The gala opening of “MR. RABBIT’S DOLL” was premiered at a gala night held at ARUCAD Conference Hall on Thursday, June 23. The film, which has won awards at several international film festivals, is an Arkın Creative Arts and Design University (ARUCAD) co-production, directed by lecturer of Visual Communication Design Department at ARUCAD, Iranian artist Arvin Medghalchi,
The gala night, where the decorations and figures made of latex and clay used in the film were also exhibited, took place amid the keen interest of moviegoers. The short animated film MR. RABBIT’S DOLL has won awards from many international festivals. The 2021 production takes its subject from a story by the world-famous Iranian writer Sadik Hidayet won the grand prize at the International Berlin Art Film Festival. The film is made in ‘stop motion’, an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back.
Arvin Medghalci, who has more than 15 years of experience in the field of independent animated films, also screened his movie, ’Coronus’, which has also been the recipient of several awards at the gala night and scenes from behind camera the of the Rabbit’s Doll film were featured.
ARUCAD Rector Prof. Dr. Asım Vehbi especially thanked the director Arvin Medghalchi and everyone else who contributed to the production and said, “As ARUCAD, we are proud of the Rabbit’s Doll movie and its team. This is exactly what our founder, Erbil Arkın was aiming when establishing ARUCAD: to dream, to be creative, to produce and to see the dream come true at the end of the process. I congratulate the whole team, especially our director Arvin Medghalchi, through whose efforts these dreams have come true.”
Following the screenings, Head of ARUCAD Visual Communication Design Department Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nuran Öze moderated a QandA panel with director Arvin Medghalchi and production team screenwriter-second director Tanya Güryel, cinematographer-ARUCAD Film Design and Management Department lecturer, Ali Azhari, cityscape modeller-ARUCAD Architecture Department academic staff member Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Yardımcı and voice artist Batu Gündal. In the panel, the team explained how they started their project prior to the pandemic and how they continued during it. The panel could almost be seen as a lesson for film students and cinema workers.
1 Year of effort for 10 Minute of film
Answering the questions at the Q&A panel, the team stated that the preparation phase was the most tiring part of the job, but the shooting was not as easy as they had supposed. Noting that the materials used and the ‘stop-motion’ shooting technique are more challenging than ‘live action’ films, director Medghalchi said that the 10-minute animated film took almost a year to produce. Medghalchi, who thanked his teammates who had contributed to the production, said, “They did this without expecting any financial reward, I am grateful to them.”
Medghalchi addressed the audience, especially the students who make an effort to realise their dreams: “You do some things with devotion because they come from your heart. All my colleagues supported me in this way. They helped without expecting financial return. I mean, it’s not about letting them see you as a slave. Be the work itself, do not wait for the work to come to you.”
Medghalchi stated that ARUCAD had placed faith in him and supported his films as a producer: “The university opened its studios to me, they continued on their way by believing in me without questioning at any stage of the production phase. This was very valuable for me and my colleagues”
The gala night ended with a cocktail.