CBTV Student Fest: “Chief Serenbe”

Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival continues today with the third film in our line-up: Chief Serenbe by Evan Curtis from the Savannah College of Art and Design. This stop motion short really stood out to us as we were watching the entries. The film isn’t conventionally narrative, but engages the viewer by taking us into the world of the drifter. It is a surprisingly emotional piece of work and manages to create a distinctive sense of time and place. Curtis’s cinematic approach and use of depth of field makes us forget the star of the film is just a small toy.

Evan (pictured above) provided us with these background notes on his short:

Chief Serenbe was an attempt at an Italian Neo-realist stop-motion road movie, or at least the beginning of such. I specifically wanted a loose narrative, reflective of my experience living in an unfamiliar city and the freedom that comes from not being tied down to any one place. It’s shot entirely on location in Atlanta. I had no script or storyboard, only a short list of locations. The guerrilla-style of filmmaking allowed for the film to grow in a way that was affected more by the locations than by a script. Basically I drove around with my camera, tripod, and character until I found an interesting spot, where I’d jump out and shoot something. I shot with a Nikon D40 and edited the film on Avid. And yes, I got a lot of strange looks from pedestrians while filming but it was well worth it!

Filmmaker Websites
Evan Curtis

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.