Global Animated Film Review: India- Sita sings the Blues

Fig 1: Sita sings the Blues Poster

Sita sings the Blues is a 2008 animated film, made almost completely by American artist Nina Paley and goes over the Indian story of Ramayana. The film suffered from copyright issues with the use of Annette Hanshaw's music that wasn't seen by Paley until it was too late and had to fork up a fine of $50,000. Due to this set back Paley was unable to make money on her film due to the fact that she couldn't distribute it through DVDs after the initial 4,999 copies. Sita sings the Blues was then available to download for free, with Nina Paley only asking for donations for her work. The film also suffered backlash from the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti back in 2009 due to the groups believe that the reimagining of Ramayana was offensive and demanded that the film be banned for good. However despite these issues the film was critically acclaimed with critics and has won numerous awards.

Fig 2: One of the Three main art styles used, in this case depicting Nina's Story

The film uses multiple different animation styles and is split into 3 different parts that rotate throughout the film. One part depicts the story of Ramayana, it is performed as a musical and uses the music of Annette Hanshaw to depict the journey of Sita. This part also features two art styles for its narrative and musical sections, the narrative is in a traditional Indian art style while the musical sections are in Vector Graphics. The part also parallels with a true story of Paley herself, drawn in a more sketchy style, it depicts her and her partner and their falling out of love similar to what Sita goes through with Rama. The third part is a interlude of sorts between the other two explaining the story in the style of Indian shadow puppets with the three characters discussing the story in a lighthearted way.

The use of the different styles of animation help in identifying what part is being watched and what to expect when each animation style is present. The format of the film is portrayed in Bollywood format with 2 acts and an intermission section of 5 minutes inbetween to hone back to the fact that Bollywood movies are often very long often around 3 to 4 hours in length. The use of songs through out also alludes to the Bollywood format Nina Paley wanted to achieve along with the common tropes of love and marriage.

Fig 3: Another of the Three Art Styles, this one is the musical number animation that was achieved through vector graphics 

The plot revolves around a loose telling of the story of the Ramayana, an Ancient Indian Epic Poem, going through the devine prince of The Kosala Kingdom, Rama, following from his banishment from his kingdom with his wife Sita and their struggles in the wilderness and also in their relationship. This is paralleled by another story playing alongside of the creator, Nina Paley, whose partner gets an animation job in India which eventually ends up with Nina moving to India too. However the relationship broke down after Nina had to go back to America, much in the same way that Rama left Sita.

The two plots weave around each other nicely due to the similarities in what happens to both Nina and Sita, with the downfall of each woman's relationships. The third part featuring the shadow puppets who explain the story in a chatty way is both humourous and educational. The animation in each part is impressive but especially in the opening and end scenes that uses the vector graphics from the musical numbers, it sets the tone for the film in a phenomenal way.

Fig 4: The Shadow Puppet Style used for exposition to explain the story of Ramayana

The shadow puppet segment in the expository sections of the film reference the old ways of Indian animation before the country's independence. Dadasaheb Phalke, India's first animator and known as the father of animation in India used shadow puppets and stop motion to achieve his animations in the 1910s. The interest in animation has boomed in India in recent years, from 1956 where Clair Weeks, a Disney Studios Animator helped in the training and the making of the first animation studios in the country. However despite is recent success in its animated films, India still as some ways to go before hitting international waters, from providing a way to allow animation to be more accessible to animators through technology but also in giving support for the production in animated films.


Biblography:

Fig 1: http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/SitaEPressKit/SitaPosterAgniA2.png
Fig 2: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1QkYOqI3jSM/maxresdefault.jpg
Fig 3: https://silverinahaystack.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/sita-sings-the-blues.png
Fig 4: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Jsq4ueHvHX8/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.maacindia.com/blog/index.php/evolution-of-indian-animation/

Adaptation B: Casting Call- Ludlow Fitch and Joe Zabbidou

Fig 1: Ludlow Fitch

Fig 2: Joe Zabbidou

Here are a series of actors that I envision would play the characters of Ludlow and Joe from The Black Book of Secrets. The main goal of this exercise was to find people that fitted with the character descriptions of the two characters. This is to help in envisioning a clearer understand of how I want my character designs for the two to be using the characteristics of these actors and director. The general aspects that I looked for when casting the two characters, was piercing eyes, a youthful face and a slim figure for Ludlow and wild hair, a tall and serious older looking man who fitted the mentor role that Joe provides to Ludlow. The ages of the characters are not specified in the book but Ludlow is a boy in his teens while Joe is anything 40 and above as deducted from the description of him in the book of having greying hair.

Critical Perspectives- Dissertation Proposal OGR

OGR Dissertation by Katie Lima on Scribd

Adaptation B: Tree Frog Studies

Fig 1: Pencil Drawings of Tree Frogs

Fig 2: Fineliner Drawing of a Tree Frog

I drew these as Joe's pet Saluki is a tree frog, specifically a Poison Dart Tree Frog. I hadn't had much practise with drawing these animals before so I used a selection of images of different tree frogs to try and figure out the anatomy of the creature.

Dissertation: The Cone of Cogency

Adaptation B: Environment Research

Pagus Parvus:

• "The village dated from times when people were at least six inches shorter and all dwelling were built accordingly." "- that doors and windows were made narrower than was usual and ceilings were particularly low"- Chapter 3 Page 11

• "It was a small village clinging for its life to the side of a steep mountain in a country-" "-It comprised one cobbled high street lined on either side with a mixture of houses and shops built in the style that was popular around the time of the great fire in the famous city of London. The first and second floors/ overhung the pavement. In fact, sometimes the upper levels  stick up so far out that they restricted the sunlight. The windows themselves were small with leaded panes, and timbers ran in parallel lines on the outside walls. The buildings were all at strange and rather worrying angles, each having slid slightly down the hill over the years and sunk a little into the earth."- Chapter 6 Page 27

• ";Pagus Parvus existed in a grey light that was cast by clouds that never seemed to go away,"- Chapter 16 Page 89

• "Sitting as it was on the exposed side of a mountain, covered in snow eight months out if twelve and rained on the other four, Pagus Parvus was not popular with  outsiders..."- Chapter 16 Page 89

Pawnbrooker:

• "The shop itself was quite tiny. The distance between the display window and the counter was no more then three paces. Joe went behind the counter and opened the solid door that led into a back room. A tiny window on the far wall allowed the dusty-moon-glow to lighten the gloom. The furniture was sparse and worn: two ladderback chairs and a table, a small stove and a narrow bed pushed up against the wall. In contrast the fireplace was huge. At least six feet across and nearly three deep, it took up almost the whole of one wall. On either side of the hearth sat a faded upholstered armchair. It was not much but it would do."- Chapter 3 Page 13

• "- I took the opportunity to examine the goods in the shop window. the jewellery was bright and pretty, the hurricane lamp was polished and looked in working order. The timepieces were wound and ticking."- Chapter 10 Page 51

• "He fixed to the pole the universal symbol of the pawnbroker: three polished golden orbs stuck together in the shape of a triangle."- Exterior, Chapter 6 Page 30

• "- Joe's display benefited from the addition of a flower vase in the Grecian style, a pair of leather braces with silver clips (one missing), a sturdy pair of scuffed boots (only slightly down at heel), and a set of decorative brass buttons. The chamber pot sat in the corner next to the wooden leg."- Chapter 14 Page 79

• "... Joe took everything he was offered, even the most ridiculous and worthless items- a moth eaten, slightly mouldy stuffed cat being one such example- and paid good money as he promised"- Chapter 15 Page 86

• "As most customers came in wheezing after climbing the hill, Joe instructed that a chair be set by the door and it was gratefully received." -Chapter 15 Page 87

Adaptation B: Character Research

Ludlow Flitch:

• "He truly was a pale and sorry figure, undersized, undernourished and shivering so hard you could almost hear his bones rattle. His eyes were striking though, dark green with specks of yellow, set in a ring of shadow. His skin matched the snow in tone and temperature"- Page 15

• "I took the opportunity to jump down and sneak a look in the cab, wherein I found a leather purse, fringed printed silk scarf and a pair of gloves. I wrapped the scarf around my neck and slipped the gloves over my numb fingers. The purse contained only a few pennies but it was a start."- Chapter 2, Page 8

• "As for the boy, his skinny, short-legged attendant who went him everywhere (Joe Zabbidou),he seemed a sly little demon. He wore gloves that looked suspiciously like his own, the ones Jeremiah was certain the coach driver had stolen. And those big dark eyes. Jeremiah had never once managed to hold Ludlows gaze. He always had to look away."-Chapter 19, Page 121

• "'I can run fast and curl up so tight I can hide in the smallest places'" -Chapter 4, Page 17

• "Ma suggested that I be sold to a chimney sweep. My skinny frame more than suited to the narrow, angled chimneys,"- Chapter 10 Page 49

• Wore a grey shirt- Chapter 4, Page 17

• "He resembled so many City boys, dirty and skinny. He certainly smelt like one. His clothes were barely functional (apart from the scarf and gloves which were of much higher quality) and he had a distrustful face that gave away the wretchedness of his past existence. His was bruised and his mouth was very swollen, but there was a spark of intelligence - and something else - in those dark eyes" Chapter 4 page 19

• Has all of his teeth- reason he escaped to Pagus Parvus was because his parents wanted to rip out his teeth to sell them to the rich for booze money-Established in Chapter 1

• Suffers from Travel Sickness- Chapter 2, page 7

• Pickpocket- Established in Chapter 1

• "Ludlow wondered idly if any had a pocket worth picking"- Chapter 6 Page 33

• "Ludlow was always a few steps behind, no higher than Joe's elbow, trotting to keep up"- Chapter 17 Page 97

Joe Zabbidou:

• "It was not easy to describe Joe Zabbidou accurately. His age was impossible to determine. He was neither stout nor thin, but perhaps narrow. And he was tall, which was a disadvantaged in Pagus Parvus." Chapter 3, Page 11

• "Joe was dressed suitably for the weather, though unheedful of the current fashion for the high-collared coat. Instead he wore a cloak of muted green, fastened with silver toggles, that fell to his ankles. The cloak itself was of the finest Jocastar wool." Chapter 3, Page 12

• "On his feet Joe wore a pair of black leather boots, highly polished, upon which sat the beautifully pressed cuffs of his mauve trousers. Around his neck was wrapped a silk scarf, and a fur hat shaped like a cooking pot was pulled down tightly over his ears. It could not fully contain his hair and more the a few silver strands curled out from underneath." Chapter 3, Page 12.

• "With every step Joe took, a set of keys hooked to his belt jingled tunefully against his thigh. In his right hand he carried a rather battered leather satchel straining at the seams, and in his left a damp drawstring bag from which there emanated an intermittent croaking." Chapter 3, Page 12

• "For now he had to deal with the pawnbroker. Every time he thought of Joe, That string bean of a character whose hair defied description,"- Chapter 19 Page 121

• "Without a doubt Joe was the breath of fresh air the village had needed for a long, long time."- Chapter 21- Page 128

• "Sometimes conversations with Joe were like riddles"- Chapter 16 Page 91

• "Joe was indeed coming down the street in his usual jaunty pace. He had the grip of a mountain goat. Right now one or two villagers were wondering whether his shoes did contain those telltale cloven feet."- Chapter 22 Page 139

• "Joe was a man of few expressions"- Chapter 16 Page 90

• Has a pet frog named Saluki- glistening skin in a patchwork of vibrant reds, greens, yellows. Unlike any frogs in Pagus Parvus. Her feet aren't webbed but instead more like long-fingered hands with knobbly joints and toes. - Chapter 6 Page 29 Treats her like a queen, feeding her the finest bugs, snails and worms- Chapter 16 Page 90