ON ANIMATION IN TURKEY: INTERVIEW WITH MEHMET KURTULUŞ
Can we get to know you better? We would like to hear from you about the establishment and success story of Anima Istanbul.
I'm Mehmet Kurtulus. I studied sculpture at Mimar Sinan University. During my student years, Shinya Tsukamoto's film Tatsuo: The Iron Man and Jan Svankmajer's works impressed me a lot, and me and a few friends started making stop motion animations amateurishly. After we made our first short film in the early 1990s, we attracted the attention of Ezel Akay and Ufuk Ahıska, who were famous commercial film directors of the time. They asked us to make a short film with a music theme and write Show Radio at the end. Three months later, we made our first commercial, it was very successful. Then we established Turkey's first stop-motion animation studio together with the Istisnai Films ve Reklamlar company, and we named it Anima.
Between 1993 and 1999, we made dozens of commercials and video clips. In the first years, we developed stop-motion animation techniques and formed a team to make cell animation. Whatever we did in those years, we had the chance to be the first in Turkey and commercials gave us the chance to try new techniques. Since 1999, we have started to acquire equipment that we can use 3D animation techniques and to carry all our animation experience to this field. We were designing original and local characters and worlds, and this is what was missing in this geography. Our team of artistic people was gradually expanding, there was a kind of school environment, we were exploring, learning, we were transferring all our knowledge to our new creative friends and we were developing with their creative contributions. This spirit, which we have been able to carry from its early years until today, is still seen and appreciated by everyone we work with. Anima Istanbul's success lies in this spirit.
Recently, we see that visual effects and animation techniques are widely used, from commercials and movies to computer games. What do you think about this rapid development of the sector?
With the development of computer technology, it has become easier to create surreal visuals that seem very difficult, and the limits to creativity have decreased. In the past, only a few giant Hollywood companies with very large budgets could do things with personal computers, which allowed the industry to spread to the global arena. We are now able to make animations even on our phones. Animation and effects left the monopoly of cinema and television and spread to every field we can think of, from bank ATMs to education, maps and telephones. From this point of view, the need for millions of educated people to make all these visualizations enabled the industry to rise to the top of the world's professions.
What should be done to develop the sector?
The need for skilled labor is the most important problem of the sector. Education in cinema or visual arts are disciplines that have been formed over many years, but when we say computer visualization, we cannot go back to the last twenty-five years. In other words, we can say that this industry is in its infancy in terms of knowledge and equipment. There are hundreds of schools and courses all over the world, efforts to train people for the sector with online education methods, unfortunately, initiatives in this field are very limited in our country. For this reason, the best thing that can be done for the development of the sector is to invest in education. We established Anima School in order to make a small contribution to the solution of this problem. As we see the students' work, we understand that we have taken a very right step.
You are currently working on a feature-length animated film project. What surprises can you tell for those who are eagerly waiting?
Adapting the comic book Bad Cat Şerafettin to the cinema has been an 8-year dream for us, now it's coming true. Of course we are very happy. What I want to say at first is that Bad Cat Şerafettin is not a children's movie. We set out with the motto of "Cartoons for adults" and it does. We strongly believe that if we make a film that we ourselves will love, people will love it too. At least, I can say this in advance: we know that if we start with an original local idea, not with the formulas of American films, we can make our voices heard not only in Turkey but also all over the world. Bad Cat Şerafettin is an action comedy; We are making a dry-watery, violent and sexy, but necessarily funny movie, we will have a lot of fun together.
As the General Manager of one of Turkey's largest animation studios, what do you pay attention to when applying for a job?
First of all, we want to work with people who know what they want and think about their career. In our world, the idea is everything, the technique comes next. A portfolio that will show us that he has ideas is technically self-equipped but far ahead of mediocre portfolios in terms of ideas. In the animation world, we compete with the big studios in the world, and we care very much that the artists who apply to us are aware of this. It is also very important to be hardworking and have tried many things.
We briefly talked about Anima School. What more would you like to say about Anima School?
Turkey is a country that has not yet found the place it deserves in the animation sector in the world, and this is due to the lack of widespread institutions that will receive adequate training. We know that there are many artists who have the potential to produce great works in the field of animation in Turkey, but they cannot find the appropriate educational environment. Anima School was established to make a small contribution to this issue; we wanted to pass on Anima's experience to anyone who wants it. Anima School's vision is to become an online school that will reach the whole country and provide education in Turkish.
What are your suggestions to young people who want to join the sector and have just joined?
The idea is paramount. We need to see what's going on around us. Animation is not an easy task, but it is a very enjoyable journey for passionate people. The world of CG is set at the intersection of art and science. Research is our most important tool to move us forward. Everyone who does this profession properly is a citizen of the world, that is, there are no country borders for us, so being able to speak and read English is a professional need for us.