BA Graphic Arts Final Major Project: ‘Should I be Eating Animals?’.
A short stop motion film following Hazel, a young girl who is beginning to question the way she views animals
In the initial research stages of the project I interviewed a number of animal rights activists asking them a series of questions on the topic of eating animals. Through this I had a conversation with Bob Love who balanced both facts and storytelling when responding to my questions giving me the audio I used to create the animation from.
‘Think about when you were a little kid and the animals you used to interact with, the animals you would see maybe on days out at farms... these are the same animals that are suffering’
Inspired by this opening line of audio I developed the character of Hazel and decided to make most of the props using childlike craft materials such as paper, plasticine and soft fabrics to show that these scenes are viewed through a Child’s perspective.
To contrast with the other vibrant scenes I used a more traditional illustrative style to create a set of tarot cards depicting the realities of modern day factory farming. It is also the only part of the film to feature a real hand.As part of research for the project I attended protests outside slaughter houses where I documented the animals arriving in lorries. It was an incredibly emotional experience and heavily influenced the ending of my animation.
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I used DragonFrame to film the stop motion animation in a film studio and Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the footage afterwards..