Student Vaiana Gauthier caught our roving eye with her fun and beautifully told animations.  We caught up with the young director to talk about her graduation films. 

Which school are you from? Was this film your graduation film?

 I graduated last June from the EMCA, in Angoulême, France. My school has sent three films I made last year to festivals, but perhaps Mailles could be considered as my main film.  I was eager to explore various themes and ways of making movies, so it made sense for me to make more than one graduation film.

 How did your idea for the script come about and how did you decide on the tone and feel of the film?

 I got the idea for Mailles two years earlier, during my first year at the EMCA. With my classmates we were challenging ourselves to do little comics, just for fun… once the topic was “pullover”, so I came up with the idea of this lady knitting and covering her house with wool.

 At the end of my second year, in June 2011, I rewrote the script, did the animatic and some graphic researches. Finding the right tone was one of the challenges of Mailles, because of the subject, and the characters, I had to be careful to get away from certain stereotypes. I tried to keep a balance between the melancholic tone and something more joyful or unexpected through the interaction with the cat, and the way the lady evolves in the film. Melting between black and white and colour, helped me a lot with the story-telling, and to emphasize the emotions.

 The idea of Eros came after an internship I did at the studio Folimage, in September 2011, where I was asked to work on the erotic sequence of a short film, Le Banquet de la Concubine, directed by Hefang Wei. So when I came back to school I just continued to make a lot of erotic drawings for myself. I first worked on the soundtrack of Eros, which was made out 12 minutes of improvised singing I did with five of my classmates, the Polovox choir. This sound editing work had been really decisive to define the timing, feel and rhythm of the film.

 There’s a lovely pen and ink quality to this film – what methods and programs did you use for animating?

 Mailles was entirely drawn with charcoal and oil pastels on paper (29×42 cm). The charcoal enabled me to draw quite precisely but also to blur things, and give a soft feeling. The oil pastels were good for the wool texture and vivid colors.

 I worked on the film in chronological order, so the first minute of the film was scanned, but to be more efficient, I captured the rest of the drawings under camera. The different animation layers and backgrounds were put together and adjusted in After Effects.

 Eros was made with oil painting on glass, I worked on two or tree different glass plates at the same time. The light always came from below, so I could play with the transparency of the paint. It’s really the light that gives the warm feeling through the film.

As with Mailles, the images were shot with a Canon camera, with Stop Motion Pro, and then edited in After Effects. But this time I really kept the images really raw, all the blur and camera effects were made directly during shooting.

  What were the key lessons you learnt from creating the film and what were the main challenges of the production? Were there any mistakes or anything you’d do differently next time?

 I’ve learnt a lot by dealing with three projects in the same year. First of all, sticking to a schedule was really important: I had to be able to finish everything by the end of June, for the jury, and it was quite stressful. At the same time, it was very enriching, because each film needed a different state of mind and creative approach while working on it. The projects were very complementary.

 Working alone on Mailles was demanding, because during the year, I questioned myself a lot and had big moments of doubt. Making the final drawings on such big sheets of paper required also a great deal of energy, and I realized that a bit late! So hopefully I had the precious help of talented friends, like Geoffroy Moneyron and Alix Fizet. One key moment was the editing: I had the chance to work with the lovely Camille Maury, who helped me to clear things up and advised me to cut some scenes, for the best!

 The hardest part was to stay confident all the way through, so hopefully I had some really supportive people around.

The production time of Eros was way shorter so I didn’t have this endurance problem; having a short deadline was a constraint as well as a strength, considering I had to handle a delicate subject.

 I had no time to doubt, I just did things instinctively. I really wanted to make an erotic film, very intimate, that would be strongly evocative, and modest at the same time. That really was the main challenge. But once I made the soundtrack, I felt more secure and I could throw myself in the animation.

 What are you doing now and what would be your ideal job?

 After graduating, I’ve worked for several months on a short film directed by Ines Sedan, “El Canto”, a great experience. Now I’m writing new film projects, going to film festivals and trying to keep the good work energy!

As long as I’m interested in what I am doing and that I feel I’m improving myself in some way, I think I can adapt myself to many jobs in the film industry. And if at the same time I could work on my own projects, it would be ideal!