2008年08月05日
Christian Lindblad Note
A brief look into Finnish animation.
While the art of filmmaking evolved in the beginning of the last century, Finland was still a small agricultural country with a minimal, slowly growing "filmindustry". Animation developed with huge steps in America, even in Europe, but in Finland it wasn't until after the World War II that animation slowly started to grow, even then mostly used in commercials and such.
The first animators in Finland usually had their background in graphic design or visual arts but to make a living as an animator wasn't even realistic. The first Finnish feature animation was to be made in the end of seventies, "The Seven Brothers" by Riitta Nelimarkka and Jaakko Seeck, a cut-out animation which never reached a bigger audience. One pioneer worth mentioning is Jan-Eric Nystrom, an animator and "inventor" who started his carier in the beginning of the seventies, worked in the Disney studios for a while and still makes a living doing commercials, effects and shortfilms mostly using traditional,"hardboiled" film techniques.
Fifteen years ago the Turku Arts Academy started it's animation school under supervision of Estonian animator Priit Parn. After this there has been a huge development in the Finnish art of animation. The selection shown in Tollywood includes nine animators who have studied in the Turku Art's Academy. A couple of studios has evolved and a good example is Anima Vitae (3D computer graphics) which has produced features and TV-series but also the film "Mobleeraja" by Laura Neuvonen seen in this selection. Nowadays animation in Finland is not only for "ateurs" and "artists" but it has also become a part of the Finnish film industry due to all the hard working animators, the "labour" who makes it possible to produce all kinds of animation, artistic, commercial and industrial.
The selection shown in Tollywood consists mostly of animations made by young animator's, people who are slowly trying to get into the daily routine of film making. It's a compilation of small beautiful ideas that most certainly will evolve into talented and strong animated short films in the future.
Last autumn the Finnish Film Archive compilated a series diving into the history of Japanese Anime. It was very interesting and exiting to see this compilation including many cartoons from the 20s to the 50s, and many classic groundbraking features like Atom-boy, 999 Galaxy Express and Akira to mention a few.
A large retrospective of Finnish animation will be shown in the Hiroshima International Film Festival, but this selection shown here in Tollywood is different, more important from our point of view - it will be shown to a audience which is quit different from the one in film-festivals and much more important for the filmmakers. The selection has it´s perceptions in the future and I believe that one day You will see more films made by these young animators. I´ll end it up with Humphrey Bogarts classic line from Casablanca; "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Christian Lindblad
While the art of filmmaking evolved in the beginning of the last century, Finland was still a small agricultural country with a minimal, slowly growing "filmindustry". Animation developed with huge steps in America, even in Europe, but in Finland it wasn't until after the World War II that animation slowly started to grow, even then mostly used in commercials and such.
The first animators in Finland usually had their background in graphic design or visual arts but to make a living as an animator wasn't even realistic. The first Finnish feature animation was to be made in the end of seventies, "The Seven Brothers" by Riitta Nelimarkka and Jaakko Seeck, a cut-out animation which never reached a bigger audience. One pioneer worth mentioning is Jan-Eric Nystrom, an animator and "inventor" who started his carier in the beginning of the seventies, worked in the Disney studios for a while and still makes a living doing commercials, effects and shortfilms mostly using traditional,"hardboiled" film techniques.
Fifteen years ago the Turku Arts Academy started it's animation school under supervision of Estonian animator Priit Parn. After this there has been a huge development in the Finnish art of animation. The selection shown in Tollywood includes nine animators who have studied in the Turku Art's Academy. A couple of studios has evolved and a good example is Anima Vitae (3D computer graphics) which has produced features and TV-series but also the film "Mobleeraja" by Laura Neuvonen seen in this selection. Nowadays animation in Finland is not only for "ateurs" and "artists" but it has also become a part of the Finnish film industry due to all the hard working animators, the "labour" who makes it possible to produce all kinds of animation, artistic, commercial and industrial.
The selection shown in Tollywood consists mostly of animations made by young animator's, people who are slowly trying to get into the daily routine of film making. It's a compilation of small beautiful ideas that most certainly will evolve into talented and strong animated short films in the future.Last autumn the Finnish Film Archive compilated a series diving into the history of Japanese Anime. It was very interesting and exiting to see this compilation including many cartoons from the 20s to the 50s, and many classic groundbraking features like Atom-boy, 999 Galaxy Express and Akira to mention a few.
A large retrospective of Finnish animation will be shown in the Hiroshima International Film Festival, but this selection shown here in Tollywood is different, more important from our point of view - it will be shown to a audience which is quit different from the one in film-festivals and much more important for the filmmakers. The selection has it´s perceptions in the future and I believe that one day You will see more films made by these young animators. I´ll end it up with Humphrey Bogarts classic line from Casablanca; "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."Christian Lindblad
