Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Context of Practice 2: 500 Word Essay

When comparing and contrasting these two videos; Jiri Trnka, The Hand, 1965 and Duscan Vukotic and Zagreb film, Surogat (Ersatz), 1961 but it isn't very apparent that there is a clear correlation between the two. The Hand is a very alternative look in the lives of people in the Czech Republic during the 60s and how communism ruled peoples lives, but then Surogat is very different and follows a man who lives in a blow up world and creates the perfect woman, but she doesn't want him and finds a more attractive looking man.

When looking at what could be contrasted between these two, the colour and light produces many differences as they are extremely different animations. The Hand is quite a strange colour, and is very neutral, even when colour is present it is very faint due to the soft lighting that is present in the scene. But differentially Surogat is bright compared to it, although the colour is still quite faint, but this could be due to the fact that it was made in the 1960s, but there are a lot more colours then in the hand which makes it instantly more upbeat. When now looking at the colours used in each one, we can easily compare it to the soundtrack that is used. There is actually some comparing sounds with the two, as throughout the whole of Surogat we hear happy and upbeat music and even the humming that the character does it joyful. Similarly in The Hand the music is very joyful at the beginning and then only becomes sinister when the hand actually appears.

The two animations, may be very different but they do have a few things in common. They both link very well to what they are trying to represent and then also there contextual and historical factors. The Hand is an animation based puppet that is meant to represent they lives of people living in 1960s Czech Republic during the time of communism; a time in which people were told what to do and couldn't do anything about it. The puppet is meant to represent the rebellion amoungst some people that took action against the all powerful during this time but in the end the freedom was still limited. Similarly, in a way, Surogat is able to represent a contextual factor as is shows a man creating the perfect woman, only for her to give him up for another who is far more attractive. This therefore shows that even though you can make whatever you want, eventually you will loose it as you haven't worked for it.

It's a strange contrast between these two videos as they are very different, but we are able to see where they do also contain correction and the same ideas behind them; even though they are not comparing the same topic or theme. It shows that they are both trying to represent a contextual or historical factor but then at the same time they differ so dramatically in the fact that The Hand is very sombre towards the end and shows the true misery of peoples lives, and Surogat, even though does have an underlining theme of suicide, is very upbeat throughout.

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