Sam from “Conflictivos Productions” takes us through the epic and beautifully animated “Pos eso”…
Hi my name is Sam and I am Director Producer of my stop-motion films.
I started in the world of animation, as many because of my fascination with Phill Tippet and Ray Harryhausen, I did start making small tests on super8 film when I was very younger, however it was in college where I started to think of this as a profession. I found small companies in Valencia, the city where I live which work doing claymation and they gave me a chance, first as a model maker and then as animator, this was over 15 years ago. In 2003 my first short professional “Encarna” debuts, that was very succesfull at festivals of animation so I began to consider the possibility of directing my own films as a career. I combined the freelance jobs at other companies with my independent short films. After almost a year working for Aardman I set up my own production “Conflictivos Productions” and I start to work on my projects exclusively, like “The werepig”, “The atack of the Killer Kritters”, “Vicenta” and now my first feature “Pos eso”
What hardware do you use?
We have tried many different cameras, but over the last four years, all our cameras are Canon, about the illumination, we make ourselves little lighting using LED, also we use traditional lighting, but only occasionally, the rest of the materials are very common like in any movie , the diference is only the scale.
How to was Stop Motion Pro used in production?
I filmed with video cameras we and the DPS “animate” system. When Stop Motion Pro interfaced with SLR cameras we saw the great possibilities, from the time that Canon released their first camera with live view, we have not stopped using it, and this over 6 years ago.
When you animate, how do you like to use Stop Motion Pro?
It is a very good system for capturing high definition. We use the editor, and because we do a lot of lip-sync, seeing the waveform on the display makes it much easier.
Can you tell us a little about how you make the imagery in your work?
We are very traditional, we try shooting as much as posible in front of the camera, but sometimes also use blue screen, ofcourse the post-production has a very important value in all our productions, also greatly facilitates the work. We even use much CGI, when the stop-motion work is complicated, very expensive or impossible.
How do you make your puppets – any secrets you would like to share?
In fact, our characters are made in traditional steel structures mixture of aluminum wire and ball and socket joins, with foam base, over that we made clothes, hands and face are clay made, and to the hard parts like teeth or eyes or hair, we use resin.
What’s next for you and your animation?
The first is to finish Pos eso, and then I would like to rest a while, after so many years doing spanish-terror-comedy-claymation-like to try something different, something more science fiction mixing actors with special effects, in the manner of Phill Tippet or Ray Harryhausen.
Thanks a lot.
Sam