Artist Statement Introduction

My name is Chance Newman.  I am a motion graphic artist, musical theater producer, and horror film fan. I credit my love for the horror genre to my parents who enjoyed going to the movies often.  Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, they took me to see suspense classics such as The Exorcist, Jaws, Halloween, Alien, and The Shining, all on the big screen. As a kid, I remember being fascinated by the audience’s reactions to what they heard as much as by what they saw. The music in those films made the theater audience gasp, jump, and scream.

For this project, I have designed a no-gore, fun-house-style animation everyone can enjoy.  The visuals recreate famous scenes from the featured films. These scenes will serve as a motion media introduction for a future documentary I am producing on horror film scores entitled: Killer Beats: Sinister Cinema Scores.

This animated project is a love letter to some of my favorite horror films, their music, and the composers who created some of the most memorable scores of any film genre. This work highlights twelve of the most iconic soundtracks, from Bernard Herrmann’s high-pitched strings in Psycho (1960); John Williams’s two-note terror lurking in Jaws (1975); Wendy Carlos’s ominous opus from The Shining (1980), and the spooky synth sounds of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Charles Bernstein’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Disasterpeace’s It Follows (2014).  Six additional scores from Dracula (1931), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), The Exorcist (1973), The Thing (1982), Beetlejuice (1988), and Candyman (2021) are also featured.

If you are not a horror fan, I hope you will enjoy this animated homage to these iconic films.  Perhaps you will want to explore one of these musical masterpieces. If you are a horror fan, I hope this project will inspire you to rewatch some of these fright favorites.

“Listen to them, the children of the night.  What sweet music they make.”

Dracula, Universal Pictures,1931

Type of Creative Output and Materials:

What are you making?

For my capstone project, I am continuing to build on my final project from last semester’s Moving Image Production course for a future short documentary on horror film scores titled, Killer Beats: Sinister Cinema Scores.

I am creating six new animated scenes in the same style as the previous six scenes from last semester.  These twelve animated scenes will combine to serve as the future documentary’s opening and intro for each featured film score.

Are you creating an Animation, a Game, a Video/Film Piece, etc?

This project will be an animated video with music. I will use a combination of motion graphics, 2D animation, keyframe animation, and video/audio editing.

Please explain the format you envision for your work.

The concept of this semester’s project is to match the same look and style as last semester’s Movie Image Production final project.  The 2D animation features recreations of famous movie scenes.  The style of those scene elements is a simple silhouette on the same motion graphics background as last semester’s final project.  For each animation, the camera will move into one scene and transition into the next scene.

The style is unique because I am hand-drawing the assets and animating them.  I will use the seven visual components of: Space, Tone, Color, Movement, Rhythm, Line & Shape for the 2D animations as outlined in AT 5833 Video & Sound Techniques course.

Describe the Techniques and/or Software you will be using for this work. Please keep in mind that you should already possess the skills to complete this work. This project is an opportunity to refine your interests and expertise. Can you cite the specific skills you will be using?

The 2D animated assets will be hand-drawn in Procreate. I will import the individual layers into Photoshop to clean them up.  I will import all elements into After Effects. I will create the titles and motion graphics for the background in After Effects.  I will import the final HD version into Premiere and add the film scores.  I will edit the clips in Premiere and export the final HD project.  I will then upscale the HD video to 4k in Topaz for the final version.

Subject:

Describe and explain the subject, theme, or concepts embedded in your idea for the work. This should be a significant section of your proposal.

The subject of this project is the musical scores from some of the most iconic horror films, set to animated visuals featuring scenes from those movies. The previous six animated scenes from last semester’s final project featured the musical works of:

·       Bernard Herrmann, Psycho, 1960

·       Mike Oldfield, The Exorcist, 1973

·       John Williams, Jaws, 1975

·       John Carpenter, Halloween, 1978

·       Wendy Carlos, The Shining, 1980

·       Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Candyman 2021

The six new animations for this semester’s project will feature works composed by:

·       Frank Skinner, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, 1948

·       Ennio Morricone, John Carpenter’s The Thing, 1982

·   Charles Bernstein, A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984

·       Phillip Glass & The Kronos Quartet, Dracula (1931) 70th Anniversary,1999

·       Danny Elfman, Beetlejuice, 1988

·       Disasterpeace, It Follows, 2014

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).  Music composed by Frank Skinner. 

This is the first of six new animations for the final project. 

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations, After Effects for the motion graphics in the background, and Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing. 

The Film

Larry Talbot aka The Wolf Man, tries to warn porters Abbott and Costello that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.

The Music

The music was composed by Frank Skinner.  According to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Skinner worked at Universal Studios from 1937 – 1966.  Skinner was best known for his horror film music in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Wolf Man (1941). But he also composed scores for comedy films such as Harvey (1950). Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein is unique since Skinner’s score gives the film the grand orchestra arrangement that audiences had come to expect from Universal monster movies but with the playful musical elements found in the comedies of the 30s and 40s.

The Animation Concept

According to Art of the Title the hand-drawn animated opening featuring cartoon versions of The Wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein’s monster was designed by Walter Lantz, co-creator of the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, depicting these three monsters.  I wanted to include the elements from this 1940s animation with the score to introduce this frighteningly fun film. I used a greyscale color palette since this is a black-and-white classic. The elements and titles are hand-drawn.

The Thing (1982).  Music composed by Ennio Morricone & John Carpenter

This is the second of six new animations for the final project.  

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations, After Effects for the motion graphics in the background, and Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

The Film

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) is a remake of The Thing From Another World (1951). 

The Music

John Carpenter is famous for directing and composing his films. However, in Anne Thompson’s 2020 IndieWire interview with Carpenter, the director recounts that Universal Pictures did not want him to score The Thing.  Carpenter enlisted Ennio Morricone, most famous for scoring Sergio Leone's western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  In the IndieWire interview, Carpenter said Morricone's initial score for The Thing was "too flourishy and ornate". Carpenter suggested to Morricone that he "use less notes."  Morricone did.  The result is the Main Title theme used in this animation. When Morricone died in 2020 at 91, Carpenter paid tribute to Morricone and his contribution to The Thing saying, "He brought out the theme of the movie that hadn't been thought of before. He added something to it, that I didn’t realize, didn’t ask for.”

The Animation Concept

The Thing takes place in the frigid temperatures of Antarctica.  I used a blue background to give it a cooler temp. The alien in The Thing is a shapeshifter capable of mimicking any living creature, human or animal. Its ability to be any one of the characters, including one of the dogs, is terrifying.  For this animation, I wanted to show a few of the more unusual forms that "the thing" takes throughout the film.  From a dog to a human-head-with-spider-legs, to a single drop of blood in a petri dish (arguably one of the greatest jump scares in horror film history) The Thing's makeup and visual effects are unforgettable. The elements and titles are hand-drawn.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).  Music composed by Charles Bernstein

This is the third of six new animations for the final project.  

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations, After Effects for the motion graphics in the background, and Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

The Film

Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.

The Music

The music in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street evokes a heavy electronic synth sound that dominated scores in the 1980s. In a 2020 interview with WTOP radio's Jason Fraley, A Nightmare on Elm Street  composer Charles Bernstein explains his process, "I had to come up with a vocabulary of sounds that scare and synthesizers were really good at coming up with scary sounds." In the interview Bernstein tells Fraley that the infamous "jump rope" chant was the idea of the film's writer/director, Wes Craven, “The girls were doing the jump rope and chanting. It was actually written in the script: ‘1, 2, Freddy’s coming for you, 3, 4, better lock your door,’ etc. My task was then to write the music under that chant.”

The Animation Concept

The "jump rope song" in A Nightmare on Elm Street is an iconic part of the film.  The jump rope girls animation style emulates a vintage holiday light display where only one part of the display moves (the girl's arms and the rope) while the rest of the display remains static.  

A Nightmare on Elm Street explores terror found in the safety of the suburbs.  The house silhouette represents stillness at night while the film's characters sleep peacefully in their homes. But when the animated lighted windows and red door "awake" the characters in the film have entered the nightmare.  This is where they are visited by the film's razor-gloved villain, Freddy Krueger.

Dracula (1931).  Music composed by Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet

This is the fourth of six new animations for the final project.  

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations, After Effects for the motion graphics in the background, and Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

The Film

Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.

The film version is based on Hamilton Deane’s stage play adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel.

The Music

According to the official website for the Kronos Quartet, in the late 1990's Universal Pictures approached composer/conductor Phillip Glass and gave him the option to score his choice of Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) or Dracula (1931) for Universal’s Legacy Monsters DVD collection.  Glass chose Dracula. The twenty-six-track score was performed by the celebrated Kronos Quartet including cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, violist Hank Dutt, violinists David Harrington and John Sherba.

The Animation Concept

Universal's Dracula is as immortal as the Count himself.  For the animation, I wanted to incorporate the iconic elements from this classic film.  Some include the arrival of the mysterious coachman who brings Renfield to Castle Dracula; the doomed voyage of the Demeter, the ship that brings Dracula from Transylvania to London where he wreaks havoc; the tools that Professor Van Helsing uses to slay vampires; and the Count’s vampire brides in white. I choose a black-and-white color palette to represent the tone of this classic masterpiece.

Beetlejuice (1988).  Music composed by Danny Elfman

This is the fifth of six new animations for the final project.  

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations, After Effects for the motion graphics in the background, and Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

The Film

The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out.

The Music

For Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton collaborated with his Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) music composer, Danny Elfman.  In a 2023 interview with GQ, Danny Elfman explains that it was actor Michael Keaton’s performance in Beetlejuice that he used as his inspiration for the music. “Michael Keaton brought this energy, and that's what I'm latching onto, that it's really intense, but it changes, changes, changes, changes on a dime because that's what he is." Once Danny Elfman saw the footage, he got to work on composing the music.

In the GQ interview, Elfman explained that Tim Burton let him go wild with no restrictions. “He (Burton) almost never told me that I've gone too far, fortunately, which is one of the reasons I love working with him." According to IMDB, the dynamic duo of Burton and Elfman would go on to collaborate on more than fifteen films together including the upcoming sequel to the original, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

The Animation Concept

Tim Burton’s art direction is what makes him a visionary. Beetlejuice is a wild ride of spooky comedy.  For this animation, I wanted to emphasize the amusement-park-dark-ride feel of the animations.  The assets appear and disappear to accompany Danny Elfman’s spooky fun score.

­­­­

It Follows (2014).  Music composed by Disaterpeace

This is the sixth of six new animations for the final project.  

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations. After Effects for the motion graphics in the background.  And Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

The Film

A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.

The Music

Rich Vreeland, aka Disasterpeace, brought his experience as a video game composer to It Follows.  According to Kyle Anderson’s 2016 article in Entertainment Weekly, Vreeland had only three weeks to complete the It Follows score instead of the original six-month timeline. Film director David Robert Mitchell and team had developed a “temp score” sampling material from John Carpenter movies and Vreeland’s FEZ video game score. Vreeland used Mitchell’s “temp score” as a reference but created original music with the feel of those early John Carpenter films such as Halloween and Assault on Precinct 13.  The result is a terrifying soundtrack

The Animation Concept

For this animation, Disasterpeace's brilliant synth score will serve as the Killer Beats: Sinister Cinema Scores theme music for the animated opening.  This animation will feature motion graphic elements from the other eleven films:  Dracula (1931), Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Psycho (1960), The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Thing (1982), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Beetlejuice (1988), and Candyman (2021).

Theme/Concepts

The theme of the animation style resembles an amusement park dark ride.  As the musical scores play the animated elements appear and move over a hypnotic, 1960s-animation-style, hypnotic background. The concept is to bring a playful quality to these spooky scores.

How do the subject and format of the project work together?

The animations are the visual elements that complement the featured musical scores.  These individual scenes will come together to serve as the film’s opening.

Influences:    

Please cite influences from the program that have helped shape your ideas.

Influences from the AT program that have influenced this project are:

·       The text, The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media by Bruce Block from Brent’s AT 5833 course

·       Artist Talk with Paul Chan - Hirshhorn Museum from Cathleen’s AT 5803

·       Paul Chan's 7 Lights animated installation , from Tess’s AT 5853

·       The Effects assignment project in AT 5853 Motion Graphics Techniques

These can be references to articles, books, readings, artists, websites, etc.

·       Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein soundtrack, Frank Skinner, 1948

·       The Thing motion picture soundtrack, Ennio Morricone and John Carpenter,1982

·       A Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack, Charles Bernstein, 1984

·       Dracula (1931) 70th Anniversary soundtrack, Phillip Glass & Kronos Quartet, 1999

·       Beetlejuice soundtrack, Danny Elfman, 1988

·       It Follows soundtrack, Disasterpeace, 2014

·       Music in the Horror Film: Listening to Fear

·       Terror Tracks: Music Sound and Horror Cinema

Can you cite any influences of your own that are not specific to the program?    

I am a fan of minimalist animation as seen in 1960s cartoons, national cable network branding, commercial advertising, and dream sequences in Hitchcock films.  Here are a few examples/links that inspired this project:  

§   

Scooby-Doo-Intro_(1969)_by_Joe_Ruby_and_Ken_Spears

Pink-Panther-Intro_(1969)_by_Friz_Freleng

TCM-Let's_Movie_Promos_by_Turner_Classic_Movies

Apple iPod Commercials

Name_That_Movie_by NCM

Vertigo-Dream-Sequence_1958_By Hitchcock

Spellbound-Dream-Sequence_(1945)_by_Hitchcock_and_Salvador_Dali    

Reflection: How have these influences impacted this project?

I have worked in broadcast media and television for twenty years where the industry standard unit is the 30-second commercial or promo. Building excitement for a program or product in this short format has always been a fun challenge. My broadcast media influences: the 1960s animated opening credits of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?  (60-seconds) and Pink Panther (30-seconds); the Apple iPod commercials (30-seconds) and Name That Movie bumper (30-seconds); and the Turner Classic Movie “Let’s Movie” bumper (20 seconds) inspired me to follow this short movie format.  Each relies on animated visuals and music to build excitement in under a minute.  Much like a movie’s “coming attractions”, these opener gives you a glimpse of what you are about to watch.  My project explores movies and their musical scores.  The animations provide a short, action-packed synopsis (approximately 30 seconds) of each film accompanied by the film’s music.

Since this project focuses on the music as the source for the visuals, each film’s soundtrack is a key influence on my animations. The tone of the music, whether playful scary or terrifying sets the visual tone for each animation.

Additional influences from the AT program such as Bruce Block’s The Visual Story helped me understand the use of space, color, tone, movement, rhythm, line, and shape to give depth to 2D objects.  Paul Chan’s 7 Lights series inspired me to use silhouette-style artwork for many of the assets. I felt that minimal detail allowed the viewer to focus on the musical score.

The dream sequences from Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Spellbound inspired the consistent spiral background in each animated scene.  This spiral provides an amusement park “dark ride” feel that can be spooky or scary without being gory.

Explain how you see this project fitting into the larger world of contemporary art or design:

This project intends to create awareness of the horror film artform and its musical scores for the viewer.  The animation provides a visual complement to the music. 

Consideration of societal or community impacts:

The featured films and scores in this project are some of the most memorable of any film genre.  Through these short animations, I hope that viewers will want to experience the films and music highlighted in this project.

Ideas for intended professional goals for this project

This project will serve as the animated opening and introduction to eleven films for a future documentary on horror film scores. The result will be a 4k short film that can be pitched to streaming services or independent movie theaters. In addition, I am exploring the possibility of using these short animations as stand-alone movie trivia vignettes that run at various movie theaters across the U.S. This project intends to educate film fans on horror films and their musical scores.

Technical

I used Procreate for the individual illustrations. After Effects for the motion graphics in the background.  And Premiere Pro for the video and sound editing.

Formal

These animations follow the format / workflow of the previous six animations I created last semester. Each animation will be 15-30 seconds in length.  I will combine this and the remaining animations to create the opening for the future doc on horror film scores entitled, Killer Beats: Sinister Cinema Scores.  The individual animations will also serve as the intros for each film.

Feedback

I incorporated peer and instructor feedback on elements such as format, text/titles used, and consistency in the style of animation.

Final Project Video

I hope you enjoy Killer Beats: Sinister Cinema Scores.

Bibliography

“Skinner.” Music and Performing Arts Library. Accessed July 27, 2024. https://www.library.illinois.edu/mpal/about/collections/specialcollections/collections_descriptions/skinner/.

Writer Lola Landekic. Published  October 26, 2014. “Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein.” Art of the Title. Accessed July 27, 2024. https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/bud-abbott-and-lou-costello-meet-frankenstein/.

“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.” IMDb, June 15, 1948. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040068/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_abbott%2520and%2520.

Thompson, Anne. “John Carpenter Pays Tribute to Ennio Morricone and His Haunting Score for ‘The Thing.’” IndieWire, July 8, 2020. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/john-carpenter-ennio-morricone-collaborated-the-thing-score-1234571852/.

“The Thing.” IMDb, June 25, 1982.

0https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520thing

“A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Composer Reflects on Scoring Freddy Krueger.” WTOP News, October 29, 2020. https://wtop.com/entertainment/2020/10/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-composer-reflects-on-scoring-freddy-krueger/.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street.” IMDb, November 16, 1984. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_8_nm_0_q_a%2520night.

“Dracula.” Kronos Quartet, February 13, 2020. https://kronosquartet.org/recordings/detail/dracula-soundtrack-by-philip-glass/.

“Dracula.” IMDb, February 14, 1931. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_q_dracula%2520.

“Danny Elfman Breaks down His Most Iconic Tim Burton Scores: GQ.” YouTube, June 15, 2023. https://youtu.be/8YPv1F5sGBs?si=431tUT5uLd9FVo1t&t=28

“Beetlejuice.” IMDb, March 30, 1988. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

Anderson, Kyle. “‘It Follows’: The Story behind Disasterpeace’s Score.” EW.com, December 20, 2016. https://ew.com/article/2015/03/27/it-follows-score/.

“It Follows.” IMDb, March 13, 2015. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3235888/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_it%2520follow