Mohammad Mahdi Ghazizadeh, the director of the short animation “A Black and White Story,” which has been selected for the 42nd Tehran International Short Film Festival, discussed the use of comic strip elements and the challenges and potential of the independent animation movement.
According to IBland’s news, Ghazizadeh explained the premise of his work: “A Black and White Story” is about a person who undergoes a sense of defamiliarization with their surroundings and faces a challenge involving the world of reality, imagination, and truth. This philosophical and human encounter occurs in seven stages, leading to their final decision. This piece is primarily semantic; to create it, I put myself in the shoes of a character grappling with a semantic challenge, trying to grasp the meaning of life and their struggle. This challenge can be viewed through the lens of philosophy, mythology, and mysticism.
He continued: “Typically, there are two ways to create short animations: the cinematic method, involving a precise script and studio production, and the experimental method, with smaller group collaborations. In producing this animation, the script, execution, and direction were all handled by me. Certain mental images and this semantic challenge were the initial sparks. Aesthetically, I was preoccupied with graphic novels and comic strips, and given my academic background in Animation Direction at Art University, I wanted to pursue my artistic interests. In the execution, I utilized ‘visual harmony,’ where multiple frames within a single shot or image have different movements. I worked frame-by-frame, with each stage being a slice of life.”
Implementing Visual Harmony in Animation Execution
Ghazizadeh elaborated on “visual harmony”: “This concept has roots in cinema, where several separate images are shown in one shot, usually with a meaningful connection. For instance, someone is running on the right side of the screen, and the destination is shown on the left. What I was aiming for was that, just as harmony exists in music; where we can simultaneously hear several lines to create a new meaning; in the visual domain, we see different movements which, in addition to their separate meanings, collectively form a ‘visual harmony.’ For example, a vertical shape and faster speed exist on the right side of the frame, while a horizontal shape and slower speed are seen on the left.”
The young director commented on the work being in black and white: The animation is entirely executed in black and white, and its title, “A Black and White Story,” has both symbolic and literal dimensions. In this character’s world, everything is either black or white, with no grey area. This ‘zero-one’ nature is one of the character’s main problems, which I tried to reflect in the work’s style. Furthermore, working in black and white contributed to the comic-like aesthetic of the animation.
Iranian Animation Has Progressed Alongside Global Trends
Regarding the technical execution, Ghazizadeh stated: “This animation is frame-by-frame and 2D, created entirely on an iPad, embracing its limitations. This was deliberate because, in my pure animation idea, even changes of scene are manipulated frame-by-frame. Cinema has a continuous timeline, but in animation, every frame is individually manipulated. A major challenge I wrestled with throughout this project was related to this: in the central shots, the images are comic-like, and animating the left and right frames, along with their interrelated movements, was a difficult task. Coordinating 2D animation becomes very complex when a reaction shot occurs within the same frame. I am also thankful to Amir Hossein Mousavi, the composer of this animation, who went beyond clichés.”
In conclusion, the director of “A Black and White Story” reflected on this year’s Tehran Short Film Festival: “Animation in our country has advanced in parallel with global developments. In the 90s, when Disney was producing 3D works, the same thing was happening simultaneously in Iran. We have had many valuable series and short works, but the truth is, attention to them is very minimal. We only have one specialized biennial animation festival, and I am pleased that the Tehran Short Film Festival, which is fundamentally a narrative short film festival, has also paid attention to this section. I hope this movement progresses in a more specialized way so that the door is opened for independent and free works in animation. Experimental animation works usually go abroad, and this festival’s attention to such works is commendable. It would be even better if the international section works, which are selected before judging and lack a specific mechanism, were also chosen based on judicial review. I hope this festival paves a way where independent movements are more officially recognized.”
Source: Mehrnews