Nisi Masa Sweden is organizing a five-day stop motion animation workshop during BUFF – the International Children and Young People’s Film Festival in Malmö.
Nisi Masa will invite ten filmmakers from different countries as well as five filmmakers from Malmö, to form five teams. Each team will make a one-minute film aimed at a target audience between 7 & 12 years old.
Nisi Masa are looking for five directors who apply with a synopsis (max ½ page) for a 1-minute stop motion film aimed at the target audience. We are looking for strong visual stories, not dialogue-based.
Nisi Masa are also looking for five DOP’s and five sound designers. As Nisi Masa would like to have one person in each team with some experience of stop motion animation, please state in the application if you do.
The scripts will be developed in advance through Internet communication with a tutor and together with the team. The scripts have to be ready when participants arrive on the 11th of March.
Parallel with the script development, the teams will be working on developing the visual concept (characters and storyboard).
Nisi Masa are happy to present the tutors!
- Lotta Geffenblad, illustrator and animator, with over 20 years of experience and one of the leading animators in Sweden will be guiding and inspiring the participants’ work on character design in the preparation phase. Read more about Lotta here: http://zigzag.se/about/about-lotta/
- Janne Vierth, script writer, who has written for several of the most popular children’s programmes in Swedish Television will be guiding the participants during the script writing process and the editing. Read more about Janne here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2362231/
- Mikael Lindbom, animator and CEO at Dockhus Animation, with many years’ experience in stop motion animation and thorough knowledge of every step in the technical process, will be guiding the animation process during the week. Read more about Dockhus Animation here: http://www.dockhusanimation.com
About the theme
Animation is a concise and creative way to examine and understand the making of film. There is a shortage of films for children aged 7-12 and this workshop is a great way to get inspired and to learn the excitement in telling stories to kids.
Who can apply?
Filmmakers between 18 & 35 years old can apply.
European residents can apply. Applicants from non-European countries can apply but some respect might be paid, in the selection, to the costs of travel as there is a limited budget.
Practical details
You apply either as director, as DOP or as sound designer. If you are applying as director you should submit a synopsis, maximum ½ page, for the film you wish to make during the workshop. Preferably the films should be made to work internationally and therefore neutral in language. Use little or no dialogue or dialogue in made up language.
Editing and animation will be done in Dragon Frame 3.0 and experience is desirable but not required. Free trial software download is available at www.dragonframe.com
Participants will be put in teams of three, out of which one person will be a Malmö resident.
After the announcement of selected participants (in the beginning of February) participants will be expected to set aside a considerable amount of time for pre-production.
The workshop begins on Sunday evening with a cocktail and introduction. Then follows five days of production. The workshop ends on Saturday with a screening at one of the festival cinemas.
Each team will be equipped with a stop motion animation kit. There will be access to a sound proof room for sound recording. If you want to use your own camera and or lap top/software please state this in the application.
There is a participating fee of 50 Euros, which is to be paid in advance.
The fee includes:
Travel costs, including train fare between airport and Malmö C (Visa costs will not be covered)
Accommodation at a central hostel
Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday
IMPORTANT: After having been selected for the workshop you will be asked to sign a distribution contract which in short means that all distribution rights will be given to Nisi Masa Sweden. This is to ensure that we will be able to make a DVD with all the films and distribute it to schools, libraries and festivals. Any awards that might be given to a film will still be attributed to the filmmakers.
Preliminary schedule
- 28 January: Application deadline.
- 1 February: Announcement of selected participants and division of teams
- 6 February: First report of teams’ planning process and first script draft to be emailed to tutor.
- 10 February: Feedback from tutor
- 14 February: Second script draft to be emailed to tutor.
- 17 February: Feedback from tutor.
- 22 February: Deadline for emailing final script and the teams’ material decision.
- 22 Feb-8 March: Continuous work with storyboard and characters.
- 8 March: Deadline for emailing final storyboard and character description.
- 11 March: Arrival in Malmö.
- 12 March: Workshop starts.
- 17 March: Public screening of the films.
- 18 March: Departure
Fill out the application form below and send it back to malmo@nisimasa.se before January 28th
