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Vewn and Don Hertzfeldt

Internet animation and emotional connection

Within this film essay project, I looked into a large variety of animations with a lot of themes, most of them focusing on emotional connection as a central point. The two that stood out to me as being largely different from the rest were vewn’s “twins in paradise” and Hertzfeldt’s “world of Tomorrow”. initially I was considering “it’s such a beautiful day”, however I realised the stilted dialogue within world of Tomorrow was very close to Vewn’s stylistic sensibilities as is the use of colour.

Both of these artists use the internet as their central sharing website. They gained a following online and then grew from there. As a result, they are both heavily tied to the internet as a medium for communication. World of Tomorrow critiques the state of modern media as consumerism and how it distances us from others. Vewn, similarly over her many works, critiques the heavy escapism of the internet and how it forces us to ignore reality.

Twins in paradise acts as a large-scale criticism of modern society. The two girls are never named but exemplify traits of mania and depression respectively. Both girls have their problems ignored by those around them until they are pushed to their breaking points. All the while the threat of nuclear war can be seen in smaller moments within the world. I think the ignoring of the nukes by the plot mimics the story of the girls and how their issues are also ignored until it’s too late. The story also criticises the American mental health system and its reliance on medication as well as virtual reality and how internet escapism can lead to people ignoring the reality around them.

World of Tomorrow also acts as a critique on the modern internet and society as a whole. Emily within the series has been repeatedly cloned so many times that she struggles to feel emotion and only knows facts about her previous lives and memories. She states herself that the memories of most people in the present, consists only of looking at screens of other memories. The society in general struggles with connection, replicating people as robots that do nothing, creating a boy in a display tube who can’t speak or move and Emily constantly falling in love with inanimate objects.

Dialogue

Both stories use an interesting dialogue structure. The dialogue is blunt and to the point. There is very little emotion involved in any of the lines. The exception being Emily prime who says whatever is in her head. Twins in paradise uses very scarce dialogue but the few lines that are spoken are always direct and slightly stilted in delivery emphasising a lack of emotional connection. The characters speak as if they are talking to a co-worker or reading their own script. I think this is intentional on the part of Vewn as most people over the course of all her films speak like this, creating that lack of connection that is integral to her work. Don Hertzfeldt however, only uses this dialogue delivery in this film. I therefore think this is a purposeful choice to make the future seem emptier and more devoid of emotion, the only times we see any subtlety or nuance to the dialogue is during the conversations between Emily prime and future Emily or when Emily prime discusses David, all scenes that show true connection overcoming societal disconnect. As Nick Bradshaw writes in his interview with Don Hertzfeldt for the BFI “not only does it continue to project Hertzfeldt’s stick figures across its cold universe, it redoubles his naive motif through the use of a child voice actor.”[1]

I believe world of Tomorrow is at its best in these moments.

Colour and style.

Most of Don Hertzfeldt’s work uses colour to effect, it’s such a beautiful day uses. Very little colour until the last chapter, in a way when compared with the body of his work, “World of Tomorrow” is his most colourful work. It uses large screens of singular colours with photographic overlays and simple shapes, this minimalist collaged approach gives it a very distinct look that feels emptier, like it’s focused more on substance than visual detail. This is effective for most of his stories as they focus on themes such as memory, where utilising the simple drawing and photography creates a distinct difference between the real world and the world of memories. This was also Hertzfeldt’s first foray into the digital medium which he explains as such in the same BFI interview: “They were both sort of futuristic ideas, which was interesting, since I was also eager to try out digital animation.”[2]Vewn on the other hand develops her style of visuals from the internet, many of her worlds are filled with advertisements and distinct accuracy to technology. While the tech is fantastical it still feels true to real life. Light within Vewn’s work has a hazy look to it and the entire screen is covered in film grain giving it the look of a computer screen. This is distinct to Vewn and showcases a world where everything surrounds this technology and relies upon it. The use of colour and shape is less relevant to the stories being told that Don Hertzfeldt but does give a weird sense of unreality and surrealism to the worlds, which further supports the main themes of her animations. Vewn’s style stretches the space as much as it can playing with perspective to emphasise this further. Hertzfeldt’s spaces are very much flat planes due to the limitations of the simplified style.

The main connecting point is their growth on the internet. Both made their start on different animation platforms, from smaller websites to larger ones like YouTube. As a result, their work is very much, tied to, and a mirror of, that environment. As both works state, there is good and there is bad within the internet, it can’t suffice as a true method of communication, we must maintain human connection outside of it as well.

[1] Nick Bradshaw (2020) Available at:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/don-hertzfeldt-world-tomorrow-stick-animation (Accessed: 22 December 2020)

[2] Don Hertzfeldt (2020) Available at:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/don-hertzfeldt-world-tomorrow-stick-animation (Accessed: 22 December 2020)

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