After 4 days of FilmLab, we’re still looking at our project in very conceptual terms. The mornings are spent doing creative exercises with the other lab-ers such as singing, painting and movement. For Eddie it’s like being back at acting school, but I can’t say I enjoy it as much. The afternoons are spent working on our projects in our teams. Sometimes we talk to one of the consultants, Paddy, Peter or Stephen about what we want to do. Other times we just do what we do. We’ve spent the last couple of days in “incubation”. Every few days we present something about our project. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s presentation. Admittedly, Eddie’s coming up with some pretty cool ideas.
So what should a Lo-Budget feature do? I’m still not entirely sure. A film on such a low budget is unlikely to get distribution, or even any kind of exhibition. But for anyone who does end up seeing it, it should reveal some truth that would otherwise not be possible on a bigger budget. The central question then, is how it is better on a lower budget. If stripping away the economic and technical complexity uncovers a truth in the film, then it is better on a lo-budget. It’s an idea that is at odds with the prevailing perception of animation. In the 80s, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas immortalised and romanticised Disney’s work in “The Illusion of Life”, and animation has been elevated and pigeonholed ever since.
But with that comes plenty of opportunity to deconstruct and reconstruct the audience’s experience in watching animation. The Avant Garde in animation is strong in the festival shorts – surprisingly, not all the best and brightest minds in animation are making features. In a way this is avant-garde lo-budget filmmaking at its best where a film can be entirely come from the hand of one person’s vision. The works of Bill Plympton, Pritt Parn, Jan Svankmajer and Pez are some great examples of how traditional notions of animation can be challenged.
Perhaps our “avant garde” experience was Carnivore Reflux: we made it for nothing and did all the animation in 15 days; stripped of all the bells and whistles it was all about characters and a bizarre story; it was a reaction against the all the slick CG animation that had become so predictable. It was incredibly successful and satisfying. Interestingly it set us off on the trajectory we have been on for the last 4 years. How to extend this to a feature length is now the challenge. And if we can carry on the good run from our shorts getting into festivals and get people to see it, I’d be pretty happy.
