Judge Spotlight
Veronica Solomon
Director: Love Me, Fear Me
Veronica Solomon is an animator and illustrator based in Berlin. Her film “Love Me, Fear Me” played in the 2018 FAF “Judges’ Choices” category and placed first in Student Stop Motion category and second in Best in Show! She returns for the 2020 festival as a judge in the Mixed Media/Experimental category.
FAF: What inspired you to use dance as a metaphor in your film?
VS: I really love dance as a form of expression. I love it as a viewer, I’m not a dancer, but from the audience I found my self to be touched by it more immediate and more subtle than by theatre, for example.
My first idea of how to tell this story was to use body painting and animate it on a real dancer. Then I realised I’m not so keen on torturing people.
FAF: Texture is used so expressively in "Love Me, Fear Me"-- what inspired you to use the forms that you did?
VS: The character designs, the four stages of the one character more precisely, they just came to me, I didn’t need to do any research, I had no doubt… And then I saw they were archetypes and the shapes they took originate in my whole visual culture, from fairy-tale books I had as a child, to art history and semiology [semiotics] classes to movies and video games I consumed as an adult.
The texture and the juxtaposing of different shades of the same colour clay, I used to give more life to the character and because I never completely let go of the idea of painting.
FAF: Alongside animation, you also have a background in illustration and comics-- how do you think working with these different mediums informed your work as an animator?
VS: A lot. To tell you a secret, I am not a stop-motion animator, I’m a 2D animator. I draw. I picked up a pencil when I was one and never put it down. I see and plan movement as a 2D animator. I also have a degree in Fine Arts with a major in Ceramic Sculpture. I guess that also had a lot to say in the making of this film.