ANIMAL FARM IN FILM.

In 1954, an animated film version of Animal Farm was released, directed by Halas and Batchelor, and was actually the first British film to be released worldwide (interesting fact there). This film departs from the original script, yet the characters of the dogs, their personalities and their presence in the film remains the same - they are cruel, and kill other animals on command.

However,in a more recent made for TV (American...) version of Animal

Farm, the story is told from the point of view of a new dog character they invented, called Jessie. It is her puppies who Napoleon trains to be his attack dogs, and in the end they are reunited - therefore the dogs have not turned BAD forever. This truly shows what attachment people have to dogs, for them to invent a new character, for her to be good (which dogs are not in the book or 1954 version), and for her to be the main character - the dogs aren't even really main characters at all!

REPRESENTATION OF DOGS IN 'OF MICE AND MEN'.

Another book, and film, I looked at was 'Of Mice and Men', which was a book I have previously studied. Quite early on in the book, the character of Candy, who is old and only has one hand (making him kind of useless), allows someone to go out into the woods and kill his dog - something he regrets later on in the book. Candy's dog is described as 'a dragfooted sheepdog, gray of muzzle, and with pale, blind old eyes', and the others don't really like it because it's old and it smells bad, basically. They describe him as 'no good to himself'. It represents Candy's fear that the farm will decide he is no good to them, and fire him, and also foreshadows what George must eventually do to Lennie.

Another important dog in 'Of Mice and Men', is the puppy that Lennie plays with. Originally to be used as a replacement for Candy's dog, who Lennie likes playing with. The puppy represents Lennie's innocence, and his weak, childlike disposition, and his childlike desire to play with nice soft things, his oafish-ness, leads to the death of the puppy, which foreshadows the death of Curley's wife; the accident that seals his fate and ruins his dream.

REPRESENTATION OF DOGS IN ANIMAL FARM.

Because I am using dogs (I like to throw caution to the wind and laugh at those who say 'never work with children or animals') as the main focal point of my short film, I decided to look at how they are represented in books. One book that I have decided to look at is 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell, a story of which I am sure we are all familiar. In 'Animal Farm', the dogs represent the police - they work closely with the main pig, Napoleon. It is thought that the pigs represent Stalin's (a.k.a. the character of Napoleon) secret police, the NKVD, who helped Stalin 'purge' anyone who he thought was a threat to his power. Basically, the NKVD helped Stalin to stay in power as long as possible.

The dogs in Orwell's police represent security, and also fear - Napoleon uses them to kill many other animals, so they are not shown in a very good light. However, the dogs often wag his tail when they see Napoleon; and whilst people suggest that this alludes to him becoming more and more like the farmer they overthrew, it could represent loyalty.

MORE TEXTUAL ANALYSIS.

'If Jesus were alive, yeah, he'd probably be a singer.'

Another short film that has inspired me is 'About a Girl', a 2001 short film directed by Brian Percival and written by Julie Rutterford. It depicts the life of a girl who dreams of being a singer, and admires Britney Spears, and we see her singing many of her songs throughout its entirety, yet her flippant personality is a stark contrast from the feeling of unease we get as the film goes on.

watch the film here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p0055x2k

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

I have been looking at some short films, and stumbled upon a DVD collection of short films called 'Real Shorts'. Two films especially caught my eye. The first; 'I Expect Joan Feels the Same', a poignant film about two elderly women whose husbands were killed in the war. Directed by Sophie Williams, it shows an interview with the two women recalling their wartime loves intercut with archive footage from the war.

Another film that caught my eye was 'Silence', a film directed by Orly Yadin and Slyvie Bringas, features Holocaust survivor, Tana Ross, telling her story of her childhood in a concentration camp, and her teenage years after. Overlayed with different animation styles, it is a very engaging and interesting tale of what caused her 50 year silence of her suffering.