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September Winner
Sjor's interview
with
TheHollywoodNews.com
This past month Sjors Vervoort won the Film of the Month contest for his short Cardboard. Here, I sit down for a quick Q+A about his filmmaking process, his inspirations and future plans. You can watch Cardboard in full over here.
Hi, tell me a little bit about your background. What got you into filmmaking, and who do you draw your inspiration from?
After graduating my multi media course I went to Disneyland Paris, and during my stay there I purchased a book called "the illusion of life", an animation book which explains all the aspects and principles of animation (I can definitely recommend it). I got really excited about traditional animation and decided to continue my path of studying by starting a course in animation at the st. Joost Art Academy in Breda, the Netherlands. The course took 4 years, and I recently graduated with a Bachelor in animation.
Where did you get the idea for the film?
In my final year at the art Academy, I had the opportunity to make a graduation short, which showed all the skills I had learned during my 4 year animation course at the art academy. I was able to choose the topic and technique of my animation. I decided to focus my film on my characters, since designing characters is my favorite part of the animation process. Inspired by street art I wanted to create something touchable, and came up with the idea to place my characters in a real-life enviroment. After spending quite some time on thinking which material I should use, I came up with the idea to work with Cardboard. Since Cardboard is flexable, flat like my characters, and easily affortable (since I didn't had a big budget as a student).
Tell me about the casting process and pre-production? How did you assemble your crew?
Cardboard was a solo project, so I created all the aspects of the film. Except for the soundtrack, which is created by Steven Aerts. He's a professional sound designer from Utrecht, who saw potential in my film and decided to create the soundtrack.
What did you shoot the film on, and with which particular equipment?
Cardboard contains approximately 1200 photos, which where taken with a Cannon Powershot G9. All the carboard in the photo's is real, all though due the fact that I didn't have enough time I also used photoshop to create some of the shots, to speed up the process. I dont think its important for the viewers to know what is real and what isnt, since Cardboard is a visual experiment, and is not based on a technique.
How long was your shoot?
Approximately 5 months, which gave me about 1 month for compositing.
Where was it shot, and were there any issues with locations?
Cardboard was shot in the city of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Making Cardboard was a very challenging and time consuming process. I spend a lot of time on finding the right locations, and was often unsure how the different shots would collaborate to create a final piece. I wasn't
working with storyboards, because Cardboard was more of a visual experiment. Each shot was a new piece in the puzzle, and throughout the production it started to become more clear which direction my film was taking. In the end it all came together.
What was the editing process like?
Since I didn't use a storyboard, I was constantly editing my film during the production. Unfortunately some shots didn't make it into the movie because of this process, which means a lot of wasted hours in animation.
What did you edit the film on?
I used adobe premiere to edit Cardboard.
How are you finding things since winning the ReelShow competition?
Cardboard has been doing really well on the Internet, it has been watched over a 125.000 times on youtube. I get a lot of positive responses and feedback from people all over the world.
What's your ambition? What aspect of the industry do you aspire to be involved in?
Im currently looking for a job in the animation industry. I also have the ambition to create a new animated short, and continue the cardboard experiment.
What's next for you? What are you working on at the moment?
Im currently designing new Cardboard Characters, to place in the city of Melbourne Australia.
Who is your favourite filmmaker?
Hayao Miyazaki is definitely my favourite filmmaker. I have visited the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo last year, and got inspired by all the artwork there.
Finally, what's the last film that you saw and the best film that you have seen in 2009?
The last movie I saw was Up, my first 3D movie experience. All though I loved the 3D experience, I was a little bit disappointed with the dept of the story. Being a fan of Miyazaki I would say my favorite movie of 2009 is Ponyo, on the cliff by the sea. All though Ponyo has been screening from 2008 in Japan, and I prefer to watch it with the original Japanese voices.
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