PLAYING GOD

At this time of year, I always publish my Christmas wish list which is usually books about animation. This year my wish is different - it is to see the completion of the 13-minute stop motion film Playing God. Director/Screenwriter Matteo Burani and Art Director/Animator Arianna Gheller, along with the entire crew at Studio Croma are in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign which is a little over halfway to their goal of $11,320.

The film’s dark story revolves around a blind sculptor in his studio, which is inhabited by hundreds of his deformed clay creations. At long last, he creates his masterpiece which he infuses with life. His creation begins to realize that he has been endowed with life, and is naïve and fragile. The relationship of love and obsession between the sculptor and his creation is played out against a backdrop of 200 deformed sculptures that have been cast aside because they are imperfect. The statues will be clay figures while the sculptor will be a real pixilated human actor with grotesque physical features.

Here is the link to the

Playing God Trailer

Speaking about his original idea for the film, Matteo said “The main theme of the story is an individual’s absence of uniformity to the distorted standards of our contemporary society”.  Playing God pays homage to the Eastern European stop motion animation of Jan Svankmajer, the design of Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, and Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

Studio Croma is a Bologna-based animation studio that specializes in stop motion production founded by director Burani and puppet maker Gheller in 2010. They are joined by a group of young professionals who will bring the film to life.

I became interested in the project four years ago when Matteo pitched it to me at ANIMARKT where I am the pitching coach. I have followed its progress through several successful pitching events and numerous rewrites. 65% of the money for the film has already been raised. The puppets are completed and 7 minutes of the film has already been shot. Now they need to rent a space big enough to set up the final scenes of the sculpture’s studio and money to hire a pixilation actor, cover post-production work as well as to pay a cinematographer, composer, and sound designer. You can follow their progress on Instagram at studiocroma_stopmotion 

You can get some truly wonderful rewards for your donation ranging from actual puppets from the production to downloads of the film. Visit the Kickstarter site to see a three-minute making-of film, find out about the numerous rewards on offer, and become a part of the film by making your donation to help Studio Croma realize their dream to make Playing God a reality - no donation is too small!

To donate, go to the Kickstarter page HERE