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It is raining French Art! Our Joie de vivre has no bounds. Anifest 2010 dished out the most succulent sessions this time for the audience of Indian animation. Taking a leaf from the three day treat is an alumnus from Supinfocom Valenciennes, Bastien Dubois.
"Très bonne maîtrise de l'anglais parlé et écrit. Quelques notions d'espagnol écrit et parlé". Bastien joked he understood hindi better.
The French connection made ☺ he spoke of his award winning movie Madagascar aptly named Carnet De Voyage. Bastien Dubois after winning at Award Canal+ Annecy, Golden Peg bar Animania, Prix Du Publicite L'office National du film du Canada and Sundance Film Festival, very modestly says; "I can't believe so many people want to come and talk to me at Anifest".
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Madagascar is his journey through Madagascar, Carnet de voyage. Bastien took two years to complete the Animated Travel Journal. When we watched the movie it was like us travelling through his observations of Madagascar, and it was simply beautiful.
When asked would you follow a style of art that makes it your signatory style? Particularly the water color style (feels like traveling through painted landscapes of Madagascar) he said "Non Non Non, I try not to. When I completed Madagascar there were many ad agencies wanting water-color work to be done. I like to paint but I want people to know that I can create lot of varied work with different styles, use different techniques and use new ideas for different projects. You can see in the screening of the film, I have used a different approach for every shot. Not the same recipe".
His work englobe (quite literally) the wide spectrum of communication. Bastien has left no medium unraveled. A visual communicator in true spirit, he has flash games, websites, programming, handcrafts like toys and a pop up book, graphism, comics, 3d short films and Travel-Journal to his credit (you can visit http://www.bastiendubois.com, and soak in the brilliance, but here we tell you of his Travel Journal Madagascar, why not first soak under its sun).
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His love for a travel journal began with his visit to Istanbul, Turkey in June 2004. On 20th of August 2010 we could see him carrying his sketchbook and pencils, we thought Wow! he travels light…to which he said "Excuse me when I was traveling to Turkey, I traveled with a ten kg bag, five kgs only comprising of the arty stuff, the water-colors and I use different kinds of paper." Ok, we take that comment back, he doesn't travel light!
Beginning with the spine of the story of Madagascar Carnet De Voyage,Bastien hadn't decided on his destination, but he had decided what the film will look like and what the narrative will be and the techniques to be used. Then his friend told him of Madagascar, its culture and he saw pictures, so the idea grew. Of course the art, the beaches, the food and the language were just attractions. "Sounds good!" he said, we say "sounds excellent", hearing about Madagascar every artist would jump to the idea and travel immediately to it. Bastien harbored the exact feeling.
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"The first Idea of the movie was to go to Madagascar
without any subject, to travel and draw and then
each day the story would take a new turn", he said
.
So there wasn't any planning at the beginning we ask?
"No, there was no planning, in the beginning.
I went to a few people, the one who would be
interested in funding the project", Bastien replied
very animatedly, reliving the moment he continued,
"Hey am going to travel to Madagascar and make
a Travel Journal. There is no story, no story-board...
so they very politely said NO. Therefore I wrote a
story of this fellow starting from landing at
Madagascar to meeting people, to the end.
This became the spine of the story, and eventually I
gave the movie its flesh and form."
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Even before packing his clothes, Bastien drew his perceptions of Madagascar, for example the shot where the car passes by and the chicken runs.
"I work on different parts separately first and then edit and place them consecutively to give it an interesting story line."
Daily inspiration makes Bastien decide on what medium he would use to convey his observations of Madagascar. He said "Also the reason to use different mediums is so that I can innovate and exercise my brains with new ideas, not execute an idea I thought a year back. With 150 different shots in the movie, I have tried to incorporate as much different techniques as possible with whatever tools/pencils I could find".
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With such beautiful artistic aesthetics we hoped India too would be on the list of his Carnet De Voyage. To this hopeful question he replied "It is quite impossible, I took a lot of time on this movie. So I had a talk with my producer and we plan on something that helps us attain the result faster with more rotoscopy, without letting the quality level down, maybe something smaller like a one minute shot. I feel it is always good to take in information. I capture images on my camera and then the ideas may translate into something tangible".
Every person has memories of his journey, and Bastien's especially is quite distinguished. Madagascar must be a thorough treat but Bastien as every traveler had many surprising and pleasant experiences or shall we say rather shocking after hearing the following story.
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"I went to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and they have Bats, that one can eat". The thought gives the "heebie de jeebies". "I tried and it was an interesting experience, not my best though". Wait we are coming to the pleasant experience, Bastien said, "I met some French fellows, they work in the forest to study the plants and animals. I stayed with them in their house in the middle of the forest, looked for lémuriens (lemurs)." (din't spot King Julian there, we suppose;). There was a river flowing there we took a swim, that was cool. It was very relaxing and rustic, waking up everyday, cooking your own food, surrounded by woods, one feels like Tarzan there""Then in another part of Madagascar I went on a three day trip cruising on the river in a canoe, it was beautiful"…sigh! that's enchanting!
Coming back to earth, and the animation industry, Bastien's message to all the Indian animators/artists is, "Be earnest, keep going it is a tough and hard world. Don't be discouraged, be patient there is no instant success. It is synonymous to working in a garden; it is each day's work".
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It is raining French Art!
Look out for an interview with Arnauld, maker of Despicable Me and an interview with Jerzy Kular and Satyajeet Kumar on DSK Supinfocom's success story. Only on CGTantra!
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