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SVETLANA FILIPPOVA

Brutus

Hand-drawn animation (charcoal), 12’36”, 2014

Directed by: Svetlana Filippova
Production: SCHOOL STUDIO SHAR, Lyubov Gaidukova
Based on: "Brutus", Ludvik Askenazy
Script: Svetlana Filippova
Graphics: Svetlana Filippova
Animation: Ekaterina Boykova, Svetlana Zimina, Sara Magambetova, Svetlana Filippova
Camera: Svetlana Filippova
Sound: Artem Fadeev
Editing: Svetlana Filippova
Voice: Alexei Vertkov

 

Svetlana Filippova graduated from the Philological faculty of the Kazakh State University in 1991, and Higher School of Scriptwriters and Film Directors in Moscow in 1997 with a specialization of a director-animator. She was studing at the studio of F. S. Khitruk, Y. B. Norstein, E. V. Nazarov and A. Y. Khrzhanovsky.  She is an animator, director, artist, book illustrator.

Svetlana Filippova is art director of all her films. Her works are graphic, and her hand is recognizable, though she chooses and develops new technique for every project. After numerous experiments with celluloid and colours for 'Brutus', she settled for drawing with a charcoal pencil on tracing paper. Characters and objects are drawn with a coarse contrasting charcoal line. They smoothly move, change in scale, and transform. Only animation can make all of this possible.

 

Quote from the author:

Before I began to draw a storyboard, I was in a lot of doubt and could not start drawing at all. Desperate, I took a stopwatch, closed my eyes and tried to imagine the whole film.

I saw scenes flowing one into another, with almost no editing. Every episode clung to some detail and transformed into another one. It was storytelling without any accents or director’s evaluation. An objective, outside point of view. As could be seen by a dog, for example.

Since the film played in my head very quickly, I did not memorize everything. I had to restore the action and remember details.

Of course, a lot of things were invented in the working process and a lot was born in discussions we had with animators. We argued a lot, made lots of changes and added new details.

 

Part of the animation is drawn by the director herself, as it is not always easy to set the task for the animators when the movement follows the artist's imagination and is often improvised. Still, it is hard to shoot a film alone, especially in the complicated technique of frame-by-frame animation. Svetlana Filippova's films are almost always created with the same team: Ekaterina Boykova, Svetlana Zimina, and the director's daughter Sarah Magambetova.
 

Svetlana Filippova official web: http://filippovas.wixsite.com/artist/about

Watch the film 'Brutus':

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