regole base per scrivere una mail a uno sconosciuto

Mi capita spesso di scrivere una mail a qualcuno /un ente che non conosco, per offrire il mio servizio come animatrice/illustratrice.
E allo stesso tempo mi capita troppo spesso di ricevere mail di "proposte di lavoro" di due righe, che non spiegano niente. Questo tipo di e-mail hanno sin da subito un impatto poco professionale e perdono di credibilità. E' bene iniziare col piede giusto e non fare questi errori.
Cosa è essenziale per una prima e-mail di lavoro a uno sconosciuto?


Sia che si tratti di una mail per proporsi e proporre i propri servizi, 
sia che - al contrario - sia una mail per contattare un professionista e chiedergli disponibilità/preventivo.


- salutare
- come si è arrivati al contatto
- cosa si è visionato in rete del contatto (sito? reel? progetto? film?...)
- perché si scrive
- un pochino di dettagli sul lavoro (deadline, budget, cliente?/fine del lavoro, link a un sito per saperne di più) Eventualmente si entrerà poi nei dettagli nella seconda e-mail, ma è bene far capire di cosa si parla
- dedicare tempo e attenzione nello scrivere la e-mail dimostra che siamo realmente interessati e seri

BUDGET: se non ci conosciamo nemmeno, cosa ti fa pensare che potrei prendere in considerazione un lavoro privo di budget?!?

Animalators - a podcast for/from animators

I discovered this great podcast called Animalators: it's a collection of interviews to different animators and their experiences.
Perfect to listen to while working ;)

I think it's a great concept and project - and I hope it will go on and on -
and reminds me of my attempt in this blog, to interview animators friends who are spread all over the world, in order to tell and show all the different variety of animation jobs and lives.

Enjoy and spread the word!

La Città Incantata esiste!

 Today's post is about the latest event that I visited:
La città incantata, Il meeting internazionale dei disegnatori che salvano il mondo, in Civita di Bagnoregio (Italy).
I am going to write it in English on purpose, because it is an Italian event and I wish more foreign artist knew about it, since it is an "international event for artists who save the world"!

This year it was the 4th edition of this beautiful festival, held in one of the most suffestive and breathtaking place I have ever visited: Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio, Italy).
The entire event last three days (from Friday to Sunday) and it all takes place in the little old town of Civita di Bagnoregio.

For once I didn't attend a festival which was purely for animation of film: actually I had the impression the main focus of La Città incantata is Illustration and Comics. That was a great experience for me, for once, to meet some artist working for not-moving pictures, for printed paper! I have the feeling that animators and illustrator belong to the same big family, but have at the same time a lot of differences, and rarely have the chance to meet together.

During the event there were some screenings in different locations, some random interviews in the streets, some talking and comic presentations, some exhibitions and also some double interviews.
I really appreciated the concept of the double interviews:
They organized some public interviews, putting together two artist, belonging to two very different fields or using very different approaches and techniques. For example comparing the great and traditional stop motion artist Fusako Yusaki with the modern sensible 3D director Mauro Carraro.

Another interesting activity during the event is "l'arte si anima in piazza" (which could be translated in English with "the art is animated in the square"): it consists in artist making art the whole day in the middle of Civita di Bagnoregio, in the main square - and also main venue of the whole festival.

Here there was for example the great Lorenzo Terranera, who painted a huge colorful canvas in one day.
 

There was also a modeling clay area, where Fusako Yusaki, Stefano Argentero, Francesca Ferrario and many other artists were creating colorful characters and little sculptures together with many kids.
Those characters have been then also animated, later, in the same square, with Stefano Argentero and Peter Lord.

La città incantata was not only a great festival and experience. I am so extremely grateful I had the chance to travel to Lazio and discover such a beauty in my own homeland. The nature in that region is wild and amazing and the people are warm and welcoming.
I hope I will have the chance to travel to La Città Incantata again!

why I love animation

With today's post, I'd like to share with all of you my own personal thoughts about animation and my own approach in this field.
This is meant to be a way for me to reflect about my own path, but hopefully also an useful or interesting point of you for all the readers. 

Some of these thoughts I wrote also for an interview that GARDE MAGAZINE (Hong Kong) made about me and my work (first time something like this happens, I am so honored!)

I've often been referring to myself as a multidisciplinary creative, because sometimes it's hard to give bundaries to my interests and my operating range.

My interests are many and various, I have a very curious and eclectic approach

to life and work, and I love to search for information and connect different

areas of interest. I am interested in documentary, storytelling,

communication's tools, different cultures, languages, migration, people. People

and their stories are for me the greatest source of inspiration.

Moreover, Thanks to my background and attitude, I have good organisational and

planning skills; I feel comfortable and helpful in organizing people's work, and

I would like to build a nice environment for my future, based on good

communication and respect of other people ideas and skills. (and by the way this blog is just another attempt to do so!)

My aim and biggest dream is to produce high quality and useful works,

connecting great people and ideas, and be able to share those good stories and

information to the world.

I often wonder about my motivation: I understood that not only I want to

make films, but I feel like I need to, I have an urge of telling and sharing

meaningful topic and stories, to feel good, to give me a purpose.

Animation is an amazing communication tool, because it truly can talk about serious themes in an efficient way. Animation is appealing, has the ability to synthesize, talks to people in a creative way, touching their feelings through evocative images, is playful and funny, still able to make the audience think about meaningful topics. Animation is not just for kids and actually, as the fairy tales, can be read at different levels, so it can be meant for everyone at the same time. Last but not least, animation plays an important role in communication and information's circulation, since it's very easy to spread an animated message through the Internet.

Emile European Animation Awards 2017

On the 8th of december2017 in Lille the ceremony for the first Emile European Animation Awards took place.
This was the FIRST EDITION of Emile European Animation Award: in fact it was born this year for the European animation industry and to award different figures in the animation production, from storyboarders to sound designers.

Peter Lord (AARDMAN) is the president of the EAA and here's a little introduction:

They made an Open Call and I heard about at the beginnng of the year, while I was attending ASF, so I suddenly applied with my graduation film, MERLOT.

The nominees have been announced already on the 6th of November: there are 17 prizes for EAA and three nominations for each category.
Since we had the honor to be nominated with our short film MERLOT for the Best Student Film prize, we experienced this amazing event.

Prizes of EAA are for:

- Best Student Film

- Best Animated Short Film

- Best Background & Character Design in an Animated Short Film

- Best Commissioned Film

- Best TV/Broadcast Production
- Best Writing in a TV/Broadcast Production
- Best Storyboard in aTV/Broadcast Production
- Best Character Animation in a TV/Broadcast Production
- Best Background & Character Design in aTV/Broadcast Production
- Best Soundtrack in aTV/Broadcast Production

- Best feature Film
- Best Writing in a Feature Film Production
- Best Storyboard ina Feature Film Production
- Best Character Animation ina Feature Film Production
- Best Background & Character designin a Feature Film Production
- Best Soundtrackin a Feature Film Production

The whole thing lasts just one night and the schedule goes like this: there is first of all the Ceremony, which is the biggest and most important part. In a big theatre all the nominated films were presented and the the winners announced and called on stage to receive their trophy. After that there was in the same theatre the premiere screening of a feature animation film (it was the Bredwinner), but at the same time the winners are in another room to make interviews, so I missed the screening, snif! In the end there was a cocktail party, food and drinks, and the chance to talk to all those incredible people who were there.

Those events and networking moments are very important to exchange opinions, talk, get to know new professionals in the animatio industry, but at the same time they are so hectic, excited and busy that it's very hard to have a conversation for more than few minutes and also to remember and be remembered. Also for this reason, I would say, it would have been great and wise to have some business cards on me, but I didn't and many others were also in my situation, because we all were in facy cocktail's dresses and suits.

winners:
I will list here now for the records the winners of the first edition of Emile European Animation Awards and show some more pictures of that night.- Best Student Film : "MERLOT"

- Best Animated Short Film: "Min Borda"

- Best Background & Character Design in an Animated Short Film: "Peripheria"

- Best Commissioned Film: "The last job on Earth"

- Best TV/Broadcast Production: "Revolting Rhymes"
- Best Writing in a TV/Broadcast Production: "The Amazig World of Gumball"
- Best Storyboard in aTV/Broadcast Production: "Shaun the Sheep"
- Best Character Animation in a TV/Broadcast Production: "Revolting Rhymes"
- Best Background & Character Design in aTV/Broadcast Production: "Ernest et Célestine"
- Best Soundtrack in aTV/Broadcast Production: "Lastman"
- Best feature Film: "Ma vie de Courgette"
- Best Writing in a Feature Film Production: "Ma vie de Courgette"- Best Storyboard ina Feature Film Production: "La Tortue Rouge"
- Best Character Animation ina Feature Film Production: "La Tortue Rouge"- Best Background & Character designin a Feature Film Production: "Longway North"
- Best Soundtrackin a Feature Film Production: "Ma vie de Courgette"

+ The Lotte Reiniger Lifetime Achievement Award to Richard Williams

 17 prizes, trophy designed by Virgile Saiah

Again, I cannot say I much honored we felt to be in that place, sourrounded by such amazing artists and talents and heros of us and also to have received a prize for our first animated graduation film, only Italian film nominated too.
Such a dream!

 
Just a little last note about the city who hosted this first EAA edition: Lille.
Lille is a nice French city very close to the Belgium and also to Paris.
While we were there we had the chance to visit a studio where we met some friends (ex students of La Poudriere) who are working on" En Sortant de l'ecole" project.
I will post soon a new article about La Poudriere school, which my fella Marta is attending.

some more shots from the Emile Animation Awards, Lille, 8th December 2017
pics from http://animationawards.eu
© Eva Senechal, Florine Maitre (BTS Jean Rostand de Roubaix, Campus I.N.I.C) & Antoine Giezek

STRAPAZIN

English below
[IT]
Inizio dall'inizio.
La prima settimana di ottobre 2017 mi trovavo in Cina, ad un festival che si chiama Jinzhen International Short Film Festival e la cui surreale esperienza ho raccontato in un post di questo blog.
Oltre alle tante incredibili cose che sono successe, e ai tanti interessanti e talentuosi registi che ho conosciuto durante il festival, ci sono due incontri che sfiorano il limite dell'assurdo e di cui vi voglio parlare. Si tratta di due registi che non solo vivono in Svizzera dove mi trovo in questo momento, ma addirittura una lavora a 5 minuti da qui e l'altro è addirittura il mio vicino di casa!

Oggi vi parlo di Anete Melece, regista e autrice lettone basata in Svizzera.
E inoltre vi parlerò del posto magico in cui Anete lavora, che si chiama STRAPAZIN.

STRAPAZIN è nato nel 1984 come magazine ed è diventato nel 1995 anche uno spazio fisico, un atelier.

Nel giugno del 1984 usciva il primo numero di STRAPAZIN, in bianco e nero, presentato al Comicsalon di Erlangen. Per l'epoca era un fascicolo radicale e rivoluzionario. Infatti Strapazin è sempre stata una rivista impegnata politicamente e nel sociale, nata dal fermento degli anni Ottanta e ispirata a Charlie Hebdo (che ha politicizzato il fumetto), da Métal Hurlant (che lo ha psichedelizzato) e da Lorenzo Mattotti e il gruppo Valvoline.
In quegli anni a Zurigo c'erano molti movimenti giovanili e nuove energie, l'emergente passione per il Do it Yourself e la "alternative press", un gusto punk e tante Fanzine che nascevano qua e là. Da Zurigo questa ondata si diramò poi anche a Berna, Basilea e Losanna. E' in questo periodo che nacquero anche le Zines, ancora esistenti tutt'ora, "Fabrik Zeitung" del centro culturale Rote Fabrik e "WOZ", giornale settimanale di sinistra.


il NOME: il nome STRAPAZIN viene fuori dal mix delle parole Magazine, Fanzine, Strapaze (dal tedesco: strapazzo, sbattimento) e Aspirin.



il MAGAZINE

Strapazin è oggi un magazine che esce ogni tre mesi, colorato, ed è arrivato questo dicembre 2017 al numero 129!
17 sono le persone che lavorano per questa zine (nella redazione e come creatori costanti di contenuti).

Al magazine hanno partecipato nomi importanti agli esordi (che all'epoca ancora non erano famosi) come l'esule argentino Munoz/Sampayo, i francesi Caro, Yves Chaland, Chantal Montellier, Loustal, Willen, i fratelli Varenne, il belga Kamagurka, lo spagnolo Max, Ralph König...
Presto fu definita "scuola zurighese" (Zürcher Schule) alla quale fanno parte Thomas Ott, Ursula Fürst, Beat Zgraggen, Andrea Caprez und Peter Bäder.

l'ATELIER
Attualmente STRAPAZIN non è solo un magazine, ma anche un posto fisico, un grande open space nella zona Altstetten di Zurigo, in cui 18 artisti liberi professionisti condividono le ore di lavoro - 8 di loro collaborano anche nella redazione e ai contenuti del magazine.
Tra i personaggi del colorato atelier ci sono illustratori, fumettisti, grafici, e anche animatori. Ognuno è freelancer e lavora per sè, ma non di rado si creano collaborazioni e progetti comuni. In questo momento due cortometraggi animati sono in produzione e tante sono le persone coinvolte.
E' un luogo spazioso e pieno di colori, c'è un calcetto, una cucina e un grande tavolo dove ogni giorno tutti i componenti dello studio si riuniscono (con mia grande ammirazione) per un vero pranzo, cucinato ogni giorno da una persona diversa.

gli ARTISTI:
come ho accennato prima, l'atelier Strapazin è affollato e pieno di gente interessante. Qui vi presento alcuni degli artisti che ho potuto incontrare durante la mia visita.

Anete Melece è una animatrice e regista, che ho conosciuto in Cina a un festival, ma il cui lavoro già conoscevo bene. Infatti Anete è la regista del film Analysis Paralisis e anche di Kiosk, che sarà finalmente online nel nuovo anno, come regalo 2018 per tutti noi. Quindi consiglio di controllare il canale Vimeo di Anete nelle prossime settimane!
La tecnica di animazione da lei usata è molto interessante: si tratta di un cutout fatto al computer, ma tutte le immagini utilizzata sono create da lei precedentemente su carta, con l'utilizzo di coloratissimi pennarelli.
Anete vive in Svizzera ormai da parecchi anni; è venuta per fare il master a Lucerna e da allora non ha più lasciato il cantone tedesco.

Anete and I

Barbara Brunner ha studiato a Lucerna e sta producendo ora il suo primo corto animato all'interno di Strapazin. Lavora insieme a Franziska Mayer e qui potete vedere il loro sito.
Luigi Olivadoti è un illustratore, anche lui viene dalla scuola di Lucerna e lavora su carta, digitalizzando i suoi lavori solo in fase di finalizzazione. Al momento della mia visita stava lavorando a delle illustrazioni per dei francobolli.

Lawrence Grimm è un fumettista che ha creato Teatime for a Universe. Sfortunatamente non ho potuto incontrarlo di persona, ma solo ammirare la sua scrivania.

Kati Rickenbach è una fumettista e ora anche regista della sua prima animazione, basata su un fumetto che ha precedentemente pubblicato, a propostito di Zwingli, riformatore di Zurigo.

China reunion: Anete Melece, Yogi Parish and I





E' stato un inaspettato piacere scoprire STRAPAZIN e immergermi per qualche giorno nel fumetto svizzero indipendente. Ho imparato un sacco di cose nuove e sono stata nuovamente accolta con calore in un ambiente creativo e piacevole. Ho imparato molto anche sull' autopubblicazione, giusto in tempo per la mia prima Zine che ho creato a novembre sul circo, per i miei amici acrobati zurighesi.

Grazie a Strapazin, per avermi permesso di entrare nel suo mondo e di conoscerlo meglio. Grazie per aver risposto alle mie domande e anche per avermi invitata al pranzo dell'atelier!

EN

 I'll start from the very beginning:
The first week of October 2017 I was in China, for a festival called
Jinzhen International Short Film Festival and I already told the surreal experience of those days in another post.Among the crazy things that happened there and the amazing and talentuous directors that I met, there are two incredible stories that I'd like to share.
It's all about two directors I met in China, who not only live in Switzwerland, but also work few minutes away from my currently accomodation in Zurich.

Today I'll introduce to you Anete Melece, director and animator from Latvia, based in Zurich. I'll also tell you about the magical place where Anete works, which is called STRAPAZIN.

STRAPAZIN was born in 1984 as swiss magazine and became in 1995 also a place, an atelier in Zurich.

In the June 1984 the first STRAPAZIN was published, black and white, presented at the Comicsalon of Erlangen. For that time it was a pretty radical and revolutionary booklet; Strapazin has always been very involved into social and political problems and was born from the agitated 80s and inspired by Charlie Hebdo (that politicized the comics), by Métal Hurlant (that psychedelized the comics) and by Lorenzo Mattotti and the gruppo Valvoline. In those years Zurich was very active: many young movements and new energies, rising interest for the DIY and the alternative press, a punk mood and many Fanzines appearing here and there. From Zurich this wave moved then to Bern, Basel and Lausanne. In those years also other Zines were born, that are nowadays still active: "Fabrik Zeitung" from the cultural centre Rote Fabrik and "WOZ", weekly liberal newspaper.

The name STRAPAZINE comes form a mix of the words Magazine, Fanzine, Strapaze (in German: strain) and Aspirin.

the MAGAZINE
Strapazin is nowadays a three-monthly magazine and at the time of my visit (December 2017) number 129 was just published.
17 people are working constantly for the Zine - in the editorial staff or providing constant contents.
Also some famous name contributed to the magazine, many of them at the beginning of their career: the Argentinian exile Munoz/Sampayo, the French Caro, Yves Chaland, Chantal Montellier, Loustal, Willen, the brothers Varenne, the Belgian Kamagurka, the Spanish Max, Ralph König...
Some other artist from Zurich took also part in the making of Strapazin: those who were then later referred to as the "Zürcher Schule"( the Zuricher school): Thomas Ott, Ursula Fürst, Beat Zgraggen, Andrea Caprez and Peter Bäder.

the ATELIER
STRAPAZIN now is not only a magazine, but also a physical place, a big open space in Altstetten, Zurich. In this creative space 18 artist and freelancers share many hours of work together - 8 of them also collaborate for the magazine.
Among those creative minds, there are illustrators, cartoonists, graphic designers and also animators. They are all freelance professionals and everyone works on his own projects, but quite often they create collaborations and share common projects. Right now two short animated films are in production and many people of Strapazin are involved.
The open space is a cosy and colorful place: there is a table football and a big kitchen too, and everyday they gather all together around a big table to have a proper lunch, everyday prepared by a different person - I am impressed!!

the ARTISTS:
As I said, Strapazin's atelier is crowded and interesting: here I will introduce you to some of the artists I met during my visit.

Anete Melece is an animator and director, that I met in China during a festival. But I knew her work already before. In fact her short films Analysis Paralisis and Kiosk went around in festivals. For the new year Anete is going to release Kiosk online on her Vimeo channel, so be sure to check it out.
Anete's animation style is very interesting and unique: she use a digital cutout software, but all her graphics are made on paper with colorful markers.
Anete lives in Switzerland: she came here some years ago to study for a master in Luzern and since then she never left this area.

Barbara Brunner studied also in Luzern and she's producing right now her first animated short film. She works together with Franziska Mayer and here you can have a look at their website.

Luigi Olivadoti is an illustrator, he also comes from the school in Luzern and his work is made on paper and definitely worth a look!! When I met him he was working on some illustrations for some stamps.

Lawrence Grimm is a cartoonist and he created Teatime for a Universe. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to meet him in person, but just to peek his desk.

Kati Rickenbach is a cartoonist and right now also director of her first animated film, based on a previous work she did, about Zwingli, a church reformator from Zurich.

Thanks to STRAPAZIN, that allowed me to enter this reality and ask questions around and  also invited me for lunch!
This experience allowed me to learn more about comics and (self)publishing, just in time for my first Zine, that I created in November about the circus for the acrobats of Zurich.

thank you all, and keep up the great work!

MERLOT, my graduation short animated film

[versione italiana, sotto]


MERLOT is my graduation film, that I made together with Marta Gennari in 2016.

TRAILER

Synopsis:

In a blue fairy-tale forest, a grumpy granny losesa bottle of wine. This event will give rise to a crescendo of linked events: consequently establishing a dialogue, a funny repartee between frames and characters, which will lead to an unexpected development.

THE IDEA: the brainstorming for this short film actually started from a word game, a joke. Then we started to create a story around it, having fun.
We had one year to make our graduation film, a small team (2 people) with no experience of previous work together, so we tried to keep the expectations low and to take advantage from this chance to learn and enjoy the process.
During that year we learnt alot! We shared the whole work from script to compositing, working both on each step;we also learnt much on team work and, I must say, between me and Marta it worked perfectly :)

THE SCHEDULE
The whole process took one year, from January to December 2015, the last year in the CSC national film school, department of animation in Turin. The first months were dedicated to brainstorming and ideas, then witing. Then we got into the actual preproduction until the beginning of the summer, we animated then during the hottest months of the year and did the compositing and editing in autumn. In november the film was made, but the sound was still missing!
THE SOUND
Merlot has no music and no voices/dialogue, but only sound design. The sound design was made by Alessandro Nepote and we were very satisfied with his work. We asked him to use only glass/bottle/cork material to record the sounds. and to pay attention to the crescendo of the story.
The sound is crucial in our animation because it helps the audience to follow the story through the panels! Every character is typyfied by one distinctive sound and material too.
The sound also won a prize at ZABUT 2016 and got many great feedbacks we're very proud of.
THE EXPECTATIONS
We learnt a lot by doing this film and also after that!
For example I did not expect the marketing work/sending-to-festivals&co to be such a huge job (I wrote a post on this blog about all the work you have to do when you think the film/work is done - and it's actually not!)
The great success in festivals and multi-award winning was also not expected at all and a nice surprise! What I have learnt and I am still learning is that big expectations are bad: you should do your work just for yourself and for a real interest in researching, having fun, telling a story... Expectations give for sure a pressure that is not healthy for the creative process.

THE DISTRIBUTION
Merlot has been sold by the Producer CSC Animazione to Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg in the summer 2016 for 5 to 7 years with a pretty exclusive contract, which means it cannot be distributed online and can only be screened in competition in festivals. For any other out-of-competition screening or any other screening event, a fee is asked from the Distributor (usually around 40-50€). The income coming from the distribution is divided between the distribution agency and the producer.

If you still have some questions, you can read the FAQ list here below and/or write us an e-mail.

Some more LINKS to MERLOT:
Follow us on Facebook and Tumblr!
hashtag #merlotfilm

   F.A.Q.
How did you come up with the idea?
It all began with a word game. See "THE IDEA" paragraph above

Some references?
We've been inspired by the amazing work of Paul Driessen and by the collection of poems "Revolting Rhymes" by Rohal Dahl.

How did you manage the panels' thing?
That was for me a very fun part. It is like solving a riddle and making a puzzle. It takes a lot of time and a mobile storyboard and storyline.

What softwares did you use?
ToonBoom for the animation, Photoshop for the backgrounds, After Effects for some compositing and for the animation of the panels/trees.

How was to work alone with Marta and share the whole work between only two people?
 We shared the whole process completely, from the script to the compositing, to try everything and learn as much as possible. So all the tasks were split into two. Also for the animation, I mainly animated the wolf and the hunter, she animated the little girl and the granny.
I think I have been very lucky to work together with Marta and find such a good partner. I should also add that we were not only co-directors, but also flatmates for the entire year. But at the same time so organized that we were able to be home every night at 19 and not to talk about the film until the next day.

What about all the festivals and the prizes?
While I am writing this post, Merlot has been to 80 festivals in 42 different countries all around the world! And it won 23 prizes!
It has had a big success and it was not really expected! To read the updated lists of screenings and prizes, please consul this page.
______________________________________________________

[IT]
MERLOT è un cortometraggio animato che ho creato nel 2016 insieme a Marta Gennari, come progetto di fine percorso di studi di animazione.

TRAILER
Sinossi:

“In un delicato bosco turchino delle fiabe, una burbera nonnina perde una bottiglia di vino. Questo darà il via ad un crescendo di eventi concatenati: si instaura così un dialogo, un divertente botta e risposta tra vignette e personaggi, che porterà a un inaspettato sviluppo”.

L'IDEA: l'idea del cortometraggio è nata un po' per scherzo, da un gioco di parole. Ci siamo poi divertite a concatenare gli eventi come in un puzzle, chiedendoci come era possibile arrivare alla situazione iniziale o finale di una fiaba ben conosciuta.
Il film è stato fatto durante tutto il 2015, ultimo anno di scuola presso il CSC, dipartimento di animazione a Torino. I primi mesi sono stati dedicati alle idee, il brainstorming, la scrittura. Poi è iniziata la vera e propria preproduzione fino all'inizio dell'estate. Abbiamo passato i mesi più caldi ad animare e verso settembre/ottobre a compositare. L'11.11 abbiamo terminato il montaggio e editing: mancava ancora il suono da fare!

IL SUONO: per il suono di MERLOT avevamo le idee molto chiare. Non ci servivano musica e dialoghi, ma era essenziale creare il ritmo e il crescendo giusto con dei suoni ripetitivi (come i loop animati). Inoltre la nostra struttura a "pannelli" richiedeva una grande attenzione sonora, perché l'occhio dello spettatore viene guidato in giro per lo schermo non solo dall'animazione, ma anche dai suoni. Abbiamo richiesto al nostro sound designer Alessandro Nepote di seguire queste direzioni e anche di usare materiali come vetro, bottiglie, bicchieri e tappi di sughero per registrare i suoni. E' stato anche molto importante caratterizzare ogni personaggio con un suono diverso, per aiutare lo spettatore a identificare meglio e più velocemente la fonte del suono.
Il sound design ha anche vinto un premio a ZABUT 2016, oltre ad avere ricevuto innumerevoli complimenti di cui siamo molto fieri.

LE ASPETTATIVE:
Abbiamo imparato moltissimo da questo primo cortometraggio. Per esempio io ho imparato a non sottovalutare il lavoro che inizia una volta che il film è terminato, e ossia l'invio ai festival e la presenza sui social network  (ho scritto un intero post su questo blog a riguardo). Inoltre il grande successo che MERLOT ha avuto ai festival e i molti premi vinti sono stati una grandissima sorpresa e del tutto inaspettati. Quello che ho imparato e sto ancora imparando tutt'ora è che le aspettative fanno male al processo creativo, perché lo caricano di pressione. E' bene creare le proprie opere principalmente per se stessi e mossi dalla ricerca, dal divertimento o dal desiderio di raccontare una storia.

LA DISTRIBUZIONE:
MERLOT è stato venduto dal produttore CSC Animazione alla agenzia di distribuzione Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg alla fine dell'estate 2016 per un periodo di tempo dai 5 ai 7 anni, con un contratto esclusivo che non ne permette la presenza online. Inoltre MERLOT può partecipare solo a festival che lo selezionano in competizione, mentre per altre sezioni non competitive o altri eventi e proiezioni, è prevista una fee da pagare al distributore, che varia dai 30 ai 50€. I ricavati della distribuzione vanno, come di norma, alla agenzia di distribuzione e al produttore.
MERLOT ha avuto un gran successo in giro per il mondo. In questi due anni è stato in 80 festivals, 42 stati differenti e ha vinto 23 riconoscimenti! Per la lista completa e aggiornata rifarsi sempre a questo link.

Interview at ANIMATEKA 201

Ultimi links
sul Tumblr ufficiale di MERLOT potrete vedere tanti disegni e bozze della fase preparatoria del film, vi basterà scorrere in basso, andando indietro nel tempo.
LINK su MERLOT:
Facebook e Tumblr!
hashtag #merlotfilm
Links alle registe
Marta Gennari
Giulia Martinelli (nonché me medesima)



nota di fondo e piccolina:
The Animated Plan esiste da un anno e MERLOT oramai da due! buoni compleanni!

event report: ANIMATEKA Festival Ljubliana

ANIMATEKA is an amazing animation festival in Ljubliana!


One year after my first experience there, I will tell you something about this festival and my impressions from the 2016 edition, just in time for the next one, which is happening soon!!

Ljubliana is the capital city of Slovenia, a very nice and quite place, that doesn't look like a big, crowded city. The festival is tiny and concentrated, which is always a great thing in my opinion because this keeps people together and allows better social interactions.
There were two main theatres and one also hosted a bar, essential for any networking moment, before, after or during the screenings.
In this case it was also crucial to have indoor venues, because the weather in december is always pretty chilly.

As hosted directors, we were staying in a youth hostel, in the city centre and very close to all the festival venues.
It was a pleasure to walk down the streets, in the squares or along the river, illuminated by the xmas lights.
The festival is well organized, with a nice relaxed schedule, which allows to meet people, other hosts, to chat and try some local cuisine.

I felt very welcome in Ljubliana and I met very nice people and new friends, that hopefully I will meet again and again in other animation events.
The organization and the staff were also very warm and kind and I am grateful for the chance they gave me to be there. Igor Prassel is the director of the festival and a key figure for Animateka: he is an incredible person, very energetic and friendly, very helpful and caring with all of us. Grazie, Igor!
I hope to come back to Animateka soon!

During last year's edition of the festival there was also a very interesting exposition about Joni Männistö and his work. He did in fact the artwork for the 2016's edition of Animateka and a lot of material from his previous work was shown there.

Festivals are great places for interviews too and Animateka is doing an amazing job here. There are Q&A sessions after the screenings and also recordered interviews for their Youtube channel.
Animateka is also very active on social media, updating FB page with info, pictures and videos.

This can be a great chance for you guys to have some nice pictures and memories of the festival, so be ready for it!
Remember that festivals are always a perfect chance to meet other talented directors and artists!

In 2016 we were both there with our short film MERLOT. In 2017 our graduation film was there again in the Italian programm.
Here you can see an (embarassing) interview we had at Animateka last year:

Animateka will happen soon again (4-10th december 2017)!
ENJOY IT!

Note for my fellows coming from Turin/Milan: I have been travelling to Ljubliana with Flixbus (Torino-Ljubliana), which was a good experience and totally "doable!"

The pictures I used for this post are coming from my own personal pics and from Animateka's FB page

SHARING NIGHTS

(IT below)

[EN]
This is a slightly different post, about an idea I had recently.

It's all about SHARING

We show LOVE to others giving our time and attention.
And these are also the things that make us HAPPY.

Also LEARNING new things keep us alive and energetic and is a source of JOY.

SO

I had this idea for a different night at home with friends (or it could be also a weekend, an afternoon in the park, whatever).
I'd like to test it out and start a series of "sharing nights".

It goes like this:

- invite your friends

- everyone should bring 3 things to share
 1. a story/experience
 2. one (practical) skill
 3. one contact (talk about an inspiring person)

In this way at the end of the night everyone is enriched and learnt something new: something useful, something good about other people, something that creates bonding too!

Feel free to SPREAD THE WORD and TEST THIS OUT!
And be sure to let me know how it goes!

Share the LOVE!

[IT]
Questo è un post un po' diverso dai soliti

Si tratta di un'idea per una serata con amici un po' diversa dal solito e che vorrei mettere in pratica al più presto.
E' basata sul fatto che la condivisione è la base delle relazioni sociali, segno di prendersi cura dell'altro, donando il proprio tempo e le proprie attenzioni.

Quindi vorrei introdurre le sharing nights


regole:

invita i tuoi amici

ognuno deve portare tre cose da condividere:
- una storia/esperienza da raccontare
- una capacità (pratica) da insegnare agli altri
- un personaggio fonte di ispirazione


Alla fine della serata tutti hanno imparato un sacco di cose nuove.
Non vedo l'ora di mettere in pratica la prima sharing night e esaminarne i risultati!
Fatemi sapere se proverete anche voi a organizzare una serata simile e soprattutto raccontatemi come è andata!