Animated short "Seventeen" on piratebay.org

[hisko]

I told you it would not be your cup of tea..but you were stubborn and went through a lot of work anyhow, so thanks for that.
I repeatedly encounter people that misunderstood my film when they first saw it, and get it the second time. Age is not a factor, but background is. I worked as a roofer when I was seventeen, and I can tell you that sexism and violence was very common in that world.
I didn't have to make anything up for this film, so if this film is sexist and violent, it's because that world is.
I read a great blog about my film, written by someone that completely got it. Loved it.
It's here:

http://cinema4celbloc.blogspot.com/2008 ... of-13.html

[Paul Fierlinger]

With that explanation I of course understand your story better, but how much more powerful might you have been with it if you had let in more people such as myself by way of divulging a little bit of personal background? You praise the reviewer for having understood better what you were saying than any of the many semi-intellectuals who had reviewed the film previously. That shouldn't be so remarkable; it's a case of one roofer understanding another roofer. I like what he said about himself; that he got himself out of the rut... something of that is missing in your story... the presence of at least a glimmer of hope.

[hisko]

that he got himself out of the rut... something of that is missing in your story... the presence of at least a glimmer of hope.

Well, he got himself out of the rut, but it took him 22 years. My film only lasts 12 minutes. But you might have some point there and the absence of hope certainly diminished my audience. But the way I did it felt more honest (who cares, you are right) . I made many storyboards, and the first ones had that characterdevelopment, where the protagonist became a 'man', or got out of his situation, but that felt very contrived. It's hard to do it in a believable way in a short film.
I don't believe Seventeen is loved and understood only by roofers and people in the same situation, and I was surprised that the film even had female and intellectual fans. The film received nothing but good reviews, but most of the writers emphasised the wrong things, I believe.
Anyhow, no film can appeal to everyone.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Anyhow, no film can appeal to everyone.

That's for sure, but besides all of that I believe it is important to take risks. It's called creative courage and where there's courage there are more misses than hits. There is no shame and should be no regrets when we miss a hit because we dared to take chances. The most important thing is to immediately follow up with the next one. Are you doing that?

[hisko]

Anyhow, no film can appeal to everyone.

That's for sure, but besides all of that I believe it is important to take risks. It's called creative courage and where there's courage there are more misses than hits. There is no shame and should be no regrets when we miss a hit because we dared to take chances. The most important thing is to immediately follow up with the next one. Are you doing that?

Yes, I'm busy, but it's a lot of work and it will take another two years at least. There is somewhat more hope for one of the protagonists in my new film, but overall it will even be darker.
It's a film called 'Junkyard', there are some stills and a clip to be seen in the gallery of tvpaint. The film is about two boys growing up in the same neighbourhood, but in very different circumstances, untill their ways split badly when they get in contact with a boy living on the junkyard with his father, a drugdealer.

Again, it will not be a film for everyone and I doubt if you will like it. We have different tastes. You told me you hate Prague, and I'm in love with it.
How is 'My dog Tulip' going?

[Paul Fierlinger]

My Dog Tulip is not going to have an easy path either. As was the case with the book which it is based upon, most people have one of two strong opinions; either they hate it or they love it. From the many people who have been given peek previews the e-mail returns are either filled with high praise or are curt and negative; from "poorly designed dog" to "have never seen a better drawn dog".

Dog lovers seem to be enthusiastic about the story and people under forty tend to have problems with the story. We were told by many French distributors to not even bother with Cannes because the audiences there are very young with a craving for action films. We have shifted our gears and are steering toward Berlin, which tends to be a more eclectic festival as of lately. I will know if we get accepted into competition in about a week.

Otherwise our producers have at least two committed distributors; one specializing in all U.S. and European art houses and the others are the Weinstein Bros. of Miramax fame, who want it for world wide DVD distribution. I consider this part of making a feature film the hardest -- drawing it was a piece of cake compared to the tensions associated with so much self-doubt -- and bracing for the worst.

[hisko]

Otherwise our producers have at least two committed distributors; one specializing in all U.S. and European art houses and the others are the Weinstein Bros. of Miramax fame, who want it for world wide DVD distribution.

That doesn't sound too bad, mister. And maybe in a week Berlin.
Self doubt can be devastating. I always find comfort in autobiographies of directors or artists I admire, because they all seem to have extreme periods of self doubt, Kubrick, Scorsese, Polanski, and even your friend Milos Forman did think that they fucked up a number of times. Tchaikovsky wanted to burn the nutcrackersuite in his stove, he hated it.
Nobody is completely sure about what they make (except the formuladoctors in Hollywood) until it's out in the open, it seems.

If your criticism about Seventeen was the first one I heard I would feel self doubt too, but the film is old already and has some hardcore fans, so I know know what to make of criticism, and I always look from what corner it comes.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Milos Forman says he never ever reads any reviews about him anymore -- which I never quite believed. Now I do believe it. If I had to go through this as many times as he had to, I'm sure I would stop reading reviews as well.

[malcooning]

Only now i watched your film Hisko.
Good work. You have certainly vividly conveyed the fears of a young roofer. I like the ending, as the roofer goes up the elevator. It's the most emotional moment.
I particularly liked some of the backgrounds - very bold and strong.
As well, some of the panning shots are well done, and the detail is preserved so elegantly all through the pan: how did you do them? was it just simply very large drawings, or did you use image-into-image kind of zooming?

[hisko]

was it just simply very large drawings, or did you use image-into-image kind of zooming?

Thanks Asaf,

I think that you are particularly refering to the openingshot and the endshot.
I made that film in CTP, but the openingshot could only be done in Toonz (or maybe Animo, but I didn't have a crack of that one, both programs then cost about 40.000 dollars, twice my yearly income at that time). And the strange thing is that that old program could do this, but tvpaint9 would probably not (edit: although tvpaint is a hundred times cheaper, in every other way it's a hundred times more advanced too, except for the camera).

I made three paintings, one 2,20 meter long acrylic painting of the landscape, one of the building with the roof, and one close up of the chimney and part of the roof. After I scanned them ( I had to scan the large background in 35 parts on a a3 scanner and stitch them), I made sure in photoshop that the edges of the chimney painting blended perfectly into upscaled parts of the buildingpainting and the painting of the building blended perfectly into the large painting, so that there would be no seizure at all.
Toonz gave the opportunity to make a cameramove on those three images (that had different resolution each) at the same time. It's hard to explain without showing it, but I'm afraid that I don't even have a version of Toonz somewhere to show it.
The car was a high res animatedcar, so that I could zoom out of a wheel of the car (that's how the film starts).
I really hope that the next version of tvpaint will have a camera to make something like this possible, otherwise I will have to composite parts of my new film Junkyard in a program like after effects. But I am sure that the marvelous tvpaintteam will come up with some serious shit.


By the way, this film is a lot more impressive when it's seen on the big screen on 35mm film. There will be a time that everybody will have an HD projector and a huge screen to watch all those ripped Blu-rays at their homes the way they were intended.
Right now we are in a strange transition period.
Please watch this great i-phone commercial from David Lynch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0

[hisko]

These pictures will explain it somewhat more. I had to change the size, because the largest was 10.000 pixels long, and I couldn't get it on this forum.
The original panorama shot didn't have the building on it of course, I pasted it in.

[slowtiger]

For all of you with the same problem: you could do the same workflow now in Anime Studio (199$) very easily. I just tested with images files of 10.000 x 5.000 px, no problem.

[Peter Wassink]

By the way, this film is a lot more impressive when it's seen on the big screen on 35mm film. There will be a time that everybody will have an HD projector and a huge screen to watch all those ripped Blu-rays at their homes the way they were intended.
Right now we are in a strange transition period.

[Sierra Rose]

Hi Hisko,

I finally had time to download Vuze and your film.

I'm with the blogger Rik Tod....I loved your film. I know this hopeless world, these coarse people, having worked many sh*t jobs in my life. I've seen people's lights go out. Reminds me of the saying "most people die with their music still in them."

I salute your ideas and your talent.

[ZigOtto]

Hi Hisko,

I finally had time to download Vuze and your film.

I'm with the blogger Rik Tod....I loved your film. I know this hopeless world, these coarse people, having worked many sh*t jobs in my life. I've seen people's lights go out. Reminds me of the saying "most people die with their music still in them."

I salute your ideas and your talent.

word by word the same from me for these 3 points,
thanks Sierra to lay down my thought in a so perfect english !
... and I congratulate Hisko on having the guts for such a end, avoiding a holly"sh*t" happy ending...

if you success to achieve your next one (Junkyard) for Annecy 2012, be sure I will be there
as active, unconditional supporter !