Stories with spine
The Spine
Oscar-winning animator Chris Landreth to screen his latest short The Spine at the Melbourne International Animation Festival.
Now in its ninth year, the Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF) has firmly secured its position on the International animation scene, and this year features Canadian animator Chris Landreth as its special guest.
The 47-year-old Hartford native started his life as a mechanical engineer but changed tack in 1994 when he was hired by Toronto's legendary software house Alias/Wavefront to define, test and 'abuse' computer graphics software products.
Ten or so years later - after poking, prodding, investigating and interrogating loads of software and animation packages along the way - Landreth found himself on stage collecting an Oscar for Best Animated Short.
Landreth's award-winning film was Ryan, an animated documentary about a fellow Canadian animator, Ryan Larkin, who 30 years ago produced some of the most influential animated films of his time.
What is remarkable about Landreth's work is that, as a visual artist, you would assume he would start with aesthetics, but instead the seeds for his work are story and character:
"I keep the visuals out of it. I mean, they always seep in a little bit, but the story needs to work as well as it can through dialogue. I did not want the visuals to be a crutch for that. The visuals add an extra layer."
Landreth is clearly interested in people, employing his animation techniques and special effects to draw out and play up the complex emotional landscapes of his characters.
Like Ryan, his latest work The Spine employs a style that Landreth coins 'psycho-realism' wherein characters' inner lives become externalized through exaggerated physical characteristics:
"It just seemed obvious to me: What if people literally wore their lives on their bodies? There seems to me a layer of storytelling that's new, that's special, that makes an ordinary life like Dan's life more extraordinary. It's a common story told in a richer way."
On Sunday 28 June, make sure you get down to ACMI for a glimpse inside the mind of this creative genius. Chris will talk about his art and provide us with insights into how he melds his uniquely creative visions with the techniques of production.
An extended Q&A will round out this opportunity to meet one of the most important people working in animation.
The full 2009 MIAF program is available here.
Published Thursday, 25 June 2009
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