Mr Madila
Mr Madila is a student film that won The Audience Award at this year's festival, and it's not too hard to see why. I loved this animation. I think the reason why it was so popular among the audience was down to its comedic timing and the personalities of the characters, because visually it wasn't anything to write home about. Sure, there were snippets of the film that did look quite pretty - for instance the space scenes - but the character designs were simple and made up of black and white lines that were often quite sketchy. I wouldn't in anyway say this was a bad thing, in fact, I think it has worked well in this instance. It created a contrast between the real life characters (the ones animating the interview), the animated characters and the actual content of the interview, and the spiritual and out-of-this-world elements. The colour and experimental scenes also helped to highlight the wonders of Mr Madila's mind, which only made him more of a lovable, and exciting character.
Pretty Space Scene Example
Like I said, it is the comedic timing of this film that made it so successful, in my opinion. The animators have obviously been able to focus greatly on this, as well as the lip-syncing and facial expressions to make for a well produced animation. They have exaggerated the movements of Mr Madila's character just enough to emphasise his bizarre personality without going overboard. This greatly contrasts with the way they've animated the interviewer. His character instead behaves very naturally and makes subtle movements and facial expressions, which allows us to relate to him and the situation he is in, and how he must be feeling in the presence of such a theatrical and energetic character.
This is something I should bare in mind when making my own film. Though my own film isn't going to have any dialogue, I can still make the characters believable by really focusing on timing, and allowing the characters to interact and react to their surroundings and each other.
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