Last week I visited the FMX and ITFS 2019. It was a great pleasure for me as it was the two times before.
The FMX theme this year was Bridging the Gap between Art and Tech. I always love to see how other artists develop beautiful and inspiring concepts. I find it astonishing, how Aardman Animations are creating this historical blurred look of 11-11: Memories Retold. And I’ve fallen in love with the new work of LAIKA Missing Link, where I watched the premiere. Also, I was looking forward to getting a look behind the scenes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
My personal focus this year was the recruitment area to look for job opportunities. Therefore, I watched presentations of Illumination Mac Guff, Boulder Media, DNEG, Blue Spirit, and Framestore amongst others. And I talked with a bunch of people. A great conference is a good place for networking. A panel discussion about The Quest for Young Talent was very interesting for me.
International Trickfilms
With great pleasure, I watched a lot of new movies at the ITFS. The film Mirai no Mirai was so adoreable to watch. With its humanity and warmth, it also convinced the jury to get the AniMovie award. The second film which astonished me very much was Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles from The Glow Animation Studio. The film tells the story of Luis Buñuel based on the novel by Fermín Solís. The filmmakers combined old black and white film material stuff of Buñuel with 2d animation. A great way for media animation!
Inspiration for storytelling and character development
On Sunday, the last day of ITFS, I visited the Master Class with Myrna Gawryn, a character performance artist for animation. She gives me new inspiration about storytelling and finding ways to develop authentic and real characters. You have to, in some way, fall in love with your character, and not project yourself into him or her. The story happens, because it has to happen. So, she said, we should stop the moment and ask the character all kinds of questions, to get a better performance in the end. As an animator, you often have the power to underline the storytelling in the very own way your character is reacting to the world around him or her and other people.