#Latvian experimental film

[theaskew]

Release, a short experimental film by Latvian artist Ieva Balode, with the music "Human Skin and Stone Steps" by David Toop and dance by Anastasia Lonshakova.

[paulasanimationba3]

Generally, I feel that I tend to handle pre-production and production roles relatively well. For me this means, drawing and iteration side of things. Meanwhile, my research could definitely be improved, especially regarding the themes and topics of the stories. 

Specialism:

2D Animaton- this year, I have improved my animations in terms of exaggeration, consistency of form, animating in perspective, posing, character development and performance ( although there is still room to improve)

Skills I am okay at:

Storytelling(?) - this year, I feel like I managed to effectively come up with concise, generally easy to read stories. Although, as mentioned before more research is needed in future for stories.

Layout and Background(?)- In both projects, I had an opportunity to both create backgrounds and also the concept art for them. Some  of them showed my experience in dealing with perspective. They also demonstrate my ability to apply principles of  shape language, colour and observation. Regardless, these skills could still be developed further.

Character Design (?) My character design this year demonstrates, not so much powerful design, but more so shape language that is simple to animate. Although I probably, can’t claim I am good at it. A personal project I did over the summer, has  a character design of a lion that has been intensely studied, in terms of anatomy and shape language, regardless I never got to finishing it. Realistically I probably won’t have the time to finish this project in time for portfolio submission, but it may be worth discussing with the tutors if there is a place I can find for it in my portfolio.

Concept Art(?) - I managed to do a lot of iterations of the concept art in my fable project, regardless this may need to be stretched further

Skills to SERIOUSLY  improve on:

Editing

Rigging- I finally had a go at rigging in after effects, it wasn’t entirely terrible, regardless Briana outlined potential improvements, such as rigging each limb separately. 

Compositing- I don’t know much beyond how to apply some generic filters. I am hoping that with Daniel Gies tutorials I would be able to learn a little bit more about lighting.

Animatics (?) I tend to default animate things, which creates extra work for me, also I never quite outline different values in the animatic, thus not helping the characters to stand out

Research- in both projects, this year, I used my own personal experiences to inform my stories and themes more than any scientific research. In Upside down boy, the only real character research that I did was observe Kieran, and let that inform my performance and actions of the characters. This offered me quite limited set of results. 

Goals for the Website:

Layout: I want to set everything up on one page and let menu buttons help guide the visitor

Logo: simple but animated, something that works well with the showreel intro and outro 

Colours: explore what colour scheme belongs in my this years films, I may potentially lean towards something neutral and light. Dark colours really don’t belong with the more children’s themed animations

Design- I could potentially try doing some background sketches/ design a custom menu bar that fits well with my sketchy style, thus also helping to unite the work I have in my reel. However, this could be an issue since I am makinng two very different looking animations this year.

Showreel: work I could include

Fable

Upside Down Boy

Crow and the Pitcher

Maybe a little bit of bestiary?

Potentially character performance?

Keywords I could use in my description:

Norwich University of the Arts, graduate 2D animator, visual-storytelling, BA Animation, 2020,Latvian (?),  freelance, creative, After Effects, TV Paint, character animation, children’s animation, design, final degree films, experimentation, drawing, iteration.

[roserosette]

I was tagged for posting my 9 favorite new-to-me films watched in 2016. 

The Boy Friend, 1971, Ken Russell. An absolute joy, a pink champagne and chocolate truffles film.  

Love Massacre, 1981, Patrick Tam. Alienated melodrama, Artaud, fantastic use of modern art and architecture.

The Garden of Polymitas, 2014, Martha Jurksaitis. Fruit, death and dreams in an intoxicating garden.

Avetik, 1992, Don Askarian. At times like a more sinister and impenetrable Parajanov, feverish visions of medieval Armenia displaced to modern day Germany. 

The Early 70′s Horror Trailer, 1999, Damon Packard. Shows a genuine love for a certain type of horror movie, without parody or condescension, with an abundance of bloodied chiffon.

Latvian Folklore, 1983, Andris Slapiņš. The most affectionate ethnographic film I’ve seen, as poetic as the folk songs it features. Flower crowns, ritual bonfires for protection from witches, magic in the deep sea and forest.

Suitcase of Love and Shame, 2013, Jane Gillooly. Exploring a lost and forgotten personal archive of an office affair, using photos, souvenirs and sixty hours of audio recordings.

Salome, 1976, Téo Hernandez. For lovers of languid and glamorous experimental film.

Faustine and the Beautiful Summer, 1972, Nina Companeez. A girl spends her summer vacation in the French countryside, exploring meadows and observing her neighbours. Distorted time, events that might or might not have happened, imagination and uncertain reality blending.

I would love to see everyone else’s lists!

[edgarcher]

Voices of unknown origin appearing on radio frequencies were first noticed in Scandinavia by the military in the 30s and were put down at the time to secret Nazi transmitters. But the voices spoke in unknown and mixed tones. And after the war, no records of secret Nazi transmissions ever came to light. The voices didn’t stop after the war. But their repeatability and their transient nature precluded study. That is, until the tape recorder came into common usage in the 50s. A group of radio hams in Chicago studied the strange transmissions. Male and females voices speaking in polyglot mode and lyrical tones. But it was not until 1959 that a Russian-born Swedish citizen radio and TV producer and film maker Frederich Jurgenson noticed intrusions on tape and commenced his own systematic study. A disturbing fact soon emerged. The voices zeroed in onto the Swede, addressing him by name, revealing a knowledge of his thoughts and actions and claiming to be the voices of deceased friends and acquaintances. The news spread rapidly. And soon, experimenters and scientists all over the world were attempting to duplicate Jurgenson’s work. Prominent among them was the Latvian Psychologist, Konstantin Raudive. The effect on parapsychologists was dramatic, accustomed to investigating the blind forces of the poltergeist and endless and somewhat boring card and dice experiments that were confronted at once with living voices, which answered back. Speech being a mark of intelligence and a highly structured artifact. Taken by surprise, the British Parapsychologists, without conducting experiments, rejected the objectivity of the voices, explaining them as breakthrough from taxis, police messages, or simply mechanical noises in the tape recorder. But their European counterparts were more cautious and possibly, with greater technical resources, they soon found out that they were indeed confronted with voices of unknown origin on tape.

[calartscinemotion]

Aigars Ceplitis VR Workshop by Louise Pau (MFA 2, Experimental Animation)

Latvian Filmmaker and professor Aigars Ceplitis came for a brief yet crucial 4 day workshop to explore narrative possibilities in 360° 3D spherical video with students from the School of Film/Video.

With virtual reality only steps away from permeating the market, those fortunate enough to have access to equipment and technical know how to create content have not hesitated in establishing their own visual grammar and marking their territory in this new arena - often so without narrative concerns and physiological considerations.

Early in the workshop, Aigars laid a solid bridge for us by introducing narratological concepts such as focalization and space, bring to the forefront the importance of thinking about narrative structures as the starting point to working in any medium.

The conceptual grounding was useful in that it helped us slowly formulate a new language in VR without being clouded by the traditions of cinematic language yet still retaining the narrative structure as a skeleton to build upon.

After being submerged in narratological concerns, Aigars then guided us in shooting our own 360 film, from conceptualization to final edit. It was very helpful to be able to shoot from a 360 camera as a group. Certain onset rituals have to be adjusted to suit the new technology, a new set of parameters to be followed in the editing suite.

With new 360 camera and software coming up in the market, Aigars emphasised the need for patience when dealing with new technology and to focus on thinking how to step into this new platform as an extension of our old, whether it be live-action or animation. Rightly so, our patience had been tried when dealing with extra big files, lagging and glitches while trying to view and shoot 360.

COMMENTS FROM WORKSHOP PARTICIPANT: Flora Xia (BFA 1, Experimental Animation) Aigar's workshop was more than a run-of-the-mill technical instruction for some new gadgets. 360 film and VR are on the cusp of becoming the media that will define the next few decades. He taught us that we have the possibility to be pioneers of this new format, the architects the language of 360 film. In this fast-paced industry we should all be looking for ways to transcend the grammar of traditional cinema.

On a personal note, I believe that it is wise for artists and filmmakers to start investing their time in thinking of ways to work in Virtual Reality as an extension to their own practices. Right now careless content owns a portion of the platforms and it is up to artists and filmmakers to generate content that could elevate this technology to an artist’s tool.

For me the workshop was a good blueprint on how to approach introducing VR filmmaking in our School -  to ground us in narrative concepts then let us apply the knowledge through fieldwork. Perhaps the struggle between thinking in traditional cinema and VR could be resolved by going back to a basic foundation of understanding how narrative works, a study which will still be relevant regardless of the comings and going of different technology.

I would like to end an excerpt from an interview with JULES ENGEL, founding director of the program of Experimental Animation:

ZOLOWTOW: ...and I'm curious--do you think that video, TV, and the other kind of electronic forms are going to replace canvases and prints and the still images?

ENGEL: No, I don't think it will replace it. No way. I think painting is going to be here. And video is going to be here. And film is going to be here. And sculpture is going to be here. And it's all going to be here, and they're just going to work parallel. (INTERVIEW ON MAY 1976, ‘JULES ENGEL ORAL HISTORY’)

[paulineinriga-blog]

Cultural places to discover in Riga

  Kino Splendid Palace: This unusual cinema is located in a former theatre. There is a stage in the main room. The décor is amazing! They play various kinds of films and host some film festivals.

  Kino Bize: This place is an alternative and experimental cinema hidden in a courtyard. To get in, you have to ring the bell and someone will let you in; it seems like an apartment. They show mostly Latvian and international arthouse films. 

Madame Bonbon: This shop sells fancy clothes, shoes and accessories from international brands. It is located on Alberta Street, a famous Art Nouveau street. The shop is designed as a beautiful and remarkable vintage apartment. Madame Bonbon is full of surprises in every room: the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom. The items are displayed with great taste.

  Robert’s book: This second-hand bookshop is also a café and cultural center located in a charming backyard. This shop sells books in English, coffee, and sometimes shows films followed by a discussion. You can explore travel books, foreign literature, famous novels and so on, while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. The atmosphere of Robert’s Books is relaxing with its cosy rooms. It is the perfect place to hang out with your friends or find a nice book!

[human-relationships-stuff]

Locarno Fest First Look Industry Event To Focus on Baltic Cinema

Locarno Fest First Look Industry Event To Focus on Baltic Cinema

The Locarno Festival is focusing its First Look industry initiative on films from the Baltics, and turning its Signs of Life section, dedicated to edgy experimental cinema, into a competitive sidebar. First Look, which is dedicated to films in post, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Baltic cinema, with a focus on Estonian, Latvian and… Read more »

[theaskew]

Viktor Timofeev, Portal Of Zin I, 2016. Music by Simon Kounovsky.