Case 1: Improvisation
‘Fing’ (2014) by Marko Ivic and Bart Lindeman
Filmmaker: Bart Lindeman.
Both collaborators agreed that they wanted to adopt a free artistic approach and that improvisation would take a central role in the creation process. Visually this implied that massive amounts of sketches, drawings and moodboards were made in the preproduction stage, from which a selection had to be made in order to create a functional animatic. Once production started, this approach made it necessary to choose for a cost-effective animation style (in this case: cutout animation), because a classical 2D or 3D animation would have been too time-consuming to keep up with the pace at which the composer was able to improvise. As such, paradoxally, a free artistic approach eventually brought along strong restrictions for the filmmaker.
Music composer: Marko Ivic.
In a similar way, in the preproduction stage, the composer created over an hour of improvisations on the piano, which eventually had to be reduced to one minute. Making the choice which parts of the music would be relevant, and associating the music with the visuals proved challenging once the production process had started.
Case 2: Mathematics
‘Complexity’ (2014) by Lieven Casters, Alice Patsellis and Dani Velasco
Filmmaker: Lieven Casters.
This project used the Fibonacci sequence, often used in the graphical arts to determine the golden ratio, in order to build the scenery. New elements were introduced to the environment in accordance to the next number in the sequence: initially (0,1,1,2,3) very slowly, but after a while (5,8,13) increasingly fast. This results in a cumulative rhythm being built, whereby a calm initial tone is eventualy replaced by a stressful, almost psychotic, mood.
Music composers: Alice Patsellis and Dani Velasco.
The Fibonacci sequence was also used to determine the rhythm of the score and the construction of chords. While initially very simple rhtythmic patterns are used, eventually these are replaced by less common structures such as 5/8 and 13/8. At the beginning very simple chords are being made (consisting of 1 or 2 notes), while later on the melodic structures become more complex, which eventually results in a soundscape that is almost dissonant.