⌊Film painting and animation⌋

by Susanne Kleinlein/Rosin

My working life consists of two parts: painting as a scenic painter and creating stop motion animated films in my freelance artistic life.
I studied free painting and for many years I tried out a wide variety of colors and painting styles and experimented a lot. A transition from painting to photography became apparent towards the end of my studies: the motifs of the pictures remained staged and artificial, but instead of a brush I used a camera. The actual design of pictures was replaced by the arranging of things and built backgrounds. These still lifes served as photo subjects for me. Photos now became the obvious medium for working with images.

Tides, Kinofilm, Szenenbild Julian R. Wagner

↑ Tides , feature film, production design by Julian R. Wagner

↑ Poll , feature film, production design by Silke Buhr

Das weiße Band , Kinofilm, Szenenbild Christoph Kanter

↑ The White Ribbon , feature film, production design by Christoph Kanter

Large and small backdrops

At the same time, I began working as a set painter. Working on film sets helped me develop my photography. There is something magical about designing sets for me. Here, too, an artificial world is created that serves as a "photo template". Painting, imitating structures and artificially aging them through patina, plays a large part in the production of film sets. Eventually my photos became parts of stop-motion animations. I use this technique because on the one hand it consists of individual images, but on the other hand it connects the many images together to form a running film. It seems to me to be an intermediate stage between image and film. I really enjoy working with colours and colour materials.

I experiment passionately with these substances, looking for special effects and painterly solutions. It is a type of painting with a focus on the application of colour and colour reactions, which requires targeted observation and use of colour materials. The painting and especially the patina must be thought about and applied across the entire space. Painted and built surfaces work together. Designing a film set requires intensive study of the location and its history. The room should have the desired atmosphere, it should make the story visually clear. It must create a certain mood in the camera's view and in presence. The design of the space occupies me in both cases, when painting and when building my models for the animated films.

↑ work without an author , cinema film, production design by Silke Buhr

Tumbling images – The staging of everyday places

I stage the locations using built models. It always starts with a snapshot of an everyday place that interests me. The image of a place tells a lot of things: who is there, what the weather is like, what fashion is prevalent, how people move around, etc. I spend a long time building the models carefully. Building them is like a kind of painting for me. The material is printed photos that become three-dimensional objects. I determine the colours, the surfaces, the atmosphere, the space. This is how images are created, and ultimately a film that presents an everyday place. The film project STADTWESEN, which I have been working on for 8 years, consists of individual short films, each of which is set in a specific public place.
But I can do without actors. My actors are moving things. Things that people carry with them: Built miniatures of bags, jackets, phones, etc. Which, thanks to stop-motion technology, can move through the model. They even occasionally talk and make a kind of human noise like in Tati films.
It fascinates me to be able to tell stories with pictures. I love comic strips, pictures within pictures, hidden object pictures. In my films I tell short everyday scenes, but not complete stories.
When working as a scenic painter on large film sets, I observe how the sets and my work are lit, how the actors act on them, and how the camera uses the location from different perspectives. I also experiment with stop motion technology with light, sound, editing and the camera. I imitate tracking shots and camera angles. Sound in particular has become a very enriching field of work for me; it turns things into characters and gives the recreated places additional atmosphere

↑ Film no. 5: Park Center Treptow, escalator Still images from the film

It fascinates me to be able to tell stories with pictures. I love comic strips, pictures within pictures, hidden object pictures. In my films I tell short everyday scenes, but not complete stories.
When working as a scenic painter on large film sets, I observe how the sets and my work are lit, how the actors act on them, and how the camera uses the location from different perspectives. I also experiment with stop motion technology with light, sound, editing and the camera. I imitate tracking shots and camera angles. Sound in particular has become a very enriching field of work for me; it turns things into characters and gives the recreated places additional atmosphere

↑ Film no. 5: Park Center Treptow, escalator Still images from the film

↑ Film No. 3, toilet rooms at the.....motorway service station

↑ Film No. 4 Gas station in Berlin/Moabit Still image from the film

↑ Film No. 6: Snack stalls in a parking lot in Neustrelitz'