Ichthyopolis , a short psychedelic technomation, occupies a realm where high-camp, the absurd and the esoteric intersect.

 

AWARDS

Grand Prize: Animation : Black Maria Film and Video Festival
1st Prize: Carrboro Film Festival
Best Student Animation: SoDak Animation Festival
Bananna Slug Award for Surrealism: Humboldt Film Festival

SCREENINGS

Dallas Video Festival Dallas, TX Nov 08
Cucalorus Film Festival Wilmington, NC Nov 08
FLEX (Florida Experimental) Film Fest Gainsville, FL Jan 09
New Genre Festival Tulsa, OK Jan 09
Black Maria Film and Video Festival Touring Touring
Wisconsin Film Festival Madison, WI Mar 09
James River Film Festival Richmond, VA Apr 09
Humboldt Film Festival Arcata, CA Apr 09
Athens International Film + Video Fest Athens, OH May 09
Maryland Film Festival Baltimore, MD May 09
Backup Film Festival Weimar, GERMANY May 09
Milwaukee Underground Film Festival Milwaukee, WI May 09
Arkansas Underground Film Fest Hot Springs, AR Jul 09
Atlanta Underground Film Festival Atlanta, GA Aug 09
Next Frame Film Festival Touring Touring
SoDak Animation Festival Brookings, SD Oct 09
Carrboro Film Festival Carrboro, NC Nov 09
Strange Beauty Film Festival Durham, NC Jan 10
     

One of my goals with this project is to consume as few resources as possible in the making of materials for costumes, set, etc. To some extent, this becomes very easy through the implementation of virtual environments, created using the 3-d animation software, Maya (click the bottom right thumbnail in the gallery for an example).

But I also want the film to be filled with organic textures so as to avoid the synthetic and often plasticky look of 3-d animation. And so, I have employed paper bags, old mini-blinds, shells, fossils and LIVE fish in the construction of this film.

But aside from the aesthetic reasons, the use of recycled materials complements my belief that in a world of rapidly dwindling resources, it is necessary to learn to become junk artists.