Animation Workshop: an introduction

HOW TO MAKE ANIMATED SHORT FILMS (STOP MOTION, ANIMATED CARTOONS, DÉCOUPAGE AND CLAYMATION)
For teachers and students of any grade or area, educators and cinema aficionados

The workshop teaches the basic competences required to plan and create animated short films. It is open to anyone who is interested in the creative use of images or who wants to learn more about the traditional animation techniques. The course will take in account the different competences of the participants, who will be accordingly instructed both in theory and practice of animation. In particular, people interested in an educational focus will learn how to organize the production of a short animation with simple tolls and very basic artistic skills.

COURSE PROGRAM

The Workshop combines lessons and tutorials, both theoretical and practical. The main topics are:

• how to create the illusion of movement;
• storyboarding;
• framing and shooting;
• the animator’s tools;
• practice with the following animation techniques: animated drawings, claymation, pixillation, découpage, sand animation, animation with white board markers, mixed techniques;
• the computer as a resourceful aid to animation;
• editing;
• sound post-production.

PLACE AND TIME SCHEDULE

The Workshop takes place in Padua, Italy, at the Associazione “Immagine per Immagine”, via Col Moschin no. 1. It is usually scheduled from March to May, every year. It is articulated in 10 weekly lessons, every Thursday 20:30-23:30. Each participant will have an extra tutorial to plan his/her own project in detail. The maximum number of students is 12; with less than 8 students the Workshop is canceled.

TEACHER

Raffaele Luponio has been working with animation for more than 30 years. he created more than 80 animated short films and he received national and international awards. For more than 25 years he taught animation workshops for cultural associations and film festivals. He is President of the cultural association “Immagine per Immagine”; he is part of the steering committee of CIAS (Centro Italiano Audiovisivi Scolastici); he teaches an Animation Workshop for the DAMS bachelor’s degree course of the University of Padua.

HOW TO ENROLL

For information, call +39 3408619730 ; +39 3331209653  5 pm – 8 pm CET or write to immagineperimmagine@gmail.com
The workshop fee is  € 190,00; it includes the use of animation tools and materials.  Course certificates available on request at the end of the workshop.

More information: Cultural association “Immagine per Immagine”

Call for papers: a special issue of Animation Journal on Italian Animation

A monographic issue of Animation Journal on Italian Animation is going to be guest edited by Giannalberto Bendazzi and Marco Bellano.

 Submission guidelines

 Before submitting your papers, we strongly recommend to read carefully the table of contents already prepared and herewith appended. Priority will be given to those topics; however, even different proposals will be considered, if relevant to the construction of a succinct History of Italian Animation. The editors will welcome any kind of take on the suggested topics; a creative and original, yet scholarly approach, will be appreciated.

 Papers are blind refereed, so the author’s name should not appear on the body of the manuscript, but only on a cover sheet. E-mail a copy of the paper as a MSWord file to both the guest editors, Giannalberto Bendazzi, at giannalbertobendazzi(at)gmail(dot)com, and Marco Bellano, at marco(dot)bellano(at)gmail(dot)com. The editors will respond to proposals and drafts, as well as to completed papers. Authors retain their copyrights after publication.

 The special issue submission deadline is February the 15th, 2015.

 Table of contents

1) Chronology of Italian Animation, 1911-2016: 30 manuscript pages; 7.500 words; 39.300 characters (including spaces)

2) Bruno Bozzetto: 15 manuscript pages; 3.750 words; 19.650 characters (including spaces)

3) Osvaldo Cavandoli and Gianini & Luzzati: 30 manuscript pages; 7.500 words; 39.300 characters (including spaces)

4) Painters/Animators: Veronesi, Carpi, Manfredi, Carrano and more: 30 manuscript pages; 7.500 words; 39.300 characters (including spaces)

5) The Neo-pictorial current: 30 manuscript pages; 7.500 words; 39.300 characters (including spaces)

“Animation and Italy”: looking back at the Conference

The Conference “Il cinema d’animazione e l’Italia: autori, teorie e stato dell’arte” (“Animation and Italy: Authors, Theories and State of the Art”) was born from an idea by Marco Bellano, PhD. It was the first academic event on animation studies ever hosted by an Italian university. It was supported by the combined funding received from the University’s Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali (“Department of Cultural Heritage”), the S.A.S. – Society for Animation Studies and the publishing house/cultural association Cinit – Cineforum Italiano. It was hosted at the Università degli Studi di Padova in two venues: Sala Delle Edicole, Palazzo del Capitanio, and Sala del Consiglio, Palazzo, Liviano, on May 29 (9:00 am-18:30 pm) and May 30 (9:30 am – 13:30 pm), 2014. Marco Bellano and Prof. Alberto Zotti Minici, PhD, were responsible for the organization.

The Conference was subivided into seven panels. Sixteen speakers, from Italian and international universities and institutions, participated in the event; two of them (Giannalberto Bendazzi and Marco Pellitteri) spoke via videoconference. Videoconferencing was also used to connect with Gibba (Francesco Maurizio Guido), senior Italian animator, author of L’ultimo sciuscià (1947).

Poster of the Conference

Thanks to the generous help of Prof. Carlo Montanaro and his personal archive, six digital copies of historically relevant animated films were screened during the conference.

Professor Raffaele Luponio and his students from the Animation Workshop at the Università di Padova provided the conference with nine original “intro animations”.

The full conference was scheduled as follows:

 Thursday, May 29, 9.00 am

Sala delle Edicole, Palazzo del Capitanio

Conference opening

GIOVANNA VALENZANO, Head of Department, Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali: archeologia, storia dell’arte, del cinema e della musica, Università degli Studi di Padova

ROSAMARIA SALVATORE, President, Corso di Laurea in Discipline delle Arti, della Musica e dello Spettacolo, Università degli Studi di Padova

 Introduction

CARLO ALBERTO ZOTTI MINICI, Università degli Studi di Padova

MARCO BELLANO, Università degli Studi di Padova

MASSIMO CAMINITI, Cinit

PANEL 1 – Tra omaggi e citazioni (“Between homages and references”)

Moderator: CARLO ALBERTO ZOTTI MINICI, Università degli Studi di Padova

MARCO VANELLI, Cinit, Editor in chief of the journal “Cabiria. Studi di cinema”

Fellini e l’animazione: un rapporto biunivoco (“Fellini and animation: a two-way relationship”).

MARCO BELLANO, Università degli Studi di Padova

«Oh… Musica moderna!» Hollywood, satira e “modernismo” nella musica di Giuseppe Piazzi per I fratelli Dinamite (1949). (“«Oh… Modern music!» Hollywood, satire and “modernism” in Giuseppe Piazzi’s music for I fratelli dinamite (1949)”).

I fratelli Dinamite (Nino Pagot, 1949)
I fratelli Dinamite (Nino Pagot, 1949)

 COFFEE BREAK

11.00 am

PANEL 2 – Prospettive storiografiche 1 (Historiographical perspectives 1)

Moderator: CARLO ALBERTO ZOTTI MINICI, Università degli Studi di Padova

GIANNALBERTO BENDAZZI, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (videoconference)

Un’italiana a Parigi. Leontina “Mimma” Indelli. (“An Italian in Paris. Leontina “Mimma” Indelli”)

 CARLO MONTANARO, AIRSC President (Associazione Italiana per le Ricerche di Storia del Cinema; Italian Association for Researches on the History of Cinema)

C’era una volta l’animazione italiana. (“Once upon a time, there was Italian animation”).

Le bateau ivre, Mimma Indelli, 1992
Le bateau ivre, painting by Mimma Indelli, 1992

 SCREENINGS

La storia di Lulù (Arrigo Frusta, 1908)

Anacleto e la faina (Roberto Sgrilli, 1941)

12.30 pm

PANEL 3 – L’Italia nell’animazione internazionale: a Oriente (“Italy and international animation: going East”).

Moderator: CARLO ALBERTO ZOTTI MINICI, Università degli Studi di Padova

MARCO PELLITTERI, Kobe University, Giappone (videoconference)

Animazione giapponese in Italia: strategie di programmazione e fasi di successo. (“Japanese animation in Italy: programming strategies and periods of success”).

ROBERTA NOVIELLI, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia

Tra sacro e profano: l’Italia nel cinema di animazione giapponese. (“Between sacred and profane: Italy in Japanese animated cinema”).

“3000 Leagues in Search of Mother” (Haha wo Tazunete Sanzen Ri, Isao Takahata, 1976)

1.30 pm

LIGHT LUNCH AT BAR LIVIANO, PIAZZA CAPITANIATO

3.00 pm

Sala del Consiglio, Palazzo Liviano

PANEL 4 – Animazione in Italia, l’Italia nell’animazione (“Animation in Italy, Italy in animation”)

Moderator: MARCO BELLANO, Università degli Studi di Padova

CHIARA MAGRI, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Torino

Fra arte e industria. L’esperienza del corso in cinema d’animazione del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia a Torino. (“Between art and industry. The experience of the animated cinema course at the Experimental Center for Cinematography, Turin”).

 EMILIANO FASANO, ASIFA Italia

«Da un grande potere, deriva una grande popolarità». Da La gabbianella e il gatto al successo platetario delle Winx: l’animazione italiana alla conquista del pubblico. (“«With great power, comes great fame». From La gabbianella e il gatto to the worldwide success of “Winx”: Italian animation conquers the audience”).

ANNA ANTONINI, Università degli Studi di Trieste and CHIARA TOGNOLOTTI, Università degli Studi di Firenze

Burattini animati. Le avventure di Pinocchio nel cinema animato italiano (“Animated puppets. Pinocchio’s adventures in Italian animated cinema”).

Pinocchio (Enzo D'Alò, 2012)
Pinocchio (Enzo D’Alò, 2012)

 COFFEE BREAK

5.00 pm

PANEL 5 – Gibba

Moderator: MARCO BELLANO, Università degli Studi di Padova

With the participation of GIBBA

MAURO GIORI, Università Statale di Milano

Quando l’animazione italiana tentò la via del porno. Intorno a Il nano e la strega (1975) di Gibba e Libratti. (“When Italian animation tried to go into porn. Concerning Il nano e la strega (1975) by Gibba and Libratti”).

CRISTINA FORMENTI, Università Statale di Milano

Dal neorealismo al documentario animato scientifico: le animazioni “realiste” di Gibba (“From neorealism to scientific animated documentaries: Gibba’s “realistic” animations”).

L'ultimo sciuscià (Gibba, 1947)
L’ultimo sciuscià, drawing by Gibba, 1946

SCREENINGS

L’ultimo sciuscià (Gibba, 1947)

Nel paese dei ranocchi (Antonio Rubino, 1942)

8.00 pm

DINNER AT L’ISOLA DI CAPRERA RESTAURANT, VIA MARSILIO DA PADOVA N. 15

 Friday, May 30, 9.30 am

Sala delle Edicole, Palazzo del Capitanio

PANEL 6 – Fonti artistiche per l’animazione italiana (“Artistic sources for Italian animation”).

Moderator: ROSAMARIA SALVATORE, Università degli Studi di Padova

PRISCILLA MANCINI, Università Statale di Milano

La Corrente neopittorica nel cinema d’animazione italiano. (“The neopictorial current in Italian animated cinema”).

LUCA RAFFAELLI, journalist and animation specialist

I sentieri nascosti di Bruno Bozzetto: tra Konrad Lorenz, Disney, il Canada e la Scuola di Zagabria. (“Bruno Bozzetto’s hidden paths: between Konrad Lorenz, Disney, Canada and Zagreb’s School”).

La Piccola Russia (Gianluigi Toccafondo, 2004)
The neopictorial current: La Piccola Russia (Gianluigi Toccafondo, 2004)

 COFFEE BREAK

11.00 am

PANEL 7 – Prospettive storiografiche 2: le due Guerre e la propaganda (“Historiographical perspectives 2: the two Wars and propaganda”)

Moderator: ROSAMARIA SALVATORE, Università degli Studi di Padova

DENIS LOTTI, Università degli Studi di Padova

“Sogni di bimbo” a passo uno. L’animazione nel film muto italiano di propaganda bellica (1915-1917). (“Stop-motion “dreams of a child”. Animation in Italian silent propaganda films (1915-1917)”).

RAFFAELLA SCRIMITORE, Università Statale di Milano

Luigi Liberio Pensuti, film d’animazione oltre la propaganda. (“Luigi Liberio Pensuti, animated films beyond propaganda”).

Il sogno del bimbo d'Italia (Riccardo Cassano, 1915)
Poster of Il sogno del bimbo d’Italia (Riccardo Cassano, 1915)

 SCREENINGS

Lulù (Segundo De Chomón, 1908)

La piccola fiammiferaia (Romano Scarpa, 1953)

ROUND TABLE

La ricerca per il cinema d’animazione. Collaborazioni, scambi, progetti. (Academic research for animated cinema. Collaborations, exchanges, projects).

Moderator: MARCO BELLANO, Università degli Studi di Padova

Conference closing

1:30 pm LUNCH AT CAFFÈ PEDROCCHI, VIA VIII FEBBRAIO N.15

After lunch, from 3 pm to 4 pm, guests were invited to a free guided tour of the Precinema Museum – Collezione Minici Zotti.

Alberto Zotti, Marco Bellano. Photo credit: Valentina Valente
Alberto Zotti, Marco Bellano. Photo credit: Valentina Valente

The proceedings of the conference will be published in several issues of the cinema journal Cabiria, starting from n. 177, forthcoming in September, 2014.

During the final round table discussion, Marco Bellano announced the foundation of a website hosted by the Università di Padova: “Animata – Rete di divulgazione e ricerca sul cinema d’animazione” (“Animata – Information and research network on animated cinema”). It will be collectively managed by Italian animation scholars and it will store resources such as articles, call for papers and bibliographies. Its main purpose will be to invite Italian scholars to join forces, become more active and ease the circulation of knowledge. The website will open in late 2014; its project includes also an English language version. The conference speakers responded with enthusiasm to this proposal and expressed hope that the conference could become an annual meeting.

Conference flier