EAM 2005

From the 7th of May until the 16th of December 7 young animation students from Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Hungarians, Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany attended the European Animation Masterclass. They were trained in Halle (Saale) by international course instructors from Italy, France, Czech Republik, Belgium, Germany and the United States of America. The masterclass led the participants through all production fields of the animation. They learned the basics of Analysing Motion, Creating Motions, Character Acting and developed own stories during the masterclass. These became in the further process than own animation films develops and film realizes. Then the participants completed the EAM course with an two months practical training in a European animation studio.

EAM On tour - Torino

04 July 2005 - 08 July 2005

by Paola Piozzi, Mentor of European Animation Masterclass

The one week EAM exchange took place in Torino staring from Monday the 4th till Friday the 8th of July. During this week we offered to the students the possibility to attend five different workshops and other activities were also organized, such as the visit to the Torino Film Museum, the visit to the animation studio Enarmonia and the visit to the Virtual Reality and Multi Media Park.

Two official dinners took place, the Welcome dinner on Monday the 4th, in a nice restaurant located in the Torino city centre and the Farwell dinner on Thursday the 7th, in a picturesque restaurant situated in a small village in the nearby countryside.

One special screening event was also scheduled on Wednesday the 6th of July in the Cinema hall of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Animation Department. A friendly drink and presentation speech preceded this screening.

We opened the week with a first introduction meeting where all students and teachers were presented and we ended with an evaluation meeting where the workshops results were screened and discussed. A special EAM project pitching section was held on Thursday afternoon to show the EAM students’ video boards in order to receive a feedback from the international teacher team, as well as from the other students.

20 students participated to this exchange week, 8 from the EAM, 2 from the animation school in Prague and 10 from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Animation Department in Torino.

6 international teachers shared this training experience: Jirí Barta from Prague and Dan Boulos from the USA, who were our special guests; Laura Fiori and Vicenzo Gioanola, the 2 Italian teachers from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Animation Department, Professor Gerhard Lampe who already gave lectures in the EAM in Halle and Paola Piozzi, the EAM mentor and teacher.

We received the support of Chiara Magri, the Italian animation school Didactic Coordinator, our referent for this exchange.

Scuola di Animazione - Torino

The first stop of the EAM On Tour will be the Scuola di Animazione - Torino in Italy.

Turin is the marvellous and charming capital of the Piemont region and the fourth largest city of Italy. The city is situated in a beautiful landscape and can look back on 2000 years of history whose numerous relics have been preserved till today.

The inner city is charcterised by roads intersecting at right angles which points to the Roman origins of Turin whose present - day hallmarks are Baroque style and modern high risers. The Cathedral of Turin is home to the Shroud of Christ that is reputed to have wrapped the body of Christ after it was taken from the cross. Today Turin has a blossoming industry and commerce and is one of the richest Italian cities.

The years between the 19th and 20th centuries were for Turin a time of all - out expansion, renewal and search which are reflected in a building that is the most characteristic of that time: The Mole Antonelliana is the most famous landmark of the city and is today an exhibition centre. When it was completed in 1878 with a height of 167,5 metres it was the highest stone building in Europe.

Since 1996 it has accommodated the Museo del Cinema that tells the history of Turin as the Italian film capital - the first film studios in Europe were opened there in 1904.

The Scuola di Animazione - Torino is a part of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (National Cinema School). It`s located in marvellous mountain surroundings of Torino.

Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (National Cinema School)

The Animation Department was established in 2001, with the support of the Piemont Region. The course objective is to train artists and professionals in all the creative and production phases in animation for cinema, tv and new media. It is a three - year course and it includes two main areas of specialization: classical animation and computer animation. Special attention is given to experimental animation. The campus: the school is situated in the hills - about 15 km from the centre of Turin, in the Piemont Region in North - West Italy.

Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
(National Cinema School)
Animation Department
strada Pecetto 34
10023 Chieri (Torino)

phone: +39 011 947 32 84 int. 201
fax: +39 011 940 27 00
email: snc.animazione@in.it
web: www.snc.it

Exchange program

Along with the 10 participants in the European Animation Masterclass, up to 10 further students from different European animation schools attended the one - week EAM On Tour program.

The students came from the hosts in Turin and also from traditional schools in Spain, France and the Czech Republic. Training of the EAM master students and the 10 guest students were provided by five internationally acclaimed trainers from several countries (Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, USA)

workshop program

sand & oil painting animation - the expressiveness and immediacy of textures
Paola Piozzi (Italy)

This workshop is focused on two exciting animation techniques: sand and oil painting animation. Both of them belong to those animation techniques, which allow you to animate directly under the camera. In this workshop we intend to explore the expressiveness of a tactile way to animate, the students will have an approach to these techniques and they will shortly experiment their potentials. The spontaneous appearance that we can see in either sand or oil painting animations differ from classical animation and the success of the work is determined by the manual ability and the creative capacity of the artist.
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classical Disney animation
Dan Boulos (USA)

In this segment students will learn about the principles of animation as developed by the Disney Studio artists from the 1920’s through the 1940’s. There will be many examples screened and paper exhibits presented for students to flip through. Students will then try one or two exercises applying these principles to their animations. Also students will review drawing techniques for producing Disney quality full animation while learning about the feature length animated film production pipeline. The session will end on a discussion of the role of echnology today in animation, discussing the animator’s use of programs like Flash, After Effects and Maya. Many examples will be screened and a brief Flash exercise demonstrated.
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Laid table 
Jiri Barta (Czech Republic)

In this workshop the students will make an animation exercise. They will prepare an animated fantasy food on a plate and they will eat it. Each student will eat his/her animated food that has been served on the table in front of them. Real objects will be used, such as: a plate, a fork, a table knife and a spoon. This fantasy food will be made from plasticine and different small objects (balls, sticks, wires, coloured papers etc.) that can be easily animated. After creating a meal, animated real hands can use a cutlery to eat it.
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From Nanook of North (1922) to Man of Aran (1934) 
Gerhard Lampe (Germany)

How Robert J. Flaherty adopted Hollywood style - editing in the field of film studies, it is generally assumed that the documentary director Robert J. Flaherty widely ignored cinematographic developments and kept repeating himself by telling his stories of mythical battles of man against the powers of nature always in the same old - fashioned way. By analysing and comparing Nanook of North (1922), Moana (1923/25) and Man of Aran (1934), we want to discover how Flaherty changed the visual style of his documentaries by learning from the continuity-editing system that emerged in Hollywood at the time of the transition from silent to sound production. For that reason we discuss Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and his film “Sunrise” (1927) and “Taboo” (1929/30), a semidocumentary in which Murnau and Flaherty worked together. The workshops intentions are to increase the knowledge of cinematographic rules and grammar.
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digital synchronization
Laura Fiori and Vincenzo Gioanola (Italy)

In this workshop we intend to explore the correlation between sound and image in animation. We also intend to lead the growing of an individual style regarding timing, colour, shapes and effects using compositing software. An introduction to synchronization concepts and techniques will be given and a practical exercise will be made in After Effects, building a sound composition and creating a 10-second movie.
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