Interview: Kurt No.5 - directed by Aleksandr Kirienko

ROFFEKE: Why Kurt Vonnegut? Why not a Russian author?

Aleksandr: Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite American writers. I have used an extract of a text written by Vonnegut at the beginning of my song "Kurt №5". It is a fragment of his autobiography "Fates Worse Than Death". When I read this passage for the first time, i was very impressed by that. I was born on the bank of a big river too. Therefore it is very close to my world view. It was the main source of inspiration for my song. Suddenly I've got a puppet "Kurt Vonnegut". So I came up with idea to make an animated clip for this song with the puppet Kurt in the title role.

ROFFEKE: What animation techniques did you use?

Aleksandr: I used puppet animation, shooting on location and shooting with a chroma-key. Some of the objects are painted by Vonnegut himself: a stork, a live chicken and a fried chicken, a house, a cow, an air ball, a car and a little dragon. So I've borrowed them from some of his books. The first scene of the movie takes place in Vonnegut's room in New York. Now there is his museum.

ROFFEKE: What parts of the video were the most difficult to animate?

Aleksandr: It was difficult and interesting to shoot at the Baltic Sea in St. Petersburg. On that day there was a strong wind, almost a storm. It was necessary to shoot many shots with Kurt sitting at the seashore, looking at the sea and moving like a real human - turning his head for example. But the puppet was falling all the time because of the strong wind. Despite this, I'm glad that there was a storm that day: it helped us to make a very exciting scene with strong waves, rugged cliffs, gloomy fast clouds and a small plush Kurt - it's very cool.

ROFFEKE: Why a puppet instead of CGI or drawings?

Aleksandr: The puppet itself inspired me so much, that I definitely wanted to make it the main character and I've got no idea of shooting the clip somehow differently. At one film festival in the Russian city of Kirov there was a funny story. It was a festival of feature films. There was only one movie in the animation contest - my "Kurt №5". One of the members of the jury expressed doubt whether it was correct to take my cartoon to this festival. In response, another member of the jury said that the puppet in my cartoon was acting even better than many actors in the feature films. It was very funny, everybody was laughing.

ROFFEKE: In what ways does the music complement the film?

Aleksandr: The main role of my film was played by the puppet Kurt. But the minor role was played by the Water. My video has a lot of Water in its different shapes: the sea, the rivers, the lake, the harbor and even the puddle. I tried to express this feeling of Water in my music. Guitars, synthesizers, voice and even drums are kind of water. Listen the song: all the time it flows, drips, streams and leaks. All water on Earth makes the World Ocean. In my movie, the music and the video are merged into one big sensual Ocean.