Conversation #2: Black Is Black – And What Of The Frame?
In Conversation with Dennis Tupicoff
Master Australian animator Dennis Tupicoff has played a significant role in shaping the artform of animation in Australia. His films were telling Australian stories long before MIAF showed up. In recent years Dennis’ fascination with classic-style film noir soundtracks and the gritty, bitten musical scores that bind and energise them has underpinned his approach to the films he has chosen to make. His most recent film – TRAP – which opened MIAF’s Australian Showcase earlier this year carried this searing musical soundscape underneath a subtler, apparently more ‘cartoony’ film featuring a couple of characters locked in a world in which a kind of elemental conflict was pre-ordained.
Less obvious – PERHAPS – was Dennis’s determination to use this film as a kind of living, breathing research project to thoroughly explore both the notion of what pure black in all its many shapes and forms can bring to an animated film and a rolling visualisation of what framing brings to the art of animated story telling… annnnd a provocative proposition that perhaps ‘framing’ can be done away with somehow.
Dennis – we need to talk and to set the scene we’ll be screening TRAP in International Shorts #1 just before you sit down to share your ideas.
This session is classified: Unclassified (M) Mature, not recommended for viewers under 15 years.
Please note that Backlot is NOT fully accessible. There are stairs with handrails, but no lift to the second floor where the cinema is located.