WireTap: Hyper-Quench

This short animation was for a contest held by WireTap, a darn funny CBC radio show. I think the folks there liked it (they featured it on their blog), though I didn't win. I was actually unqualified to participate in the first place since a family member of mine works there (should have known better!). At any rate, I loved animating in this style to the dialogue provided by WireTap. The goal for me was to try out different ideas quickly and see which are giving the freshest feel to the super inventive dialogue. In this sense, I think more traditional, pre-planned animation methods and representations would not have worked to my advantage. That being said, there were some pretty inventive drawn animation submissions. In fact I think this one was the best submission I saw.

Plasticity

Non-automated time lapse: you keep telling yourself that it is pointless as you do it on a daily basis. "It won't work & why must I take pictures of my scar while I wait for the train?" Non-automated time lapse also gives you discipline and a reason to be creative on the editing machine. The accident payed off.

Electric Armenia

Electric Armenia from Karl Armen on Vimeo.

I have returned from Armenia 3 months ago after a year and a half of living, working and doing volunteer work there. I was shooting footage roughly on a weekly basis, trying not to miss out on key and everyday happenings that were occurring around me. I loved being in Armenia, it became a second home to me.

I shot with an aim to make a fiction movie but did not know what form or structure it would have. The country being ancient but also in post-soviet reconstruction, I knew that the movie had to include both symbols of old and new. So when I shot, I kept in my mind to record- when apt and possible- old and new elements using the same camera moves, so that I can juxtapose them smoothly during editing.


...Is this art or just my nostalgia? I actually do not know. Please do not hesitate to leave a comment. Thanks.

Sync Test

Sync Test from Karl Armen on Vimeo.

My friend John Mavreas, master artist and illustrator gave me a Sound Fx tape a couple of years ago. Excitedly he said "Armen, you can use this for your films!". John loves cassettes and so do I. What I love more are sound effects. My sister and I used to record ghost fx and play them back on a hidden stereo to scare our 5 year old brother when we were kids. Sound fx will trigger your imagination, if you let them.

Why Do Armenians Walk?

Why Do Armenians Walk? from Karl Armen on Vimeo.

My great grandfather, Hovhaness Boudjikanian, was an Ethics professor at Euphrates College in the Armenian inhabited Ottoman village called Harput or Kharpert. The name means "town pearched on a rock" in Armenian. Kharpert is now located in modern Turkey and called Elazig in Turkish. In 1915, along with other 1.5 million Armenians, he was massacred by Ottoman Turks solely for being Armenian. The last member of his family that my great grandfather saw was his 4 year old son, Armen.

My grandfather managed to escape Ottoman Turkey with his mom and siblings by surviving the Syrian desert and eventually making it to Lebanon. My father, mother, siblings and I are all born in Lebanon and have eventually emigrated to Canada .

Almost any Armenian you meet has a similar story of death, deportation and rebirth.