Creativity is all about sharing!

Francesca Nobili, a senior creative for advertising agencies and production companies in Europe and the USA, is an award-winning stop-motion animation filmmaker. With her creative lab Circle Entertainment, she produces stop-motion animated short films. While working as an advertising copywriter and creative director, Francesca Nobili felt that she didn‘t have much control of her creativity. Therefore, she decided to buy a camera and learn how to use Final Cut Pro. At first, she started making short projects to promote her client’s work. But then, she reveals, „I had this enlightenment: I don‘t need anyone with stop-motion-animation.“

 

She already had lots of material. Instead of buying the perfect prop, she just started looking around to see what she had on hand to create props, characters, and puppets. „Before I trash anything, I check to see if there‘s something about it that gives me an idea for what I‘m trying to create. Being organized is important. I just collect!“ That means even plastic packaging for dental floss. “They can be wheels or cups!” Her Los Angeles apartment is full of storage boxes with found materials.

 

She has been producing animated short films for nearly a decade. Her short film A Tale of a Sassy Little Girl won more than a dozen awards. Her approach is to find materials so that she can turn „something into something else“. When she created an animated rat, she made the body from an ear-plug, and she used twist ties for the tail. She has plenty in her kitchen, because she gets them every time when she goes food shopping. „It‘s all about being organized. The moment you have an idea, you want to find that piece immediately.“ In these situations, she just goes through her storage boxes and eventually she finds a piece that she has forgotten about that inspires her.

 

For the animated films that she presents on her Circle Entertainment, LLC, platform, she developed her own shooting technique. „It‘s freedom. It‘s magic. I don’t have any rules!“ She loves to experiment with new materials. „I started animating foodstuffs, which was really fun. Then I tried clay.“ Now she is preoccupied with wood and fabrics, because it is real. It‘s not a drawing, and it‘s not CGI. „Even my special effects are what-you-see-is-what-you-get.“ She combines stop-motion animation with live-action animation, which is helpful for certain special effects. For a horror music video, for instance, she burned a piece of the set so that there were real live-action flames.

 

Everyday life inspires her even when she‘s walking her dog. „If I see something on the ground that inspires me, I pick it up.“ Francesca Nobili treats this as an exercise, because „we aren‘t used to thinking this way.“ When she needs something that she can’t buy, she tries to find a work-around. „It is a fun process. Anything can be animated. Like I did with food.“ While she was working on her stop-motion animated short film Guacamole, she spent hours in the supermarket searching for the perfect tomato. People were looking at her suspiciously, so she simply replied: „Don‘t look at me. I‘m just looking for a tomato I can animate.“

 

And of course, the most eco-friendly approach is to reuse materials for props and puppets. It’s embedded in Francesca Nobili‘s DNA. And her approach inspires other artists. „Creativity is all about sharing! We need a platform where we can share techniques and materials“ emphasizes the filmmaker. Furthermore, it is helpful to produce short clips that demonstrate a special technique. „Knowing these little tricks can trigger a chain reaction. It is all about passion and inspiring one another.“

 

Photos: © Jess Ferrara/Francesca Nobili

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