St Kilda Shorts – Monday Night!

It’s time for The Portable Film Festival to present the very best in its animation entries over the last year or so at the St Kilda Shorts Festival. We are presenting 14 films which represent a diverse range of production value and quality. All of them represent a high standard of creativity which goes without saying!

I got in contact with filmmaker/animators Pedram Goshtasbpour (Eleven Roses) and Fabian Dores Pais (Hot Town) to discuss the process involved in making their films…

Pedram Goshtasbpour

What came first, the choice of music or the story?

• Vibes first. Listened to the tune many, many times. Mining a coherent, character-driven plot from unabridged music is an often overlooked challenge. Words, albeit half of any drama or song or affair, do localize an otherwise universal language.

Is the older style looking animation a homage to anyone or any film in particular?

• Two. Though, a homage through conceit and form more than character or plot. — First, I find black and white fascinating. It’s unnaturally natural. Stark and raw. Maybe it’s because it’s spare, or because it snubs blush, or foregrounds the dims and shimmers more. All in all, humanity and drama and behavior don’t feel as bleached or bypassed or morally sweetened through a black and white discount. Second, I love lines. I love the fact that by nature they don’t exist in nature, but they’re the quickest most universal stab at her. Whether through art, Arts, text or tickers or standardized numbers, it’s all lines and lines are all intangible, virtual, pure and clear-cut abstractions — something non-existent in nature or raw politics. The modern western master who to me represents a polished mix of B&W with linear conduct is the late great Al Hirschfield. He is a junction of eastern mastery of spirited line with western penchant for worldly structure. His work has influenced many employable animators and character-focused directors.

For that matter is the film derived from or paying tribute to any specific story, filmmaker or film?

It’s more of a tribute, though deliberately daubed vague — even satirical. I enjoy subtle satire because it stirs the world conscious of its otherwise casual(ized) exploits and shame. So my sideways tribute here is to the story of cinema and glam-woods and manufactured tragedy versus reality, abstracted heroism, and our irrepressible worship of Stars — anything seemingly Higher and more popular and omnipresent than the Self. We are constantly enticed to recalibrate who we think we should be rather than who we truly are. It’s never really been about us being ourselves all the time. I guess that’s why we need slogans like Know Thyself, or Be Yourself, Keep It Real, constantly pounded in.

How long did the project take to complete, from planning to release?

- 2.5 years. I was often alone but none of it is because of me alone. Some personnel details I must mention here: Louis Solis gave us the awesome 2D-3D mingle that everyone loves. Lou, like our co-creator Jay Rennie, is a de facto wunderkind. Jay, who is gifted in every way, couldn’t join us for this film’s 3D reincarnation because he is happily married, with a wife and kids. We also all worked virtually, from various basements and nooks – Hell! I’ve never even met my associate producers Josh Prikryl or Iris Li or the 300ft crew in Hong Kong who delivered the final killer look! I think we’re in the middle-earth of a real-to-virtual paradigm shift here — I’m waiting for the first facebook marriage! — The me-in-soft-machine Pod Culture.

Anyway. Eleven Roses is a consequence of some tough talented artists who took a chance on an odd plot, and didn’t flake off. Ramahan Faulk, Kris Kapp, James Jacobs, Drago Avdalovic and Marcin Nikiforuk and Ray Ng and Richard Smith and Scott Guppy and Dimitrios Tsotos need to be champed here also because they persevered even when production hit some dismal bumps and halts. While Rich and Scotty churned out deliciously deviant animation, Dimitrios supervised the cross-continental visual effects as well as the film noir sendup that Ray had styled. Hopefully I’ll get to work with this talent tank again — this time for money I hope — rousing odd new yarns. Luck’s at most half the solve.

Fabian Dores Pais creator of Hot Town

First for my bio; I studied during 4 years of illustration in high school ( St luc Liège 2000-2004).
After that, i worked as a social animator for disabled people until now. During my free time i began to study 2d animation by myself. It was a long process for me, just learning with tutorials on the web.

For hot town, my goal was to realize a short with many different techniques. You know, i didn’t want to work on my computer. It was the beginning of summer and it was really fun to work outside with my brush. Many people were watching me as i realized some sequences (like the sequence with the old man with his hat on the rail), and it seemed that they considered me like a crazy man. ( i take a shot, i move the head, i take a shot …..)

For the style of hot town, I just worked with black and white like the vintage cartoons in the 1920′s and 1930′s.

Get down to The St Kilda Shorts Festival on Monday night 23/11/09 at Dogs Bar 54 Acland Street, St. Kilda. We’re showing some of the best in animated short films to come out in the last year or so the world over and look forward to having a glass of wine and a chat and we hope to see you all there!

James