Saints fans are doing way too much, and it’s the funniest thing that has ever happened. I’m not even suggesting that Saints fans shouldn’t be mad that their team lost. Transcript of Shaun Tan - The Lost Thing. Images from Shutterstock.com The lost thing, is a simple picture book composed by Shaun Tan that delves deep into a story of belonging, and social normality - the busyness of life. The integration of visual and textual techniques, creates a story recount.
VOCABULARY. Picture Book. Graphic Novel. Dystopia.
CGI (computer generated imagery) Animation. Split Screen Picture Book: a book consisting mainly or entirely of pictures, especially one for children.
Graphic Novel: a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and presented as a book. Dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Such societies appear in many artistic works, particularly in stories set in a future. CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) Animation: is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer-generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images while computer animation only refers to moving images. Split Screen: is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye. It is traditionally used to show multiple actions happening at the same time but in various locations, comparing presents vs.
Past, as well as a way to split up the screen in a visually creative way. Shaun Tan Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Tan has become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery. Books such as The Rabbits, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and the acclaimed wordless graphic novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout Europe, Asia and South America, and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, and worked as a concept artist for the films Horton Hears a Who and Pixar's WALL-E. Work Process: Initially, Tan worked in black and white because the final reproductions would be printed that way.
Some black and white mediums he used included pens, inks, acrylics, charcoal, scraperboard, photocopies and linocuts.7 Tan's current colour works still begin as black and white. He uses a graphite pencil to make sketches on ordinary copy paper. The sketches are then reproduced numerous times with different versions varying with parts added or removed. Sometimes scissors are used for this purpose. The cut and paste collage idea in these early stages often extend to the finished production with many of his illustrations using such materials as 'glass, metal, cuttings from other books and dead insects.'
7 Tan describes himself as a slow worker who revises his work many times along the way. He is interested in loss and alienation, and believes that children in particular react well to issues of natural justice. He feels he is 'like a translator' of ideas, and is happy and flattered to see his work adapted and interpreted in film and music (such as by the Australian Chamber Orchestra).
(Cited from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShaunTan). MAKING OF THE LOST THING. The film was in development since 2002 and took three years of full time production to complete between 2007-2010. Shaun Tan's background as a painter meant that he was more accustomed to working with 'still, silent pictures that allow a viewer plenty of time to contemplate individual compositions'. Animation, he discovered is a very different medium, 'where questions of time and pace are much more critical, not to mention layers of sound and music.' Quoted by Shaun Tan. Shuan Tan always saw the story in his imagination as a short film or theatrical piece, where the book presents a set of stills from some larger production, or a storyboard.
Almost every surface is hand-painted using non-digital materials: acrylic paint, pencil, oils and collage. This was to avoid any potential CGI look that would cause artificiality. Shaun Tan sketched everything out in pencil on paper first. The Lost Thing won the Oscar for the 2011 Animated Short. The Lost Thing was a movie about how a boy finds this 'thing' on the beach and takes it home, since he believes it is lost. Other people (such as his parents) believe the thing is filthy and don't want anything to do with it.
But, the boy knows better. When he is trying to find a home for the thing, he comes across a place to leave lost things there. He goes in, and the place is dark and smells like disinfectant. He comes across another thing, who tells him that this is not the place to leave the lost thing, that this is 'a place for forgetting.'
Then he gives him a sign with an arrow. The boy walks out and finds another sign with the same arrow. He follows all the signs that have the same sign and finally comes across a place with many other 'lost things.' The boy decides the lost thing belongs there, and says goodbye to it.
![The lost thing arrowwood The lost thing arrowwood](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125385069/511225418.jpg)
There were many metaphors in this movie. One was the lost thing, which I think was meant to represent someone who stands out, yet no one takes notice of it. The place that the lost thing is brought to in the end represents creativity and childhood.
And, at the end, the boy is grown up and says that he doesn't notice many lost things anymore, which suggests that you lose your creativity the more you grow up. By Thomas Barjak.
For only $13.90/page Places where imagination and distinctiveness are condemned force those who adapt to live a dull reality that holds no challenges or freedom of thought. Minority groups are set apart from the majority, with the mainstream becoming blind to those who are excluded simply because they don’t fit society’s standards. Shaun Tan’s “The Lost Thing” explores a world that directly reflects society and its inability to accept indifferences. Through Tan’s use of film techniques such as tones, costuming, and camera shots, the audience is able to have an increased understanding of belonging and the necessity of finding a sense of place in the world. Until an individual is able to find a place where they feel security and a sense of identity, they are unable to belong in the world. Conforming to a society that eradicates individuality and creativity results in a mundane existence without challenges and freethinking. The fundamental need to belong can consequently see many altering themselves in order to fit society and its perceptions.
A monotone narrative voiceover introduces the premise of the film, as the young protagonist reveals his wavering ability to remember stories that use to humour and amaze. Amused by the irony of his reflection, “I used to know a whole lot of pretty interesting stories, some of them so funny you would laugh yourself unconsciousbut I can’t remember any of those”, the audience’s rapport with this character is immediately established. Sepia tones are juxtaposed with the bright colouration of the lost thing portraying a dichotomy between the industrialised world and the misplaced ‘Thing’.
![Arrow Arrow](http://www.popoptiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LOST-THING-560x329.png)
Curiosity and a sense of trepidation lure the protagonist and the audience simultaneously. A playful bell on the Lost Things tolls waking the creature, which is followed by an increased diegetic sound including a growl, further displaying Tan’s use of dichotomy to create a distinction between the mechanical aspects of the society that the ‘lost thing’ has found itself in and its own gentleness. Dull and uniformed costuming of the members in society highlights the suppression of individuality in a conformed society. Dirty off-white coloured prison-like uniforms with numbering imprinted on each uniform illuminates to the responder their imprisonment and insignificant existence. A mob of members of society is seen walking in one direction, together.
This use of synchronized choreography exhibits their subconsciously controlled lives. Their robotic movement implies their loss of independent thought, forcing the responder to evaluate their own society. It becomes clear to the audience that more than anything, belonging is about finding a sense of place in the world encouraged by the use of these film techniques. As conforming is blatantly the prominent theme throughout Shaun Tan’s “The Lost Thing”, Tan expresses that following a society where imagination is lost can lead to mere existence rather than having purpose, yet the protagonist conforms nonetheless.
Tan stresses that although conforming might not be ideal it is by doing this that an individual is able to gain a sense of place in the world and consequently feel as though they belong. The majority of society is blinded to the ostracised minority, as they don’t follow the preordained path. The protagonist in this short film only finds the lost thing by chance, while no one else pays attention to ‘the thing’, as they have lack of sight for things they don’t ideally fit into their lives. An engaging panning shot around the ‘thing’ when the protagonist finds the ‘lost thing’ emphasizes the singularity of the ‘thing’ he has found, reflecting specific groups that don’t adhere to society’s perceptions of normality. The responder, consequently, is influenced to feel sympathetic towards those in society who don’t inherently know where they belong. Subtle allusion utilised when the protagonist goes to pick up what he believes will be a bottle top for his collection, but unintentionally discovers the thing, introduces the concept that individuals who have molded to society are blinded to any of their surroundings that don’t coincide with society’s expectations. It is implied to the audience that unless those that are different manage to intrude on the activities of popular society they would go unnoticed due to the subconsciously encouraged blindness.
The audience is humoured by the idea that due to his lack of sight the protagonist was unable to see the huge object that is soon discovered as the ‘thing’, but instead took notice of the small bell buried in the sand next to it, for which he probably mistook as a bottle top. This literal sightlessness is further enforced by the repetition of a specific line in the dialogue of the narrative voiceover, “too busy doing other stuff I guess” that is used when talking about how the ‘lost thing’ or ‘things’ go unnoticed. Specifically the very last lines, “I see that kind of thing less and less these daysmaybe I just stopped noticing, too busy doing other stuff I guess” leads the responder to assume that the protagonist has been absorbed into society and so has inadvertently gained that blindness, allowing him to be able to simply ignore the presence of the minority.
Through this line, the responder is now left feeling sorry for not only the ‘lost thing’ but for the protagonist as well. Symbolic representation, or the presence of the street-like arrow signs elucidate that society believes there is a path you must take, except that the chaos and disorder of these signs in many of the scenes suggests that following one particular path is difficult and that you shouldn’t have to just follow one path when there are so many to choose from. The responder is forced to question how a society can decide what particular path everyone is meant to take if there are ultimately hundreds of options.
The ludicrousness of conformity in a collective group of people is highlighted due to the use of this technique. Suppression of minority groups makes it difficult for the excluded to feel as if they belong. Through demonstrating that not belonging comes from feeling as if they have no place in the world Shaun Tan successfully instills the belief in the responder that without a possibility of belonging in a physical place it is not possible to belong in any sense. Through finding a location where one can feel a sense of acceptance an individual can achieve belonging, more than anything else. Conforming to society, although not necessary or ideal, can allow an individual to gain this feeling, even if it means adapting to dull surroundings that lead to nothing more than a mundane existence. Suppressed groups find it difficult to belong as they have no ability to feel ‘at home’ in a location, but through understanding this it is possible to apprehend that it truly is a sense of place that allows a genuine sense of belonging. Shaun Tan uses many film techniques to successfully display these concepts and ensure the responder is able to also grasp them.
Tan’s “The Lost Thing” ultimately displays a metaphoric world that reflects our own society and encourages us to question our own behaviours. More than anything else, belonging is about finding a true sense of place in the world.