Saint Winifred

So far, my final animation is going to be the telling of an existing story in a different way. But, even though I'm not creating the story, I still want it to mean something to me, be relevant in some way. I then came up with the idea of creating an animation based on a story about Wales. I started researching legends and tales from Wales. The most popular choice would have been the story of Beddgelert (the grave of Gelert), the dog who is killed after trying to protect the owners baby, only to be mistaken for the attacker. But it is such a well known story, and adaptations of this tale already exist.

Disney's 'Lady and the Tramp' (1955) features a scene where a rat tries to attack the baby, and the Tramp manages to fight him and win, but in the struggle knocks over the baby's cot. When they see the baby on the floor and a strange dog, they assume it was him. 

Image: Scene from 'Lady and the Tramp' (1955) Disney

Also, I would like to portray a story a bit closer to home. There is a famous story about my hometown of 'Holywell', named because of the Holy well. The story is about St. Winifred, a woman who decapitated by her suitor Caradog. Her head rolled down the hill and a srping appeared where it stopped. Later, her head was rejoined to her body, and she was restored to life. The spring appeared to have healing qualities, and still exists today. 

     Images: Left - A window painting of St Winifred

                  Right - The holy well

It is a difficult story, as it is quite a shocking one. with a decapitation and returning to life. But, the other animations I looked at didn't have happy stories to begin with, they twisted humour into them. 

So I started looking at ways to portray St. Winifred. It would be in stop motion, and I'd most likely make her out of material. Although, plasticine does add a exaggerated look which makes a comical effect. I drew a first character sketch:

Image: Sketch by Cassie Austin

After talking with Leonie, we firgured that this story is quite a harrowing one, difficult to portray the way I wanted. But I could still turn this story into an animation, just not a comical one. 

However, over the summer, I tried to develop this and think of ways to do it and still enjoy the animation I was creating. I decided this wasn't the story I wanted to make.