Flow Movie - Behind the Scenes - Inside the Making of Flow
Director : Gints Zilbalodis
Synopsis: Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
Director : Gints Zilbalodis
Synopsis: Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Flow is actually the first film I've made with a team before I made films basically
00:17myself.
00:18I didn't limit myself this time, setting it around things that are easy to animate.
00:24We have a lot of animals, we have a lot of water, which is in animation one of the hardest
00:28things to do.
00:30So we did have people who are much better at everything than me, but I needed to understand
00:36the basics so I could like communicate these ideas.
00:41And even though I had the script, I still would kind of improvise a lot.
00:46I see it as one big thing that I do all at the same time.
00:51I need that process of discovery so I can try different things.
00:55I would just create these sets in 3D and take a virtual camera and almost like a live
01:01action location scout.
01:04And I discover ideas and I can place the camera but I can still adjust the set.
01:10So I do that instead of drawing storyboards.
01:13CG animation gives me very complicated camera moves, which would be impossible to do in
01:19live action.
01:21Having these long takes creates that sense of real time, that you're experiencing the
01:26story with the characters.
01:31And all the films I've also done have no dialogue.
01:35So I'm kind of really attracted to telling stories visually and also using sounds and
01:39music and ways that can only be achieved in cinema.
01:46It was almost like a casting process where I was looking at different animals and considering
01:52how they might interact.
01:54It was important that they are distinct both visually in terms of the silhouette and also
01:59in terms of the voices.
02:01But I didn't want any of them to be antagonists.
02:04I wanted each of them to be relatable.
02:07All of these characters were kind of chosen thinking about that theme, which is kind of
02:12looking for a group where you belong.
02:19We used real animal voices.
02:22It's not humans mimicking animals.
02:24The only animal where we did take some artistic liberties is the capybara because the voice
02:31was so high-pitched, kind of unpleasant.
02:35And this character is very calm and kind of peaceful.
02:39And we needed something deeper.
02:41So the capybara is voiced by a baby camel.
02:46Because there is no dialogue, we have to use their body language, their behavior to kind
02:50of express these things.
02:52In terms of the movements, all credit goes to our animators.
02:57Our approach I would describe as naturalism rather than realism.
03:02So we are studying real life.
03:04Everything is really animated by hand.
03:06So it's all these artists who studied animals and interpreted their movement.
03:13My approach was to have somewhat more detail in the environments in the background so you
03:19have that immersive feeling.
03:23But the characters are somewhat more stylized.
03:27I think it makes them more appealing.
03:31In animation, you can do pretty much everything you want.
03:35But that also can be difficult when you have infinite possibilities.
03:39But I kind of like having freedom and being able to tell personal stories in very unconventional
03:47and bold ways.