A Brand New Psycho

Flashforward2004.com is full of amazing flash animations. I’m definitely going to be spending a lot more time there. The animation I looked at this week is called “A Brand New Psycho.” The name itself makes your mind anticipate what it is going to be about. It makes you think of all of those movies you have seen with Freddie and Jason, or the Candyman. When the animation is loading, it begins with a tall, narrow white rectangle on a black background. As the animation loads, the white rectangle gets wider and eventually reaches the other side of the screen. When the animation begins, that white box remains on the screen just as it is and the music begins. At first, there are only mysterious, frightening sounds, but then, a fast, heart-pounding beat comes in and that plays throughout the animation.

So far, there is the name, “A Brand New Psycho,” a blank white screen, and this music. These elements leave the viewer wondering what is going to show up on that screen. It turns out to be a very simple, yet very effective line drawing. A man with button eyes and a striped shirt is on a train. There is not a lot of movement, but the camera angles are constantly changing to keep up with the music. The only time there is any color is when the man is shown through the surveillance cameras. Then, the screen is a very light blue/green. The surveillance shots are important because they provide the day and the time.

The man gets off the train and he sees some graffiti on the wall. It says “tomorrow.” While in the train station, the camera cuts to a shot of two other beings that have guns. Then, it shows the man next to another bit of graffiti that says “run.” As he reads the graffiti the other two beings begin to shoot at him. This part was done with a lot of creativity. Instead of the normal bullets that we all would expect to come out of a gun, these guns fire small square blocks that have death-related images on them like the skull and crossbones, and the skeleton of a fish. For a while, the gunmen are not shown. The man is just shown being chased by these bullet images. I found this idea to be very effective.

Eventually, the two gunmen capture the man and at the end, the three of them are shown sitting on the train together. The two gunmen are on the left and the man is sitting across from them on the right. The last bit of graffiti is shown and it says “Alone.”

This animation tells a story with no spoken words. The surveillance camera gives the viewer a time frame, the action shows the viewer what is happening, and the three pieces of graffiti provide a strong sense of beginning, middle and end. “Tomorrow” is there because in the beginning, it is late Friday night and soon to be Saturday. “Run” helps to introduce the chase. “Alone” is interesting because the man is literally alone in the beginning of the animation but there is a sense that he is much more alone when he is on the train at the mercy of the two gunmen.