The Sardegna Film Commission short films - Fourth: anthropology, tradition and art

After “history, archaeology and legends of Sardinia”, “flora and fauna” and “distinguished Sardinian characters”, the fourth chapter of the miniseries that analyzes the Sardegna Film Commission animated short films features the theme of “anthropology, tradition and art”, represented by “Faulas si credia”.

Theme: anthropology, tradition and art

This short film is a collection of sayings of the popular tradition, of stereotypes and expressions contextualized through rhymes that explain their meaning, in the form of fables. 

Produced by Mommotty, the short film will be directed, written and animated by Michela Anedda, with the music of Emanuele Contis and the voice of Michela Atzeni. The animation technique will be one of my favorites, stop-motion. This type of animation consists in simulating the movement of static objects through a series of still images in succession. With this technique you can create animated movement of any object by taking sequential pictures. The possibilities are infinite: toys, articulated dolls, clay, sand, paper cutouts (as we saw in the case of the animated collage), and people as well! In the last case it’s a more specific technique called pixilation that uses the same principles with people instead of objects.

The stop-motion technique was also used for the special effects in famous films such as the first iteration of King Kong in 1933, the terrific effects of Beetlejuice (1988) and the formidable Gremlins in several scenes from the namesake features, alternating with the use of animatronic puppets. Famous examples of stop-motion animation are: films by company Aardman animations such as Wallace y Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep Movie; Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings and ParaNorman by Studio Laika; and finally the Swiss-British series Pingu.

One of the most known examples of stop-motion in Italy is the series Mio and Mao by studio Misseri, charming product animated with claymation starring two curious kittens that explore their colorful world. The same studio produced in collaboration with NHK a series, Pozzie, animated using real droplets of water to create moving figures, with a new technique! Personally I believe that studio Misseri deserves an article on its own devoted to its products, it might happen in the future!

Mio and Mao from studio Misseri's page 

Pozzie from studio Misseri's page

Michela Anedda has a degree in Industrial Design at the University of Studies of Sassari and achieved a Master of Arts in animation at the Edinburgh College of Art with the production of short film Cogas: selected for numerous national and international film festivals, it won Best Italian Animation at Sardinia Film Festival. She participated in the university research project for the visual communication of Region Sardegna at Expo. As a freelancer she collaborates with Sardinian directors and directs animated short films: among them is “Sei tu il nostro eroe” for Sardegna Film Commission’s Heroes 20.20.20 project, selected at Brazilian festival Anim!Arte. Michela Anedda organizes stop-motion animation workshops as well for adults, young adults and kids.

Cogas from michela on Vimeo.

In several occasion her work was part of documentaries: in 2018 her stop-motion animation contributed to the narration of “L’Uomo con la Lanterna” directed by Francesca Lixi, that pieces together the life of her uncle as worker for the Italian Bank of China in the 1920s, thanks to pictures and recordings in 8mm film, and how discovering this past influenced the life of Francesca Lixi herself. 

What’s more, in 2019 she worked on the motion graphics of the short documentary “Ràixe - Spazi digitali per la cultura tabarchina”, produced by Ginko Film as multimedia content for the museum of Calasetta. The documentary narrates the fascinating history of the tabarchino people and their nomadic path through Mediterrean through the centuries.

Michela Atzeni is a theatre actress, performer and voice director. After her theatre training she studied acting at Teatro dei Filodrammatici of Milan and in 2014 she graduated at the School of Voice Acting at Centro O.D.S. of Turin, for which she did her first voice acting gigs. Since 2010 she has been collaborating with Sardegna Teatro in different theatre productions that tour at national level. She read numerous audiobooks for the platforms Storytel.it and Audible.com. She is chief of the company QUARANTACINQUE audiolibri e doppiaggio and is producer, reader and curator of audiobooks distributed nationwide and dubbing and voice over services. We can listen to her voice in an extract of the audiobook “Sentinella della pioggia” on Audible.com.

Emanuele Contis is a Sardinian musician and composer. After a short period as engineer, he discovered his real calling and studied further music, his passion, at Berklee College of Music in Valencia. A passion that he has since he played the saxophone at the age of 6, and that now is his job. He is the founder of INDÒRU - Boutique del suono, a creative studio for music and sound based in Sardinia: in INDÒRU he composes music for tv series, short films, advertisement, and the soundtrack for his first long film as well. You can listen to examples of his work on soundcloud and his personal website.

I adore stop-motion’s aesthetic, especially when clay is used, furthermore the saying and idioms fascinate me, because of this I believe it could become one of my favorite short films when it is released!

The next and last short film will be “La Rondine”, representing the theme of sustainability, climate change and quality of life, stay tuned!