Remi Gamiette went to the CFT Gobelins School for a one year curriculum and, though it has been nine years since his graduation, Remi considers himself still studying and still learning. It is through his professional experiences, his encounters with artists and professionals in the field and from his exploration of the various disciplines of the 3D profession that Remi has built up his own artistic style.

He is currently living in Cergy-Saint Christophe, one of Paris’ North-West suburbs. We're happy to share this new version of this interview with Remi, who just finish the released the extended 14" version of Cable on DVD

IT’S ART: Can you tell us more about how your short film, CABLE, was born? What was the initial concept?

Remi Gamiette: The initial idea was to have really nice animation with camera framings and the sequencing of personal framework. I was more attracted to the action sequences, even though comedy remains very important to me. Unfortunately, my professional experiences as a graphic artist do not always allow me to express myself. It is due to these frustrations that my desire kept growing. I was not familiar with writing techniques; therefore, I started imagining my story and led it mentally to maturity. The initial idea was to have a short futuristic action movie that is black and tragic.

IA: Where did you get the inspiration for this film?

RG: I have been inspired for this work by various artists and movies such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Kaena, Dave Mc Kean, Disney and many others that I can’t think of right now. Whenever I felt short of inspiration I would go to a neighboring library and I would pick up comics, art books and photo-albums randomly until I found something that inspired me and set my imagination free again.

Cable Online Montage - Full Version Available on DVD

IA: How and where did you find the courage to start a project like this one on your own?

RG: It is evident that this short was not a piece of pie. It was definitely harder being one person working on it without any help or assistance. I have spent two years of my life in a tiny apartment in Paris working on this project, I had to flee that apartment after that. I can’t tell you how I managed to finish this project by myself, you should see the amount of pictures, layouts and sounds that I gathered on my hard drive for this project, maybe then you would understand how complex it was.

I think I was able to finish this project for two main reasons: First, because it was a personal challenge, I wanted for once to finish something that I started. The other reason is that, being by myself, I did not have to follow the traditional procession of work; for instance, I chose not to write anything, not even a storyboard and being alone on the project allowed me that. I was evolving one step at a time, without any rush or time restraint. That held me motivated especially when seeing small pieces of the project coming together and forming a wider image. It was very important for me to see images that encouraged me to keep going. The problem of course is that the spirit is faster than the action and what I imagined would take ten minutes ended up needing seventeen. As I went further into the project, it started becoming an obsession until it was completed. Another important thing that helped me keep going was the ending of the movie. I needed to “know” how it was going to end. Will I be able to close it with a strong effect? Will I be able to put this ambiguous feeling in images, this sad liberation with which I end a silent short?

 

IA: Can you give us more details about your esthetic choices for this film?

RG: First, I got some books on traditional cartoons which helped me to create actions, exaggerated animations and in short, gave me more freedom. The graphical choices play a very important role for composition, moods, forms and contrasts. In fact, I really wanted to experiment how an image can be felt, even more what can this image make the viewer feel, by playing with extremes in the contrasts of the forms and with the clear and the obscure. The colors and their dominations are very important since they reflect the mood of the scenes, sometimes being very energetic and other times very calm.

IA: CABLE is a voyage into sensations as much as it is visual. Can you tell us more about the work you have done to get the music and the sounds?

RG: For the sounds and the music I worked with Eric Cervera, who is a very talented artist. Before meeting him, everybody told me that Eric loves working on short films, but also that he is very straight forward. If he doesn’t like the idea, he will directly say no, but in the case that he likes it he will completely invest himself into the project. After hearing this, I was really flattered that he accepted to work on CABLE, and what I was told about him was totally true. Eric put all his experience and technical knowledge into the project and it was a pleasure working with him, especially that he had the same attraction as me to the black dark universes. There was a lot of work to do and Eric helped with his refinement and delicacy until we got multiple versions of the audio mix and had what we wanted to help create the right mood.

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