Unpacked, Flatpack’s titular “Show-and-Tell Day”, gives the audience a chance to discuss all the different aspect of a filmmakers’ work.  The event was split into four parts, the first showcased David O’Reilly. However jet-lagged the animator was, his presentation was brilliant. He began with a short introduction, displaying some of his early work as a concept artist, then showed segments of his feature lengths such as Son of Rambow.  He topped it all off with a 10-minute animation entitled, “Please say Something” (shown above) which won a Berlinale award.

As David began to discuss his methods of creating the animation, he unravelled the process behind his filmmaking. Essentially, he stripped down the animation process to its basics; choosing, instead, to find the simplest and quickest method to make an animation.  He is a purist at heart.   Expanding on this, he began to show us how he had set himself rules, such forgoing the “blurring effect,” choosing instead to pixelate the characters in the background to make the foreground bold.

The rules are based on David’s theory on authenticity.  David explained how realism is a science used to emulate the real world; whereas authenticity is creating a new world that is believable; a world with it’s own norms.  For example a sport simulator is aspiring to realism, whereas a film like “The Incredibles” is creating an cartoon world, but because everything follows the world’s rules, it’s believable (authentic).

He explained that when authenticity goes wrong it causes people to be pulled out of the film and remember the medium they are watching. This occurs a lot in mixed-medium, such as with CGI in movies, when people pull themselves out the plot and think about “how great the special effects are”; the ultimate goal in authenticity is to have people forget about the medium and be immersed in the film itself.

David put so much thought into his work, developed around profound theories,  whilst humbly reminding us that these are only his ideas.  It amazed me even more that the self-taught animator is only 23 years old–he clearly has a bright future ahead of him.

Then the filmmaker, Jim LeFevre presented next (he as well truly related to David’s sentiment about stripping the medium down to its basics.)  He showed us how he distilled his brand of animation; using only a turntable, a video camera and mini-figurines.   The evolved process looks like this clip below:

He discussed his technique, he had the video camera linked to a projector, with the turntable in front of the audience. As it began to spin, the animation started flowing and the audience was awed.

Next Nic Rawling, an illustrator shared with us his story about how the “Paper Cinema” came to be, demonstrating how he uses his cut-outs, an onstage camera and live music to create an ingenious live performance. He demonstrated techniques of zooming out, creating an effect of going through a key hole and moving over still images to create a sense of motion, but he kept stopping after demonstrating each effect. I wished I could see the whole show, luckily the next day I got that chance to see the Paper Cinema perform at the electric cinema.

Overall “Unpacked” proved to be an insightful event for both the cineaste and the casual cinephile.  A truly rare opportunity to engage in intimate conversations with up&coming filmmakers in one of the best moments of Birmingham’s Flatpack festival.

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For more info on the festival, visit: “Flatpack Film Festival” official website.

For more Photos click here.

David O’Reilly’s official website
Paper Cinema’s official website

via Mubarak Elmubarak, 20 March 2009 5:17pm | 2 |