Passeurs d’images : Drawn Cinema Workshop

Workshop for making animated films from drawings within the framework of a professional event.

Within the framework of the professional evening of the launch of the new national coordination Passeurs d’images (www.passeursdimages.fr/2018/retour-sur-le-lancement) which took place at Le Bal (Paris, France) on June 5, 2018, I proposed a moment of creativity to the people present, conceived with Patrick Facchinetti, general delegate of Passeurs d’images and Santiaga Hidalgo, in charge of projects at Passeurs d’images.

During this evening the people who wished could make a very simple animated film, on the theme of the event: the transmission.

Principle of the workshop

Here is the principle of the “drawn cinema” workshop: the person makes a drawing or a diagram which represents what is for him the transmission. The drawing is being filmed. Then the person records a comment. And finally the two elements (video and voice) are brought together: it produces a short film, which reflects the mental representation of the person, in a very simple, poetic and effective way.

Issue, design, animation and scenography

This workshop was led by Alice Posiere and myself for the shooting and Romain Baujard for the editing. The films are edited on the spot in the process and broadcast on a screen, which allows the project to be concrete and attractive for the people who pass.

This type of workshop is appropriate for an event because it mobilizes people very little time, and yet their subjectivity is fully engaged. It is their concentration that makes films of quality. It is also the quality (and simplicity) of the scenography and the mediation that make people feel invited and dare to risk doing something that may seem very simple but that actually conceals a real depth.

The challenge is that the guests at this evening can contribute, without it being intrusive, to build creative objects in a playful way but which for all that have a true meaning. So, even for people who didn’t make films, the evening was a creative one. Also, some have matured their idea internally before coming to realize it.

There is a “risk” that one takes in delivering without control something of oneself. We also discover ourselves there, it is a personal and collective enrichment. This requires people to overcome fear, which is accompanied by mediation. And that opens up a real satisfaction: discovering that you have succeeded in doing something enriching for others.

The installation on site, the layout of the tables, the concept of the screen (paper roll), the soft light projectors... it was a very simple scenography, but which required a very specific material preparation adapted to the place. It is this simplicity that is welcoming, and it must be built. It’s when you’re not building that things seem complicated. The tools used, from projectors to feet, cameras and tape recorders, have been duly selected, tested and validated to ensure that everything runs smoothly and clearly.

Diffusion

In addition to the on-site screen broadcast, a QR Code printed on a cardboard was distributed to participants so that they could access, view and download all the films. The films were encoded and put online on the web server of Passeurs d’images, which is therefore the operator of its digital heritage.

Selection of films

All films made

During the evening of 5 June 2018, 31 films were made out of 150 guests. That’s a very good turnout.

Direct link: www.benoitlabourdette.com/_docs/?dir=projets/2018/2018_passeurs_d_images_lancement/2018_films_transmission

Movie editing

Images are accelerated to “stick” to the duration of the recorded voice. Thus the films are rhythmic and dynamic, it is the voice that becomes the guiding thread of the image, which presides at its rhythm.

At the end of each film, an institutional credits is added, which contains in text form and in QR Code the link to all the films online. This closing credits allows the films to circulate freely: they are signed and put in relation to their context.