Pérolas para porcos

Although I would love to live and work as an independent animator, the reality is that it will take an indefinite amount of time for me to be able to make a living as such. Even when one day I will be able to get paid for my own creative projects, this won’t be something that will happen that often nor constantly in the future, in other words, it’s definitely not a financially stable career. In addition, with the end of my final project, it’s quite apparent to me that I still have a lot of basic level animation related subjects to learn, especially when it comes to planning, production process and post-production editing.

Preferably I would like to work as a director, or even as a director assistant, where I could probably do some research and experimentation, but I don’t think that’s very common in the early stages of an animation career. Alternatively, and similarly to my fashion background, where I feel the most confident, comfortable and creatively stimulated is in the atelier creating, and I would especially love working in the making of puppets of all kinds, as well as sets and props. I also really enjoy the early stages of an animation project, especially storyboarding which is a job that could even intersect with other entertainment industries like live-action and video games. But overall if I could choose which kind of studio I would like to work for, it would certainly be stop-motion studios.

In London there’s Nexus Studios which is currently one of the most popular animation studios and they have worked on a lot of exciting stop-motion projects, including “The House”, and there’s also A+C Studios which focus mainly on stop-motion techniques and they’ve worked on Ida Melum’s “Night of the Living Dread”. Outside of London, there’s obviously Aardman Studios in Bristol, who are world famous for their clay puppet animation, especially for making “Wallace and Gromit” and “Chicken Run”. In Lisbon, Portugal, there’s a relatively new animation studio called Sardinha em Lata and they have just finished the first ever Portuguese stop-motion feature film called “My Grandfather’s Demons” directed by Nuno Beato.

Even though I would love to have some experience in the animation industry, I’m aware of how intense the work-load can be and how it doesn’t feel that rewarding to work on commercial projects, which unfortunately are the ones that pay most of our salaries. For that reason, I also think teaching could be a really interesting possibility for me, especially having already had some experience teaching English in Portugal. Education is something I became very passionate about, especially because it feels so rewarding to enable others to reach their full potential and it also can work very well in tandem with an independent filmmaker career. I really enjoy doing research, speaking in front of an audience and giving advice, and on top of that, if I learned something doing this final project is that is much more fun (and probably healthier) to be creative together with other people than on our own, in this case with students and peers who would inspire me every day.

A crucial aspect of being able to make films independently is the funding, which not only is essential to pay for the materials, space and equipment, but also the animator and anyone else involved in the making of the film such as the composer, editor, sound editor, actors, writers, etc. There are multiple industry related events that enable animators and writers to pitch their ideas to production companies, but a lot of the times there tends to be a focus on the business aspect and profitability of projects with longer formats, like TV series, as well as more cost effective animation techniques, such as computer generated 3D and 2D. For animators to be able to create films that focus more on being experimental, personal and historicopolitical than entertaining and profitable, it’s essential to find a way of financing these projects without any expectation of profit gain and without compromising their artistic expression.

One of the most prominent charitable organizations is the BFI (British Film Institute), which is mainly funded by the government as well as the National Lottery, in other words is a public film fund for those residing in the UK. The BFI Film Fund includes funding for British films of different lengths as well as co-production with international directors and there are at least 4 types of funds that animators can get through the BFI. For feature films there is the Development Fund (deadline is end August), which is aimed for the early stages of a production “from treatments to production-ready screenplays”, and there’s also the Discovery and Impact Feature Funding (deadline was the end of March) for debut and experienced directors respectively, with awards of around one million pounds. For short films there’s the BFI Network England short film funding which gives out awards between 5000 to 25000 pounds to films that are up to 15 minutes long. In order to access the latter, there needs to be a producer (that resides in the UK as well) that is someone different from the director, and the projects have to be original ideas and not adaptations of already existing material. It’s necessary to present a production calendar, a budget list, as well as, a script or storyboard, but the production film shouldn’t have started before applying for the fund. This application deadline is the 23rd of May it should be done and submitted by the producer.

From France there is CICLIC Animation, based in Vendôme, which is a public institution created by the Centre-Val de Loire Region and the French government and it mainly focus on the creation, production and distribution of stop-motion independent animation short films and it has gradually started accepting more styles of 2D animation, but always excluding 3D computer animation. For feature films and TV series/TV specials they offer development grants of up to 25000€, and for short films they provide a residency of a maximum 6 months in Vendôme covering all the costs regarding housing and workspaces for the director and their team and providing a grant of up to 50000€. Unlike BFI, the application can be submitted by the director and there are no restrictions regarding adaptations as long as there are the adequate copyright agreements. These programs are aimed to any director or short film production company based in countries that are member states of EEA (European Economic Area) and application deadlines take place twice a year, both in February 10th (Spring Session) and September 15th (Autumn Session).

Another important public film fund organization to mention is the NFB (National Film Board of Canada), although I wouldn’t be eligible to most of its funding programs due to not being a citizen or resident of Canada. The NFB have historically played an important role in developing animation films of the most prominent stop-motion directors, such as Norman McLaren, Co Hoedeman and Caroline Leaf, and they tend to focus on quite political themes and experimental animation techniques and storytelling. For international animators NFB offers the option of co-producing international projects, never funding more than 49% of the production budget. In order to make a proposal, directors or producers should contact the NFB production studios directly to understand the requirements of the submission, in case of animation those studios would either be in Vancouver or Montreal. NFB accepts proposals throughout the entire year, without having any specific deadlines.

It became apparent to me that it is one of the most helpful ways to create independent animation films, especially at the beginning of one’s career, is to make them in residencies, which could be specifically oriented towards animation or simply artist residencies. These consist of facilities that vary in space and equipment, that artists are invited to use for a temporary period of time. The most prestigious ones normally include free accommodation and provide an opportunity to share artists’ work and experience with each other. Animation residencies are quite often associated to film festivals and/or production companies and animation studios and are used as a way of funding the production of independent films. If these residencies are free, artists are expected a lot of the times to take part in activities and organize workshops or talks associated to related events.

After my research there were a few residencies that stood out to me, the main one being NEF’s International Residency for Animated films hosted and coproduced by the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, a quite famous castle in Valle de Loire in France. What appeals the most to me about this residency is the fact that it is targeted to international animators and that it takes place in an incredibly inspiring and peaceful place. Its aim it’s to offer the opportunity to emerging animation filmmakers and artists to develop their ideas without material constraints and to share their experiences with other artists, but most importantly it seems to focus mainly on the initial stages of an animation project, including creative research, writing, and overall experimentation and reflection on story and techniques. It lasts for a month, and it takes place twice a year, both during the month of April and the month of October. The applications for the residency in October 2023 and April 2024 have closed on the 31st of March. One of the most surprising things about this residency is that it includes a creation grant of 1200 euros, it covers a percentage of the travel expanse, it provides free accommodation and it holds no rights of ownership of the projects created there. In order to apply, I need to send an image representative of the project, a cover letter, a CV, a clear collection of “visual elements and graphic research” (a moodboard is forbidden, which I found quite interesting) and an optional portfolio of our former work.

Another animation residency that takes place in France is SARS (The Sustainability Animation Residency) in Arles, south of France. This is a much more recent residency and also much more competitive, as it only takes one artist per year, and it is oriented towards creating a “Sustainable Short”, meaning a short animation film that explores the themes related to the environment such as “climate change, endangered oceans, resource scarcity, future of food and agriculture, future cities, energy supply, mobility, species diversity, waste management, pollution, health, sustainable fashion and any other suitable topics”. This residency consists of a period of 6 weeks from the end of May to end of June/ beginning of July. The aim of this residency seems to be to polish the presentation of the project’s idea to the international animation film industry standards. This residency includes a visit and presentation of the project at the Annecy Film Festival, and it links the creator to producers and finance partners with the guidance of Miyu Distribution. It covers accommodation, travel and activity expanses, but any technical equipment should be of the property of the resident. The applications are due in mid January.

In Canada there’s also a few interesting international residencies, one of them was mentioned by our tutor Jenny Wright and it’s organized by TAIS! (Toronto Animation Image Society). This residency has the duration of 5 weeks and they can be taken from June to April, and it includes monetary funding of 2500$ and in-kind funding of 1500$, however in order to apply and to use different studio spaces one needs to pay a membership of some kind. Unlike the former residencies this one is aimed to those who wish to make the animation itself, providing equipment, resources and studio space, it’s not eligible for those who wish to develop pre-production stages. This residency also does not include accommodation and its application deadline are on the 22nd of May.

Another animation residency that stood out to me was H-air in Hiroshima, Japan, which is quite different in it’s length and aims. This residency not only is quite long, 6 months, from the month of May until the month of October but it also focus more on the activities that the animator will take part during the residency. It’s associated to the Hiroshima Festival (Hiroshima Animation Season) and the invitees are responsible for delivering a number of workshops and lectures to local residents, as well as advertising the animation festival. There isn’t necessarily a lot of information regarding the production of a specific animation film and one can apply to develop any stage of the animation, either production or pre-production, but accommodation is included, as well as transport expanses and a daily fee (more or less 15 euros). This is quite an interesting residency to me because of its pedagogic side, where we are expected to teach and guide other people in doing animation, instead of isolating ourselves in a dark studio animating.

“Étreintes” is a pin-screen animation directed by Justine Vuylsteker, and it was by reading about the production of her film that I started understanding how an independent animation director is able to produce their own films. Pin-screen animation is a somewhat rare animation technique, due to the existence of only two functional screens around the world, and it was developed by the couple Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker in the 1930’s. The invention of the first pin-screen, however, was thanks to the help of Alexeieff’s first wife Alexandra Alexandrovna Grinevskya, and it’s this triangle love story behind the origins of this technique, that inspired the Vuylsteker to create her film.

In 2015, the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) acquired and restored “L’Epinette”, the last pin-screen built by Alexeieff and Parker in 1977, and eight artists were invited to work with it in a residency in Bois D’arcy (Paris), as part of an initiative to inspire a new generation of artists to experiment with this technique. This initiative was under the direction of Michèle Lemieux, a pin-screen animator who had used this technique before with the support of NFB (National Film Board of Canada) to create “Le grand ailleurs et le petit ici” (2012). Justine Vuylsteker was one of the 8 artists, and it was during this 4-week residency that she started developing the concept for “Étreintes”.

Following this, Vuylsteker took part of a month long residency at the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, where she created the structure and screenplay of the film, through a sequence of sketches. What surprised me the most about this was that she didn’t have a fleshed out idea before going there – it was in that residency that she was able to fully dedicate her time to exploring her theme and structuring the production of the film. Regarding Fontevraud, Vuylsteker says “(…) being among all the other residents working on their projects in that abbey setting of such tranquility… My thoughts were never so clear as when I was at Fontevraud. And as a result, the sketchbook developed to become the cornerstone to build on.”.

Afterwards, the film was shot in another residency, at CICLIC (Vendôme), during 6 months and a half, which were strictly planned beforehand, so that other artists could use the “L’epinette” after her. Pinscreen animation is an incredibly time consuming technique, therefore it was very important for Vuylsteker to be “clean and precise” with the execution of her images during that time frame. In addition to this, Étreintes was also a coproduction with NFB, so Vuylsteker was able to go to a 6-week residency at Cinamatheque de Montreal for the postproduction, where she had the help of a technical team who “really perfected the blacks and whites, which allowed us (…) to erase the fact of having photographed the images and restored the naked-eye vision of the pinscreen. “.

The production of “Étreintes” really shows how independent animation directors can manage to create their own individual work with the help of residencies. It was very interesting and inspiring to me to find an artist like Vuylsteker, who managed to execute all the different stages of her film during residencies, without having to use her own “unpaid time” and “paid space” to do so. It made me wonder how the project was developed financially, and what other animation residencies and funding/grant programs exist around the world. On top of that, it made me value a technique like pin-screen animation where the artist definitely prioritizes the quality and execution of their images and animation over quantity.

“This Magnificent Cake!” is a stop-motion puppet animation directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roel and it’s the film I have analyzed throughout this term in my essay “This Stolen Cake!”. While researching for this film I came across an article in Animation Magazine entitled “The Many Layers of ‘This Magnificent Cake!’” and written by Ellen Wolff, which describes the details behind the duo’s studio productions and funding that I thought pertinent for this blog’s theme.

De Swaef and Roels’ first film is “Oh Willy” (2012), which was produced by Beast Animation and Vivement Lundi! in Rennes. De Swaef had previously interned at Beast for the film “A Town Called Panic” (2009) and said “They’re the biggest stop-motion studio in Belgium. After the internship, Marc and I asked them if they wanted to produce our short film Oh Willy… While we were financing that film, I received a scholarship from the Dutch Film Fund, which I used to develop the Willy puppet at Vivement Lundi! This naturally set up a co-production structure for that film that went well, so we decided to keep that structure for this film.”

Still from “Oh Willy” (2012)

Whereas Vivement Lundi!, in Rennes France, is where they craft their characters and sets, is at Beast Animation, in Gent Belgium, where they shoot their films, and for “This Magnificent Cake!” also in Pedri Productions, in The Netherlands, for post-production. Regarding funding, and after the success of “Oh Willy”, the film had the support of “the channel ARTE France, the short film fund at France’s National Center of Cinematography, the Flemish Audiovisual Fund, the private funds Procirep and Angoa, and the tax shelter program of the Belgian Federal Government”. This only highlights how important it is to find multiple sources of funding in independent animated films.

De Swaef also speaks of her experience working commercially “One of them, a commercial for a Belgian bus company, is probably our worst work technically, but it really took on a life of its own. It’s our most popular work in Belgium, so the press talks about us as ‘the directors who made the bus commercial.’ We’re not sure how we feel about that,” adds Emma, who teaches stop-motion classes as well. “It’s very important for us to stay film directors who do a commercial every now and then, and not the other way around.”

Wolff, E. (2018) “The Many Layers of “This Magnificent Cake!””, Animation Magazine, 19/10. Available at: https://www.animationmagazine.net/2018/10/the-many-layers-of-this-magnificent-cake/

Out of all the different career pathways, independent animation is the most appealing one for me, but it’s possibly one of the most challenging ones too. On one hand, the animator becomes the director and artist who can give life to their one ideas and aesthetics, but on the other hand, they also gain many more responsibilities, from financial support and funding to promoting, distributing and producing. Obviously, nowadays there are already existing networks and structures that connect artists to festivals, museums, residency studios, scholarships and schools, but a lot of an independent animator/artist’s job is building their work practice around the hundreds of portfolio/film submission deadlines throughout the year. But how does one go from graduating to becoming an independent filmmaker?

Part of the process of an artist’s emancipation is finding exposure for their work, which can be done by having it circulate in film festivals around the world or through social media platforms, like youtube, vimeo and instagram. Film festivals create a bridge between filmmakers and producers, talent hunters and distributors from different animation studios, besides showcasing your work to a much wider audience. However, with the exception of certain prize moneys, there’s usually very little rentability in participating in the festival themselves, the most important part being an opportunity to share your work with people from the industry.

While researching for the different festivals, I concluded that I should create a table dividing them concerning the month they take place, as well as the type of film festivals. As a Portuguese animator who does queer short films, my work not only fits into the animation festival circle but it could also fit into the queer film festival one, for the themes that I tend to explore, as well as fitting into the short film category of independent film festivals. In addition, I also believe I should give special attention to Portuguese film festivals, since they usually create competitive categories and prizes for national filmmakers, as well as being the ideal places to connect and network with artists and professionals from the Portuguese cinema industry.

Participating in festivals is, in most of these cases, free. If a submission fee is charged, it usually is between £20 to £40. But again, one does not participate to take profit, but rather to connect and expose. And even if a lot of these cities are physically distant from me, it’s always important to start making connections as early as possible, because who knows where one will be in a year. However, the funding a film requires can be much more difficult to quantify as well as the management of equipment and people. And even though film festivals are a great long-term strategy, in order to make a film one has to face short-term problems, like funding, time and overall guidance that can prevent for any submission to be done in the first place.

During the past 4 years, since I quitted my career in Fashion as a pattern cutter, I have been reflecting a lot on the mistakes I made in my previous career choice, as well as what steps I should take in the future. Personally, it was a very difficult period in my life and in the beginning I couldn’t even understand what made me go to Fashion in the first place. In sum, there were two reasons that were responsible for my departure: I wasn’t that passionate about clothes and I didn’t agree with who I was “serving”. The latter can be a bit confusing but what I mean is: who is profiting from my work and in what way am I contributing to society? Unfortunately, it took me 8 years to ask myself that question and once I did, I didn’t need to ponder on it any further.

At that time, I already knew I wanted to study animation, in fact, that was exactly the reason I used when I handed in my resignation letter. I have been in love with cinema, animation and comics for a very long time, and my mind was constantly thinking about stories to tell and characters to create. However, I was so insecure about my skills and my motives that it took me actually two years and a half, a lot of therapy sessions and a pandemic, to put a portfolio together and apply. In the meantime, I became an English teacher, which couldn’t have been more opposite to the job I had before. Teaching was very fulfilling, especially when we can see improvements in short periods of time. I love commanding an audience and making students question issues in ways that they haven’t before, as well as researching and studying a variety of topics. Although I must admit that working with children and teenagers is a valuable gift that I do not possess. In spite of that, by contrast and comparison, I was able to miss Fashion as it reminded me of what it was that I loved doing as a pattern cutter – I loved working in a studio and creating something from scratch, with my own hands, especially something that I have designed myself.

Looking back, I am so happy I took this time because it allowed me to grow so much and I learnt not only about myself professionally but also regarding my trans identity. In addition, I was able to understand why I wanted to go to fashion so badly when I was younger – I remembered being 15 or 16, when I had just came to terms with my sexuality, and watching fashion shows and tv shows like Project Runway and seeing talented queer people being successful and celebrated and telling myself that that’s what I needed to pursue. This time around, at the verge of turning 30 and having just accepted my gender identity, I honestly felt excited about my future for the first time in a very long time. I knew what stories I need to talk about, who are the characters that I want to create, how I want to contribute to society with my work, and why I want to go to animation.

When I started MACA I was very lost regarding the type of animation that I wanted to do, so during the first 2 terms I decided to explore different animation technique such as digital 2D animation, hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping, clay animation, puppet animation and cut-out animation. This experience not only taught me that I thrive when I experiment with new techniques and materials, but it also clarified that out of the three big animation industries (2D, 3D and stop-motion), as an animator I definitely belong in stop-motion. But do I want to be an animator, and what does the job of a stop-motion animator really entail?

During the third term I had the privilege to direct my first film “Oh Baby Baby”, which I decided to do in 2D. This experience definitely “put the proof in the pudding” and made me even more certain that I am way more creatively stimulated with stop-motion than any other types of animation. Having said that, as a director I really enjoyed seeing my ideas coming to life and exploring different ways of communicating the main message of the story. Out of all the different stages, storyboarding and the animatics were the most interesting to me, as it made me reflect on image composition, cinematography and rhythm. It truly made me want to experiment more with it in the future and it also made me wonder whether or not if I could be a storyboard artist in the future.

Unlike in my BA in Fashion Design, which I completed when I was 22, this time around I feel much more confident in my skills and aesthetic choices and way less concerned about my employability. I realized that it’s very important to remind myself, as often as I can, why I came to animation and that it was a choice that I was very lucky to make. I’m aware that the perspective that I want to explore and the political tone in my stories is not necessarily the most profitable one, but as an artist, my responsibility is to express mine or someone else’s experience and to make the audience feel what they wouldn’t in their own shoes – not necessarily to entertain. Regardless, being an artist or an independent animator, involves a combination of management, networking and self-promotion that I’m not entirely ready for. On top of that, understanding how to get fundings and to apply for animation festivals may prove much more complex that I’m expecting. In other words, what tools do I need to obtain to build my own well-oiled machine?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been animating a short film which will introduce one of the categories of short films showcased in the London International Animation Festival (LIAF). I pitched a story about “a group of aliens who are trying to infiltrate Earth, but one of them gets distracted with a newly found obsession” to introduce the category “Being Human”. When I found out that this was the name of one of the categories, I thought it would be interesting to explore the question of “what means to be human?” from the perspective of characters which weren’t humans, but were pretending to be. And, I believe, as odd as it may sound, it is very similar to the feeling that one has when one tries to fit in, and pretend to personify what they think everyone else believes is “normal”.

This story takes place in St. Joseph Boys School, and the audience is introduced to this place’s standards of “normality” from the speech of the Headmaster, who runs a school for the world’s “strongest and most powerful MEN”. He’s speaking to two green one-eyed parents, Mrs. Tututwone and Mr. Tututhri, who were called in to discuss about their son, Tututu, who doesn’t meet the headmaster’s expectations. We hear three characters strutting in singing, with Tututu in the middle, cross-dressed as Britney Spears in “Baby One More Time”, with his two best friends side by side. They are not trying to look normal, because they have found in each other normality in wishing to exude the same feminine energy as their pop icon. This comes to great disappointment to the headmaster who reacts in shock, as well as Tututu’s alien partners, who were also pretending to be his human parents. The audience is taken to the inside of the alien’s car and Mrs. Tututhri confronts Tututu, to discover that he feels defeated and unsure about their mission. The aliens can’t understand Tututu’s reaction, explaining that he just needs to “act like a human”, to which he responds “but I am human” as he stares at his friends from the car’s window.

This story is quite an ambitious one for a 45 second film, which brought me various problems at the early stage of the animatics, when trying to decide the necessary shots to convey all these ideas. I have worked mostly, at this point, in stop-motion and so I wanted to take this opportunity to explore storyboard, character design and 2d digital animation. I chose 2D because I hoped to be paired with 2D animators who could teach me and help me improve my own skills. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I ended up taking most of the animation role which has been both incredibly time consuming and a massive responsibility. However, in this process I feel like I have been able to learn a lot, the most important thing being that I have to keep exploring different stop-motion animation techniques in the future, because even though I love drawing, especially storyboard and character design, I feel much more stimulated to build and create three-dimensional elements and animate with them. Having said that, Bianca made me very aware of cinematography and camera angles, Michael made me think about rhythm and pace, and Ariadna made aware of context and contrast regarding the characters, the dialogue and the backgrounds.

It has taken me 2 weeks for the animatics and 4/5 weeks to animate with the help of Chongwen and Steve, which leaves me very little time for everything else. I was teamed up with Chongwen and Muneera to develop “Oh Baby Baby”. Muneera had once told me in the past that she was interested in 3D and maybe even in working for video games, and Chongwen is a strong illustrator who shows a very good sense of light and texture. In order to develop this project in the best of our abilities, and as enjoyable for everyone as possible, I thought of having 3D backgrounds combined with a “hand-drawn and watercolor painted” look, to be as similar to the 2D animation and as evocative of children’s books as possible. At this stage, with less than two weeks before the submission deadline, I will have Chongwen starting clean-up and coloring tomorrow, Muneera is finishing up the backgrounds to start taking the shots in the coming days, and myself with three days of animation left to do, so that I can start adding texture to the colored/cleaned-up animations afterwards.

I don’t really know how well I have been executing my job as a director, to be honest. But I am also aware, that I have to be the best version of myself in the next coming weeks, so if I haven’t been the best director yet, now is that time to start being! I have taken most of the job so far, but now I’m getting to the stage where I need to pass the baton, and I’m afraid my colleagues won’t have enough time to finish it up – so I guess, the most important thing will be for me to be as supportive as I can be.

Over the last two weeks I was assigned, alongside Cynthia, to work for the final project of the 2nd year student Lee Ricks. Lee is a stop-motion animator and her film is called “Burnout” and is about a “wind-up” candlemaker who accepts a work order that it’s so big that he dies/malfunctions in the end. I was very happy to work on a puppet animation film, as I have been wondering if I want my final project to be with puppets. On top of that, when it comes to my own technical skills, I feel much more confident and comfortable building three-dimensional and hand-made objects than working with 2D softwares.

Lee is currently at a stage where she’s finishing building and adding detail to her set and her character. The story takes place only in one room, which is both the work and living space of the candlemaker. Lee had a list of objects and details that she still needed to make, and me and Cynthia were given the opportunity to pick what we feel the most comfortable doing As I’m a very good sewer and pattern cutter, I offered to make the character’s second outfit, the pajamas. To create it, I used the Costume Department and researched for different materials that would match Lee’s aesthetic for the outfit.

I used the measurements from the pattern of the character’s original outfit, and created new patterns for the trousers, collar and yoke, and slightly changed the shape and length of the back, front and sleeves. I pinned and cut the pattern on the selected fabric and sewed the outfit by machine. Because these are extremely tiny clothes, there are a few seams that are practically impossible to sew by machine and can only be done by hand, like the armhole and the collar. Because these are pajamas, I added an elastic waistband in the trousers, and a couple of pockets on the shirt.

During the “simulated work experience” I offered to make this outfit, so that I could be the most helpful to Lee, in the limited amount of available time that I had. I knew that I wouldn’t exactly learn anything particularly new, but I new I could do it and that she would appreciate it. However, as this is a learning experience, I hope I can be more helpful in the future, after this Unit’s deadline, and contribute in ways which I’m not as experienced. Lee uses air dry clay to build the candle holders and the vases, which I would love to use it to create more ceramics for the set. In addition, she builds the most polished and beautifully designed puppets, and I would love to aid however I can building them. Luckily, I was also able to learn from Cynthia and saw her recreate classical paintings in miniature canvas, and build tiny books from foam and paper.

It has been very eye opening to witness the amount of work it takes to build an entire set and character before start shooting, and I can see that Lee made many smart choices in her story to be able to limit that amount of work for herself. My current idea for my final project seems so complexed and in so many places, that I’m a little scared to do it with puppet animation. Regardless, when it comes to a farther future and my career prospects, I can truly envision myself working for stop-motion films. It’s the thing that I miss the most working as a pattern cutter, is being in a an atelier or a workshop surrounded by people building different things, using different materials and doing different jobs. Furthermore, I truly believe that there is an infinite amount of handcrafted technical knowledge that can be applied to stop-motion animation, which excites me as a professional, as well as an artist. Ever since I quitted fashion, I always wanted to be able to apply what I learned there in whatever I do in the future. After going through a burnout myself, it’s kind of heartwarming to know that I sewed an outfit for a film called “Burnout”.

Since I started this course, I have wondered about my “style” and the type of animation that I should specialize in, mostly by comparison with my peers. A lot of them seem to have a very well defined style of drawing and coloring, and most of them already know the type of animation they want to do. Throughout this Unit, as I have been doing the different assignments, I tried not to overthink about these questions and I figured whatever my “style” is, it will come out the more animations I make. However, one thing that I am very certain of is that I want to explore queer characters as much as possible, as I showed with both Zé (lift exercise) and Teté (lipsync). Analyze the way they move and talk, amplify their mannerisms shamelessly, but more importantly, to showcase a diverse range of queerness and queer bodies, to avoid unconsciously contributing to any stereotypes.

For the Character Design assignment, I was incredibly inspired by Yukio Mishima’s book “Forbidden Colors” (1951), which takes place in the post-war Tokyo’s underground gay scene, as well as the drag artist Akihiro Miwa, who was allegedly Mishima’s lover in the 1960’s. I tried to recreate Miwa’s silhouette and style, as well as their overall mood in the character’s poses.

The first time I showed this assignment back in December, I was told that I should avoid putting too much detail on the character’s clothing. It’s something that I constantly have to remind myself in the different assignments, as I tend to exaggerate with details. In the end, I can always add detail with color and texture, which is much better in 2D animation instead of worrying about redrawing them on each frame. I have also come to the conclusion that I need to keep practicing drawing hands and feet, and design them differently for different characters.

For the “Walk with Mood Change” exercise I was inspired by the documentary “The Queen” (1968) and drag queens from the 1950’s and 60’s in general. During the majority of the 20th century, in most western countries (including Portugal), crossdressing was a crime, and many trans and queer people were arrested and harassed, as a consequence of that.

I wanted my character to walk elegantly and naturally, until she sees herself in a “Wanted” poster and she sneaks out of the frame of view. I also showed this exercise last term and one thing we noticed was that I need to ensure that the frames, where the character is reacting to the poster, last longer so that the “message” comes across clearly.

In the “Facial Performance” exercise, I was more interested in deconstructing the standards of beauty in a queer body. A lot of the times, trans and queer people have a very hard time matching cisgender beauty standards, especially because our bodies don’t match with the gender expression that is expected of us. For that reason, my character has an incredibly muscled body, as well as very plumped lips and a feminine style . I was also inspired by a scene in “I,Tonya” (2017), where Tonya emotionally starts crying as she puts makeup on her face, in front of a mirror.

For this exercise, I wanted to experiment with hand-drawn animation, especially because I wanted to play with the coloring textures and the different opacities from layering different pieces of paper. Initially, I had a hard time making my animation clear (because of all the layering) so I added some contrast with color, frame the mirror with a black wall, and made the “reaction” frames longer. In the end, I wished I hadn’t done so many layers, as I would have preferred to see the animation and the color texture, but now that I know, I’ll pay more attention to that in the future, and make some samples before I make up my mind. To accompany the animation, I chose a section from a song called “Rugas” (wrinkles) sung by Humanos but written by 80’s Portuguese gay musician icon, António Variações. I really felt that this song’s melody captured the feelings of my character, but at the same time, it makes sense for me combine my animation with music created by queer icons that are no longer with us.

For the “Given Lipsync” I wanted to please my Fashion History obsession. One of my favorite decades is the 1830’s, where women would wear puffy sleeves below their shoulder line and wear the most intricate up-do’s. It’s also where one of my favorite queer history TV shows takes place, “Gentleman Jack” (2019). The lipsync I chose is from Alec Guiness as Professor Marcus in “The Ladykillers” (1955). Unfortunately, I haven’t watched this film yet, but he sounded so campy and posh that automatically I imagined a women from high society of the 1830’s.

Queerness not only existed then, but it expressed itself in different ways especially due to different beauty standards. Facial and body hair was commonly seen in women in different places around the world, and in many cases it was considered an appealing feature, as the feminist Persian princess Zhara Khanom (1884-1936). I enjoyed doing this exercise a lot, because I felt like it was a very performative lipsync, in contrast with my previous one. I struggled a lot with the pleats of her dress, as I would redraw them differently on each frame and would cause too much visual noise in the overall video, so I ended up reusing the same image for most of the body. I used a film of myself waving a paper fan as rotoscoping for her fan and also as a visual reference for the lips movement.