KARL GUNNAR HOLMQVIST
Animation Artist        

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Photo by Morgan Norman 		Animation is mostly for children. Probably partly because it is connected to fables. The simplified characters are easy to understand and characters very easy to read. Combined with images in vivid color and motion of impact, the experience of the art form is overwhelming.

However, animation to me is somewhat different. It has advantages and drawbacks. If you want to illustrate the rise and fall of planet earth - animation is the art. If you want to illustrate the fears and worries of a mother whose child has been caught shoplifting - animation is probably not the right media.
Photo by Morgan Norman

Nevertheless, the border line is where I find it interesting. Thus I almost always need a psychological bottom to start from. The story is always the backbone of the films, and without a well constructed script it's not worth while. As I am of the "auteur" tradition - i.e. I do most of the work myself, script, direction animation, or at least control it - I can do the scripting in a way that really interests me.


The other part, the visualization and animation, relies on traditional achievements that were made back in the thirties. Disney turned animation into an industry, but also an art form with its own language and articulation. Animation, as I see it, is when you carefully study real life, extracts the essence and reproduce your interpretation. That's what makes it so effective.

Photo by Lis Kløve
There is no way to do this all alone. Many friends have been in and out of the process. Like Urban Nilsson, with a thousand voices and sound recording. Carina Wallert was also a voice artist. Fern Seiden did many things, the rostrum camera, additional editing, translation and version. Leif Westerlund did much of the sound work. Eva-Mia Sjölin did most of the coloring of the cells. Sten Lindberg and Gunnar Andersson at the laboratory graded the films beautifully. Lisbet Gabrielsson at the Swedish Film Institute patiently produced most of the films. P.O. Ultvedt gave me the opportunity to start the whole thing back in 1974....