Carla Mielnik BFA Animated Arts Thesis Spring 2018
Kinetochore
My thesis project is a short animated film titled Kinetochore, a three-minute long nonlinear narrative featuring a stop motion puppet in a series of abstract scenes that have a layered symbolism: consciousness interacting with the unconscious, cycles of life, death and regeneration, and the creative process. The film features a musical soundtrack composed by Max Brodie, and arranged by me for the film. Media used included felted wool, watercolor paintings, clay, colored pencil and some live action footage. The final film was composed in Adobe After Effects.
A large part of my line of inquiry was about exploring a process-based animation project, engaging with a variety of materials and seeing how those experiences would translate into the format of a short animated film. The recorded music I chose for the film was also very important as a kind of psychological space to work within, and as an ally in my attempts to stay in a more intuitive mental state as the different phases of the project progressed. I have been interested in the way that the physical presence of an artist manifests itself in an animated film, and I wanted to see how my presence would be felt, while at the same time expressing more abstract thoughts and feelings.