lusitania’ sets sail past the Statue of Liberty, and then show the ship being hit twice by two torpedoes. Then the flames and smoke fill the sky as the passengers and crew escape the best they can, over the side of the ship in life boats. "Despite its slow action, ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’ is an astonishing film, which may be the first animated propaganda film. It’s totally unique in its drama, and, despite its propaganda, an all time masterpiece of animation." (Grob, 2010)

McCay himself animated his films almost single-handed making each cartoon his and his alone. He took the time to make his films unique with his artistic visions and sometimes he would spend more than a year to make one single five-minute animation. What McCay was not expected was that "the burgeoning world of cinema could not wait so long for so little, and so the modern animation studio came into being. The art of animation was no longer the work of one man, it was a streamlined, assembly-line process in the best Henry Ford tradition. But was the art of the animated cartoon sacrificed for the trade's sake?" (Tracy, 2008)

List of Illustrations
Figure. 1 Moniz, Ray Winsor (1906) Ray Winsor. http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/mccay.htm
Figure. 2  McCay, Winsor (1911) Little Nemo Film Poster. http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/121018270425209.htm (Accessed on 12/03/2011)Figure. 3 McCay, Winsor (1912) How a Mosquito Operates. http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/winsor-mccays-the-sinking-of-the-lusitania/ (Accessed on 12/03/2011)
Figure. 4 McCay, Winsor (1913) Gertie the Dinosaur film Poster. http://www.myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_13551_1%26url%3D (Accessed on 12/03/2011)
Figure. 5 McCay, Winsor (1918) ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’ film still. http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/24946-Sinking_Of_The_Lusitania.html (Accessed on 12/03/2011)
Bibliography
 Rabinovitz, Lauren (2010) McCAY, Winsor. http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Lo-Me/McCay-Winsor.html (Accessed on 12/03/2011)
Grob (2010) Gertie The Dinosaur. http://animationreview.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/gertie-the-dinosaur/ (Accessed on 13/03/2011)
Grob (2010) The Sinking of the Lusitania. http://animationreview.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/gertie-the-dinosaur/ (Accessed on 13/03/2011)
Tracy, Joe (2008) The History of Animation: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Studio System in the Production of an Art Form. http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/animationhistory.html  (Accessed on 13/03/2011)
(Accessed on 12/03/2011)

Research Into Pepper Mills

 Definition : a hand mill for grinding peppercorns with the first Known Use was in 1739

 

Today, pepper is on tables everywhere from restaurants to homes. So it is quiet hard to believe that pepper used to be a sought-after spice, so rare that some cultures accepted it as currency. Pepper accounts for about 25 percent of the world's spice trade, and has been known as a seasoning for at least 3,000 years.

The Functions of a Pepper Mill

A pepper mill may have a crank on top, or the mill itself may twist, bringing together two metal burrs that grind the peppercorns into a usable spice, suitable for cooking or for sprinkling on top of cooked food. The idea for the pepper mill came from the coffee mill. It was a quick step for the enterprising cook to use his coffee mill to grind peppercorns, rather than using a mortar and pestle. The pepper mill was then created in a smaller size, more suitable for the smaller peppercorns.

 

The different Types Available :
The classic wooden Style

This style of pepper mill's are the types  that many restaurant will be using and they are seen as traditional because they were one of the first styles of pepper mills.

Turkish Pepper Mill

 

Electric Pepper Mill's

Bring it into more modern times the pepper mill has been designed so that it is electrical but doing the same thing that past deigns have done. The classic wooden style has become more stylish with bright colours and metallic style. These type of pepper mills are rarely seen in restaurant but are the type that you would have in your kitchen.

Modern Day Pepper Mill's

Today's pepper mill's are seen as more stylish items, that you would have on the work surface of your kitchen.  With the use of stainless steel  which is durable and looks nice in a contemporary or styled home Also plastic or acrylic has become a more common material used to make pepper mills today. It's might not the most durable and it can easily crack however, it is are easy to clean and inexpensive.

After looking at the different styles I decided to do some quick sketches to help with getting the correct shape for my own pepper mill. At the moment I am drawn to the classic wooden style for my own pepper mill because of there curvy shape which could help when it comes to animating it.

 

Rough Story Ideas for The Ebullient Pepper Mill

Here are my first ideas that I had when I  found out what my object and behaviour would be.  My ideas are pretty rough at the moment and development is definitely needed but this is what I have come up with so far.

- A new and young pepper mill is over flowing with excitement and enthusiastic to be used by one of the customer in a restaurant. It sits on the side waiting to be used but never is because none of the customer would like pepper on their dinner. As the pepper mill sits on the side it is picked on by other food condiments such as salt, ketchup, vinegar, etc. But the pepper mill never loses that enthusiasm until one day a customer asks for pepper. The pepper mill is about to burst with excitement and just as the waiter goes to turn the top of the pepper mill. The customer changes their mind and the pepper mill is taken back to the side. Ending with the other condiments laughing and sneering at the pepper mill.

- My second ideas was to have two pepper mills, one being new, young and very ebullient. With the other being the opposite old, used and grumpy. The new pepper mill is enthusiastic to learn starts to get on the other pepper mills nervous. The are always frighting and bickering with each other until one day the older pepper has enough of the constant excitement, pushes the younger one off the table. Ending with in silence after all the talking and jumping around the younger pepper mill has been doing.

Research into the understanding of Ebullient

Definition of Ebullient

1. overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited: The award winner was in an ebullient mood at the dinner in her honor.

2. bubbling up like a boiling liquid.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ebullient

So to describe someone as ebullient, they are lively and full of enthusiasm or excitement about something.

Here are a few words that are associated with ebullient : agitated, bouncy, brash, buoyant, chipper, chirpy, effervescent, effusive, elated, excited, exhilarated, exuberant, frothy, gushing, high-spirited, in high spirits, irrepressible, vivacious, zestful, zippy, exuberant, enthusiastic, vivacious, effervescent., joyously unrestrained, very energetic, positive and happy


So after understanding what ebullient means I decided to look at various characters in films that can be said to have an ebullient behavior or that their behaviour is associated with ebullient . Looking at different examples will help me with understanding how someone that is ebullient will walk, talk or act in a situation. Here are just a few example that I found ...

 1. Baloo (The Jungle Book)

 Baloo is an  easygoing and fun-loving character. The reason for looking into Baloo was to help with understanding how a person/object would walk if they were feeling ebullient. What I did notice is that someone that is over excited and full of enthusiasm seem to have a bonce in their ever step. It seems as if they are bouncing around instead of walking.

2. My next example is of Russell from Pixar's 2009 film "Up". Which is about Carl Fredricksen a curmudgeonly old man whose warmth is teased by an ebullient young boy Russell, when they find themselves on an unexpected journey. The clip below is of Russell  when his first meets Carl Fredricksen but the part I am interested in, is Russel reaction when he becomes over enthusiastic when asked by Carl for his help.

3. The next example is of an animations that I found on YouTube called The Presentators - Quiz Show.

Brian is hosting a quiz show Press The Pig whose competitors are Dan and Stefan. Dan wishes he were somewhere else, while Stefan is excitedly over-competitive. But his enthusiasm leads to his downfall, as he forgets to Press The Pig on the crucial question. Brian then reveals the star prize a beautiful guitar which Dan recognises as his own. What this animations shows is how someones over enthusiasm can be their own downfall. Which could be a great element that I could use in my own story idea.

Life Drawing (Lesson 15)

Unit 5 Animation - The Ebullient Pepper Mill

For unit 5 we had to pick out one object and one behaviour which our animation will be based on. So the Object that I picked out was a pepper mill which is a type of  kitchen utensil that is used  to grind peppercorns. I didn't realise how many types of pepper mills there are until I did a quick image search. The influence map below shows just a few of the types available.

The behaviour I picked out was Ebullient and the definition of Ebullient is someone that is overflowing with enthusiasm or excitement; high-spirited.

So in the end my animation will be called The Ebullient Pepper Mill. I am thinking that my story could be about a pepper mill that is showing so much enthusiasm and excitement to be used but I  have got a couple of ideas but nothing is definite just yet.