Senior Moments
Director Kaspar Jancis takes us along on an aging Cosmonaut’s journey.
Director Kaspar Jancis takes us along on an aging Cosmonaut’s journey.
Animation veteran Kaspar Jancis is best known for directing short festival favorites such as Frank & Wendy, Crocodile, Marathon
and the 2018 stop-motion animated feature Captain Morten and the Spider Queen. The talented Estonian director and composer is back in the spotlight this year with a new short titled Cosmonaut,
which was a Cristal nominee at Annecy and is part of the official selection at Ottawa this month. This time around, he was inspired to tell the story of his parents’ generation in a short project.
“I was witnessing how they are getting older and the kind of problems aging brings along,” says Jancis.“It hurts a little to see them running out of power. The film talks about the generation of people who spent most of their life in a country which is wiped out of history, the USSR. I wanted to tell the story of a hero and the heroism of being old. It is also a social satire about our treatment of the elderly — how heroes become forgotten as the world is changing.”
Jancis began his work on Cosmonaut in the summer of 2018, and it took him a year to finish it. The short’s premiere was held in Budapest during Anilogue last year. When asked about the budget, he laughs. “Well, to be honest, I don’t really know the exact budget,” he replies. “I need to call the producer, but he is not picking up the phone at the moment. I just made an agreement with my studio (Joonisfilm) and the rest, I left for the producer and the bookkeeper to deal with. We were working with a very small team. I didn’t get rich! That’s for sure.”
Getting a Graphic Look
The director used 2D animation combined with 3D backgrounds to tell his story.
“We redrew the 3D backgrounds by hand to give it a more hand-drawn, graphic look. Everything was colored on the computer. Later we added some textures to reduce the look of the computer coloring. For the long shot in which the Cosmonaut’s apartment becomes weightless, we animated the floating objects in 3D and added few 2D animated elements.”
Jancis has received very positive responses from the short’s audiences thus far. “For me, it was a big compliment when some older people came to me after the screening to thank me for the film. The most heartwarming of all was the fact that it became a part of a social program for the elderly, and that many old people were moved by the story. So I switched my target audience from a six-plus feature film (Captain Morten) to a 70-plus short!”
The filmmaker says after working on a feature, making a short feels like “a Sunday walk in a sunny meadow!” He adds,“It feels like spending time with your hobby. The stress level is incomparable. I also enjoyed being the only cook in the kitchen and having less people to deal with. On the other hand, the rollercoaster of making a movie gives you more adrenaline.”
When asked about his favorite movies, Jancis says he’s very bad at comparing things he likes. “On Monday, I might like something different than on Wednesday,” he says. “I’ve been repeatedly watching the films of Emma de Swaef and Marc Roels, as well as Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. Of course, Jan Svankmajer, Priit Parn and other masters.”
The talented Mr. Jancis leaves us with this piece of advice: “It’s important to find strength to go on when you feel like vomiting on your drawings. That’s a normal reaction if you have worked with something for so long. Sometimes, things don’t work just because you have seen them too many times. So, take a break and come back to your work with a fresh eye. Spending more time with your script always pays back in the longer run!” ◆
You can follow Kaspar Jancis on Vimeo or visit joonisfilm.ee for more info.
‘It’s important to find strength to go on when it feels like vomiting on your drawings.That’s a normal reaction if you have worked with something for so long.’ — Director Kaspar Jancis