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Simon Robson - Director
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| I got into animation & design after failing to become a successful musician! In the mid-90s I was playing and recording with bands in London and built a recording studio. Huge amounts of fun was had, but it became implausible to continue forever based on an almost complete lack of income. I stumbled into the visual arts when I was putting up ads around London film colleges hocking my skills as a sound designer. I saw a couple of prospectuses for digital media courses and the rest is history! Knife Party is me, it's the name under which I direct and produce work. Knife Party projects often involve me working with collaborators, be it writers, artists, illustrators or others working in animation. Knife Party came into being after the creation of my first short film, 'What Barry Says'. Being such a cutting film, but having had so much fun making it, it seemed apt to name the production company Knife Party. |
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| In entirely different ways. Some of the artists approached me, predominantly after the presentation that Tim Rayner & I gave at the F5 conference in New York in April 2009. I tracked others artists down, like Adam Gault and Mate Steinforth as I'm a fan of their work. Some artists came and went, others i spoke to but it never really happened. It's been a very organic process, those who have ended up working on the project have been those who have been willing, and I'm incredibly proud and humbled to have worked with all of them. |
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| When i first decided that i wanted to make a film about climate change, all my thoughts on the subject were negative and often satirical. At best my narrative ideas were fractured and i didn't have an angle i was happy to commit to. I started reading a book called, 'The psychology of environmental problems' which was incredibly interesting, especially the Freudian psychology chapter which made some interesting claims linking breast-feeding patterns to people's likelihood to conform and hence materialism and over consumption. But although interesting, this topic seemed more curious than pro-ative. I then met Tim Rayner through my wife who was taking his evening course at Sydney University called 'Philosophy for change'. Tim and I got together to talk about the idea of a film and for the first time I met someone who seemed to be willing to stick his neck out and make a pro-ative suggestion for a new way to fight climate change. Tim's ideas at first seemed too utopian for my palette, but listening to him talk about the history of social movements, open source culture and swarm theory convinced me of the validity of his message. It took a while for me to fully buy into Tim's way of thinking, but I'm really glad i did. I think by and large, people now loosely understand the theory behind climate change and they understand the urgency of the situation. Reminding people of this in the film would have been going over old ground. We needed a new message, something to inspire and include rather than hector and warn. |
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| There is no one way that this has worked. Some collaborators have looked to me to create storyboards, largely due to my long and close working relationship with the writer. Others have jumped in with two feet and created storyboards for their sections and then handed them back to me to take a look at. Whilst with others it's been more 50/50. For instance with Parasol Island, I asked them if they had any visual concepts they were keen to develop. They sent me some beautiful style frames from a commercial pitch that didnt make it. The characters in the frames inspired me to create storyboards for a section about open source culture and Linux. Parasol Island loved the idea. They then created more style frames with my ideas incorporated and elaborated further on some of the narrative points themselves. This has been a really enjoyable and collaborative relationship. Once films are created i pass them over to Echolab, the composer who creates the sound design, mixing this in with the VO (Performed by Colin Tierney). Gavin and I have long discussions about audio tone and intent. In fact, over a year ago Gavin threw together a load of tests and examples that really kicked off my thinking about the audio character for Coalition, he's been amazing to work with. Finally I work with Tim Dillon with web art-director to get the films onto the site. |
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| I like to push the narrative concepts as far as i can. I see the voice-over, which essentially delivers the argument, as the anchor. The visuals can then float around the anchor, coming closer, then further away. I hate pieces where the visual is an exact interpretation of the VO, I switch off immediately. One of my favourite ideas in Coalition so far is the cash till, that turns into a tank which then fires a shell which is actually a shoe box. As the shoe box hits the ground a pair of cool trainers bounce out and end up in an 'advertising' pose. This sequence accompanies the VO: We’ve become revolutionary exponents of ‘over-the-counter’ culture, fired by the rallying cry: “Go on, break the rules, define who you are – with our sneakers!” It's an irreverent idea, and these days, the more irreverent the idea is, the more I like it. |
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| For a long time I sought to make my work look like it didn't come out of a computer, even though it did. For my Coalition sections I decided to throw myself into the world of stop-motion animation, principally so I wouldn't have to fake looks in computer. With huge amounts of help from Clapham Rd Studios in London, I experimented with in-camera techniques, finally settling on a rostrum set up. By using Dragon software and the guide layer, I've been able to reference animation done in computer, re-creating this under camera with physical objects. I've been a kind of organic renderer for my own animation. I've particularly fallen in love with paint on glass animation, for which we built a multiplane camera at Clapham Road. Using gouache paint mixed with glycerin liquid, and more recently oil paint I've been able to bring something very exciting to my animation. It's amazing what beautiful textures you can create with the contours of oil paint and lighting. |
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| It's been very challenging indeed. Everyone's contribution has been on the basis of good will more or less. People have been engaged by the subject matter, and they've been excited to get involved in a collaborative project like this. In an ideal world we'd have had a budget for the film, but a short film budget really wouldn't have stretched very far amongst all the people who've gotten involved. I guess you move forward with what you have, which in our case wasn't much! The fact of the matter is that, if a year ago someone had suggested to me that i go out and seek to work with such an extended and talented bunch of people in such an involved way with zero budget, i wouldn't have entertained it for a second. But our film and the people involved has grown organically, so now the project is doable and deliverable in its highly ambitious form. |
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| Not really. I know this sounds a bit flippant, but i kind of have a loose overall picture in my head of all the pieces involved, the styles of the collaborators and how they'll fit together. We are transitioning between some sections, but not always. If i obsess too much over how the pieces will fit, i think the film will feel too forced. At the end of the day, the project is what it is; a collection of individual films, ideas and styles all pushing towards one end, to deliver one idea. After more than a year on this it seems very logical to me now, a strange part of me thinks all films should be made this way :) |
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| The film is about online activism geared towards combating global warming, it's all there in the script on the website. In as much, it would have been absurd not to launch this film online. There was a strong argument not to launch online in that it apparently rules us out of getting into certain film festivals. This is unfortunate, but it's not a strong enough reason to prevent us doing the web release. I've also been very fortunate to work with a great web team helmed by interactive art director Tim Dillon. With Tim's guidance we've been able to put together a terrific site that showcases everyone's work brilliantly, I'm very pleased with the results. As for giving it away free, it's about exposure of the message and of the work, why make people pay for a message we desperately want them to hear. I'll never make a great business man, that's for sure! |
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| I'd like the to be seen by as many people as possible. I'd like the art and the message to be widely disseminated and for people to respond to both. It would be great if the ideas Tim has woven into the film could somehow inspire groups to set up the networks we advocate. I'm not saying our proposals are the final word on green online networks, but we've made some pretty pro-active statements based on some good thinking and sound sense, delivered in beautiful moving image. Of course I'd like the film to go on and do will in the festivals for everyone involved, but for me, dissemination of the message online is key. As for my next move, goodness knows. I'll be promoting this film for some time to come, that's for sure. I also have other ideas bubbling away, I think oil scarcity is something which will change the way we live sooner than most people realise. I have ideas for a dark and disturbing piece about that. Get in touch if you'd like to fund an animated film about post-oil oblivion! |
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Baby Dayliner - You push, I'll go
Japandriods - The boys are leaving town
LCD Soundsystem - Someone great
Mission of Burma - That's when i reach for my revolver
The Smiths - The boy with the thorn in his side |
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