FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

[Exclusive] Watch The Video Centerpiece Of This Year's Sónar Festival, Plus A Q&A With Its Director

Sergio Caballero, the festival's co-founder and creator of SónarImage, talked with us about horror movie "Ancha es Castilla / N’importe quoi"

There’s only a month before Sónar, the International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art in Barcelona kicks off on June 12th, featuring performances by Richie Hawtin, Royksopp & Robyn, Four Tet and countless other amazing artists.

Today we have the pleasure to premiere Ancha es Castilla / N’importe Quoi (above), the 25-minutes film directed by Sergio Caballero, co-director of the festival and creator of SónarImage, the fest's annual film that has been a defining part of Sónar since it started 21 years ago.

Advertisement

The image created each year by Caballero has always been one of the main attractions of the festival and has always provided contrast to the usual motifs in electronic music. The pieces have always been characterized by a sense of dark humor and transgression and this case is no exception. This year’s film, Ancha es Castilla / N’importe quoi is a horror movie and black comedy premiering online through our sister-site THUMP. The short tells the story of a child possesed by the devil and the exorcisms she practices with her family in order to evict the evil—an explosive mix between The Exorcist, Jaws and God Save the Queen.

We interviewed Sergio to ask him about the creative process and the filming of this year’s movie.

The Creators Project: How do you define this year’s piece “Ancha es Castilla / N’importe Quoi”?

Sergio Caballero: I like to say that it is a mixture between JawsGod Save the Queen and The Exorcist. A mix of an adventure film with a touch of a remake of The Exorcist but with a punk look that is present throughout the whole movie.

Has it then been a reaction to the previous projects?

I wanted to do something straight. I wanted to make an animation movie with satanic themes, priests, nuns, etc., and I went for it. During the filming we had a lot of fun. The whole process took approximately 3 months. We filmed in a flat over my place, my daughter is in the movie, we have been experimenting with a lot of things… we wanting to go away from the technological aspects, I didn’t want it to be stop motion, I hate that kind of animation, I didn’t want a greenscreen either… We were not even using a professional lightning, but I bought some LED reading lamps in IKEA that you can see in some of the scenes.

Advertisement

I am very happy because I think we have started a new style and just right now I am looking for financing because the new movie project I want to develop is a mix between Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments with the same technics as Ancha… To make a spin-off with the same characters but interpreting different rolls. I want to do a big Hollywood production, but with this style.

Seeing the amazing evolution of the image of Sónar throughout these years, I am surprised how you’ve been able to maintain the level and continue surprising us each year, and always without following any trend. How do you manage that?

I hate trends, they are based in copying each other, checking out the same blogs, listening to the same songs… What that is doing is people being more mimetic and believing less. Any creator has his influences, but one thing is to have an inspiration and another one is copying. Years ago I decided to create my personal imaginary. It can be that people like it or not, but it is mine. I think that is what gives personality to the festival’s image.

I am sure that at a creative level several things should be done, things like closing every school of film, art and design, in my opinion they only create lazy people and only teach you to copy and not to create. The technics are increasingly more easy, the problem is what you do with them.

When we started working at Sónar we used the last filters they have released for Photoshop, but soon we realized that everyone was doing the same and one day we decided to change and do something completely different.

Advertisement

What does your personal imaginary include?

There are things that repeat in my work, for example snow. I feel good in the snow. Another thing that is always present is the sense of humor. Laughing at oneself shows intelligence. And what I seek in my work is always to have a good time, being quiet and take advantage of the things you do well. I enjoy the creative process. The final result depend on many things (money, opportunity…), but the important thing is to do things and experience them.

I’d like you to tell me about the creative process of the puppets and why you decided to use food to build them. How did that idea come to your mind?

Well, the origin of the idea is a children’s book I found in Germany, everything on it was made with food. The book was horrible, but I liked the idea as a starting point. We checked different things until we came with the idea of starting to work with putrefied things. This make the image more rough always trying not to imitate reality, but make something unreal. From this point we started to create characters. We also found inspiration in the black paintings of Goya.

The puppets in the movie also had their real size version, the actors wearing costumes, and sometimes they substitute the puppets or they even act together. What was the intention in creating these real size characters?

I liked the fact that the tricks are shown in the movie, you see the room, the lightning, etc. And we came to the idea of changing the scale, to show the differences between the puppets, the clothes of the actor that was inside the costume…

Advertisement

Do you work with a script or leave space to improvisation?

The process in my movies is always the same, the script and the dialogues are made on the edition desk. Although we film with a concept, it is after the shooting when the work becomes a unit. All the voices in the movie, for example, we recorded them with an iPhone between the editing technician and myself. It was really funny. That freedom is fantastic.

Many of the scenes or the sets in which the characters appear were created in a casual way, from things we were finding in the street or in the flat where we were filming. Sometimes, it has been the things themselves what have brought us to film some scenes.

There was also a childish element, a game element. Sometimes it is more creative to work with a stick and a box than doing it with a bunch of computers.

Did you have any general idea of the argument when you started shooting?

There was something, but we were also experimenting with several stuff. We wanted to look for the mistake, to show the trick. It was clear to me that it had to be rough, that it was not stop motion.

When you think about a new image of Sónar, what do you bear in mind? I mean, do you think in attract attention or only pay attention to artistic aspects

We can’t forget that the festival is a business and we need to sell tickets. But as a brand you can promote in many ways. I think that for us it is important to take risks, to make different things because this is in the DNA of the festival. We do it with music and we also do it with our image.

For more information on the festival, check out Sónar website's: http://sonar.es/es/2014/

And visit here to purchase tickets:http://sonar.es/es/pg/tickets