My concept for this final outcome and project was to create dark tale about a man who turns into a beetle, gets kicked out of his house and then becomes one of the the Beetles. I wanted to create a surprising storyline to contrast with the sincere stop animation. Although, I don’t intend to be laugh out loud funny I think it is absurdly funny, which is how I feel about Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

The animation starts in a monochrome world, Gregor potters around the room after being undazed about how he is a beetle (similar to the short story). The parents hear him in his room and decide to investigate why he is not up for work. He struggles to try and get ready for work, but before he knows it his dad has battled through the door. When his dad catches sights of him he orders him to get out and batters him in apples. Gregor runs away and when he gets outside he sees this technicolour world of the 60s, he is in awe when Paul McCartney runs up to him. He is in deep admiration for him and whisks him away to play a show together. Next, you see Gregor on stage with the Beetles blissfully singing along. The camera pans towards him and the dialogue says “that all seemed to work out ok”. I like this blunt ending because it leaves you with a similar feeling to how the short story does. After reading the story I felt like there had to be more to it than the beetle dying. Obviously I was wrong. Also, mine has a happy ending.

This project has been a up hill battle as sometimes when it comes to animation its difficult to actualise what I see in my head, due to my amateur Premiere Pro skills (which have improved). I started the project by collating visual research which helped my vision for the aesthetic of the video. I also made multiple monoprints for some textures in the video and made some lithographs which I had intentions of making a poster or accompanying material. It’s upsetting that I didn’t have time to make one as I have a lot of unused visual material which would’ve been perfect for it. However, I’m glad that I have my lithography prints which do suit the aesthetic of the video.

I deeply enjoyed making this animation but it was indeed a labour of love. I learnt a lot about Premiere Pro along the way and how to use it correctly and creatively. Given more time I would have liked to have made better use of the background I feel like often there was a lot of white space on screen. This however did create an even better contrast to the technicolour world of outside which was my intention.

Also, if I was to do it again I think I would definitely rethink the character design, although I liked the little guy it was difficult to show responsive emotion on his face as he was so simplistic (which did make him easier to animate).

Overall, I am pleased with my efforts and the story comes through strong for me.