Finished "Our Story" (Animated Spoken Word Poem) Final Major Study at BCU

Our story is a highly visual animation I completed for my final year Major Study at Birmingham City University. This includes not only rotoscoped footage but other forms of animation processes with the use of cameras in and out of After Effects. This includes frame by frame 2D, hand drawn stop motion, live action with a mix of animation, kinetic typography and even flipbook animation.

It's a very personal piece with wanting to convey a strong message in the form of a spoken word poem. This is to outline common traits and essentially raise awareness for Aspergers Syndrome. The way that it's spoken and lyrically written makes it overall a very heart-warming animation, saying that nobody should be considered weird, or different. Although weird is good sometimes!

The animation is jam packed full of symbolism, ranging from personal thoughts on how Autism affects me to how others see the spectrum. Even since my very first thoughts on the project I wanted to create a highly visual piece, even titling my dissertation on enhanced art forms. This is because some of us, especially those with Aspergers Syndrome can struggle to understand something by just hearing audio. Radio stations bore me, and I sometimes can't even figure out the simplest meaning behind a good song. So with this spoken word poem, I used as many animation forms I knew well and knew would work together to indulge the audience in this heavily visualised animation which makes the poem a lot more clear and memorable.