When I was working as an editorial intern for the Icelandic magazine, the Reykjavík Grapevine, I would often come home and find, as close to the TV as possible, Jón Bergur, the 2-year old son of my host family. The most beloved film seemed to be How to Train Your Dragon. Jón Bergur watched this film, not once, not twice, but three times. Three times in three months.
Before arriving in Iceland, I knew I wanted to research Icelandic animation for my new internship, and Jón Bergur's love for animation made me all the more eager to figure out what Iceland's contribution to animation is.
While I was there, I interviewed many filmmakers and animators about their Icelandic heritage and projects. This resulted in two articles and I am thrilled to finally share them here on my blog!
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| Source: Reykjavík Grapevine, by Calvin Frederick |
If you’ve ever wondered about the Icelandic animation industry, the projects that Icelandic animators get up to, and their thoughts about animation, give this article a look.
For this piece, I spoke with the CEO/Producer and Visual Director of Sagafilm, Hilmar Sigurðsson and Gunnar Karlsson, independent animator and director, Sara Gunnarsdóttir, and writer/animator Einar Baldvin.
Something that I personally found interesting is that two of the animators resist the traditional way of working at an animation studio. Sara explains that she can work from home, anywhere, while Einar says that he prefers studios where artists have a greater say.
I think these ideas are very relevant in today's changing animation landscape. As Einar says, “ I can’t foresee where the future of animation will go, but I hope it evolves into becoming more director-driven and personal on the whole.” I couldn’t agree more.
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| Source: Reykjavík Grapevine, by Art Bicnick |
This article goes in that creative-driven direction. I love that the content of Tulipop, an Icelandic character-based design brand, is entirely supervised by its creator.
My article focuses on how Tulipop has signed a deal with Zodiak kids which means that Tulipop will soon have an animated TV series based on its content. I spoke with Helga Arnadóttir and Signý Kolbeinsdóttir who are the founders of Tulipop. You can follow this link to read it.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading these articles and find out a thing or two that perhaps you did not know about Icelandic animation. Let me know how you liked them!