UAL: Central Saint Martins
Central Saint Martins brings a broad range of art and design activities together in an extraordinary new building, voted the world’s best higher education building in 2012. The building allows the exchange of ideas and techniques across disciplines, acting as a huge workshop of thinking and making, underpinned by a strong research base and exceptional technical resources.
Stefanie led workshops and directed the projects of the MA Character Animation course at Central Saint Martins. Most recently she was involved in their project with the English National Opera.
Workshop
In Stefanie's workshops she focuses first on teaching techniques taken from Commedia dell'arte, Puppetry, Laban and elements of Etienne Decroux's mime work. In the second part these techniques are then applied to character work. The workshop is structured in such a way as to allow Character Animators to learn the key principles of Acting by trying them out themselves. However, the emphasis is not placed on performance, but rather on getting a glimpse of the character's world. This is achieved by exploring how the character might feel in a certain environment, how they convey their inner life through movement and gestures or how they relate to other characters in the scene. These experiences are very useful for Animators, and can help develop their drawings, as well as both their 2D and 3D animations.
Directing
Looking at each individual student's project, Stefanie picks out key moments for movement, character and dramaturgical development. These moments are then discussed in relation to their importance in the story, looking also at the intention behind each action of the character. The students are then led through an appropriate warm-up and act out the scenes under Stefanie's direction. During this process further attention is being paid to elements such as precision, gaze, gestures, timing and spatial awareness. The scene is then filmed from a variety of different perspectives, building a wealth of reference material for later use by the Animators.
Testimonials:
"Working with Stefanie was a pleasure from start to finish. She is very focused, dynamic and enthusiastic to ensure that her students get quality education they deserve. I was always amazed by the great patience she showed to make me comfortable with the subject (which was new to me). She spent lots of time with me trying various techniques and exercises, guiding me through the classes. Stefanie helped me a lot to improve the depth and quality of my work and studies. She is one of the best teachers I ever had in my student life." (Natalia Biegaj - Student)
"As animators, it's sometimes tempting to fall into cliches. For people who aren't natural actors, the temptation is to rush through the acting and just go with your first result. What was great about the workshops with Stefanie is how she challenged me to try out different takes on the same role - exploring the physicality of what you're doing, as well as trying to connect it to different emotions and see what comes out. With her help, some of the shots in my films transformed from uninspired, disconnected images in my head to what felt like a beautiful and graceful physical choreography." (Yaniv Garber - Student)