The Coincidental Killing of a Cat by an Unworldly Tune
hand drawn cel animation and stop motion animation / mixed media - paper, paper cut out, watercolour, ink
“The Coincidental Killing of a Cat by an Unworldly Tune” started off as a dream Zeynep, our producer, had. She wanted it to become a visual narrative, at which point where I got involved as the animator and director.
It was compelling to be invited in making such a personal experience into something visible, into something new, and to be honest I was a bit timid at first – I wanted to do justice to the “original”, which only one person before me have seen.
That was the first thing I wanted to pin down, the feeling of the already-had dream in the new visual world we were creating. We were really focused on the atmosphere, more following the mood of the dream, rather than getting too many visual queues from it. There were some techniques of analogue materials digitised that I wanted to try out for some while - watercolour in motion and as texture, three dimensional paper elements and hand drawn characters all working together. I found that these aligned perfectly with the eerie dreamworld in flux we were going for.
We knew from the beginning that sound was going to be a big part of the project, as the “tune” is right in the center of the story. Finding a way of movement for playing the meteor as an instrument and the relationship with the music was one of the things we discussed the most and managed to pin down the last. After all the musician references we sent back and forth for a while, a slightly embarrassing session of recording myself while moving to Turgut's captivating original score ended up as the choreography language I held on to.
I'm grateful to Zeynep for entrusting me with her dream, and to Turgut for giving it breath.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Antakya International Film Festival / 2021 / Jury Special Award
Raindance Film Festival / 2021 / Official Selection
Indie Shorts Award Cannes / 2021 / Official Selection
Venezia Shorts / 2021 / Official Selection
Oregon Independent Film Festival / 2021 / Best Animation
Independent Short Awards / 2021 / Best Sound Design Honorable Mention
Independent Short Awards / 2021 / Best Animation Short Bronze Award
World of Film International Festival Glasgow / 2021 / Semi-Finalist
Film in Focus / 2021 / Best Animation Nominee
Canlandıranlar Film Festival / 2021 / Official Selection
Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival / 2021 / Official Selection
Moscow Shorts International Short Film Festival / 2021 / Official Selection
ARFF Barcelona / 2021 / Official Selection
CREDITS
Producer and Original Story: Zeynep Keçelioğlu
Director, Animator and Illustrator: Maya Kurdoglu
Sound Design and Original Score: Turgut Mavuk