Feb 23, 2013

To This Day, a short animation about bullying

The most talked about online animation debut this week is "To This Day," a spoken word poem written, composed, and performed by Shane Koyczan and animated by over 80 animation artists who took turns animating it. The seven-and-a-half-minute short has already been viewed nearly 3.5 million times on Youtube and an additional 134,000 views on Vimeo.

The film's anti-bullying message is powerful, but its impact comes almost entirely from Koyczan's passionate narration. Animation and an overproduced score serve as charming garnish, but do nothing to enhance or elucidate the emotions at the core of the vocal performance. This is not to say that the work is a complete waste of time, because it is clear that a great deal of effort has gone into this work. While all current animation and motion graphic styles seem to be represented, the novelty of the fast-changing visual style does not feel like the most effective way to support Koichan's narration.

The interchangeable feel of the images has much to do with the way Giant Ant, a Vancouver-based design studio, launched the project. They asked dozens of artists to work on a 20-second piece over a period of 20 days, and then had multiple artists work on animating the same portion of the film. They then cut out the fragments they thought best suited for each scene. One of the artists involved in the project told me:

This is a great example of crowdsourcing in the 21st century. Everyone works hard on a small chunk for no pay, only the best part of that small chunk is used, and the rest is discarded.