theodore ushev

About the cinema, and the money

A text by Xavier Dolan, responding critics over his speech at the Jutra gala. In French. I totally support every word he says:
http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/moncinema/lussier/2010/04/02/la-replique-de-xavier-dolan/
And, if we talk about animation? What is going to be said? About overpraised animated shorts, over budgeted, done for 10 Years, and seen only from 50 person? About doubtlessly significant for me projects, boring, and pretentious, so even their creators start snoring watching them? No comments. Be clever. And don’t abuse the system! It is good, but don’t rape it! Cause the day when we will all be on the street, depressed, and poor, and without financing, and asking our grand mother for a bunch of money to do our sound, and make a single 35 copie, is approaching… Don’t force the coming of this day with Your films! It is a déja vu… I’ve lived it in the country, where I came from. I saw it in our neighbors, too.
Or we have to start from now pitching for Kleenex and Charming advertising… Without success, of course. They need “no brainers”, no teasers. Better create a viral video, and post it on Youtube,. And wait for God(o) to come, following Our traffic fame…

Stills from my new film

Some preliminary stills from my new film “Yannick, sans entracte”.

Prémiere – 16 June, National Art Center, Ottawa. More will be revealed soon.

Xavier Dolan wins Jutra

Xavier Dolan won Jutra for Best film, for his film “I killed my mother”. I’m happy for him. He gave a smart speach at the gala. He is a guy, who represents the true spirit of indipendent cinema, + that he is an “enfant prodige”. As Lipsett was. There were many questions from people, when I decided to ask him to narrate Lipsett in my film, in both languages- But why Xavier Dolan? I think it was the ONLY choice. Never had any doubt about it. He didn’t have to perform. He was himself.

“Lipsett…” in Melbourne animation festival

After Annecy, Zagreb, Melbourne animation festival added “Lipsett diaries” for his line-up. I’m happy, the film seems will be seen from more people. This is what counts, this is what makes me happy. So people react to it (hate it, or like it, doesn’t matter – the important thing is  the emotions, and the reactions) I don’t do films to be liked. I do them to evoke emotions, and reactions.

Les Journaux de Lipsett

And now, the official trailer for “Lipsett diaries”.  The world premiere :

Annecy, 7-12 of June ( actually, Zagreb -1-7 June, as this year it comes first ).

Lipsett diaries

So, “Lipsett diaries” starts his life. It is selected in the competition program of Annecy International animation festival. 7-12 June. Needless to say, I’m happy. Being in a big and important festival as Annecy, doesn’t make the film better, but helps so the film is seen by more people. Which means more reactions. Isn’t it what we work for?

Happy 10th Birthday, Mortadellatv!

I wouldn’t bother to mention this, if it was not 10th anniversary. Sounds scary. 10 Years ago, I decided to start a personal experimental site, aimed to host my little experiments with a cool software I was learning at the time, called Flash. The first ever “film” (haha, film) was “Aurora”. It was an exercise with the software. Posted it on ushev.com, after that got invitation (paid!, good old times) to post it in a new site, hosted by Wired. It was something like Animation express, or something. I went there, and was horrified from the quality of the other so called “films”. So I refused, and instead registered Mortadellatv, and put Aurora there together with some “interactive” art – how  I hate this word, but it was trendy at this time to make interactive things (see them bellow). It sounds like the cheap Italian meat, but it came from the Utopian at the time idea, that one day web will kill the TV, and every person (artist or not)  will make his own channel, and it will substitute the advertising stupid walls in our homes. You Tube didn’t exist, not to mention Vimeo. I needed a site, where I can finally start again “showing” animated films, and motion graphics.

The first site was posted on 17th of March, 2000.  In the first few weeks I had…7 visits, haha. Continued making my “hobby” exercises, with an only goal – to learn better the software, cause I was working in my day job making “Flash” fashion sites. MTDTV was my escape. And this “escape” opened me the door to NFB. The design that is now was not changed since 2004, it is the 3rd ver. of the site. It won many awards during those Years…

Now, I stopped updating it, I just post now links to my films on other sites.  There are more sites that the film can be posted, and interactivity is very, very borring (as a guru in a usability conference was pointing Years ago – Why should You ask the users to do Your job, click with the mouse there and here, interact whit the site, answer questions, when the only thing that he wants coming to Your site is – to be informed, to buy, sell, or be entertained – as fast as possible. Interactivity is not Entertainement, it is a work – and the people don’t like to work!

May be I have to kill the site, but I feel so connected, and sentimental about it. And it still gathers 5 000 unique visitors every month, more than this site…Why? The people are watching a film. My most successful up to date. Which one? Walking on by, my last “true indy” before NFB, haha. This is what the people wants to watch! I updated the film to Youtube, hopping to remove the traffic. No way – the same. As a guy wrote me Years ago. “My little daughter grew with this film. For Years, she didn’t want to go to bed, if she didn’t watch “Walking on by…” before…

But Isn’t it the reason to make films, BTW?

The people are strange. Not sure I’ll  ever understand them.

“Playback” cover

“Drux Flux” made “Playback” magazine February cover. Art meets technology. Sounds good to me, I believe in it.

the life is worth saving

It is not just another suicide. There are too many people around me, around us, who commits suicide, who passed away.

She cried after seeing the film.  Now  I know.  I want to stop the film being shown.

I didn’t want to do this film. The film wanted me to do it. It is an excuse.

I know, now, that the suicide is not an exit, it is not a solution.

Keep that bird, boy!

Lip-synch the life

I rarely write about other works on my site. But yesterday I saw a piece of art, that deeply moved me, and I must say – is a real inspiration for me, evoking some really dramatically decisions, may be. I always loved the theater, more than everything. I started with the theater, studied theater, was making posters for the theater. It seems to be my destiny, to love this art form. But after I saw yesterday Robert Lepage 9 hours LIPSYNCH, I know for sure, that this is one of most powerful and deep experiences and feelings, I’ve ever had. It started, that I cried after the first 10 min. It ended crying at the end. At the middle I’ve laughed as hell. It was thought provoking, deep, intense experience. It passed as a 5 min adrenalin booster.
This tale for the voice, the lack of the voice, and imitated, synchronized voice behind the life, is a smashing achievement for the contemporary theater. I think it has the impact of Brook’s Mahabharata, but goes further. It tells the stories of 9 people, lip-sinchronised in their desperate essay to understand their life, to remember it, and to hear their inner and true voices. And the voices, the true voices, and the words, and the accents, can change everything, not because they are meaningful, but because behind each voice stays an unique human, and the language is nothing but vowels, and syllables. It is a music, that we think understand, but are often mistaken (one of the monologues in the play stated after hearing that he cannot be understood in his own country by his greek secretary – “My bloody Scotish accent, ea? What about Your accent, Greek girl? What about all those polishes, roumanians, EastEuropeans in my city? ” Even the italians are gone,from their pizzarias, at least we understood them! Nobody speeks English in London anymore! I have to pass a crash course on Serbo-croation, if I want to order a capuchino at the coffee on the corner. It become a Disney world of the planet, my city!”
It is not the language, my friends. The world has changed, and our brains. It is the music of Your voice that is important.
The music of the silence is the only one that counts, when we love and hate.
Abfiejhafjsal ajikhadso mucho amourekos!

Lipsett diaries poster

Sometimes I question myself – Why do I like doing animated films? And the answer often is – To create the posters for my own films. There is nothing more satisfactory in therms of “design:client” relation aspect as  to work for myself.
The most important part of a film is … his poster. Only the good films have good posters. But sometimes behind some good posters are hidden bad films. Not so often, though…
So, just now I consider the film finished. That’s it.

A spectre is haunting the Net:

the spectre of communism.

It transformed Marx quotation by Richard Barbrook. His articles and visions are impressive.

Or this one.

Positive:work-as-commodity___The Negation:waste-as-gift___The Negation of the Negation: work-as-gift.

Or like this: e-commerce___potlatch___Network communities.

Or like this: copyright___creative commons___open source.

Sounds familiar, no?
At the end of the twentieth century, anarcho-communism is no longer confined to avant-garde intellectuals. What was once revolutionary has now become banal. As Net access grows, more and more ordinary people are circulating free information across the Net. Crucially, their potlatches are not attempts to regain a lost emotional authenticity. Far from having any belief in the revolutionary ideals of May ‘68, the overwhelming majority of people participate within the hi-tech gift economy for entirely pragmatic reasons. Sometimes they buy commodities on-line and access state-funded services. However, they usually prefer to circulate gifts amongst each other. Net users will always obtain much more than will ever be contributed in return. By giving away something which is well-made, they will gain recognition from those who download their work. For most people, the gift economy is simply the best method of collaborating together in cyberspace. Within the mixed economy of the Net, anarcho-communism has become an everyday reality. “We must rediscover the pleasure of giving: giving because you have so much. What beautiful and priceless potlatches the affluent society will see – whether it likes it or not! – when the exuberance of the younger generation discovers the pure gift.

The ephemeral nature of “new media”

From time to time I have to clean my archives. Then, I find hundreds of forgotten works, projects. I just found a CD with an old version of Mortadellatv. At this time (2001) it was full with interactive art, new media “paintings” and “conceptual” flash. As I now believe the interactive art is a “passé” – (it is aging extremely badly – does anyone remembers “Onceuponaforest” or Pitaru experiments, or…forgot their names even…There were many.)  Everything is dead, it even doesn’t exists on the web. So, I was lucky enough not to loose my time too much on all those projects (and not to spend any money on it). Some of them won awards.

My favorite was:

“Symbiotic colostrum – letters to the muse”

It is an interactive “love” painting, in which the movement of the mouse was indicating the words of a “love letter”. It had the ability to send generated Latin letters to a person (not to be revealed:)

The Story of King Midas

eye

circulation

Bruckner, 8th

There is nothing more beautiful as graphic art, than the score of Bruckner the 8th, noted by a conductor…

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen dies

And every time when I think, or mention Artur Lipsett, someone commits suicide. In the fashion world, Alexander McQueen was kind of like Lipsett for the cinema – the troubled rebellion, the conscious clown of the fashion circus. He was a clown himself.
About his career in Guardian.
R.I.P Alexander McQueen.

Arthur Lipsett

It seems that there are not many people who have seen the Artur Lipsett films. Luckily, we live in the good time of internet screening rooms. I couldn’t imagine anyone to remember, or know something about him 10 Years ago, except some dedicated cinema “connoisseurs”. Where You can see such a films? In the cinema? On the TV? (How happy I’m that the TV on the death couch now- when I was creating Morta della TV 12 Years ago I even didn’t think that the name will happen). I’m totally excited of the new technologies, and all the opportunities, and the knowledge, and art exposure that they give to the people. At first, web was the money making tool. It is still. But see how huge is the presence of the “fringe” art, the “forgotten” art. Artur “who” would ask me the people 10 Years ago. Artur “here” I answer, now.:
21-87

Very nice, very nice

Money and the art

The artist must earn money in order to be able to live and to draw, but he must by no means live and draw for the purpose of making money.

The dialectic of the process

The 2 postings below can be in one. They describe the process of creation. One (the “Decapitated…” drawing is a pure freedom. Destruction. Self-conscious act. Pure excitement.
The other is a commissioned work. The scene from the film with Melissa throwing the chair describes the doubts and the feelings behind it. But, I never destroy the works commissioned to me. On the opposite. I have respect for this part of my work. I know, that without the “art on command” there won’t be the other, the pure expression. The truth lies in the middle. I won’t be able to create anything, if I work only for myself, if I don’t have the stimulus of the client, of the people around me at NFB, or the “commissioner”. I don’t believe in the “ lonely artist” in his studio. Without the communication, the construction, and deconstruction of the “real” life, I wouldn’t be able to create a single line. The obstacles, the contraventions, the conflicts are essential part of the creative process. The pure freedom is a trap, a hole. At the time, when someone will give me all the freedom, all the ressources – I will be dead. Better to go to the beach, than to work. This is my idea for the dialectic of creation, which I had in mind, doing the film “Lipsett diaries”. The artist has to be in the maelstrom of the events and the time.

Champlain paintings

A short “making of” clip, describing the process of creating the paintings in the film “Facing Champlain”

Postpartum drawings

Decapitated portrait