Solomonos magazine N°4 ingles

04 Magazine

04 Magazine

Erwin Gómez Viñales Margarita Cid Lizondo PamelaRiveros, Josefa Villaseca Felipe Haurelhuk Erwin Gómez Viñales Nicolás Bustamante Laia Machado Prin María Ignacia Pavez Travisany Catalina Lavarello Manuel Ortiz Ossandón Portada

General Editor Executive Producer Journalist Journalist Guest Article Chief Designer Designer International Production Corrections Translate Video Interview with Alejandro Rojas “The Gift” de Julio Pot

Enero 2015, Santiago de Chile canal@solomonos.cl

THE GIFT/08

This Chilean short film has gone around the world. A love story that is far from common and has a special vibe to it. We talked with the creators of this piece, who told us about a fortuitous event that became a cartoon.

COMPETITION CHM 2015/22

The next CHILEMONOS International Festival of Animation will take place from May 5 to May 10. In this article we highlight the competition, guests, and new features of the next edition.

PUNK ROBOT/30

We entered the Punkrobot studio to learn about the way they work and all the processes that take place to get those magnificent 3D animated pieces that can be compared to products of big production companies. This team has managed to export its products to Brazil successfully.

ALEJANDRO ROJAS/46

This artist managed to bring animated movies back to Chile after six decades in which nothing of the sort was produced in the country. Before this, he was the student of one of the mythical Chilean animators: Enrique “Puma� Bustamante.

CLARITA OR SWEET VILLE/64

The launching of these two series generated a new era in Chilean animation because, for the first time, a new production style was created, which was capable of forming a work system. After finding out which of the two was the first in Chile, we discovered certain anecdotes that make this story more interesting.

JOSSIE MALIS/76

We interviewed a shadow play expert. Jossie Malis was in the Chilemonos 2014 Festival and was the person in charge of making the totem for the event. So, we asked him about his creations and the way in which he has developed this remarkable technique, which has led him to get several awards all over the world.

ANIMATION IN BRAZIL/90

Brazil has many years’ worth of animation. The creators of the documentary “Between Frames: The Art of Brazilian Animation” told us about the major milestones they discovered when investigating for their audiovisual piece. Great animators, such as Carlos Saldanha, Otto Guerra, and Mauricio de Sousa were interviewed.

RAPHAEL LACOSTE/104

Investigating about the interesting world of videogames, we discovered this remarkable artist. Lacoste began his career as an actor, and afterwards he experimented with the 3D technique. Today, he is the Art Director on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and Solomonos Magazine could interview him.

THE GIFT A different love story

From a web comic to an audiovisual piece. A story of disagreements that has crossed frontiers, captivating the specialized audiences with its technique and simplicity.

Link to video interview of Julio Pot

By Pamela Riveros RĂ­os

In 2008, the director and founding partner of Miniestudio, Julio Pot, was scrolling down on the web site “9gag.com” when something made him stop: some drawings with very simple strokes that told about the ups and downs of a relationship. It was the web comic “True Love”. “I became interested in it because it was a story about love but it wasn’t showing us a heart. It was romantic, but it wasn’t”, states Pot. And, precisely, the central element is about steering away from the norms of romanticism, replacing the heart by a light blue sphere that comes out of the chest of each of the characters.

“Everybody wonders what it is and I tell them I don’t know. As a matter of fact, the author never told me what that little ball was. And I think that is what is interesting because it doesn’t matter. It can be love, respect, whatever you want it to be”, comments the director of Miniestudio.

But it wasn’t only that what captured the artist’s attention.

It was also its format, similar to a story board, which left part of the animation for an audiovisual piece ready. That was when Pot became interested in finding the author. “I searched until I found the complete piece with the signature at the end that read ‘Felipe Gomez’. I tried to get his e-mail address and honestly I don’t remember how I got it”, he comments. The creator was Brazilian and Julio Post talked with him to analyze the possibility of transforming his work into a short film. Gomez answered affirmatively.

That is how the adaptation of the comic began.

Pot immediately began to draw the project and talked with his partner, Cecilia Baeriswyl, to shape it under the umbrella of Miniestudio.

Developing the story ”The Gift” went through a series of changes since its origin as “True Love”. “The web comic is much simpler than the short film about romantic relationships. But the original idea is there. Who hasn’t been in a situation like that?”, states the producer of the short film, Cecilia Baeriswyl.

According to its creators, one of the aspects that were developed more profoundly was the deterioration of the relationship. The production company in charge of the project Miniestudio looked for elements that could justify the woman’s leaving the main character. “I had heard things from friends and I added those that had happened to me. For example, when you start a serious relationship with someone, you already changed your wardrobe. You can no longer wear those T-shirts with faces printed on them. We didn’t want ‘The Gift’ to be something sexist, where the woman is bad and the man is good, or vice versa”, clarifies Julio Pot. About this same issue, Pot claims that in the story, it is shown that the main character is partly responsible for the failure of the relationship. That’s what was interesting about the development of the story. “She left, but not because she was a bad person, but because she couldn’t take him being the way he was. But the other interesting thing is that he continues being the main character, and that’s why we continue watching the movie, but what he did was very wrong”, explains the director.

To portray the deterioration of the relationship in a more powerful and visual way, Miniestudio used several elements that served the purpose of supporting the narration of “The Gift” and these were color, characters drawn like sketches, and music.

- Funding and challenges As soon as they decided to make this short film, Pot and Baeriswyl submitted the animation to Ideame (/ idea.me), a Brazilian platform for funding through crowdfunding. “When we applied, we took that web comic, cut it in little pieces and created the animatics in a very simple way and when we finished it, we realized that it was too short, it was one minute long, and then we started drawing imitating the strokes”, explains Julio.

It was December 2011 and in Ideame they thought it was interesting to receive this kind of proposals, because they had never worked in something related to animation. Therefore, they set a deadline of 40 days to get the money. “We asked people here in Chile, friends.

Scene from “The Gift” Felipe was also trying to get money from those close to him –he lives in Sao Paulo-, and we managed to get USD 1,500”, remembers Pot. Soon after, the short film had already evolved: they had added new technical elements and the story was longer, which meant that the project had become more expensive and, therefore, the first amount they received only served to finance the art book. This led them to apply to the public funds granted by the National Council for Culture and Arts in Chile, the Audiovisual Fund. They finally got it in 2012.

But that was not the only obstacle the Miniestudio team had to overcome. “The production was scheduled to take four months, but it extended to seven. Thus, the material began maturing as well; we set up the project like five

times. Julio said ‘it’s not very fluid, I want more tweening’, so it was a job that took longer than expected”, comments Cecilia Baeriswyl.

According to its creators, one of the main causes of this was that the movie is animated at 24 frames per second and not at 12 as it is commonly done. “That was a luxury.

I thought the art was so simple that something in black and white was not going to impress. We hadn’t realized that the animation had so many details, so tweening those shots was a nightmare. The animation assistant almost died. He told me that he could do it in a month, but it took him almost two months, almost without sleeping”.

Everything took even longer when they weren’t satisfied with the music with which they had applied to the grant: it didn’t represent in an adequate manner the story of the movie. The creation of “The Gift” ended in December 2012, and the audio post production in February 2013.

The technique The creator of the web comic “True Love” had only drawn the people that appeared in it, which became the style that was followed for the character design. Somehow, they wanted the art in “The Gift” to be simple.

However, they realized the animation could not be maintained until the end, because it lacked visual attractions that kept the attention of the audience. “And that’s when we began planning how we could represent it and realized it had to be through the technique. The more the main characters get angry, the more details there are in the drawing, and to that we add the fact that the more complex the relationship became, the more colors there are”, states Pot.

“The Gift” (2013) whole bodies can be seen. Then, the gray shadows are It was for that reason that it was decided that the movie added, which become darker and darker. When the story would begin with the characters drawing themselves. Also, has become very complex, it is possible to see many lines other elements were added, such as shadows and facial in the background of the frame. features.

“That’s what we wanted, that each shot was a little bit more Color complex. There are 20 shots and you don’t realize how everything became complex. When she lets go of his hand, “It has a really major artistic relevance because you see everything is back to black and white”, says Julio Pot how the color starts appearing when the fight becomes stronger”, explains Cecilia.

One of the first colors you can see in “The Gift” is light blue, which represents the movie. The first reason is because it This element is included very subtly and is not easy to wouldn’t be very interesting to watch the characters in notice it, but, according to the creators, it can be easily black and white. felt. When the movie begins, the characters are blurry, their feet cannot be seen and as the story advances, their

The music For Pot, music was just as important as any of the other elements in the movie and it could not be left to chance.

At the beginning, “The Gift” had Pot himself at the piano, recording the right hand chords first, and then the left hand ones. He knows about music and knows this instrument.

He was locked up for three weeks in his house trying to achieve his goal. By then, Cecilia had already convinced him to get musicians.

Felipe Inostroza at the cello and Victor Munoz at the violin joined this part of the team. Moreover, they got Julio’s brother, Marcelo Pot, to help testing the sound through a guitar. Other relevant person was Ivan Quiroz, who was in charge of creating the Foley “This one was really good and full of details. Since the movie is in black and white, there is almost no background, but what makes you fill the space is the sound”, clarifies the director.

second version of the Chilemonos International Festival of Animation. It was the first time that Cecilia and Julio could see the reaction of the audience. “Honestly, we were impressed. We realized the movie really worked.

That’s when we thought we could really be successful”, remembers Julio.

On a weekend, all of them were invited to see “The Gift” so that they could start working on the movie. “We began recording by sections and it was exciting when the violinist listened to the right hand and began recording on top. Humbly, he asked me if he could add things”, says Julio Pot. About this, Victor Munoz was able to improvise melodies for this work. “In the moment the relationship “It was strange. They laughed in the parts they had to becomes complicated, I told him if it was possible to laugh! And, also, we got to know our rivals, who were all represent her movements and asked him how he would do Chilean, and we received very good reviews”, adds Cecilia. this with the violin. That was the most interesting part of the music”, he adds.

“The Gift” was sent on that date to other festivals around the world. It participated in several countries in Europe, Premiere and success of “The Gift” Asia and America. But one of the exhibitions they will never forget is the one in the Sound of Silent Film Festival In May 2013, the short film “The Gift” premiered in the (Chicago) in April 2014. “It’s amazing because they choose

movies that work in silence, they invite a composer to play live the music he can think of. When we heard about this, we were really happy”, remembers Julio.

“The award I like the most is the Young About Festival Internazionale Giovani e Cinema, Italy. This is because they invite a bunch of children and they choose the one they liked and we got two awards”, remembers this director about the ceremony in which they obtained two prices: the “Adult Jury Prize” and the “Kid’s Jury Prize”.

However, what caused more impact for the creators of “The Gift” was the reaction of the audience that feels identified with the movie. Kastrol– animator and collaborator of Miniestudio- told me that he took his parents to see it and that his mother cried. And we have received messages via

Fragments of the web comic “True Love”

“The Gift” is available on YouTube.

YouTube from a person who attended the Sound of the Silent Film Festival who went with a former partner and they were moved. They explained that thanks to this, they solved their issues and they are very thankful. This person said it was exactly what they had gone through in their relationship and it was very positive that it was done in a funny way. That made it lighter”, comments Julio.

Up to the beginning of 2015, “The Gift” has participated in 85 festivals around the world and has obtained 10 prizes and 4 honorable mentions in Europe, Latin America, and Chile. SM

ANIMA MUNDI 2014 BRASIL JULIO - AGOSTO RÍO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO http://www.animamundi.com.br/ EXPOTOONS 2014 ARGENTINA SEPTIEMBRE BUENOS AIRES http://www.expotoons.com/ CUTOUT FEST 2014 MÉXICO NOVIEMBRE QUERÉTARO http://www.cutoutfest.com/ AXIS 2015 MÉXICO ABRIL MONTERREY http://axisfest.mx/ ANIMA 2015 ARGENTINA OCTUBRE CÓRDOBA http://www.animafestival.com.ar/

COMPETITION CHM 2015 Fourth CHILEMONOS international festival of animation

The fourth edition of the main platform for animation in Chile will take place between May 5 and May 10. We invite you to learn more about the new features of this new version in the following lines.

Link to CHILEMONOS 2015 sneak peek

By Josefa Villaseca

“A single Life” Oscar nominee 2015

After five years, the CHILEMONOS International Festival of Animation has become one of the most important platforms for animation in the Southern Cone.

With the presence of the most relevant professionals, series, short films, and animated films from all around the world, CHILEMONOS aims, once more, at making an impact and positioning Chile in a privileged place in the industry.

2015 Competition On January 5, the submissions to the fourth edition of the festival closed. During the almost three month process, the results exceeded the expectations by far: over 1200 works from the five continents were submitted.

Internationally, one of the highlights is the presence of a large number of short films from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Besides the high number of applicants, the prime quality of the submissions reflects the current high standards of animation worldwide.

Highlights of this edition

art”, said Erwin Gomez, director of the event.

platforms and audiences that will also have a place within this gathering.

Courage, the Cowardly Dog, famous character of Cartoon As in previous years, CHILEMONOS Festival will exhibit Network in the 2000s, will be present in this edition Through this new category, works from Argentina, Brazil, short films of its official selection, generating more than competing as a character in “The Fog of Courage”, a 3D Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador have been submitted. Among eight hours of programming. short film by its director John R. Dilworth. the Chilean competitors, one of the highlights is Marmota Studio, a web series production company that has nearly This year, award-winning and world-renowned pieces New Categories 40,000 subscriptions on their YouTube channel. will be participating. “The World of Tomorrow” by the famous director Don Hertzfeld will be in the International During the event, two new categories will be introduced, Also, the CHILEMONOS Festival will have a selection of Competition. In January, this short film won the Grand answering to the high demand and the increase of Ibero-American films competing against international production in both areas: Ibero-American Competition of premieres. One of them is “The Boy and the World” Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival.

Animated Feature Films and Latin American Competition (original name “O menino e o Mundo”) of the Brazilian “We have two short films in competition which applied to of Web Series. director Ale Abreu, winner of the Award for Best Feature the Oscars: ‘A single Life’, which is a very simple idea in Film in the prominent Annecy Film Festival 2014 terms of concept with a spectacular result, and the winner Lately, the audiovisual content for the web is booming. of the BAFTA 2015, ‘The Bigger Picture’, a high-quality This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed in the animation “POSESO” of the Spanish director SAM, will also premiere pictorial short film that makes you think of animation as world, which has generated the development of new in the Chilean territory during the CHILEMONOS Festival.

Spanish film “Pos eso”

Short film “Courage the Cowardly Dog” in 3D

“Les Liens de sang” of the Georges Melies School

This stop-motion film shows fun and dark stories aimed at an older audience.

“For us, it is like growing up as a festival. Years ago, having an Ibero-American film competition was unthinkable.

Currently, the quantity and quality that we’re seeing is surprising”, Gomez pointed out.

Consolidating in the Latin American scene In this event, there has been an increase in terms of quality and quantity of pieces coming from the Chilean industry.

Regarding this, Erwin Gomez highlighted the big evolution that has been observed: “From the first festival to this one, we can see how things have become professional on an amazing level, technically everything is in HD, with a good sound, perfect definition”.

Thus, the CHILEMONOS International Festival of Animation continues to consolidate as a Latin American model for the industry on a professional level, and also as a school, and it continues to encourage the animation within the region. SM

“This year, the International Competition of Short Films of International Schools is amazing. When you see the results, they are just as good as those in the professional competition. One of my favorite short movies this year is from a school: “Les Liens de sang” of the Georges Melies School”, Erwin Gomez, artistic director of the CHILEMONOS Festival.

PUNKROBOT

The studio that is characterized by its impressive preschool products in 3D They have made two series and a short film that has been all around the world. This animation studio has persevered in children’s programs, delivering a visual content in accordance to the big industries. An aesthetic signature that is strengthened with their passion for the 3D technique, which has given them the chance of becoming international.

By Pamela Riveros RĂ­os

Trabajando en Luis� 2009

While Gabriel Osorio studied Arts at University of Chile in Santiago, Patricio Escala was finishing his degree in Audiovisual Communications at Duoc UC in Concepcion, to make visual effects. Neither suspected that they would soon be starting a big project together: the Punkrobot production company.

Despite the great geographical distance, they met when Gabriel began a romantic relationship with Antonia Herrera, who had studied Arts at the Catholic University of Chile. By that time, the couple had already developed a project together: the short film called “Residuo” (“Residue”) (2007), which used for the first time the logo of Punkrobot because the festival to which they applied required that the projects be identified with a production company.

In that time, Antonia lived with her cousin Maria SotoAguliar, who was Patricio’s girlfriend. For this reason, during dinner time, the four artists gathered and talked about their future projects. It was during one of those instances when “Residuo” was shown. “I didn’t have the possibility of working in animation or seeing a product that I liked until I saw Gabriel and Antonia with the short film”, remembers Escala. That’s when they got the idea of continuing to produce and definitely form the Punkrobot studio.

Flipos and the first experience as a team Since then, these four artists changed their dishes for computers and simple conversations for project brainstorming. In this environment, “Flipos” was born, an animated series in which four friends travel the universe

searching for planets to explore. This idea was presented as a teaser to the National Television Council to get a fund, which they finally won in 2008.

Gabriel Osorio: “Since international channels are buying your product, they are very aware of what they’re doing. So it’s interesting because that helps you identify the next project you are going to develop in the company; you know what you’re going to be asked. For example, they can tell you that the preschool contents are not of 7, but of 5 minutes, so your next project is not 26x7, but 26x5, or you try to make a 52x5, which is an internationally accepted standard”.

Thus, in 2009, the challenge of producing the series began.

It was an intense year in which the most important thing for them was to create something of high quality. “In Chile, I hadn’t seen any animation that really convinced me. So that was my motivation, ‘someone has to do it’. We got our inspiration from video games or series that we liked, like ‘Pocoyo’. In that time, computers were different, they had another capacity, so rendering in HD, in 3D was more difficult. I would dare to say that it was the first series in HD. It wasn’t a minor technical issue”, remembers Gabriel Osorio.

Even though one of the main goals was to obtain a visual and aesthetic product, there was also interest in the content. They worked with the “opposites” to teach the young ones certain concepts. “ It was very important for us to develop a preschool series, because we realized that there were commercial products in broadcast television and we thought that was a problem, because that platform, as a cultural and educational tool, was not satisfying the needs of children under 6”, adds Patricio.

Through this first series, the Punkrobot studio began

Sequence created for the feature film “Best Worst Friends”

dividing the roles of each of the founding partners in a natural way. While Antonia became animation director, Gabriel was director, Patricio, producer, and Maria, art director. However, each role was not so well established in a fixed and definite manner because sometimes they exchanged roles or gave support to another’s work.

During 2010, “Flipos” was broadcast via Channel 13 on Sundays at eight in the morning. According to its creators, one of the privileges they had was that the series was scheduled next to the successful “Pocoyo” and there were no significant variations in terms of rating between them.

In addition, they got an interesting offer through the Chilean cable company, VTR. “Flipos” was available through Video On Demand (VOD) to be downloaded for free. The result was an average of 500 thousand downloads in a year. “It was a content that we negotiated to be free, because we wanted people to have access to it. Surely, it wasn’t only the first children’s series, but it also was the first in HD”, says Patricio Escala.

With this product, the team of Punkrobot was able to develop a series that has maintained good aesthetics and visuals. “3D doesn’t age very well, especially if it’s not well done. I feel that with ‘Flipos’ I look at the drawings and posters and I have the impression that it’s not an old series that is already six years old. The first renders are from 2008”, concludes Gabriel.

“The Adventures of Muelin and Perlita”, the fun way of teaching about our teeth to children While working on “Flipos”, they had another idea. “One day, I was reading the news and there was a pediatric dentist of the University of Chile saying that children between 2

Patricio Escala: “Before, markets were only for movies. So, understanding television as a cultural asset, special markets for animation were formed. In Kidscreen we had the chance to present ‘Flipos’ and we sold it to TV Escola and two years later, we presented ‘Muelines’ and we could sell it to Gloob”.

and 4 had a high number of cavities”, remembers Patricio.

Other thing in that article that surprised him was that parents didn’t know some tooth brushing facts, because even if primary teeth fall and another set grows back again, the infection continues.

For this reason, the team decided to make a project to teach children good oral hygiene habits and broadcast it in mini capsules inside other shows. “For us, ‘Flipos’ represented a huge effort because in each episode we visited a different planet. So Antonia had to decide a concept for each. We said that the next project had to be more delimited, in only one world, where characters interact”, says Patricio Escala.

That is how “Las Aventuras de Muelin and Perlita” (“The Adventures of Molar and Pearl”), children’s series where Muelin explores a world together with his friends, while they learn the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.

Soon, the project had progressed and grown because there were no longer the thirteen sets they had planned at the beginning, but twenty, and there were no longer thirteen characters, but thirty two. It was always planned that “Las Aventuras de Muelin y Perlita” was going to have 26 episodes of seven minutes each in order to have international options.

This cartoon has been broadcast by the Chilean channel UCV Television. And so far both this series and ‘Flipos’ are available on Netflix Latin America, becoming one of the first Chilean children’s series to reach this platform, according to the production company.

Patricio Escala: “And we realized that our products were interesting and well accepted in other countries.

They even paid for them. So, you have to think you have to work to finance what you want to show in other countries. And, also, you have to find a good space on national broadcast television in order to be on the screen and reach children�.

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Punkrobot work team

Internationalization The first time the Punkrobot team traveled abroad was to participate in the Mipcom market 2010, space where there are several products available for television and entertainment. It is held once a year in the French city, Cannes.

Together with other Chilean companies, they explored what was happening in the world. “That experience helped us grow and realize there are international markets where you can offer your creations”, says Patricio. In that moment, the team realized that “Flipos” was a good product to be sold to other countries, but it had to have at least 26 episodes to be able to get a space in a television network.

“It was quite a job seeing how markets worked, go there and position ourselves, and begin to show what we were doing. Generally, what has happened to us is that, since Mipcom is in October and Kidscreen in February, we present the project to the first one, and in the second we close the sales. The sales have an annual continuity”, explains Escala. It was in this way that both “Flipos” and “Muelin and Perlita” were purchased by the Brazilian channels Escola TV and Gloob, respectively.

Thanks to this experience, the Punkrobot team has learned to generate projects that meet the international standards from the beginning so that they can be sold to channels in other countries. One of the requirements these markets have for the buyer to be interested in the products is that they must have 26 episodes to show, and, ideally, they must have other 26 in their plans as a second season. This

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Scene from the series “The Adventures of Muelin and Perlita”

has led several Chilean studios to plan their future projects a grant from the National Council of Culture and the Arts. in a different manner.

It is precisely in this period when Punkrobot had a huge staff of animators. It was the time when more people have The experience in short films and festivals worked in the company. In spite of that, the process took While Punkrobot was working in the making of “Muelin longer than expected because they were in the middle and Perlita”, they had the idea of making a short film that of producing a series and other projects that came to the had been in Gabriel’s head for quite some time regarding studio. “We could have made the decision of working faster, the stories his grandfather told him about exile. That’s how but somehow that would have had a negative impact on the quality. For that reason I didn’t want to tamper with “Bear Story” came to be. the times. I’d rather be late, but the resulting movie must Wanting to drift away from the common image of the be as it must be”, explains Osorio.

Chilean dictatorship, at Punkrobot they thought about making a more universal story in which the characters Although there were urgent works to be completed, Gabriel were bears. This animal, according to the director, best and Antonia managed to make progress in the movie represents his predecessor because it reminded him of his and also, just has it had happened in previous processes, grandfather’s portly figure. For this animation, they won everybody contributed to its completion. Some time ago,

can complete thirteen more episodes, so that it complies with the international sales standards. “It continues being a project that is necessary for television. And that is what we believe is relevant, not only because we want to make another preschool project, but because there is an unsatisfied need”, comments Patricio.

Likewise, the studio is analyzing the possibility of making a movie of “Muelin and Perlita” that coincides with the first season of the series. “Since we managed to sell it in Brazil, we think that from now until it airs we must be able to have the feature film, so that people can watch it on television and they can also see it in the movie theaters. But this is only a developing project”, he clarifies.

Animated series “Flipos”, which is currently being exhibited at TV Escola.

Annecy Festival 2014 and awarded Best Art Direction and Best Children’s Short Film in Anima Mundi, Brazil. But those were not the only awards they got. Soon after, “Bear Story” won the Grand Prize in the Kuandu International Animation Festival in Taiwan, Audience Award in Klik!

In addition to the time it took to be finished, the movie Amsterdam Animation Festival, Best Animated Short Film “Bear Story” had to face other challenges. One of them in Mecal Chile, and Best Short Film 2014 in the Sienna was designing the character, because they didn’t find the Awards. way to make it look friendlier than and not as ferocious as “It has gone into really important contests and that allows this animal usually is. us to generate contacts to develop future projects. I mean, After four years, Punkrobot finished the movie and it there are distributors that ask you about Gabriel’s next premiered during the Chilemonos International Festival of project”, states Patricio Escala.

Animation 2014, where it got the award for Best National Project Development Stage Short Film.

I was reading the original script and I realized that it was something completely different, it grew a lot. In this regard, team work is fundamental for animation”, says the producer.

Its recognition began to grow and it was presented in the One of Punkrobot’s objectives is that the series “Flipos”

In addition, the team wants to continue experimenting with short films, which have already brought them so much success. “We were very satisfied with the results of ‘Bear Story’. So I really want to make another one and I want it to be a contribution and to have a message and content”, claims Gabriel. SM

2007 Punkrobot wins a CORFO promotion fund for making the They create the short film “Residuo”, which used the first series “Muelin and Perlita”. logo of the Punkrobot production company.

They win an Audiovisual Fund from the National Council of 2008 Culture and the Arts (CNCA, its acronym in Spanish) for the They present the project for the series “Flipos” to the short film “Bear Story”.

National Television Council (CNTV).

They win the CNTV grant for “Muelin and Perlita”.

2009 The making of the series “Flipos” begins.

Beginning of the Internationalization of Punkrobot: Trips to Festivals The idea for the series “Muelin and Perlita” arises after an article about a pediatric dentist from University of Chile.

2012 2010 “Flipos” is sold to Escola TV, Brazil.

The series “Flipos” premieres on Channel 13.

The series “Flipos” premieres on Escola TV, Brazil “Flipos” starts being broadcast through the system Video on Demand (VOD) of the cable operator VTR. 2013 In December, the short film “Bear Story” is finished.

The making of the series “Muelin and Perlita” finishes.

2014 Gloob (O Globo) purchases the series “Muelin and Perlita” “Muelin and Perlita” premieres in Brazil on Gloob “Bear Story” premieres in Chile at the Chilemonos International Festival of Animation.

“Bear Story” wins the Best Animated Short Film award This short film is presented at the Annecy International Festival of Animation, France.

“Bear Story” wins two awards in the Anima Mundi Festival in Brazil as Best Art Direction and Best Children’s Short Film.

MERCADO ANIMACION INDUSTRIA

S A N T I A G O 06 al 08 mayo 2 0 1 5 www.mai.cl

ALEJANDRO ROJAS

The perseverance made the animator In the times when Chile did not offer many chances of being an animator, Alejandro Rojas went directly where he must: next to the renowned artist Enrique “Puma” Bustamante. He was his best animation school that would give him the chance of fulfilling his dream of making animated movies in our country again.

Link to video interview of Alejandro Rojas

By Pamela Riveros Ríos

Since he was a child, Alejandro Rojas admired Michelangelo’s work and he knew that his calling came hand in hand with arts and drawing. In that time, he projected the productions of Walt Disney for hours on his wall in order to analyze frame to frame each of the works.

As years went by, and once he finished his studies in Arts in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Rojas knew that he wanted to become an animator. It was a time when schools offered specialized courses in this field, but there were no degree programs.

“I felt a calling to pour all my knowledge into something.

So I went to look for movie production companies in Chile and found none. I didn’t know where to look”, remembers the artist, who had been an assistant professor at the university and, afterwards, created a drawing course in his school.

That is why he started working in the world of advertisement, but his passion for drawing remained intact. That is how he was constantly asking about some important animator whom he could approach in order to continue learning.

After some time, he got the first name: Enrique “Puma” Bustamante.

The mentor “I arrived and he was in a situation that was kind of difficult, because he had a production company in Chile that made advertisements and in that time it was almost bankrupt”, remembers Alejandro Rojas about Grafilms Studio, integrated by “Puma” and Alvaro Arce, which focused on advertisements and animated series.

Scene from the movie “Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui” (2002)

Back then, Enrique Bustamante was famous for being the creator of the “Little Angel” of Channel 13, the classic

cartoon that welcomed and said goodbye to both children and the station’s transmissions. In that time, he was one of the few who animated, and Rojas was there during the last weeks of this famous production company.

“He was just making the last episode of the ‘Condorito’ series. He asked me to help him. We cut paper, he made walk cycles and I had to be pasting and he told me ‘put this foot with this other one, and then mount it’, and the cartoon would walk and cross frames”, comments the artist about his first work with “Puma”.

During that week, Rojas worked hard and he immersed himself into his duties with his mentor. After this intense period, when he felt that he was finally animating, the following Monday they had nothing to do. “Enrique didn’t have more work because that had been the end of a project. We were in the crisis of the year 82 and he told me he had nothing to offer me. So I answered him that he shouldn’t worry, that something would come up anyways”, remembers the artist. During a year, he went every day of the week, making efforts to generate a new project. But nothing happened.

Once the crisis was over, Puma’s small company began attracting clients for advertising. “He was very talented cartoonist and animator, and he tried to rationalize some things so that he could teach them, but he struggled with that”, he adds.

According to what his student says, the animator was hardworking and kind, but with a great deal of obsession. Every morning he arrived very early at work and went back home at one in the morning. “We sometimes experimented and I was exhausted, but we continued”, states Rojas.

It was the time when you had to print celluloid frame by

Secuencia clásica de tevito “Chinchiner

ro”

Cineanimadores production company

frame to generate movement, use neon so that the color didn’t burst, and the special effects were handmade. “I learned the essentials of cartoons, cycles, the logic behind the printed and non-printed negatives, or when you went to the laboratory and you waited for the results and you thought that what appeared was a certain thing but in reality it wasn’t. So it was something that involved a lot of intuition and Enrique managed that very well”, reminisces the animator.

Time passed and Alejandro Rojas wanted to make an animated movie. This feeling didn’t seem to replicate in “Puma”, a lover of drawing and who had projects constantly coming into his office. “I had to tell him I was leaving, because I wanted to make feature films. He gave me his best wishes and then I founded ‘Cineanimadores’”, comments Rojas about this situation that happened in 1989.

In that period he already had a movie project about a Chilean boy named “Papelucho” Cineanimadores and their first animated movie One of the main obstacles Alejandro Rojas had to face for fulfilling his wish of making an animated movie was that there were no previous examples of how you should proceed. The closest full length movie dated back to 1942, year in which “15 thousand Drawings”, the first Chilean animated movie, was released.

But that was not the first, and certainly not the last, obstacle he had to overcome. Together with his partners Enrique Vial and Ricardo Larrain, they had the mission of making a movie. But before that, they needed to train animators because there weren’t any in Chile. That is how between 1990 and 1998 they had around 200 students

under his instruction.

It was for this reason that, even though they had already talked with the artist Themo Lobos about taking his comic strip “Mampato” to the movie theaters, the project had to wait for ten years because, on top of everything, the company had to generate immediate funding in order to be sustainable in time. This situation forced them to work for the United States and Europe.

“We got series from these countries and worked with them from Chile, and then we got familiar with the North American method, which is prevalent in the whole world.

The process is so well designed that you can outsource parts of the production to different countries in the world”, says Rojas about the first Chilean animators, who worked with that industrial mindset.

All this previous experience was helpful to start shaping the Mampato movie, a young child that has the ability of traveling through space and time.

According to Rojas, Themo Lobos was open with the team and gave them a series of tips to develop the movie. For example, animals did not talk with humans and Marama, Mampato’s female adventure partner should be five years old. “I wanted to generate something between her and Mampato, a romance. Something! If only she were ten. But Themo was definite about it when he told me ‘no way’”, states the artist.

The process of finishing “Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui” wasn’t easy, because they had many financial issues. “I unplugged the fear and began making decisions. Every single thing meant resources. Many things happened to us, even the 9/11 attacks”, remembers this animator, stating that this occurrence meant the banks stopped giving loans

Movie “Selkirk, the Real Robinson Crusoe” (2012)

in that moment.

As the project progressed, the movie team continued facing several difficulties. “Understanding the meaning of 80 minutes was the most frustrating part. It’s an 80 minute story and, since that had never been done before, it was a huge challenge for me, it was completely intuitive. And on top of everything you were not allowed to make mistakes in a sequence. There was no margin of error”, remembers Rojas.

Another problem had to do with the way in which the team that made the backgrounds was formed, because there weren’t enough people to generate one determined style.

“You go from one shot to another and there is a background with a different style”, comments the animator.

Facing many problems to meet the deadline, Rojas and his team managed to make it: the movie premiered in Easter Island. “I was too nervous. I looked at people, who seemed this idea. to like it, even though there were moments when I didn’t “For Papelucho and the Martian” (2007), Cineanimadores see anything”, he points out. had to have the approval from the sponsoring channel The premiere was a success and national press went to and, also, from Marcela Paz’s family. “The direction was cover the event. In that year, 2002, “Ogu and Mampato in different. I think I could coordinate all the opinions: of the Rapa Nui” managed to bring almost 345 thousand people writer’s sons and daughters and of the channel. Everyone to the theaters and won the Altazor Award to National Arts, wanted something different, they imagined different things”, remembers Rojas.

2003.

Papelucho and the Martian Soon after, the idea that Alejandro Rojas had had in is mind since 1988 could become a reality: making the movie of the classic character created by the Chilean writer Marcela Paz, Papelucho. Everything began when Channel 13 showed intentions of investing in a feature film project and putting Rojas and Juan Diego Garreton in charge of

generate something novel in Chile that had never been seen before.

Stop motion and Selkirk

Exploring the international scenario, Alejandro Rojas discovered co-production. That is how they had the chance of participating in the movie “Selkirk, the Real Robinson Crusoe” (2012) with companies in Uruguay and Argentina.

“Each country got one third of the money. What we had to The production involved more than 150 people, among do was the digital composting, digital backgrounds, and cartoonists, color artists, and animators, who made all the integration of the post-production of the movie”, more than 100 thousand drawings. In addition, Rojas tells Rojas. could experiment with the 3D format, with which all the backgrounds in Papelucho were made, overcoming Rojas’s challenge was the backgrounds. This time around, the difficult moments of his former production. But, on they wanted to make much more than what they did for the other hand, all the characters were drawn in 2D. their previous movie and these had to be more real, so The combination of both techniques made it possible to in that way they could be more in line with the Plasticine

characters made by the Uruguayan production company La Suma.

In Argentina, they created the storyboard, the voices, and sound composition in charge of Maiz Producciones.

“I learned that Argentinians, Uruguayans, and Chileans are very different when it comes to decision-making. I came from the school of ‘Papelucho’ and here I also had to learn a lot: give in, understand someone else’s point of view, what he tried to convey with a certain scene”, confesses Rojas.

The director of this movie was Walter Tournier, renowned artist who has worked with Tim Burton in movies such as “The Nightmare before Christmas”, “Corpse Bride”, and “Vincent”. “It was very interesting. He is a great guy.

We understood each other very well. He is very talented and knowledgeable and, even today, the quality of his results surprise me considering the few resources he has. I think the animation was marvelous and the way in which everything happened was a huge learning opportunity”, comments Rojas.

Future movies One of the fields he would like to continue learning about is 3D. Therefore, one of his projects involves using this technique in his own movie. “I want to develop a new project, related to the family and international markets, making movies for those niches”, states the animator.

“How can I make it an important investment in order to be able to distribute it in the entire world? So all those details affect the topics you can discuss, the form in which you produce and the quality of the professionals. It must be an idea for a script that incorporates all those aspects”, concludes Alejandro Rojas. SM

1984 2002 Alejandro Rojas starts working in the animation industry Cineanimadores releases the first animated movie named with Erique “Puma” Bustamante “Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui”.

1984 – 1988 2007 Works with “Puma” Bustamante in productions such The company releases its second movie “Papelucho and the as “Condorito”, “The Angel” of Channel 13 and in Martian”. advertisement.

2012 1988 Premiere of “Selkirk, the Real Robinson Crusoe”, Creates the production company Cineanimadores directed by Walter Tournier and co-produced with La Suma (Uruguay), Maiz producciones (Argentina), and 1989 Cineanimadores (Chile).

Makes the storyboard of the projects “Papelucho” and “Mampato”.

1989 – 1998 Makes cartoon workshops at Cineanimadores to specialize young animators. Makes several advertising spots and series for European and North American television.

1993 Makes two short films for a UNICEF campaign for children’s rights.

CLARITA OR SWEET VILLE The first Chilean animation series

Even though there had already been cartoons made in Chile, what is true is that “Sweet Ville” (original name in Spanish, “Villa Dulce”) and “Clarita” made the path for television series in this country. However, when we tried to decipher which of these two series was first, history shows us a making-of full of anecdotes, and got an answer.

By Pamela Riveros Ríos

Both “Sweet Ville” and “Clarita”, made incursions in a never before traveled path: the world of animated series.

That is how the adventures of a group of friends that live in “Sweet Ville” and the histories of seven classmates, shaped the starting point for this kind of productions.

2004 was a great year for Chilean television. During that year, the first Chilean animated series premiered on TV, such as “Sweet Ville” and “Clarita”, marking an important milestone in the timeline of television. This is because both opened the doors to broadcast television and had a production style never seen in Chile.

Despite this, there were some occurrences that had paved the way some years earlier. In 1991, Vivienne Barry launched “Grandpa Colors” (original name in Spanish, “Tata Colores”), a 2-minute stop-motion series aired on broadcast television, where its main characters bid children good night. This was quite a significant show for the adults of today. On top of that, there was another milestone in the 80’s, when “Condorito” moved from comic strips onto television with short episodes.

In March 2003, “31 Minutes” (original name in Spanish, “31 Minutos”) was launched, a children’s series made with puppets and that opened a big door to other shows for children. From this point on, television channels saw the opportunity of showing cultural elements of the country through national creations. For this reason, the next step was making animation series and that is how “Clarita” and “Sweet Ville” were born.

However, which one of these two shows was made in Chile first?

Year 2002 After handing in her final degree project on Design at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Bernardita Ojeda had the idea of making an animated series. Without

understanding very well how things happened, she received support from the National Television of Chile network (TVN) to apply to a fund from the National Television Council (CNTV) In 2002, this network was already working on the first children’s series made with Chilean funds, called “31 Minutes”, so they were eager to have other products for the same audience. It was in that year when “Clarita”, by Bernardita Ojeda, won the fund to which she had applied.

“In that time, the CNTV had small contests with little funding, so a product like this was really noteworthy”, comments its creator. That is how the first Chilean animated series began being produced. “As a matter of fact, we began without pre-production and that was our biggest mistake. Everybody arrived at the office one day and we all were like ‘ok, what do we do now?’, we started drawing a character”, remembers Ojeda.

While “Clarita” began its production process for TVN in October that year, Francisco Bobadilla and Beatriz Buttazzoni applied to a National Fund for the Development of Culture and the Arts (FONDART) to finance billboards with cartoons. “It was narrating horrible things that happened during that time, like killings and things like that, but from the point of view of animation. We weren’t successful because we didn’t know how to fill in the application forms, and we kept the idea”, says Bobadilla.

Year 2003 Buttazzoni traveled to Miami, United States, where she met professionals who worked at Nickelodeon. “She was really

obsessed with cartoons and all, and when she came back I told her that it was better to make a series. I had quit the advertising agency and I was on sabbatical”, comments Bobadilla.

That is how Blanco Producciones began drawing the first sketches of “Sweet Ville”. “We started drawing our friends, all the characters in the series actually exist. I think that some may be offended if they know. But it was our group of close friends”, clarifies Francisco.

Portfolio in hand, both creators had several meetings with television executives, until they met Vasco Moulian at Channel 13. “His characteristics as a producer were very helpful for this project. Because I don’t know if he believed in us, but he wanted to plant a flag first, I mean, he wanted to make the first Chilean animated series. That was the condition. When we won a grant that the channel gave, we had to air before ‘Clarita’ did”, explains Francisco Bobadilla.

Bernardita Ojeda and her team had already begun producing “Clarita”, having several problems during the process. There wasn’t an evident production structure and they didn’t have an example they could follow to solve the cost problems. “I think I also didn’t understand much the implications. At TVN they couldn’t understand why we were taking so long. In that time a successful TV show called ‘Rojo” was on the air, so of course they couldn’t understand because they put a camera and made a twohour live TV show and we made ten or twenty seconds a day”, comments Ojeda.

They had a busy schedule, working until one in the morning

for an entire year. At the beginning, they took two months to make one episode of “Clarita”, and then they became more efficient in the process, being able to finish an episode in two weeks. All this meant that the series’ team wasn’t aware that there was a competitor looming. “Back then, Channel 13 had a more commercial vision compared to TVN. So they weren’t putting so much pressure on us. So this is all about different visions of the networks”, reflects Bernardita.

“Clarita”, with money from the CNTV, was behind schedule in terms of production and it began having financial problems. “I was terrified. I thought I was going to go to jail! It was fear. Nowadays, when we apply to the CNTV, we do it with thirteen episodes of thirteen minutes and when we did it with “Clarita” we did it with twenty two episodes of twenty six minutes. It was twice as long! It was crazy in terms of time, resources, we had no idea who to ask, and well, then we learned a lot”, remembers Ojeda.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, Francisco Bobadilla prepared sixteen episodes of twelve minutes each. “But we didn’t have so much pressure, because in our naivety we thought that we were going to air much earlier than we did, that we were going to make it much faster. We didn’t know what we were doing”, states Bobadilla.

Year 2004 In March 2004, the first episode of “Sweet Ville” aired, with an original concept of being a series for children between eight and eleven years old, with a little bit of black humor. Channel 13 did not hesitate in positioning its new product in high rating shows, such as the tennis Link to video interview of Bernardita Ojeda

matches where the Chilean tennis player Marcelo “Chino” Rios participated. “That had a big influence in the success and the good audience peaks, so we began with 25 points, in the middle of a final match in Rome, which was suspended for a while, and we were on the air during that time”, remembers Francisco.

Meanwhile, Bernardita Ojeda continued the production and began seeing some episodes from her rivals. “We weren’t aware. We were locked in. Then, we would watch it, criticize it, because they were totally different concepts.

They had a very expressive animation style, versus us, who had scripts that were very heavy. But we were very worried then”, confesses Ojeda.

“Sweet Ville” aired and “Clarita” didn’t know how to get more funds. In the second semester of that year, Ojeda’s series finally premiered. “The channel lent us a hand, because they could have taken it off the air, but they gave us their support until the end. They broadcast the complete series. We worked in the station, they gave us a space”, remembers Bernardita.

“I watched ‘Clarita’ and there were things in it that I liked more than in ‘Sweet Ville’, and there were some other things I liked more from our show”, comments Francisco Bobadilla.

“The results of “Clarita” were not as good as expected. In a tough schedule, as it is the one at eight in the morning, it didn’t have as much audience as “Sweet Ville” had.

Despite this, TVN broadcast all the 22 episodes. “For us it was a very tough experience because we had spent year and a half working until half past one in the morning.

Link to video interview of Francisco Bobadilla

And we gained zero rating points. That means, no one was cheering for us. It was really hard. But I watched the episodes after some time and I think they’re good. I had to have a distance of many years to realize they’re good”, reflects Bernardita Ojeda.

Lessons after the experience On the other hand, “Sweet Ville” could have a second season of ten more episodes, and a movie that premiered in the theaters in the whole country. According to its creators, it had a good audience.

“They were very different projects. We tend to compare everything in Chile and that is what happened to us.

Reviews were very hard because they invited me to shows in the same channel and told me ‘well, it’s nothing like South Park’. We told them we didn’t want to be like ‘South Park’”, says Bobadilla.

Even if both shows had different results, the conclusions are the same: these experiences opened the path for animation in Chile. “The learning experience is invaluable and as such it has been an important resource for all the series that have come afterwards. It’s amazing”, comments Bernardita. SM

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Anima para el mundo

Todo el talento latinoamericano de la animaci贸n en un solo sitio

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JOSSIE MALIS

The creator of Bendito Machine Since a very young age, this artist has been curious about the world and has built a strong criticism throughout the years. His passion for drawing, the admiration for Pre-Hispanic cultures and human behavior gathered to form a successful and noteworthy animation work that goes beyond borders nowadays.

Link to video interview of Jossie Malis

By Pamela Riveros RĂ­os

Jossie Malis (37) is a citizen of the world. He lived for nearly ten years in Peru and then he moved to Chile to continue studying. In both countries, this artist liked drawing and as he was growing up, he discovered that he was also passionate about story-telling and illustration.

He wanted to tell the world what he thought and critical thinking became a strong foundation.

He studied Advertising in a Chilean university, thinking that all his interests may converge. However, he realized on the way that wasn’t the right path, and that he needed to develop his artistic side so that it could give him the tools for creating stories. In this search, already in New York (1998), he took a film appreciation course and in 2003 he found a Master’s degree program in stop-motion in Barcelona (Spain). That is how he finally got to animation.

Currently, this artist lives in Palma de Mallorca, where he founded Zumbakamera, his own independent studio, ten years ago. This place saw the birth of “Bendito Machine”, his first animated series about human behavior regarding the use of machines. Thanks to this work, Malis was invited to the Chilemonos International Festival of Animation 2014, and he was also in charge of making the totem and the advertising spot for the event.

It was in this event that Jossie Malis expressed his passion for illustration, story-telling, and social criticism, which have accumulated throughout the years. In this discovery, the creator found the shadow play technique as a way of strengthening the development of his short films, generating a beautiful piece of animation with silhouettes and bright background colors.

So far, this piece has been multi-awarded and has

accumulated over 50 international prizes in festivals and contests.

Jossie, tell us about your works related to animation. What are they about and what are they based on?

Overall, I’m interested in animation as well as fiction, those are the tools that I have to tell stories. I always found the animation very fascinating , I consider myself an animator, but I’m also a filmmaker and it is the need of each story what defines the method. This is what guides me, the restlessness of storytelling before deciding how to tell something.

It happens that most of the stories I’ve produced, by a matter of format and control, have been animated, but I like the idea too to make more hybrid things, fiction integrating animation, which I find very enthralling. In fact, that’s what inspired me as a child while watching movies, the freedom that gives you the power across two dimensions, to bring a story to the plane of science fiction, where the animation has a strong role in the narrative.

mixture of machines and people?

Everything began when I start working with silhouettes in 2004. At that time I discover the work of Michel Ocelot and Lotte Reiniger, for me, the greatest silhouette animators.

From there, I tried to create my own universe, my version Bendito Machine have these features in some way. My plan of our history as civilization, to tell what disturbs me about was to create a series of very primitive fables, very easy this planet. to understand, yet full of technological references, a cross The Bendito Machine shortfilms moves around a political between past, present and future. and social burden, with topics that interest me, that distress I’m interested in the primitivism of the series because me, mainly related with human behaviors and machines, somehow, people react in a hypnotic way as they are our development as a species or how we treat each and watching an ant farm or a paint in a cave, very basics how we try to resolve our conflicts. Those are issues that but also rich in details. I love the power of animation overwhelm me since time ago. The need to give a shout and specially the ability with the silhouettes in order to came together into this narrative, to build this primitive synthesize graphically in countless possibilities. and dark fables in a small packages.

your story?

The chinese shadows, -actually originated in indonesia- are thousands of years old. In those days, they used to tell tales to members of a village around a campfire. They used to tell fantastic stories of great deeds, love or war, which caused fear and reflections on people. With that idea in the unconscious, I attempt to bring this tradition to the digital world, adapted to the current technologies, now with a richer details, that allows me more flexibility in order to tell more complex stories, or develop characters with a more elaborated mechanics, which is also what excites me about all this, industrial development through the machines and the technological dependence of the humans.

We tend to avoid questioning too much in relation to machines, because we know that they work and make our life easier, but they are part of our evolution as a species What is the concept behind Bendito Machine and this How is the shadow play a helpful resourse to develop and we pay them an amazing worship, without them we

It was always the plan to show it on the internet?

When I began with the series -10 years ago-there were no social networks or YouTube. If you develop a video, you uploaded to a festival or contest website and people came by word of mouth, or you sent the link by mail.

And yet, this allowed us to start in the internet when the audiovisual sector was in its infancy. From there, I was sure that was the natural platform for the series. And as the technology and platforms evolved, things grew together.

Now the series without internet is not understood.

Did you always think that this work could be more universal and could reach different languages? I mean, that it would be easily liked by any type of audience, regardless of the language? are not going anywhere.

cartoons after all.

Generally, animation is linked to younger audiences. How There is a school in Norway that contacted to thank us effective would animation be among adults? because they often use the series to build debates within a class with children from eleven to twelve, and to discuss Although I was a child who was fed with a lot of animation, about issues involving conflict resolution. They used to I’ve never been attracted to develop children animation, develop parallel stories or how to resolve conflicts that I’m more interesting in mature audiences as the recipient arise in the series. of this content because it seems that children already have too much information, saturation everywhere, and it’s an I have never felt comfortable with the treatment given industry more of being a toymaker, or at least associate to the animation as a child resource, I think it’s a way with a large toy company. I find it more interesting to to erroneously classify a narrative resource. That is reach adults who have more capacity for reflection. overexploited with children, I agree, but has the same narrative force than any other format and examples are Curiously, children’s enjoy “Bendito Machine”. Obviously, by the thousands. The problem is the distribution, and the not all parents are willing to share it with their childrens, way to reach the potential audience is where the equation because they can find it too dark for a child and they fails, but since the internet appears, this problem seems a definitely fail to read between the lines, but they have fun bit more diluted. with the characters and situations because for them are

At first I thought about these characters talking among themselves or not and I think it came quickly to the conclusion that it had to be so primitive and basic, as the silent film in black and white, very simple. In part, therein lies the success of the series, the lack of dialogues allowed more universal characteristics to the serie, they could reach anyone in the world without having to worry about the language. Once the film is on internet, there’s no limits to get anywhere. Without dialogues, and therefore of potential subtitles, people just focuses on what’s on screen, so at the end is easily digested.

And this allowed viralization, too. How did the audience receive the first installment of Bendito Machine?

It was a big surprise, I do not usually make me high expectations of what can happen and in this case, the first installment of Bendito Machine was made in order to

“Bendito Machine” Storyboard

participate in an online festival which had many technical conditions, the short film had to be an animated in flash with very limited technical specs about length and weight, or an autorun in flash player, because at that time the online videos were still a luxury, and it was with these conditions in mind that I worked in the film. I took the excuse to push me and say ok ‘I’ll make this short film I’ve been thinking about for a while, I will send and see what happens. “

which allowed me to finance and prepare for the next You have an independent production company. Why do installments and to give shape to the entire project. you continue with this project? We heard that you recently experimented with a crowdfounding platform. Could you The following chapters were not so spread as the first one tell us a little bit how that has worked? because my lack of distribution control, but considering this, the next two episodes where screened in some festivals, In our case, the main idea of a project always begins recollecting some awards. But it was from the fourth at home, thereafter, the development of each project episode when the show becomes a 2.0 version. From here, depends on how far we want to go and how far we want to the shorts are longer and more elaborated and festivals complicate it. Overall, we like to being in control of what become much interested in the series so everything starts we do and work with a rather small team of people. We And it was a success. The short film won the contest and to flow differently. access the resources depending on the size of each project, thereafter received a more than 20 international awards, always thinking small scale productions.

We are not too ambitious and have always preferred to control projects in a more familiar environment and especially without pressure of any kind. That has been leading us to this form of work that we have now and also allowed us to live from it. In Zumbakamera we are mostly three beings, my wife Julie, who is a music composer, besides being in charge of production, sound fx and distribution, myself, trying to cover everything from writing, design, animation and production in general, and Momo, a funny cat that does nothing but eat, sleep and meow.

We work in projects from all over the world, from music videos, documentaries, some advertising and collaborations of many kind.

Depending on the scale of each project, we expand or reduce the team of collaborators. We’re very flexible and looking for resources depending on what each project need.

Because of this same dynamic, a couple of years ago we decided to try other avenues for funding our most personal projects ...

And that’s why you decided on crowdfunding?

Exactly. The crowdfounding has the control of offering all people and those who follow us, the opportunity to be part of our project. Crowdfunding allows you to give added value to your proposal, so people can participate and get involved directly in production and least of all, without intermediaries. This opportunity opened many doors to us and has been a tremendous support to continue the project.

And indirectly, because of the campaign, we managed to have the support of one of the biggest television network in Europe to give more continuity to the series. Crowdfunding is definitely a unique opportunity to carry out a project of any kind and a fair way to understand how the bussiness rules are changing in terms of global production.

How is the work system you use for your projects? How do they start and finish?

I don’t have a definite formula. The series suffered a long list of mishaps along the years because it’s an unconvential approach to an animated series. Each short film is proposed as a specific project and thereafter evolves as we found funds to move forward. Each episode is an adventure and the only secure plan is to conclude the series with episode 6.

Do you have upcoming projects related to animation?

At the moment we are working on the script of the last episode of Bendito Machine and also in the master lines of a video game of the series. In parallel, I have been working slowly and for some years now, in another project about the universe and some other little experiments.

Many doors open right now, 2015 will be an interesting year. SM

ANIMATION IN BRAZIL

Talent and improvement in almost 100 years of history The last years have been particularly fruitful for Brazilian animation, which is now enjoying artistic and commercial recognition on an unprecedented scale. Television series such as “Fishtronaut” and “My Big Big Friend” are being broadcast in dozens of countries in the five continents, thanks to a business model that has, so far, brought international co-productions.

By Felipe Haurelhuk

The two latest winners of the highest award at the Annecy Festival are Brazilian: “Rio 2096 - A Story of Love and Fury” (2012), by Luiz Bolognesi, and the most recent, “The Boy and the World” (2014), by Ale Abreu.

These are extraordinary facts, but they are the product of a long and hard road regarding this activity in the country, which will be one century old in 2017.

There are records that confirm the existence of small animated cartoons in the Brazilian news in 1907, but it was only ten years after that the first animated film was released in the theaters. “The Kaiser”, released in January 1917 in the Pathé Cinema located in Cinelandia, Rio de Janeiro, was the starting point of Brazilian animation. Its author was cartoonist Alvaro Marins, popularly known as “Seth”, who worked for newspapers such as “A Noite” and “Seleta”. He was only 26 when he finished this movie.

In the film, the German leader Wilhelm II sits down in front of a globe and puts his helmet on top of it, making a clear allusion to his control over the world in a time of serious military conflicts in Europe. Meanwhile, the world grows and envelops the soldiers. The black-and-white short film, which has strokes that are very similar to his works as a designer, was lost due to the lack of concern for its preservation, and nowadays there is no copy of that piece.

The only known record is an image that makes reference to the film, which was published by the newspaper of those times and recovered several years after.

Between 1920 and 1939, there were other pieces that suffered the same fate because of the lack of concern for the audiovisual memory, something that has been historically very critical in Brazil. Among those lost pieces were dozens of advertising films, besides other works by several authors, such as “As Aventuras de Billie e Bolle” (The Adventures of Billie and Bolle) (1918) of the artist

“The Kaiser” of Alvaro Marins (1917) from Sao Paulo Eugenio Fonseca Filho and “Macaco Feio, Macaco Bonito” (Ugly Monkey, Pretty Monkey) (1929 1933) of Luiz Seel, which makes references to famous characters of that animated decade, such as Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye the Sailor Man. Luckily,

the latter was completely recovered by the Brazilian Cinematheque and is currently well preserved.

By the end of the 1930s, other famous cartoonist of the time, Luis Sa, decided to create a series of cartoon designs

Carlos Saldanha, director of “Ice Age” and “Rio”, BlueSky Studios

Mauricio de Sousa, director of “Monica’s Gang” (1983)

“Virgulino” by Luiz Sa (1930) owner was careless with his purchases. The damaged piece of the artist remained lost for decades until it was re-discovered by one of the clients of the store, animator Jose Parrot. In a critical state of deterioration, the 16 millimeter film was recently recovered during the making The assessment of the Printing and Propaganda of the documentary “Between Frames: The Art of Brazilian Department, directed by the government of the president Animation” (2013).

Getulio Vargas, determined that the film did not meet the requirements to be presented to Disney and Sa’s work The difficulties that Anelio Latini Filho had weren’t few when making “Sinfonia Amazônica (Amazonian ended being crossed out.

Symphony) (1953), the first Brazilian animated feature Disappointed, he sold his film to a projector store, whose film. Absolutely on his own, the artist received the script with the character Virgulino, created by himself. After working completely by himself, he asked the Brazilian government for support, with the objective of showing his animation to Walt Disney, who was visiting in Brazil.

Macaco Feio Macaco Bonito (Ugly Monkey, Pretty Monkey) by Luiz Seel (1929)

and animated half a million designs behind a house in Tijuca, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. It took him six years of uninterrupted work, with a script that rescued the legends from the Amazon rainforest through the eyes of the native Curumim. The effort that making this film meant affected his health which, on top of the lack of support to continue with the project, resulted in him quitting.

the production of these pieces Guy Lebrum’s studio. Born in France, this director was the one behind unforgettable characters and jingles in the first years of television.

In the next decade, the country would be charmed once again by the advertising of Lynxfilm, a real animation studio founded by Ruy Perotti from Sao Paulo and which helped to create a new generation of artists. Names such as Daniel Messias, Walbercy Ribas, and Luiz Briquet, acclaimed today, are the result of the post-Lynxfilm generation, who would end up overthrowing Brazilian advertising animation by the end of the 1990s.

Only advertising, which was almost exclusively produced in Sao Paulo, made animation a profitable activity for more than half a century in Brazil. The arrival of television at the beginning of the 1950s increased the apparition of the advertising spots of products and services, which initially had as the most important referent in terms of Problems in the movie theaters arose. Almost twenty years

Ale Abreu director of “The Boy and the World” Annecy award-winner 2014

needed to pass before a feature film was released once again in the Brazilian theaters, which, in those years, already had images in color. “Piconzé” (1971) was written, directed, and finished by the Japanese based in Brazil Ype Nakashima. He worked for nearly five years.

In Bahia, Chico Liberato also worked in an artisanal way to release “Boi Arua” (1983), a film strongly influenced by songs from interior northern Brazil.

It was the creative technique and art of short films that would bring to the country the first and more important international awards. The pioneers would came from experimental works of Robert Miller, whose source of inspiration for his abstract films was Norman McLaren.

Among the animation techniques he used, there was applying paint directly on the film. Thanks to this technique, he won an award at the Cannes Festival in 1958 for his piece “Sound Abstract”.

Almost three decades later, it was Marcos Magalhaes’s turn, when he received a Jury Prize at the same festival for his short film “Meow” (1981). This artist was even one of the main representatives of a new generation of Brazilian animators that originated due to the agreement between the Brazilian government and the National Film Board of Canada, which provided courses and exchange programs The beginning of the 1990s, in the meantime, would represent a sudden interruption of all this activity. After between professionals of both countries. going through a difficult financial situation, the former Finally, feature films had one of their best moments in president Fernando Collor stopped every single type of almost 70 years at the end of the 1980s when, for the governmental support given to films. This paralyzed the first time, Mauricio de Sousa set a real production studio. national production. In that moment, Otto Guerra appeared Having had such a huge success with the comic book, almost as a symbol of resistance and perseverance when “Monica’s Gang” (1983) became an unprecedented releasing, precisely in a year when production was almost commercial hit, bringing millions of spectators to the zero, the feature film “Rock & Hudson” (1992). With a lines in the movie theaters in the entire country, which strong and controversial content, the film ended up getting stimulated the investment in this field. fans from all over the world and launched his filmmaker

Film “Boi Aruá” by Chico Liberato (1983)

career. The difficulties would continue until 1994, year in which Anima Mundi was created. The festival, which is one of the most important in its kind in the world, attracted a loyal and passionate audience and, most importantly, it encouraged the production of artistic and author-related works in the entire country, in a process that has become continuously more intense.

During this last decade, other important steps were taken.

The evolution of technology lowered costs and made it easier for new professionals to enter the market, and also,

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Otto Guerra director of “Rock & Hudson” (1992) and ”Until Sbornia do Us Part” (2013)

Eduardo Calvet director of the documentary “Between Frames: The Art of Brazilian Animation” (2013)

“Piconzé” (1971)

new schools and courses were opened in four places in the Felipe Haurelhuk country. Several professionals with international success, such as Carlos Saldanha, also attracted the attention of Born in the Brazilian city Curitiba, Felipe Haurelhuk graduated from the UFF - Fluminense Federal Universityyounger people.

School of Cinema, one of the pioneers in offering courses Brazilian economy reached an important maturity level and in the country. He began his career in TV Globo, where public incentives for the production of contents increased he was the person in charge of formulating and building significantly. The result is production on unprecedented more than 6,000 promotional pieces of the programming levels in Brazilian history, which reveals talents and real schedule , including specials and releases. artistic treasures, such as the latest two award-winners at Right after that, he worked in the independent audiovisual Annecy. Long live Brazilian animation! SM market, diversifying his experience in several positions, in script-writing, and direction. He sold many scripts to different audiovisual companies and directed some short

films, finally specializing in production. In 2011, he was responsible for “O Abajour”, first Brazilian feature film filmed with HDSLR cameras. The following year, he began working on the documentary “Between Frames: The Art of Brazilian Animation”, which was released during the Anima Mundi International Festival of Animation 2013, and has been in more than 30 festivals in three different continents, including the official selection for the last Annecy International Festival of Animation.

RAPHAEL LACOSTE Creating inside the major video game franchises Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia are some of the titles where this artist has expressed his creative mind. He began in the theater and after a long career, he stepped away from the video game world to explore in the film industry.

By Pamela Riveros

Path to Gothic Choir Drawing, creating worlds, and expressing his creative mind trough a pencil was always the dream of Raphael Lacoste.

In high school, he had already asked for advice regarding where he should study art, and that is how he got the idea of studying at the Centre Nacional de la Bande Dessinée et de l’Image (CNBDI), located in Paris.

one of the most important names in French animation: Rene Laloux, director of movies such as “Les Dents du Singe” (1960). This role model was his guide during the editing process of Lacoste’s first short film called “Nîumb” (2000), which gave him the opportunity of finding his first job in the animation field, and which was shown in the Siggaph, Imagina, and Anima Mundi festivals that same In spite of that, the artist made his first works in a theater. year, demonstrating his graphic signature and the feelings It was the nineties and he was dedicated to photography, that his works can provoke, using a powerful and detailed designing stages, and composing for the company Les artistic concept.

Pygmalions.

It would be in 2002 that Raphael Lacoste received one But soon, from photography and human movement, he of the most important offers of his career: being part of moved into animation and 3D. Finally, at CNBDI he met the team of Ubisoft in Montreal (Canada) and work as Art

North Kingdom Assassin’s Creed

Migration

South Kingdom Assassin’s Creed

Director in “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”. Soon after, he would be involved in “Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones”, which earned him a VES award in 2006 in the category “Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game” for the “Two Crowns” scene.

After being Art Director in the first installment of “Assassin’s Creed” (2007), Lacoste decided to step away for a while from the video game industry when he had the chance of getting closer to the movie industry. It is then when he became Matte Painter and Concept Artist in movies such as “Terminator Salvation” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. He also developed works for EA Entertainment Industry in Montreal.

However, his distance from the video game world would come to an end when in 2010 he became Art Director of “Assassin’s Creed Revelations”, working with Ubisoft once again. In this challenge, Lacoste continued developing many of the talents he had already shown during his some games with an interesting immersion. I particularly professional career, such as sensations, compositions of a remember “Abe’s Oddysee” and, much before that, frame and environments that can provoke his mind and “Another World”. Ever since I became a parent I have less the use of a pencil. time to play, so I usually observe my children when they play, and I’m updated thanks to them.

Such portfolio wasn’t unimportant for Solomonos Magazine, and for that reason he was exclusively interviewed to know And to develop the art concept in your works, where do you his impressions and reflections after his intense years in get inspiration from? And what’s the process you follow to the industry of animation and, specifically, of video games. arrive at a final concept?

the atmospheric depth of the composition. It’s after that that I put the illumination and the color palette, until I finally get to the details. I usually make the architectural elements in 3D.

Raphael, was there any video game that motivated you to Generally, it begins with a desire to draw, represent get into this world? Did you like to play video games when a moment, tell a story. After that, I start looking for you were younger? references that could inspire me, such as my travel pictures.

I make a simple drawing, on paper, and then place it on I played a little, but never excessively- Let’s say that I liked Photoshop adding different layers in grey levels to create

I think the capacity of extending a scene in a dynamic way and with illumination is what I find interesting of the works on stage. It’s like a window that opens up to imagination behind physical decoration. I really liked the experience of working in the theater. It’s a shame I couldn’t make a living

Masyaf Assassin’s Creed

Your initial activities are related to the theater. What do you think about the evolution of the presence of video and animation in current theater? Do you still like theater and are you still in contact with that world?

Concept “Mr. Nobody”

“Smoking on the Rooftop”

in that field, because it is fascinating and very rewarding.

It’s clearly felt in mi film: a little bit in the graphic design, but above all in the story. Rene also helped me a lot in Have you kept in contact with this company? the editing process of “Niumb”. I’m sorry he’s not with I keep in touch with the French company with which I us anymore. His films were very poetic and beautiful, worked in the nineties. They are friends I rarely see since I enriching, and they had powerful messages. came to live to Canada.

What did winning the VES award for “Prince of Persia” What did the short film “Niumb” represent in your career? mean for your career?

It’s the first piece that made me feel proud. It enabled me to get my first job position and have the opportunity to go to festivals like Siggraph and Imagina, where my film was shown. It was also broadcast on French television during some years. I can say it was a big door to my first job related to the multimedia industry. My first duty was as a Level Artist in the company Kalisto, a French video game company that, unfortunately, closed in 2002. But it was a chance of crossing the Atlantic for mi second job as an Art Director at Ubisoft Montreal with “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”.

One of the most important moments in my life was getting an acknowledgment from the high Visual Effects Society. It’s a true honor. A VES is no small thing! It was a beautiful award ceremony, the competition was fierce.

This award gives me a certain degree of acknowledgment and credibility as an Art Director. I’m very grateful to the VES jury.

Assassin’s Creed is one of the strongest franchises in the video game industry in the world. Could you tell us about your participation in this project?

How was the experience of having Rene Laloux as a How is the experience of working in a project, knowing that teacher? How did he influence your work? it is eagerly awaited by millions of fans who are expectant about every single detail?

My art teacher in high school had recommended the CNBDI in Angouleme, but in those days he didn’t know that one I have worked for a long time for this license and I also of the directors was Rene Laloux. I was a big fan of his worked part-time for the creators in 2007. After that, movies. “Les Maitres du Temps” (Time Masters) are still, I paused for three years to work in the film industry, in my opinion, an animation masterpiece and I am very but I came back to the franchise in 2009, enriching my fond of that type of films. I was surprised and excited to experiences in the film industry. It’s true that expectation is know that Rene was a professor there, so I prepared my huge, and that both the audience and the critics are tough, dossier for the entrance examination. I tried to learn with because we have become fundamental. him during my year of studies.

We always try to create the best game possible and our

Derinkuyu Assassin’s Creed Revelations

teams are very experienced, which allows us to have an effective creative process on a reasonable schedule. We are absolutely capable of adapting and updating. Proof of this is the success of the reviews of “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”.

What do you think of the evolution of cinematics in video games?

It’s hard to imagine making, nowadays, pre-made cinematics when the graphic level of realism is so impressive. It’s not easy to ask a video game team to make such an effective montage. That is why it is a great challenge to make an interesting work, without breaking the immersion in the game, in real time. For me, “GTA” and “Last of Us” are great examples of production, hosted in an interactive experience.

What project are you currently working on? What would you like to do in the future?

Unfortunately, I can’t reveal my current project, but you’ll know sooner or later. I’m very happy with my work and I don’t plan to change it for now. I’m also a part timer at the NAD Centre teaching Environment Design, which allows me to keep my knowledge up to date by teaching my students. SM

Mangrove Benchmark Illustration Assassin’s Creed IV

This project has been funded by the Audiovisual Promotion Fund.

CHILEMONOS

Solomonos Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction is forbidden without due authorization. The concepts expressed in the Solomonos Magazine articles belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Solomonos Magazine. Solomonos Magazine declines all responsibility for the rights that could arise from the reading and/or interpretation of the content of the published articles. Reproduction by any means is forbidden without the previous authorization of the owner of the copyright. The photographs, brands, icons, images, and logos were provided by the respective interviewee.