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Interviews
Conversations with directors, curators and leads about craft, taste and the realities of getting moving images made.
"We can tell in ninety seconds whether a film trusts its audience"
Mara Ellingsen programs the animation strand at a European short-film festival, where Soft Machines screened last spring. We talked about selection, sound and shorts that overstay.
- What makes a short survive your first viewing pass?
- Confidence. A film that opens with one clear image and holds it — not five ideas in thirty seconds. Soft Machines opens on a lamp room and lets you arrive. Most submissions open like they're apologizing.
- Biggest mistake you see from CG filmmakers?
- Rendering before directing. Gorgeous frames in service of nothing. I'd take a grey-clay animatic with a real story over a polished void, every single year.
- How important is sound at selection?
- Half the vote. We watch everything with festival headphones, and mixes done last always show. The films that land budgeted sound from day one — you can hear the difference in the first scene.
- Advice for a first-time festival submission?
- Submit the short film you actually made, not the feature pitch disguised as one. And write a two-line synopsis that a tired programmer understands at midnight. That's when most decisions happen.
"The wall is an instrument. Rehearse it like one"
Devon Okafor directs music videos and stage visuals, and performed the Bloom Circuit set alongside Voxelmoth Studio. We talked about prep, failure plans and tempo.
- What separates a good VJ rig from a great one?
- Restraint presets. Anyone can blast. The great rigs have three quiet looks for every loud one, and the operator knows exactly when the song needs silence on the wall.
- How do you rehearse something that's meant to feel live?
- You rehearse the transitions, not the moments. We mapped every track change in Bloom Circuit and left the insides open. Structure the doors, improvise the rooms.
- Your rule for new collaborators?
- One shared reference board, updated daily, that either of us can veto. Taste arguments disappear when the board is honest. Everything else is logistics.
- What should artists charge for live visuals?
- For the rig, the rehearsal and the risk — not just the night. If your laptop dying mid-set would end the show, you're not selling playback, you're selling insurance. Price it.
"Real-time or not, the audience only sees acting"
June Park leads cinematics at a mid-size game studio, directing performance capture and in-engine storytelling. We talked about acting, engines and small teams.
- What do players actually notice in a cinematic?
- Eyes and timing. Not poly counts — intention. A character that looks at the right thing at the right frame will outperform a million-dollar face rig with dead timing.
- How has real-time rendering changed your direction?
- Iteration speed is the whole job now. I can redirect a scene eleven times before lunch, which means the excuse "we ran out of time to try" is gone. Terrifying and wonderful.
- What do you look for hiring junior cinematic artists?
- One finished thing. Not five promising starts — one piece with a beginning, middle and end that survived contact with feedback. Finishers beat geniuses.
- Solo artists versus big teams — who wins?
- Different races. A solo artist with taste and a render farm will outrun a committee every time on style. Teams win on volume. Know which race you're entering.
Got a story worth animating?
Directors, labels, studios and festivals — if it moves, let's talk about making it move beautifully.
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