Con talks having Countless Questions and Big Monsters with Away Director Gints Zilbalodis!!!
What’s the hardest thing about making an animated film with no verbal dialog? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – Since I’ve only made films without dialogue I can’t really compare the experience to a more traditional film. I guess if I had the option to use dialogue, it would be much easier to explain certain things with words rather than pictures, but I think that it would make the film a lot less interesting. I find that usually I’m a lot more affected by images and sounds rather than characters talking.
After seeing ‘Away’ I walked away with countless questions. Is that what you wanted for the audience? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – That’s the great thing about animation or visual storytelling in general. With a certain amount of abstraction and symbolism people can fill out the gaps of the film with their imagination and personal experiences creating unique interpretations based on the context in which it was viewed. I hope that Away shows that the need to find a connection with others is an always relevant theme and that it’s necessary to keep going and eventually things will improve.
This may be irrelevant – but I was very focused on the eye colour for each character. I’m not too sure why – but does the colour of the eyes have any relevance to what’s going on in the story? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – I didn’t consider a specific reason for the color of the eyes, but I did pay a lot of attention to the eyes as that is where people usually pay attention to most. Especially in a film without dialogue, the eyes have an even bigger role in showing the feelings that the characters experience.
Is the big black monster the same as the smaller black ‘humanoid’ creatures or is he something completely different? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – They are related. The smaller creatures represent the other people that were traveling with the boy in the airplane. He’s reminded of them in his dream. The bigger creature is kind of like a memory of them that keeps haunting him.
Everything in the world of ‘Away’ is in such an orderly fashion – like the cats with the water and the birds in flight. What does it signify to you that the man is so disruptive to the landscape? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – Initially I thought that each cat would have a different design and personality. And that each of them move differently. But I realised that it would be very difficult and time consuming to animate all of them. I figured that I can just take one cat and copy it many times. This creates a very eerie and hypnotic effect which I found to be a lot more interesting than having the cats behave more naturally. It also works with the story in this case, as I wanted to show how the cats have lost their individual personalities and have become this one group.
What is your favourite character in ‘Away’ and why? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – My favourite is probably the little yellow bird. At first his role was much smaller. He would just appear briefly in the background of the scenes. But I realised how his story is very similar to the boy’s story as he’s also separated from his group and is eager to reconnect with them. Also I think that flight and animation are very well suited for each other. I think that the scenes in which the bird has finally learned to fly are some of the more exciting ones in the film.
Does the story of ‘Away’ relate in any way to something that’s happened in your life – and if yes what was it? Con age 13
Gints Zilbalodis – The core theme of Away is a reflection of its creation process. There’re a lot of similarities between the journey that the main character goes on and my experiences making the film on my own. I think that it’s important for filmmakers to use personal experiences in their work. Even when the audience doesn’t know the backstory of the work it can often be felt if there’s an authenticity to it.
Away review by Con CLICK HERE!!!
AWAY is available to pre-order now form Apple TV and iTunes. It can be purchased from Sky Store, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Rakuten and Sony from January 18th, as well as Curzon Home Cinema from 25th January
