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Play, download and edit the free video Pulp Fiction: Re-Animated [Dissertation Project].

Done as part of my Masters Dissertation on how art design can enhance narrative and characterisation in animation.

To explore this I took well known movie scenes and used the audio to create new animations to see what animation could bring to the table. The aim was not to make a "better" shot (I'm arrogant but not that arrogant) but to simply use these iconic scenes to give the audience chance at having wider context for the story than simply what is presented here. This iconic scene from Pulp Fiction (1994) was picked for its strong power dynamic and bombastic acting from Jackson. The animation is heavily influenced by Ralph Bakshi.

The intent for some of the choices were:
Portraying the characters as Cats and Dogs is a very simple power reflection of the power dynamic. I avoided Cats and Mice as that first implies that Bret (the one being thrown about) is purely a victim where as a Cat we have the idea that while still in over his head he could have avoided the situation. Making Jackson a Dog also plays into the idea that he's just a gun for hire, following orders from an unseen master rather than being a predator out for himself.
The photo backgrounds are to create a disconnect; a moment of bizarre violence (Jules quotes the Bible and later believes God comes down and saves his life) but still rooted in a real if distorted world. The colours being shifted to red pushes the sense of anger and violence.
I added more film grain than my computer could really handle (render time was 2 hours for 42 seconds...) to add some grit and move away from the clean vector look of the digital animation. I also tried to slightly blur the colours to try and emulate the look of cel animation. It's not something you should notice unless I took it away. Something for the back of your head to chew on.
Evoking Bakshi and thus Fritz the Cat is intended to lean into the Pulpy part of Pulp Fiction, drawing a similar mood the the underground comix of Fritz.
Originally I had intended to downplay Bret's character to keep Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) as scary but likeable but as I boarded the piece and repeatedly listened to the audio I felt worse and worse for Bret and decided to really push how scary the situation was and how he seems both resigned to his fate at times but them also confused when it gets drawn out.

This was animated in ToonBoom Harmony, mostly hand drawn and then composited in After Effects for colour balancing, adding the backgrounds and over laying a generous amount of film grain.

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