Workshot 2.0: DOPPELGÄNGER
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
12th StopTrik IFF welcomes you to join a 3-phases workshop of concept-based animation filmmaking where practical execution of your short animated project concludes the process of learning critical approaches to media and understanding film as a complex mode of artistic communication.
The Participants will learn stop motion animation filmmaking from HUGO COVARRUBIAS, an Oscar-nominated director of the film “Bestia” (Chile); scriptwriting from VASSILIS KROUSTALLIS, writer, film critic, and academic (Greece / Estonia); while the skills of critical literacy will be introduced by URŠKA BREZNIK and KAJA FIEDLER (Slovenia).
Find detailed description of the workshop below.
A limited number of the Participants can register and we accept the interested ones on the basis of ‘first comes, first served’ principle. It is essential that each Participant goes through all three stages of the process.
Participation fee is 100 euro, the Festival does not cover the Participants’ expenses in Maribor.
Animations made as part of the workshops will be shown publicly at the closing event of the festival, on Sunday 2nd October in the hall of the Vetrinjski dvor.
For registration please contact: sasa.stoptrik@gmail.com
WHAT IS ‘DOPPELGÄNGER’?
The 12th edition of StopTrik IFF thematically focuses on animated manifestations of the doppelgänger figure (a double or spiritual dark twin) as a key unlocking specific perspectives on understanding individual psyche as well as social, political, and cultural mechanisms. In cultural, literature, and film studies the doppelgänger is frequently referred to as a ‘monster in the mirror’ figure, a magnetizing but dark identity of the self that carries allure, promises a fulfilling liberation, and if not timely tamed, a force that pushes one for an inevitable self-destruction. Searching for doppelgänger is to examine the ambivalent structures of relationships between the dominant and the oppressed, the political and the individual, the exposed and the hidden. Such motifs of an archetypal reverberance continuously absorb and mirror the drifts and updates of currently occurring changes. This generates new cultural and ethical understanding of acts such as questioning, reinventing, and negotiating one’s identity in the ongoing processes of technological and scientific advancements, geopolitical and cultural shifts resulting from globalization and neocolonialism. But this theme also strongly affirms the very specificity of animation itself. Considering how the visual environment is created, animation is the most elusive and fluid film form, it inherently generates ambiguous meanings. Operating with deception and illusion, animation empowers its audiences to engage with the artwork in a highly introspective and sincere way.
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE: TIME & CONTENT
Phase 1: 23. 9. 2022, Critical Literacy workshop with Urška Breznik and Kaja Fiedler, zoom
Through a critical literacy workshop we will encourage the realization that knowledge is a social construct and deepen our ability for critical understanding, interpretation and production of information. Namely, access to knowledge and information has a big impact on creation and preservation of inequality. With various theoretical tools we will reveal the relationship between knowledge and power and develop a critical attitude towards our own knowledge. We will raise awareness about economic, political and social interests that affect knowledge, information and the content we chance upon or produce on a daily basis. With the help of critical discourse analysis we will deconstruct audiovisual texts and search for hidden agendas and missing voices. During this phase you will learn about:
Power relations in the society and the ways to analyze them
How accessing knowledge and information is related to power
Application of critical discourse analysis in reading of written, visual and audiovisual texts
Phase 2: 25. - 27. 9. 2022, Script writing workshop with Vassilis Kroustallis, live event
The workshop will start (Day 1) with a lecture on the fundamentals of film narrative theory (plot, character structure, and development), tips, and tricks. It will soon expand into the notion of major structural archetypes encountered in all stories, and examine the way to have a firm grasp of their use, and be able to apply them to one’s own work. Short written exercises will address these topics, while the concept of the duality, a much-used narrative and aesthetic placeholder in film and animation, will be introduced.
Days 2 and 3 will be devoted to participants’ own personal work (individually or in groups, with mentoring) based on the duality concept. In parallel, the most common ways to create dramatic conflict out of this concept will be investigated; participants will subsequently use creatively the points provided to structure their story idea into a first-draft, short animated film script.
During this phase you will learn about:
basic concepts of film narrative and the way to handle key, recurring narrative ideas
ways to build dramatic conflict in a scene
re-drafting one's ideas without losing sight of the original story target
Phase 3: 28. 9. - 2. 10. 2022, Animation Filmmaking with Hugo Covarrubias, live event
Under the supervision of creative director, Oscar-nominee and Annie Award-winner, Hugo Covarrubias, you will be challenged to transform a narrative text into visual storytelling, choosing a stop motion technique which is most suitable for your story. We will make a storyboard of one or two scenes from your script and their animatics. We’ll choose the texture that is most appropriate for your project and we’ll make a color script based on that choice, learning about the importance of light as a key component of the creation process. At the final stage, we’ll explore the animation procedure, testing the artistic decision you have previously made.
We’ll play with the ambivalence of DOPPELGÄNGER, learning how to materialize this theme sensitively and visually. We will also dive into the contrast between light and shadows (exposed and hidden) and the factor of Texture, as another message component that you can use as a subtext tool, or a counterpoint tied to the point of view you want to communicate.
During this phase you will learn about:
how to narrate with images by creating storyboards and animatics
the importance of the light as a narrative component
the importance of choosing a texture in relation with the message you want to convey, and the point of view that the texture may present
other stop motion tricks
MENTORS' BIO
Urška Breznik a Sinologist and art historian, director of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže since 2013. She coordinates projects in the field of youth and cultural and develops and leads critical literacy workshops and seminars for young people, youth and pedagogical workers and general public. Executive producer of StopTrik IFF.
Kaja Fiedler a Sociologist employed at Pekarna Magdalenske mreže since 2016. Developing and leading critical literacy workshops and seminars for young people, youth and pedagogical workers and general public. Coordinating educational project in the field of housing cooperatives, climate crisis and workers rights. Producer of music events at StopTrik IFF and editor of StopTrik IFF website and social networks.
Vassilis Kroustallis is a Greek film and animation professional, currently based in Tallinn, Estonia. He has conducted studies in Classics, philosophy and film in the UK and Greece. He has extensive experience of animation festival programming, currently serving as animation programme director at PÖFF Shorts (Tallinn); he is also Head Editor of the online international journal Zippy Frames. He is both a film and animation scholar (won the Society for Animation Studies award for his Waltz with Bashir study article) and a creative writer. His short film scripts The Hotel and Mar(t)y have entered into screenplay competitions, with Mar(t)y being the finalist at London Greek Film Festival 2020. He has acted as a professional consultant for animation filmmakers. He just completed his first directed short film and drama, Homespital, currently shown in international festivals.
Hugo Covarrubias is a Chilean stop motion filmmaker, audio-visual designer and producer. He studied Graphic Design at the ARCIS University in Santiago, and holds the position of digital animation lecturer at the Universidad Mayor in Providencia. He is a founder of the animation studio Zumbástico Studios as well as a theater and studio company Maleza which pioneers in mixing theater with animation. Among the most significant titles in his filmography are El Almohadón de Plumas (The Feather Pillow, 2007) La Noche Boca Arriba (The Night Face Up, 2012) for which he received an award for the Best National Animation Chilemonos 2013. Bestia (2021) is a ground-breaking film in Covarrubias' career, winning the major prizes of the 2021 season (first awards in Annecy, France; Chilemonos; BIAF Bucheon South Korea; Pöff Shorts, Tallinn Estonia; FESTIVAL DE CINE POLO SUR (CHILE); Anima Latina, Buenos Aires; Interfilm Berlin, and festivals such as StopTrik IFF, Slovenia; SMOF Buenos Aires; Imaginaria, Italy, and others. Bestia was selected for the screenings in 2022 at prestigious film culture events such as Sundance Film Festival (USA) and International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand (France), and received a nomination for Oscar Academy Awards 2022. Covarrubias also develops TV series and films for children among them, El Ogro and el Pollo, Horacio and los Plastics, Puerto Papel, and Zander.
STOPTRIK EXPANDED WORKSHOPS 2022 is a project organized by Pekarna magdalenske mreže in collaboration with University of Nova Gorica School of Arts (Slovenia) within the Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme ANIMATION IN MOTION through cooperation with a network of further partner universities: Lusófona University in Lisbon; Portugal; University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in Wels, Austria; Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia; Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw, Poland. The students' and staff with Erasmus grant participate in the event with the Erasmus support.
In line with the directions and guidance from the SARS-CoV-2 Monitoring Advisory Group of Republic of Slovenia, the use of masks at indoor events is recommended. In case of signs and symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, stay at home.