Ever since I (and 9 million+ others) saw Argentinean director Carlos Lascano’s A Short Love Story in Stop Motion I’ve been dying to get him onto DN for an interview. It may have taken four years, but Carlos finally made it on to discuss his newest piece A Shadow of Blue, a beautiful mix of animation techniques which champions the power of dreams.

I want to talk about dreams & about how the dreams can be strong enough to change reality.

Showlinks
Carlos Lascano
Carlos Lascano Vimeo

A Shadow of Blue (2011)
A touching story in which fantasy and reality merge to make dreams come true. How determining can reality be, and how can fantasy unleash an unexpected freedom? Can a fragile world of lights and shadows show us more than a silhouette drawn against the sunlight?

I hear that if you follow this link and use the password shadow you might just get a sneak peak of the full film.

Self financed, shot at weekends with a skeleton crew and released online for free, Brad Bores’ Wishful, Sinful could be said to be the definition of the indie feature. Brad joins us this week to discuss finding your film cinematically during the production process and the need for honest festival feedback.

You just wanna know some sort of information of how your film’s being critiqued[…] & when you don’t get that, the filmmaker’s not learning anything.

Showlinks
Brad Bores
Zero Film Fest
Panasonic AG-DVX100
Nobudge
When the Bell Rings

Wishful, Sinful (2011)
A brutally honest and sometimes humorous view of two small town guys failing at mediocre lives.

You can watch the full 72 minute Wishful, Sinful feature for free over on NoBudge now.

Chris Shimojima’s JT vs. the Good Guys turns the tables on what we’ve come to expect from the high school bully narrative. We speak to Chris about confounding audience expectations and why your mom might be the best location manager you can find.

I wanted to tell the audience; Can you feel sympathy, can you feel empathy for a character who’s not likeable?

JT vs. the Good Guys Materials
Frisbee Blocking
Markedup Script
Shotlist

Showlinks
Chris Shimojima
JT vs. the Good Guys

JT vs. the Good Guys (2012)
A group of high school kids meet to play Frisbee. One is JT, whose attempts at being a tough guy fail miserably. He’s losing the popular girl to the quiet guy, and worse, the others seem glad about it. But JT does not step down without a fight.

Freshly returned from an inspiring trip to SXSW, director Carlos Lopez Estrada quickly gathered a team to create the stylised animation / live action piece BEAR. Carlos joins us to discuss the satisfaction to be had when you leave an audience with enough narrative room to interpret your story.

I just felt like I needed to do something much more personal & find a way to bring it to life without any filters.

BEAR Materials
Animation Tests
Shotlist
Storyboards

Showlinks
Carlos Lopez Estrada
Red Camera

BEAR (2012)
A fable about change.

It wasn’t until I’d invited documentary director Jerry Rothwell to discuss his latest feature Town of Runners that I realised I’d been a fan of his work for many years, through films such as Deep Water and Heavy Load. Jerry and I discuss unconventional narrators and the tricky art of conducting interviews using double translation.

There’s never a shortage of ideas[…] It’s about that process of hanging on to them for a year & still sticking with them to make them a reality, that’s the hard part.

Showlinks
Town of Runners
Met Film
Sony PMW-EX1
Britdoc
Running Across Borders

Town of Runners (2011)
Town of Runners is a feature documentary about the fortunes of young athletes from the Ethiopian rural town of Bekoji home to the Olympic and World champions Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele. The film follows two girls who are keen to follow in their hero’s footsteps as move from school track to national competition and from childhood to adulthood. Their mentor is a former PE teacher who has discovered and trained many of the world’s leading long distance runners including Dibaba, Bekele and Deratu Tulu, the first African woman to win an Olympic gold.

When I happened across Alvaro San José’s short Bruno I was totally taken by its lyrical, dialogue free beauty, even more so on discovering it was his debut film. Alvaro joins us this week to discuss putting together his first production and creating a story with enough space to allow the viewer to find their own interpretation of events.

In some ways you are the editor as a viewer[…] You have to experience it through images & music & sound.

Bruno Materials
Production & Film Stills

Bruno (2012)
A world about to collapse, where amazement exists. What impresses us? What do names hide? The same old story seems to repeat itself, like a ritual. We are both contemporary and ancient all through the centuries.

If like me it’s your natural instinct to avoid online cat movies at all costs, HaZ Dulull’s epic conspiracy, battlefield short Fubar is likely to make you re-evaluate that stance. HaZ joins me to discuss reissuing a redux version of Fubar closer to his original vision for the project and the social media and multi-platform technics he employed to extend the film’s longevity and reach.

I had to phone up the actors & say, “Hey guys you’ve been replaced by animals”.

Showlinks
Fubar
The Foundry Nuke
Canon EOS 450D
Hasselblad

Fubar (2011)
An epic story of an on-going political war told in an alternate reality with cat and dogs.

Proving that he’s lost none of his crazy, imaginative approach to storytelling since he last joined us, director Andrew W Jones returns to DN with his rock n roll musical featuring the Techno Glove-o-Love wielding, transdimensional astronaut Doctor Glamour. We discuss why having a crew with absolute confidence, faith and unquestioning loyalty to the director may not be the blessing you’d imagine.

Always be searching for criticism, push for criticism, force people to tell you things!

Doctor Glamour Materials
Deleted Song

Showlinks
Doctor Glamour
Never Knows Best
Women in Refrigerators
Panasonic AG100

Doctor Glamour (2012)
A genius scientist contacts another dimension to save the woman he loves, summoning a flamboyant rock & roll superhero.

Grant Orchard’s animation A Morning Stroll has been making quiet a splash across the festival circuit, picking up awards at both BAFTA and Sundance, along with an Oscar nomination. Grant joins us to discuss creating the film with Studio AKA down time and why Zombie Breakdance might be the hottest waste of time making its way to your smart phone in the near future.

The whole project was basically; I’m interested to try this out & I think this should be fun & every decision was based around that criteria.

Showlinks
Studio AKA
Park Football
True Tales of American Life

A Morning Stroll (2011)
When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we’re left to wonder which one is the real city slicker…

Director Andrew Huang joined us in 2007 with his experimental short Doll Face. He’s back today with the online launch of his captivating art film Solipsist. We discuss meeting etiquette and drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, be they Buddhist sand paintings or fungal growths.

I just wanted to make a project about the gaps between people & the way those gaps are filled.

Showlinks
Andrew Thomas Huang
Red Camera

Solipsist is unquestionably one of the most accomplished, visually stunning films we’ve seen since DN opened its doors and so we’re proud to support its online Vimeo premiere with our exclusive interview with Andrew. We hope you’re prepared to be wowed!

SOLIPSIST from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

Update – You want to see (as well as hear) how Solipsist was pulled off don’t you? Here’s the Making Of:

SOLIPSIST – Making Of from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

Solipsist (2011)
A three part psychedelic fantasy short film about otherworldly beings whose minds and bodies converge into one entity.

Solipsist will be making its online premiere later today, along with our exclusive interview with director Andrew Huang; watch this space…

We’re joined this week by BAFTA winning director Martina Amati to discuss her recently BAFTA nominated short Chalk, set on the verge of puberty, within the confines of a gymnastic training camp. Martina discusses the disruption broken bones can cause to schedules and why she’s most comfortable working underwater with non-actors.

Sometimes due to limitations you are obliged to find the simplicity that you wouldn’t find otherwise.

Showlinks
Martina Amati Vimeo
Cowboy Films
Berlinale Generation

Chalk (2010)
When a gymnast is selected for the National training camp she discovers something new about bodies, boys and friendship.

I’m a big fan of the isolated lovers on the run story structure so was naturally drawn to London directing duo Mathy & Fran’s latest film Elsewhere. The pair joined me to discuss bringing parallel scripts together, and why you should be wary when location scouting in Summer for a late Winter shoot.

We kinda wanted the whole film to have the same feeling that a song gives you.

Elsewhere Materials
Location Polaroids
Elsewhere Mixtape

Showlinks
Mathy & Fran
Mathy & Fran Twitter
Mathy & Fran Vimeo
Free Music Archive
Film London: London Borough Film Fund Challenge
Red Camera

Mathy & Fran have decided that today’s the day they launch Elsewhere online so you get to watch the full film right here, right now. Enjoy!

Elsewhere from Mathy & Fran on Vimeo.

Elsewhere (2010)
Two ‘lovers on the run’ head into the middle of nowhere, armed only with strange trinkets and a silver boombox. A journey of love, loss and destruction, all set to a mixtape cassette.

We last spoke to documentary director Ashley Sabin back in 2007 for Kamp Katrina, the feature doc she co-directed with David Redmon. She joins us again to discuss their new documentary, Girl Model and how access can shape the form of a project from the earliest stages.

We really wanted viewers to experience it like we did which is that sort of uncomfortable, from your gut feeling that “OK, this doesn’t feel right!”

Showlinks
Carnivalesque
Girl Model
Canon XH-A1

Girl Model (2011)
Told through the eyes of a 13-year-old Siberian girl and the American scout who discovered her, Girl Model follows a complex global supply chain of young girls sent abroad to seek their fortunes in the unregulated and often murky world of the modeling industry.

For their post-Katrina, coming of age story Daneeta Loretta & Patrick Jackson drew from fact to create the powerful docudrama short Destiny Lives Down the Road. They join me to discuss utilising production techniques that maximise their crew of two, such as live locations and casting individuals as themselves to create authentic performances.

The most important thing when you work with non-professional actors is to not make them feel self-conscious[…] It’s all about making performers feel comfortable.

Showlinks
Electric Zoo
Down in the Parish
Picture Truths

Destiny Lives Down the Road (2011)
Living in a small town sucks for seventeen year old Destiny, especially after an environmental disaster. Deadbeat dad, mom drunk every night, her fantasy is to dance her way out of this hell hole and bring her sisters too. When she joins a dance school after a five year hiatus, she realizes that the difference between fantasy and reality is vast. It’s time to grow up.

Matt Jay’s short Any Day Now explores the life of a young woman as she attempts to navigate a new city and her role as ‘the other woman’. Matt joins us to discuss moving beyond a scandal to reveal the motivations of those involved and using the long take to convey a character’s state of mind.

I was very interested in trying to humanise what often gets reduced down to just lines on a page.

Any Day Now (2011)
Twenty-three year old small town beauty Sam has just arrived in New York. Pulling her there, are hardly fleshed out hopes of a modeling career. Following her there, is a long standing relationship with a married politician, that may or may not have a place in the next phase of her life. And awaiting her there, is all of the disorientation and isolation of foreign environment.

Most directors know that if they can concentrate on pulling great performances from their actors the battle’s half won, but it’s not quite that simple when your leads are a pair of hands. Director Tom Willems joins us this week to discuss how his short Left Right demanded he craft a new approach to filming and why faces were the last thing he needed in frame.

What’s overacting, what’s under acting, what’s good acting for a hand?

Left Right Materials
Storyboard

Showlinks
Caviar
Phantom Gold
Tilt-shift Lens

Left Right (2011)
What if your left arm gets jealous of your right arm? The left arm of Boris is jealous of the right one. After 35 years of neglect, it decides to take matters into his own hand(s).

Director David Easteal’s short The Father explores redemption and sacrifice after an unnamed dereliction of duty. David joins us to discuss capturing reality and how it’s possible for an audience to discover themes in a film its director was unaware of.

I like something to seem real […] If I can capture that moment, that’s what I’m going for, that’s what I like.

Showlinks
David Easteal
The Father

The Father (2011)
Haunted by his past, a man searches for forgiveness. Getting it however, may come at a cost.

Nikias Chryssos’ short Tower Block is the exception to the rule of keeping shorts under the 20 minute mark. Running at nearly 40 minutes it’s an enthralling blend of social realism and flights of fancy, which tell the story of a young boy’s quest for a father figure in an environment severely lacking in suitable candidates. Nikias and I discuss the hazzards of having fish on set and allowing a film to dictate its own running length.

For me it’s really nice to be on a set & you don’t really know what will happen.

Showlinks
Nikias Chryssos

You can watch the full version of Tower Block below.

Hochhaus (Tower Block) from Nikias Chryssos on Vimeo.

Tower Block (2006)
Daniel and his older brother Patrick live together in a tower block in Germany. Patrick forces Daniel to go around collecting money and plays sadistic games with him. Daniel escapes into fantasy worlds. As he suffers more and more from his brother’s tyranny, he believes to have found a friend in Bernd, a heroin junkie from the area.

Watch the full version of Tower Block after the jump.

Dutch artist and filmmaker Rosto is well know for creating intriguing, dark themed work which spans multiple forms of media. His latest, The Monster of Nix, is an existential animated musical fairytale, suitable for kids from 10 to 100. Rosto joins us to discuss not pinning yourself down to a single creative area and how to go about creating a musical that doesn’t suck after surviving five years of development hell.

I don’t consider myself necessarily to be an animator or a filmmaker or whatever. I call myself an artist because there’s no other word.

Showlinks
The Monster of Nix
The Monster of Nix Facebook
Mind My Gap
Thee Wreckers

The Monster of Nix (2011)
Life is good in the idyllic fairy tale village of Nix… Until an all-devouring monster appears. Young Willy has to fight it. Alone…

We’ve followed the work of director Matt Lambert for a while here on DN, so were pleased when he debuted his filmic collaboration with fashion label UMASAN, which is undoubtedly his most ambitious short to date. Matt joined us to discuss punk rock filmmaking and traveling the globe to find the ideal place to create.

It was much more about syncing music to the movement verses syncing to the cuts.

Showlinks
Dielamb
Dielamb Twitter
Bare Bones

UMASAN (2011)
A micro and macro transformative journey that explores the poetry and evolution of human form and movement for Berlin-based fashion label, Umasan.

Fuck Machines (2010)
We are nothing but fuck machines. – NSFW