The prompt I picked for this was the Documentary Animation .
Can animation be a ‘document’ of an event? In what ways can animation be more ‘true’ than live action or photographs? What can an animated documentary do that other documentaries can’t?
When trying to think of a way to make an animation after thinking about the questions given to me, I realized that showing an documentary animation can show more about what happened but with less words and more of the emotions in the piece. In my animation I focused in on the deeper part of the meaning behind the assassination of Abe Lincoln. Showing the audience that even though John Wilkes Booth thought he was going to be glorified for killing Abe Lincoln, he wasn’t and he ended up killing himself because of his actions. Using Photoshop and After effects I created an animation showing the assassination of Abe Lincoln in a different way than it actually happened. In the animation it starts with the barn burning where Booth was found later on after the assassination and was shot and left in the barn as it was burned down. Showing his down fall first I then fade into the animation of a shadowy figure that creeps behind Abe Lincoln. When the audience is shown that the figure is actually booth Abe lincoln, then turns to look at Booth and turns into Booth himself. As the original Booth looks at himself he still believes that he needs to shoot Abe Lincoln, which in turn ends his life as well.
Matthew Donovan 