I am completely uncertain on how to approach this task, so I have decided to start by familiarising myself with the overall history of animation very briefly. As I cannot possibly just explore one animator/animation without having any background knowledge of the industry or the theory and insights behind the art.
Then, the process of choosing a topic and subject for my presentation included recalling some of my favourite animated films & series that I grew up with. Initially, I was planning to focus on Disney princesses and their influence on young girls and guys. Also, I wanted to compare the remake of the old Disney films to the more recent versions and how the remake has been influenced by the current times and generations. Then I was interested in looking into Sitcom Series.
Overall, doing some research about Disney and American Animated Sitcoms was beneficial for me but I decided that I would like my presentation to feature animation from my own country. So the first thing that came into my mind was the sitcom animated series + film “Balgar” – by Nedlcho Bogdanov. As I am a great admirer of animated series and I have watched so many of them. There are very few iconic Bulgarian animations and “Balgar” is definitely one of them. The others that I know about are either very old or not that interesting to me. I’ve been watching “Balgar” since I was little and I admire not just the animation but the story of the animator himself.
After thoroughly doing my research on the topic I also contacted Nedelcho Bogdanov through his Instagram page. Very surprising to me he responded. His words/story were very inspiring and the fact that he took his time to answer my questions was so motivating for me. Without his help, the contents of my presentation would have felt just as “dry” information. His involvement truly gave it its spirit.
After my conversation with this animator, I felt truly motivated and inspired. Reading books, watching tutorials and doing research seems like a plain approach to a matter. When you have real contact with an experienced person and when they honestly share with you and reveal their artistic mind is when you can actually learn real-life and industry stuff. Contacting him and his responses also made me feel a real animator in a way. He spoke to me as if I am equal to him and gave me insights and advice about the animation world. I cannot describe how thankful and happy I feel about this! I would like to contact him again in the future and present him with my work… and we can talk animation again!
For the Design of the Presentation, I wanted to make it quite playful, simple and clear. I made sure to only use very little text and include only key points, as too much text distracts the audience from what you are saying/presenting (people can’t really listen and read simultaneously). Also because it is not a good presentation if you write everything on the slides and just read it out to the audience – this is not engaging at all! To make it more silly and “animation” like, I included fun gifs from popular animations (almost on every slide, always based on the content being presented). I also selected a short video, (which I translated myself) to include in my presentation; in order to familiarise my audience visually with the content.