2022 Films: Of Wood

Of Wood by Owen Klatte

Wisconsin (Milwaukee Premiere)

Running Time: 7 minutes
Screening Time: Saturday, Sept 10 at 6:30PM
Experimental/ Animation

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"Of Wood" is a unique experimental stop motion film created by progressively carving images in a large round of wood, enhanced with wooden objects coming out of the wood. It examines the role of wood in daily life through the ages and comments on the impact of consumerism on our lives.

Director Bio:

Owen Klatte is a Character Animator and Animation Director with extensive experience in stop motion and CG animation for feature films, commercials, television, and special venue projects. His credits include "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1", Disney's "Dinosaur", "Anomolisa", and "James and the Giant Peach".

Owen was drawn to animation by the wonderfully strange and beautiful independent films seen in international film festivals. "Of Wood" is Klatte's first independent animation project since college, fulfilling a decades-old dream.

Director Statement

Having always been a lover of trees and wood sculpture, and wanting to use my professional animation knowledge on a personal film, "Of Wood" began as an experiment in finding a new way to animate with wood. I had almost no woodworking experience when I began this project, but took a short wood carving class in order to learn the basic techniques and tools necessary.

Most of the film was shot without storyboards, tests, or exposure sheets since I could never plan very far ahead due to the nature of the process. As such, I had to make it up as I went along, just using my overall vision for the film to guide each particular moment's actions.