MIAF: Cut-Out Sessions



(Image Source: MIAF)

 One last post about the Melbourne International Animation Festival I wanted to mention is about their focus on the cut-out technique.  They have 2 sessions the first is a talk by Anna Jeffries and Isobel Knowles about their new film 'My Good Half' which is currently in production - everyone who attends the session gets a free ticket to see the finished film! (More info here).

Animation 103: Making a Cut-out Film - My Good Half
Wednesday 22nd June 5.15pm

(Image Source: MIAF)

The second session is on Sunday the final day of MIAF which is a screening of 12 animations which focus on the cut-out technique dating from the 1940's to a seleciton of recent works shown at the festival. (More info here).

Technique Focus: Cut-outs

Sunday 26 june, 4.00pm

Both sessions would be amazing to go to! If your unfamiliar with the Cut-Out technique here is a little sample below made by John Lewis for MIAF 2011.

Melbourne International Animation Festival Features and Interviews

(image source: MIAF)

For all you lovely folk visiting the blog for the first time we have been spending the last week interviewing all the Australian stop motion animation artists featured in this year's Melbourne International Animation Festival. Prior to this we also had the opportunity to interview the festival director Malcolm Turner! If you are interested in checking out any of these interviews please find the links below.

• Malcolm Tuner (MIAF Festival Director)
• Fiona Dalwood (The Batchelor Experience)
• Seamus Spilsbury (Blown Away)
• David Pennay (Remembering Bonegilla)
• Darcy Prendergast (Gravity)
• Chris Kezelos (Zero)
• Michael Greaney (Aww Jeez)

We hope everyone has a great week at the festival and goes along and supports it if they can!

MIAF Feature: Aww Jeez - Michael Greaney

Well we have finally reached the end of our MIAF features and are finishing up with Michael Greaney's film Aww Jeez. Michael's interview is an added bonus as he is currently overseas at Annecy for this very film (which is why we don't have any process shots or sketches!). He was kind enough to send us through a bit of info to share with you and some stills from the film.

Aww Jeez will be screening at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on Wednesday 22nd June at 8pm as part of the International Panorama Programs - Panorama #4: Australian.

Can you tell us a little about the story of Aww Jeez and some of the concepts and theme's within the film?

Aww Jeez is a short clay-animated film that takes religious dieties and puts them in a cheesy 50s sitcom environment. Essentially the story is; God is going away on business, but he doesn't trust his slacker son Jesus not to throw a party while he's gone, so he hires Satan, a former alcoholic, to babysit.

(image source)

The humor of the film is based around making light of religious mythology, while simultaneously exploring the way sit-coms utilise familiar characters and plotlines to create stories and explore ideas. The film really is my personal love letter to the situational comedy genre, so by using characters that almost everybody recognises, it allowed me alot of freedom to run wild, making a mixture of jokes at goofy sitcom cliches (like the flashy main character entrance) and more in depth religion themed humour. Fortunately for me I teamed up with an amazing sound designer and composer on the film named Ryan Granger who did an awesome job realising the kinds of theme music and audio cues which make sitcoms so fun and energetic.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the film? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

When I set out creating the look of the film I really wanted to pick a medium which I felt would properly capture the look and feel of a three camera sitcom. Clay-mation was the perfect choice for this, as it allowed me the opportunity to construct sets and control all the elements within, such as lighting and visual compostion, while still maintaining a stylised real world look.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen. Did you have many different prototypes? How did you make them?

The characters are all constructed on several different layers. To begin with I built an armature, which is a basic wire skeleton, for the puppets. The next step involved sculpting the puppets heads out of an amazing little product called super sculpy, which is as malleable as plasticine until it is baked, which makes it completely solid. The final step was to sculpt the rest of the puppets body out of coloured plasticine.

Funnily enough developing the main characters for the film was actually one of the things that took the most amount of time within the build stage of production. I really wanted to build stylised puppets that where still immediately recognizable as the deities they where based on, so this stage was a loop of sculpting, revising and reworking until finally reaching a functional puppet I was happy with.

Another important part of the final realisation of the characters was the voice actors involved. Darcy Prendergast, who played Satan, and Josh Thomas, who voiced God, gave some fantastic performances that really helped to bring those clay puppets to life. In both cases I had both of the guys screaming like maniacs into a microphone trying to get the right kind of insanity I was looking for.

Are there any future projects you can tell us about - stop motion or otherwise?

I'm currently working with the amazing crew at Oh Yeah Wow which is a Melbourne based studio, on a wide variety of projects including stop-motion and live action music videos and commercials. As well as being in the process of writing my next short which will be a rather politically incorrect clay-animated musical comedy.

MIAF Feature: Zero - Christopher Kezelos

(Image source: all image provided by Christopher Kezelos)

Friday's MIAF feature is with Christopher Kezelos talking about his short film Zero.

Zero will be screening at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on Saturday 25th June at 4:15pm as part of the Australian Showcase.

Can you tell us a little about the story of Zero and some of the concepts and themes within the film?

When throwing around concepts for the film, Christine Kezelos the film's Producer and I kept coming back to the idea of a world of numbers. We felt the imagery held ripe potential for a fairytale and allowed us to explore themes of oppression and prejudice that has dominated cultures throughout human history. Even on an individual level, we have all felt marginalised or out cast in one way or another and we knew that this would strike a chord in audiences. We also wanted to show that through the power of love and through the desire to make a difference, one person can change their own lives and the lives of others.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the film? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

I had been going through a macro photography phase. The rich textures and short depths of field lent itself perfectly towards stop motion animation and was accesible through my stills camera. Christine and I imagined that characters made of 'wool' would be ideal for this medium, up close the individual fibres and detail was so appealing .

Working with such a low budget, stop motion animation was an accessible technique for us. As we don't have any 2D/3D skills, this was something we could physically do ourselves.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen? Did you have many different prototypes, how did you make them?

Zero and all of the characters are made from wire armatures set in silicone casts. We initially started with 10 cm and 15 cm tall prototypes but we were unable to obtain the desired range of movement. Our final characters were approximately 25 - 30cm tall. Once the puppets went through the armature, mold and casting production line, they were then passed onto Christine who put on her Fabrication hat and individually wrapped each one strand-by-strand with wool. This took 3 months full time to complete 27 characters which we then interchanged with 40+ heads and numbers.







As Zero was in every scene his armature often snapped (sometimes mid shot) thus he required multiple stunt doubles. In the end there were 6 Zeros created, where all the knots, criss crossed wool and coloured thread needed to be matched exactly.



Are there any future projects you can tell us about - stop motion or otherwise?

Zealous Creative have just completed post production on their latest stop motion animation, 'The Maker'. It's a story about a strange creature who races against time to create the most important and beautiful creation of his life. You can watch the trailer at http://vimeo.com/zealouscreative/themakertrailer. To see behind the scenes pics, keep up to date with news and screening info, visit facebook.com/themakerfilm.



We also have a number of projects in different stages of development including a feature stop motion animation and live action TV series.



MIAF Feature: Gravity - Darcy Prendergast

(Image Source: Provided by Darcy Prendergast)

Today we are talking to Darcy Prendergast about the music video clip 'Gravity' which he created for muscian Sam Buckingham.

Gravity will be screening at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on Saturday 25th June at 4:15pm as part of the Australian Showcase.

Can you tell us a little about Gravity and some of the concepts and theme’s within the video clip?

To coincide with the cute, simple track, I decided to run with an equally cute, simple concept. Nothing too challenging or visually confusing. Essentially its a love story involving two bright yellow blobs, who are initially frightened by a strong gravitational pull towards each other. Their vibrant nature sets them apart from the bleak, grey 9-5 landscape which they inhabit.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the music video? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

Stop motion has that beautiful, inherent tactile quality that just cant be replicated any other way. Its always my first choice, I heart it so so much. As far as the look goes, I wanted to again keep within the simple and cute parameters the song seemed to set. Its no use juxtaposing ridiculously demonic visuals with a song like that- it just doesn't work. I think as a music video clip director, you're obligated to heighten the track- hell, overshadow it if you can. You want the two artforms to converge and form something thats 10 fold more powerful than they would be on its own.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen? Did you have many different prototypes, how did you make them?

I've adopted a pretty visceral approach to character design. I never draw or sculpt with a preconceived image in my head. I just begin, and adjust as I go. If something looks good, I keep it. If something looks crap, I change it. With such uncomplicated characters such as these blobs, its all in the expression and the posture, as you dont have much else to work with. Its boiled right down to its elementary form.

Are there any future projects you can tell us about - stop motion or otherwise?

Hells yes there are! Currently working on a new music video for Gotye, writing a live action TV series and I have a clay animated kids series in development with Nickelodeon, titled the Critter Litter. The other stop motion lads selected for MIAF are actually helping me out with it - incestuous old industry this one :)

MIAF Feature: Remembering Bonegilla - David Pennay

(Image source: All images provided by David Pennay)

Our MIAF feature today is with David Pennay talking about his film Remembering Bonegilla.

Remembering Bonegilla will be screening at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on Wednesday 22nd June at 8pm as part of the International Panorama Programs - Panorama #4: Australian.

Can you tell us a little about the story of Remembering Bonegilla and some of the concepts and themes within the film?

Remembering Bonegilla was created to look at life in the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre through the eyes of three different fictional characters 'The Colonel', 'Mara' and 'Joe' each highlighting a different perspective of how life was to them at Bonegilla. The animation was to be used as an educational tool to be shown on site at "Block 19” at The Bonegilla Migrant Experience (museum) .

Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was the first Australian home for more than 300,000 migrants from over 50 countries. Today the centre touches the lives of millions of Australian's and stands as strong testimony to the courage and resilience of all post war migrants.

I tried to give a small taste of the variety of experiences that some of the migrants experienced including themes such as the carefree life of a child to the protests of the jobless Migrants.

Initially I was not going to enter this animation into MIAF as it is part of the onsite educational experience that was not made to be a stand alone short film, but i thought that most people would get the gist anyhow.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the film? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

The look of the film had to reflect the lives of the 3 characters and what Bonegilla would have been like when it operated between 1947-71. So I went and visited the site and looked through the old corrugated huts that they used to live in to help me visualise and be able to create a real sense of the camp.

Stop motion is one of my favourite forms of animation, and when my clients said I could have free range in the artistic sense (as long as it suited their target audience) I jumped on the chance to shoot in stop motion, I really love getting my hands dirty and building sets and sculpting characters, it gets you away from the computer and you really feel like you are making something tactile, a small world that you become immersed in.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen. Did you have many different prototypes? How did you make them?

With the characters I had rough sketches of each of how I envisaged them being. I tried to reflect their roles and personality as I was given a fair bit of background history about each characters mixture, and just went from there doing research and then sketching again. I did a few rough practice sculpts then began to build the characters with a wire armature inside.

As sculpting is very tactile i try to let the characters come out of the clay with the drawing just as a guide. I had to make mouth sets for the characters and played around with two different techniques, with the Colonel I used a replacement mouth set that i made where his whole jaw comes out, whereas with Joe I just had small mouths that attach to his face which is a lot easier, as there was a lot of lip synching.

The capturing of the right voice for each character was curicial as it helps the characters come to life, and I was lucky enough to actually use the voice of one of the original migrants, he had some amazing stories to tell, whilst I was recording.

With my sets I used as much recycled and reused materials as I could, collecting heaps of old cardboard boxes to help make the corrugation walls and roofs of the huts.

Are there any future projects you can tell us about - stop motion or otherwise?

At the moment I have a couple of stop motion projects up my sleeves but they are still at the scripting stage, I am also currently working in conjunction with Croydon Hills Primary School as part of Arts Victoria, Artist in Schools Program, Helping grade 5 students create 3 separate stop motion animations. I also run after school animation classes at FCAC, my free lance work and also some collaborative projects which all keeps me very busy.

Remembering Bonegilla can be viewed on site at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre (north east victoria 12km of Albury Wodonga) or their website.

MIAF Feature: Blown Away - Seamus Spilsbury

(image source: all images seen in this interview were provided by Seamus Spilsbury)

Today's MIAF feature is with Seamus Spilsbury talking about his film Blown Away.

Blown Away will be screening at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on Wednesday 22nd June at 8pm as part of the International Panorama Programs - Panorama #4: Australian.

Can you tell us a little bit about the story of Blown Away and some of the concepts and themes within the film?

The film is about a clown who shares an unexpected moment with a small boy that helps him deal with the loss of his brother.

When the concept of the film first came about, I had strong ideas that I wanted to create a subtle moment between two characters. I didn’t want to have a grand ending, but just to offer the audience hope for my character in the future.

I wanted to represent the innocence of a child in the sense that regardless of how the clown may appear to an adult, the boy sees the clown as an entertainer and is there to make people laugh. When the balloon pops the boy experiences a moment in which reality becomes clearer, in this instance the boy looks past the clown's exterior, and sees an opportunity to help.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the film? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

The look of the film developed over time. I had an idea in my head to begin with but in terms of the final results it was an organic process. To begin with I thought that the film should have a cold tone with lots of blue shades to reflect the clowns feelings of loss and isolation. After trialling this colour scheme I thought using a warmer palette would further demonstrate the clowns loneliness and create a more meaningful contrast between the clown and the environment for the audience.

I chose to use stop motion because it is the medium that I know and that I love. From start to finish you are creating with your hands, you are physically involved with making the film. I am not a fan of using visual effects or computer animation. Stop motion allows me to shoot everything in camera, although it may not be photo realistic it lends a certain charm that can only be created by hand.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen. Did you have many different prototypes? How did you make them?

The clown design ended up being based on the first drawing I did. A few minor changes were made in terms of clothing but the over all look remained the same. The boy was slightly harder, mainly because I wasn’t sure how old I wanted him to be. I ended up basing him on my 7 year old nephew. After this decision was made the design process was easier, it was great for animation also, it provided a real life reference on how the character would move and interact with the clown.

The clown was built to be stationary, only his top half could be animated. His pants and hands were made from Sculpy because they did not have to be animated. His torso was made from plasticine in order to animate small arm movements, breathing and slouching.

The boy’s armature was technically more difficult because he had to be able to run, jump and crouch. For the boys armature I used K&S tubing as pivot points for his hips and shoulders. I wanted to be able to replace a limb in the likely event that the wire broke due to the intensity of the animation. This process allowed me to rebuild the small sections of the boy’s armature instead of having to re-sculpt the entire character.

Are there any future projects you can tell us about stop motion or otherwise?

I’ve just started production on my third year film, which is also stop motion. I’m also working with Darcy Prendergast and the Oh Yeah Wow crew creating a variety of amazing pieces of work. So stay tuned.

And on that note I might just add at the end here that we will be talking to Darcy on Thursday about his film Gravity!

MIAF Feature: The Batchelor Experience - Fiona Dalwood

(image source: all images seen in this interview were provided by Fiona Dalwood)

As mentioned in our previous post in the lead up to the Melbourne International Animation Festival we have some features on some of the best Australian stop motion animation films at the festival whose names were given to us in our interview with Malcolm Turner a couple of weeks ago.

To kick off our first feature we have Fiona Dalwood talking about her film The Batchelor Experience (which sounds hilarious!)

The Batchelor Experience screens on opening night at the festival which is Sunday 19th June at 6.30pm as part of the Best of the Next Program #4: Australian.

Can you tell us a little about the story of The Batchelor Experience and some of the concepts and themes within the film?

The film is about an exclusive restaurant-cum-gentlemen’s club in the heart of the city where patrons can be free to behave like a complete slob. The dress code is “No shoes, no ties, no pants” and that pretty much sums it up – the full blokey bachelor pad experience.

The idea came to me from time spent working in a very corporate environment, surrounded largely by middle-aged family men. I’d try and imagine what freedoms were left to them between the lives they lived at work and the lives they shared with their families at home. They’d disappear at lunchtime and saunter back into the office looking a lot more relaxed.

To me the film is a quick and cheeky look at the lifestyle we’re setting ourselves up for if we continue to allow our every movement and behavior to be regulated in the way that it is now. Community standards are becoming so uptight that I suspect taking part in even the most basic pleasures in life (such as drinking beer in your undies) will become underground privileges in the near future. In a world where we’re pressured to be amateur chefs each night or to pluck every hair on our bodies I wanted to explore how it might look if we put a price on something as simple as slobbing out.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired the look of the film? What made you decide to use stop motion animation instead of other animation techniques?

The Batchelor Experience shows us two sides to the same character, so I was looking for a quick and dirty way to convey the split between Albert the Suit and Dirty Bert the slob.

I limited my colour palette to two distinct moods, so the film starts with washed out greenish-grey hues ramps up to pulsing reds as Bert loses his inhibitions. It’s a very condensed nod to films like Heathers where our hero starts out inoffensively pastel and ends up a saturated monster. It was a fantastic challenge to set myself in terms of stop motion, particularly working with plasticene, because the process of making the puppets and sets is so much fun that the temptation is there to use every colour in the box.

Whilst my hand-drawn animatic was quite expressive in itself, I realized that two minutes isn’t a lot of time to work with and wanted to really make Bert come to life – this is where stop motion really shines. It has a magical ability to draw you in instantly and people are quite forgiving of ‘mistakes’. In fact, the title is a case in point – by the time I realised the typo I’d already made the main sign and shot the opening sequence, so I just had to roll with it. For me there was the added bonus of spending many hours painstakingly sculpting every tiny detail of the set and props – I find that kind of intricate crafting to be a very zen activity.

Could you talk a little on the process of developing the main characters and how they came to the final result on screen? Did you have many different prototypes, how did you make them?

My characters started out as cartoon sketches, and there wasn’t a lot of difference between those first drawings and what you see on film. I think in part that’s because I was working to such a tight deadline that I didn’t have a chance to muck around, but also because I was pretty happy with the initial look. As this was a comedy I wanted my puppets to keep that same level of cartoonishness, so built up the main shapes with very heavy lines and lots of exaggeration.

As this was my first stop-motion film and my first claymation, it was very much a case of learning as I went. I had some great teachers on hand for advice on how to construct the armatures and pretty much relied on luck to get me through the filming process – as it turns out the puppets I made are quite robust and still hanging out on my mantelpiece. I’m quite proud of my time-saving decision to give Bert a detachable head that could fit onto both bodies!

Are there any future projects you can tell us about - stop motion or otherwise?

I do work fulltime for The Man, which can be challenging for all artists, but I truly feel like I’m just at the beginning of something incredible and have found my ‘thing’. Currently I’m working on a small series of short 2d skits that I hope to string together into a web series. There are some freelance projects on the go but what I’m really excited about is the project I’m working on with AJR Traill (the voice of Bert). We’re in pre-production on “s.kEmo” a serial about – you guessed it, an emo Eskimo. I’ve also got some larger, more ambitious ideas up my sleeve for when I get some of that elusive free time. Next month sees the world premiere screening of my other 2d animated short “The Comeback” at the Revelation film festival in Perth. I’ll be heading over for the screening on the 19th of July, so if you’re heading that way be sure to say hi!

Melbourne International Animation Festival Schedule

(image source: MIAF)

The Melbourne International Animation Festival is only a few weeks away now folks and they have recently released their festival schedule here so you can plan your festival week!

We have some great features and interviews coming up from some of the stop motion animation entrants so stay tuned.