Three young animators selected for development programme

Isabel Bouttens, Evelien Hoedekie and Roman Klochkov have been selected to participate in a development programme for animation shorts supported by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). The aim of the programme is to give talented animators an opportunity to work on an animation short under the guidance of professionals, specifically selected for their project. For a period of 6 months, the three participants will be able to dedicate themselves to develop the script and the storyboard and to work on the character design, set design etc. A professional coach, selected by the VAF and the participants themselves will guide them through the process and help them build up a good storyline. This cooperation could result in a well-founded case to apply for production support. Each participant receives € 5.000 for the development of the script and a non-recurring grant for expenses of € 1.000. 'For me, this is an ideal opportunity to make a new animation short', says Evelien Hoedekie (29), one of the three participants. Hoedekie won several awards for Like,You,See, a short movie that was later adapted as a music video for the debut single of the Belgian band Absynthe Minded. Like, You, See 'The biggest challenge for me is to work out a good script', says Hoedekie. 'I start out from visual images - in Like You See for instance I worked with a lot of morphings - but I realize it is important to hand the audience sufficient clues to follow the storyline. Finding a good scriptwriter that I can relate to is not easy. I have been working on my project for three years now and I want it to be totally right.'naimouna The second participant, Roman Klochkov (25), also stresses the importance of good scriptwriting. Klochkov's Administrators received numerous awards as best animation short and combined excellent animation with a good script. AdministratorsFor his new project Nikolai he already interviewed some 20 people on the topic of living as an illegal immigrant. The protagonist of Nikolai is - again - an animal (probably a pig this time). Just like he did in Administrators, Klochkov wants to tackle his subject with a lot of humour. 'I am very pleased that I can participate in this program because I need this kind of feedback from a professional coach. I cannot go to my old teachers for advice every week now that I left school', says Klochkov. Isabel Bouttens (28) totally agrees: 'I made my latest film, Absence, completely by myself. It was quiet difficult. Financially for starters, but you also need good feedback. When you are in school, you get lots of feedback but after that you are on your own.' Bouttens' project Four Seasons will be a rather poetic film about the changing of the seasons. She draws a lot of inspiration from The Hill Farm by Mark Baker. 'It is filled with a series of delicate observations', says Bouttens. 'The script for my film still has to be developed, so far I have mostly been working on some sketches and on the look and feel of the film. I get inspired by observations and drawings, my thoughts evolve as I am working on paper. These visual ideas will eventually come together in a bigger whole, like pieces of a puzzle.' © Isabel Bouttens Evelien Hoedekie: http://www.myspace.com/serendertolove Roman Klochkov: http://www.myspace.com/romanimator Isabel Bouttens: http://www.ibouttens.be