CDAN234 - 01 - Animating Reality

Boston is a documentary town. From the programs at Harvard and M.I.T. to the Public TV productions of GBH, the roots of non-fiction run deep here. There are many ways to employ animation in the service of non-fiction work, from historical recreation to visuals that illustrate the stories of interview subjects to motion graphics that bring clarity to dense or difficult facts. But what happens when animation becomes the sole visual driver of a documentary piece? "Animated Documentary" is an emerging genre, and it's time for animators to take a seat at the table in the non-fiction world of story-telling. The focus for "Animating Reality" is to make work that fuses a variety of animated forms in the service of telling stories based on the real world, both within your personal sphere and the world outside yourself. With an emphasis on research, and quick execution of short animated projects, the goal is to expand the range in which animation can be used to tell non-fiction stories.