Amazing!
This was my first time in MAF and I was so really to see all the brilliant films and shorts. I expected it would be very much similar to BAF so i schedule my three days a day before! waking up at 5:30 a.m was a real struggle haha!
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| my schedule! |
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| day1 tickets |
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Inside the cinema
So I watched 6 different things on Tuesday, and saw a lot of amazing things and here are the highlights: |
Jonas and the Sea, Dir Marlies van der Wel/ Netherlands 2015
Cut Out, Digital 2D
The animation is about a man who has been dreaming about living in the ocean since he was small. He keeps trying until aged and eventually achieved his dream to live under the sea. The story is simple and the aesthetic is supporting the innocent thoughts of the man. Cut out allows more fairytales impression that adds a lot of flavour to the visual. The use of colour also amazing, I can feel the sadness and loneliness through the colours at night. I think it would also work as stop motion since they have a similar output on the story, some of the cut out looks very 3D which gives the story more textures and depth.
Dir Emilien Davaud/France 2016
CGI
Birdz is my favourite animation on Tuesday. The humour and innovation within the story is incredible. In many stories, we tends to anthropomorphise animals into human but this twists our mind by reversing the theory. It is extremely fascinating to figure out what are these creatures at the being by studying their habits and movement. That period of discovering is the most well-done part I have ever seen, especially the use of sounds and the precisely captured birds movement. The use of 3D allows more realistic appearance and more difficult actions that birds have for instance dancing in air, flying as swarm etc. It might be intentionally not to give the birds any colours to prevent audience noticing their identity at the first place but I think they could reveal some colours as the story goes but it would not make huge difference. Absolutely brilliant and definitely worth watching it again!
LOS AERONAUTAS, Dir Leon Fernandez/Mexico 2016
Digital 2D
Amazing puppet model and animation. The story is exciting and certainly is a silver screen quality. I wish to see more! The puppets have great details like wrinkles and glossy eyes and the customs are realistic as well. But i was scared by the look of them at first but soon feel a lot less intimidated after seeing their tough life and bravery. The message behind is kind of political personally. Do not blindly follow the rules, we should always have curiosity and fight for justice.
Fox and the Whale, Dir Robin Joseph/Canada 2016
CGI, Digital 2D
Fox and the whale has a lot of beautiful backgrounds that shout the beauty of natural. All of us were attracted by the breath-taking visuals which are realistic and magical at the same time. The simple design of the fox does not feel odd together with the realistic backgrounds and the whole animation emphasises mainly on the backgrounds. However in story wise, I do not understand the story at all and even a bit boring. The story does not explain much about the characters and it ends quite uncanny. Nevertheless, the backgrounds resemble to Studio Gibli's and I think they have a huge influence from them which is also good to see how people want to raise the awareness of protecting the nature.
Under The Apple Tree, Dir Erik van Schaaik/ Netherlands 2015
Stop Motion
It is in the highlights because the animation is outrageous. I did not expect the story would end up the way it did and the idea is very crazy. It is hard to say whether I like it or not. Technical wise, I admire the use of puppet and the movements are smooth and in very high standard like Aardman but the script is a bit too crazy, it is a bit cheesy. I would love to see more animation from this artist but maybe with a less explosive content and have the main characters that are not worms.
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| Masterclass by Folimage's leading sound designer, Loic Burhardt, explaining the use of sounds in movie. |
Phantom Boy, Dir Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol/ France, Belgium 2016
Digital 2D
We had a masterclass by Mr Loic Burhardt, leading sound designer from Folimage, to talk about how sounds in Phantom Boy work with the animation. He said sounds do most of the narrative work which could even allow less animation while the sound should be telling a story on their own as well. It is all about hearing and listening more in daily life, pay more attention to the surroundings and that is what inspires Burhardt. Some people asked about suggestions of sounds in horror movies, Burhardt said it might be good to use real sound track like live action film sounds in order to increase the impact and try smashing up vegetables sounds for cruel scenes. He said it is the most realistic sound we could get without really abusing a real person. Other question about easing out tension, he said that it depends on whether you want audience to be surprised or not. If you want to make them jump because of a sudden event, do not use preparing sound, like easing into a bigger sound effect. The talk is useful that mention about how important sound is to a complete story. I seldom have sound in my animation and it is time to consider about including some in, definitely more interesting and audience would be engaging more to the story.
The movie itself is very good as well. Interesting idea and very nicely drawn. I pay more attention to the sounds after the talk and really see the effect it has on the story. It adds more emotion to each scene and make the scenario cohesive. I love the way the police and the boy communicate when the boy is out of his body as a phantom, so many clever plots and actions to make the story even more fascinating. I think the story could include more depth with a little more details on the characters, the evil plan could be more evil and better performed ending but rather than that it is still an awesome movie!
Dirs Michael Fiore, Erik Sharkey/US 2016
Last but not least, end my day1 with a documentary of Floyd Norman who is the first African-American animator at Disney, documenting his life as an animator and the dedication to his job. He could not stop doing what he loves even after retired and have stood up for his race and difficult situation he encountered in his life. I leant that never stop drawing and animation is about the real life. He uses animation and comics to express himself many times and the sense of truth behind the work creates empathy. In spite of the skilful technique, truly loving the job you like is the key to have a fruitful life.
