Winner Wildcard Award 2020 (Filmfonds)
On December 13th, 2020, Sohaib Bouaiss won the annual Filmfonds Wildcard Award (€50,000) in the category Animation with his graduation film A White Screen is Visible. In this interview, we look back at Sohaib’s time at WdKA and look forward to his evolving career.
What have you been up to since graduation?
I have been doing some commercial freelance work, mainly within the field of advertising. For companies such as Rituals and Signify (Philips Lighting), for example. Signify commissioned me to render shots that are impossible or too expensive to shoot. For one of the shots, they needed drone footage of an aquaculture farm in Chile, where they breed fishes using Signify Lamps. But it would be way too expensive to fly there just for that shot, so they asked me to create a realistic 3D shot. Besides that, I am slowly starting the Wildcard trajectory with Filmfonds. This turns out to be quite a lengthy procedure. The first kick-off meeting was in January and after that I started looking for a producer. Now, I just have to put a team together and do the necessary planning in order to start the production. We are hoping to start at the beginning of May.
Can you tell us a bit more about your graduation work and how it came about?
The works I’ve made throughout my time at the Academy were mostly focussed on visuals. Of course, there was always a central narrative or concept, but these were never really personal. So, for my graduation project, I wanted to create a film that was based on my experience of studying at WdKA. The theme I worked on is the cultural contrast I experienced during my time at the Academy. I grew up in a Muslim household and noticed that my culture was very different than the one at WdKA. And at the same time, I discovered my voice and style as an artist. These two experiences are strongly intertwined. My film A White Screen is Visible is an experimental exploration of this experience.
Which urgency are you addressing in your work?
The film is about identity. I think many people have a similar experience to the one I had. That their culture of origin contrasts strongly with that of their environment, the place they live, where they go to school or work. That can be very confusing and make you question your own identity. I think this is very normal and that a lot of people go through this. Actually, my intention with this film was never to send out a social or political message with my work. I just wanted to explore my own experience and see what came out. Looking back, I can see that this work could actually be relevant for a lot of (Dutch) people.
How did you experience graduating in corona times?
Honestly, I am quite a hermit, so I had no problem working from home. I am very lucky that the only thing I need in order to do my work, is a computer. Graduating went quite smoothly. I can imagine that graduating during lockdown was way more challenging for spatial design or product design students, who, I can imagine, really needed the workshops at the Academy. I am, of course, still a bit disappointed that we had to skip the physical graduation show this year.
How has your graduation work influenced your perspective on your current or future practice?
Working on my graduation film, I realised that there are different ways to tell a story. At times, I felt pressured to make a political statement in my work. As I said before, that is not really my thing. But I really enjoyed making a film about my personal experience. And to me, winning the Wildcard award, was a confirmation that I should explore storytelling further. To be honest, I did not expect I had any chance to win—I didn’t even show up at the award ceremony. I did not consider the film finished, so I didn’t give it that much credit. I am not sure that all of my future projects will tell a personal story. But this acknowledgement did make me think that storytelling is something I should become better at, and that I might even want to work towards becoming a film director.
What are your next steps in developing your film?
Photoscanning was a very important technique in the production of my graduation film. With this technique, I transformed real-life environments into 3D using photography, which formed the ‘dream-sequences’ in my film. Next summer, I hope to be able to fly to Morocco to photoscan the scenery there. This is a very important step in the development of the film, because a large part of the story is set in Morocco or the Moroccan culture. Next to that, I would like to get help in developing the storyline and writing the script. I feel like the storytelling element is lacking a bit in my graduation film. Whereas in A White Screen is Visible I explored the visual aspects, I now want to focus on developing the story. That also includes spending a good amount of time on audio and music.
Where do you hope to be in five years?
I think everyone prefers to work on their own projects. But it is quite difficult to make a living doing only that. That’s why at the moment, I work on commercial projects on the side. In the future, I would like to assist other artists in their passion projects too. Not only on the visual side, but also conceptually. By doing that, and through the Wildcard trajectory, I hope to build a portfolio that helps me get hired for larger conceptual projects. In five years, I hope to at least be on my way there.
How would you introduce yourself as a practitioner today? What would be your ideal job title, if you could choose any?
I think I would use two different titles, one for my commercial work and one for my autonomous work. As I explained before, I aim to combine the two in order to make up my career. Within the commercial field, I would like to work as an Art Director, experimenting with visuals and developing the look and feel for projects. On the other hand, I would like to develop myself as a Film Director. I don’t think I’m there yet right now, but I see the Wildcard trajectory as a good opportunity to explore this option. As I mentioned, I will focus on developing my storytelling and scriptwriting skills as a first step towards becoming a director.
What role did WdKA, and your practice, play in the process of becoming the professional you are today?
A very large role! This may sound strange, but before I started my studies at WdKA, I had very little affinity with art. At the end of high school, one of my teachers asked me to design the school’s newspaper. I really enjoyed that, so the teacher pointed out that Graphic Design may be an interesting option for me. So, I visited one of the open days at the Academy and ended up at the Animation department. I remember speaking to Nadia Meezen, who was designing a game in a 3D software. That really fascinated me and convinced me to study animation instead.
What I really like about WdKA, is that there is a lot of freedom to explore different directions.
I quickly found out I am interested in surreal and hyper realistic 3D animation. WdKA really helped me develop my own style and navigate my career. Besides that, I made a lot of valuable contacts during my time at the Academy and the events we visited or participated in, such as Playgrounds and Kaboom. This also helped me realise that animation could be a serious career option for me.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I tend to say cheesy things about how I never expected to end up where I am now, considering my background. Let’s avoid that, haha. But what I would really like to say, is that in the Netherlands, there are so many opportunities to turn your hobby into a career. That is, in my opinion, something we should really be grateful of.
For more information about Sohaib’s work A White Screen is Visible, check out his graduation catalogue page. Furthermore, Sohaib’s journey can be followed on Instagram.
