Real-Life Communication
Your clay animation studio has been hired to create scenes from
the English classic Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Unfortunately, you don't
know the story. The client, who is paying you to produce the work, has sent
over a copy of the first chapter that he wants made into a film sequence.
"Clay
animators must be able to read and interpret scripts and instructions from
clients," says John Lemmon, a clay animator in North Carolina.
Your
first task is to create a clay model of the schoolmaster, Thomas Gradgrind.
But what sort of character is he?
The book opens with Thomas Gradgrind
asking schoolchildren questions. He is a demanding taskmaster and believes
only in facts. He doesn't approve of creativity, romantic ideas or daydreaming.
"Stick to the facts," he tells his pupils, whom he addresses by number rather
than by name.
Read the description of Thomas Gradgrind found on the
first page of Hard Times. He is referred to as the speaker in the following
passage. By answering a few questions, you should get some ideas for your
clay model of the character.
Hard Times by Charles
Dickens
The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom
and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring
every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve.
The emphasis
was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows
for a base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed
by the wall.
The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which
was wide and thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's
voice, which was inflexible, dry and dictatorial.
The emphasis was
helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head,
a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered
by knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse
room for the hard facts stored inside.
The speaker's obstinate carriage,
square coat, square legs, square shoulders -- nay, his very neckcloth, trained
to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact,
as it was -- all helped with emphasis.
(Excerpt from Hard Times by
Charles Dickens: first copyright 1854)
Questions:
- Describe Thomas Gradgrind's mouth and voice.
- What is the predominant geometric shape that you will use to create Thomas
Gradgrind? That is, what shape does Dickens constantly use to describe Gradgrind?
- What does the top of Thomas Gradgrind's head look like?