The director of the Oscar-nominated 2D animated short, initially released under the pseudonym Timur Kognov, discusses his strenuous creative process, poetic storytelling methods, and ruthless take on cutting even the most beautiful scenes.
From his early animations like Pacifier (1994), to his Academy Award-nominated short films Lavatory Lovestory (2007) and We Can't Live Without Cosmos (2015), Konstantin Bronzit has always subverted expectations.
Bronzit’s films may not have a designated art style or unifying theme that connects all the narratives. But be it balloon babies, bouquets in tip jars or 6-armed golden gods failing to swat a fly (The God, 2003), the witty director (though he may say otherwise) has made a name for himself by letting pure creativity influence his films rather than the latest animation trends.
And with his latest animated short, The Three Sisters, Bronzit let creativity run the show more than ever before.
Initially released under the pseudonym Timur Kognov, Bronzit’s Oscar short-listed The Three Sisters is a 2D-animated, dialogue-free story about three sisters living an isolated life on a remote island, each in their own small house. After an unfortunate accident, the trio is forced to rent one of the homes to help cover the cost of essential supplies.
Screen the film on The Animation Showcase website: https://watch.animationshowcase.com/view/6941d5356fd61739b20ffc92
Final voting for this year’s Oscars (March 15) begins Thursday, February 26 at 9 a.m. PT. To give voters some insight into Bronzit’s film, AWN talked with the director about his strenuous creative process, his poetic storytelling methods and whether or not he’d ever release an animation anonymously again… and whether or not he’d recommend it to others.
Victoria Davis: I love what you said in a previous interview about how film does not begin with the first scene, but with the first letter of the title, or even the brand logo. When and from where did you adopt this way of thinking?
Konstantin Bronzit: I like your question. But I don't have an exact answer. Nobody taught me this approach on purpose. No one has ever given me such instructions. But I was so lucky in my life with teachers in my profession that, in the end, I learned the main thing, which is not how to make a good movie, but how to think in order to make a good movie.
So, at some point, while watching other people's films and creating my own, I realized that the film for the viewer should start from the first second, from the first image on the screen. The idea seems to be almost primitive, but for some reason it is very difficult to appropriate it for yourself, so that it really becomes a part of your thinking in the work.
VD: I've heard that the idea for this story came to you from Russian animation director Dmitry Vysotsky while on the plane on your way back from the 2016 Oscars. Were you able to envision what the film's art and animation would look like right away or did it take some time?
KB: Oh no. I'm a very slow-witted director, and, alas, nothing immediately comes to my mind. My brain is designed so that I come up with an action first. It’s like I turn on an internal cinema in my head and immediately try to move the characters, forcing them to interact in a given way.
This is the most painful and lengthy process for me. But that's how my films are born. That's why I couldn't invent anything for a very long time. For two or three years, no action was born. But as one of my teachers said: “Insight comes from reflection.” And one day, insight into actions happened and the story began to form scene by scene. And almost at the same time, I saw the overall visual solution of the film.
VD: Human passion, weaknesses, hope, and desire form the core of your story and those are all quite dense topics to cover in a short film. How did the visuals enhance the messages the film was trying to get across in a limited amount of time? How do you think it succeeded?
KB: You know, that's the main task of directing. By “visualization,” I personally mean primarily an action, not a noun. Barry Purves, an outstanding English director and, fortunately, my friend, answered my question “What is directing?” by brilliantly saying, “Directing reveals the character's thought process.” When I heard this, I had another bit of insight. Because that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do in my films all my life, to pantomime how a character feels. How well I did it in The Three Sisters is a question for the audience.
VD: Your films’ designs always stem from the story. What were some of your favorite scenes to bring to life in this film?
KB: What an accurate remark about design. I was really taught that design should flow from history. That is, the story should tell the director what the film should look like. There was a lot to say about this topic, but there is no time for that here. As for the scenes that bring life to the film, I cannot choose a favorite because each scene supports the film and, ideally, even multiplies the scenes before it. If a scene doesn't do that job, it has no place in the movie, and it must be ruthlessly deleted, no matter how beautiful it is.
VD: There are also tons of little details to look at in the art. Tell me about why these are important to the story – whether they are noticed or not – and what are some of your favorite details that viewers may not notice at first glance?
KB: The details are what give the action its veracity. As Yuri Norstein said, “The viewer's mind clings to and jumps over the details of the film, like bumps in a swamp. The detail is so important that after a while the viewer may forget the whole movie, but the detail will remain.”
If there are no details in the film, if the director is not concerned about them, then the film itself will fade very quickly from the viewer's memory, and there will be nothing but fog. But the director, no matter how hard he tries to manage the viewer’s attention, cannot accurately predict and answer which detail the viewer did not notice the first time. And the audience is all different. But this has the advantages of a film filled with details and it can withstand several views, in each of which the viewer can discover something new.
VD: The film is 2D, but it has a 3D quality in the movement and dimensions, especially in that opening scene when the camera circles around the island. How did you achieve this look?
KB: We had to work especially hard on this scene. The animators were working remotely and one of them just had to honestly draw the whole scene with his hands, that is, “to in-between” it. He started doing this work, but when I saw the first samples, I realized that they would be very long, expensive, and the whole frame would be excessively mobile. Sometimes such frankly manual labor looks good in animation, but in this particular case, I didn't need such a bright “breathing” of all the lines. And I had to look for another solution.
Another animator said that she had a friend who could try to do it in a rather uncomplicated way, but I needed to draw neat textures for the island and for the houses. When I saw the result, I realized that this is what I needed.
VD: You've described the production process as “the longest journey I’ve ever had to take for creating a 15-minute film.” What were some of the biggest challenges with this film and how did you overcome them?
KB: The famous director Mikhail Romm once said, “The ‘mise en scène’ is the director's main weapon.” But I would also add, “and the most difficult thing.” At least, for sure. That’s what I’ve been working on all my life. It is precisely because this is the most important thing in the film that it becomes the most difficult. That is, to feel and see how the characters will be positioned in space and how at what point they will all interact with each other and this space. Who will make their most important gesture in the scene at what moment? Moreover, will it interfere with others? All this should be in the right timing.
So, yes, this is real torture for me. But it is important that my sweat and blood are not visible on the screen. The viewer should not see them. He must just follow the story and the passions in it.
VD: What was your favorite part of working on this film?
KB: Alas, I do not know the feeling of satisfaction when I make my films. My teachers taught me that every fragment, every piece of the film needs to be brought to such a state that the result starts ringing inside you. And this is very correct. It’s easy to say, but hard to do. It is a state of exhaustion and emptiness. Although, of course, there are moments of joy in the process when you realize that you have found the only right solution, like with the action and the visualization.
VD: You’ve shared in other interviews that you chose to release your film anonymously as a kind of experiment to see how the film would be received if there wasn’t a name attached to it, as well as to “free viewers from the baggage of a name.” Is that something you'd do again with future projects?
KB: On the one hand, I’m terribly pleased with what I did, although there are several people who didn't like my idea. You won't please everyone. And I don't regret it a bit because I completed the task I set for myself: to check the artistic merits of my film. This is a unique precedent in the history of animation.
There was a group of artists in Japan who changed their names in the signatures on paintings to check what the public was actually paying money for: their names or whether they really liked their paintings. There were also a lot of hoaxes in music and literature, but it never occurred to anyone to create this in animation. And it’s clear why. You can write a short story alone, paint a picture or a piece of music in a couple of days. But, in animation, even for a short film, sometimes it takes years of teamwork.
In general, to come up with something interesting in life, to experiment with your creativity, aren't these signs of lively, mobile thinking? And this is in my 60 years! But, on the other hand, I would not advise anyone to repeat it. And I probably won’t do it again myself, just because it's very difficult in every way. Although it's still very tempting for me.
VD: How do you hope this film inspires not just the general public but artists and storytellers specifically?
KB: I hope that this film will teach many people to count to three. If I hope for more, it will mean that I will overestimate my film.
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
