I'm Falling
In 1960, country singer Hank Locklin released a song entitled 'Please Help Me, I'm Falling' which was about a mans desire for someone other than his spouse. Shortly after it's release, country singer Skeeter Davis created a song which in essence was a response to the lyrics in Hank Locklin's song. I heard the songs not long ago on late night radio for the first time. They played Locklin's which then bled into Davis's. I was intrigued. Being aware as I was that they weren't the same song but in some way had the same feel. I was rather surprised that I hadn't heard the inspiring songs before. CONCEPT These animations are accompanied by the two music tracks and hopefully convey my perception to the pensive nature one finds themselves in when listening to them. The man always faces to the right and the woman to the left. As if walking up to each other in parallel worlds. Two worlds which can be likened to the very different life experience of men and women. They never meet, they never cheat, they simply go on pondering the vast absence of their loved one. Taking the analogy of a coin, neither side sees the other but they both coexist all the same to make a whole. At the beginning of both sequences they imagine the other person is with them in a fashion that is ideal to them. The man imagines her with him in a coffee shop because for him that is happiness. The woman imagines him reaching out to her under a tree in a park because for her, this is happiness. Likewise at the end of both sequences they both imagine their loved one behind them reaching for them but never quite touching them. As if to say they will try to move on and put the love they each have behind them. STYLE I chose to make these animations in the style of shadow puppet performances. I've always been facinated with shadow puppet shows as they seem to always convey a strong, profound message about worldly experience. Whether in mythical form or in journalistic form. Of course, it is clear that they aren't actually shadow puppets, but the implication that the characters existence is being determined by something outside of themselves (i.e., the sticks that hang down and fade away) is oddly comforting. These songs for me are about the adventure of longing for something completely out of reach. In reality, if they did end up together they would have new challenges. But that is another story.