SMST216-05B Television.pptVIP

SMST216-05B Television Week 38 (September 19) The best of television: The Simpsons “Animation” From the Latin verb ‘animare’=‘to give life to’. The working definition…is a film made by hand, frame-by-frame, providing an illusion of movement which has not been directly recorded in the conventional photographic sense…[includes] cel, hand-drawn and model animation ..also now CGI animation. P. Wells (1998), Understanding Animation “Cartoon” Often used as a synonym for ‘animation’ but the origins of the cartoon lie in the animation of print comic strips. Cartoons, through much of the c20th, were largely tied to short formats and child audiences; ‘animation’ suggests a larger range of forms and artistic purposes (eg animation as art). Nevertheless, many cartoons are now regarded as ’art’, or the work of auteurs eg Walt Disney (Fantasia) , Chuck Jones, Tex Avery Animation on television (1) Some background information: television initially benefited from the 1948 Paramount Decision, which meant that major film studios no longer had guaranteed outlets for their films and cartoons. Studios turned to television for a place to screen such material--a shift accelerated by the move to double features and the elimination of first-half (“the shorts”) before the main feature Animation on television (2) These ‘shorts” included newsreels, serials, movie trailers and--most importantly--animation (cartoons) from major studios such as Warner Brothers and Disney (eg The Bugs Bunny Show, Merry Melodies) * These cartoons quickly migrated to television and were initially scattered across the schedule (occasionally appearing in primetime). Animation on television (3) By the early 1960s, animation was largely concentrated in Saturday morning slots (9-12.30) on ABC/NBC/CBS, with cartoons being made specifically for television (and child audiences) Cartoons were now culturally defined as a genre whose primary audience was children and not legitimate entertainment for adults as part of a