Lovesong - 35 seconds (inc. titles and credits)
Hand-drawn and digitally coloured 2D animation, September-December 2007
University brief: production roles; fitting the character into their environment.
Written, directed and animated by Gail McColl;
Character voice (and general shoulder to cry on) provided by Ian Harvie.

This was produced as a section of what could have been a longer animation for my 4th year honours film; however, I decided instead to use this as an experimental piece instead, due to having spent most of my time in 2nd year working in Maya. The brief stated that we were allowed to take inspiration from media forms other than film ... I was having a hard time thinking of an idea, until at one point during the summer I decided it might be a good idea to clean out all my old school material from under my bed. Upon flicking through my old A-Level English notes somewhere between the storage box and a half-full bin-bag, I found myself drawn to the imager in one particular poem, The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliott.

An excerpt, lines 15-54:
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

The atmosphere created through this touched me, through the romanticism of its industrial, presumably middle-class but highly judgemental and sceptical setting and society, as well as the fairly casual reflection of futility and ostracism shown. However, it was in particular the first stanza quoted here that inspired the idea for this animation: both my literal interpretation of it, and the suggestion that something so beautiful can be completely unnoticed right in front of us.

After considering this idea, I had quite a vivid image in my mind of a man looking slightly lost, without any clear or obvious motive, wandering through this thick mist with a bunch of roses ... however, after a while I realised that I would not be able to work with this fog, due to what I already knew how to do and various time restrictions. However, despite this, I am fairly happy with the character's animation, and the overall piece fitted the brief and was fairly well received amongst my tutors and a few classmates that saw it, so I'm going to consider it a moderate success for now.