Experimental animation

"MEDIUM RARE is a stop motion short film made at CalArts in the Experimental Animation program. The short was mainly inspired by observations of behavior association, communication, and human adaptation to modern conformities. As aesthetics and functionality of human creations gained the main focus, the human figure became futile. Getting rid of living creatures helped to set the 'rules' and anchor on all the elements that people like to create, own and interact with."

"The limited and repetitive motion of the human body is often found in the same form in different scenarios and extends itself into the interacted object. The sequence of shots in the film establishes not only the location and circumstances but carries a continuous sweep of motion. Stop motion works well with this concept because every element has to be thought, designed and built according to its function and wanted look, while facing constraints like time and money, reflected in the rushing modern society. Human touch affects every frame of a scaled down world and introduces unexpected subtleties in motion, unstable textures and lights, which open the door for surrealism and relate to the natural unstable human condition."

Post and inspiration

"The production of the short took 5 months. Most of the time was spent fabricating or testing on set, depending on equipment and stage availability. Working on this film by myself I preferred not to use a script. A loose storyboard was used to pre-edit the shots on a board. Many shots where cut out or re-assembled while shooting. Kayle Khanmohamed helped recording and mixing the sound while colorist Ben Neufeld created a solid look with subtle variations in tone. Some visual/conceptual influences include work of Jacques Tati, Gregory Crewdson, Georges Schwizgebel, Pina Bausch…"