Jorinde Hol: Artist Feature
Meet Jorinde Hol: Dutch animator, painter, storyteller and director of Studio IJlie who, through her art, aims to help erase misunderstandings and enhance acceptance of the LGBTQ community.
We sat down with Jorinde to speak about Studio IJlie, the animation world, and her experience directing Find Me in the Clouds.
ABI: Tell us about Studio IJlie. Why did you start your own animation practice, and what are your hopes for its future?
JH: The name Studio IJlie originated in my time as a student. I would use the name instead of my own name for fun, but after a while I grew accustomed to it and decided to use it for my professional animation practice. IJlie is the name of my stuffed animal who meant a lot to me when I was younger. In my film Zie Mij (“See Me”) I portrayed the support she gave me in a more contemporary way.
One of the reasons to start my own animation practice was to be able to keep exploring and developing my creative talents, within personal and collaborative projects. I hope to set-up a short queer-based animation series similar to my film Dancing with Gender. I would love Studio IJlie to be recognized for representational content, not only for the queer community, but also for other pressing contemporary subjects.
A still from Jorinde’s film “Zie Mij“ about her stuffed animal, IJlie
ABI: Why is telling stories about the LGBTQ community important to you?
JH: It would have personally helped me a lot to see more positive and fluid representation on screen, to see that I don’t have to be boxed in or restrict myself to a label that seemed fitting at a time.
Diverse representation is extremely important. Without a wide and inclusive portrayal of the subject, the view and ideas of what it could entail remain limited – not only limiting the world’s view, but also the community’s point of view. If you only see yourself portrayed a certain way, you’ll believe that it’s the only way to be. Another important thing to add is that representation is something you not only see on screen, but also in the making process.
At the moment, I’m working on an animated short film based around my own identity and journey. It’s still in the sketching and exploration phase. I’m applying a more intuitive and fluid way of storytelling for the project, which also fits the message.
ABI: That sounds like a wonderful new project that you must feel so connected to. What’s the most rewarding project you’ve ever worked on?
A still from “Dancing with Gender”
JH: I think the most rewarding project for me was Dancing with Gender. I interviewed and collaborated with 14 non-binary people to create this film. It was super rewarding to talk to everyone and to hear their stories. When the film was finished and I had sent it to them, it was incredible to see their heart-warming messages come in.
The film is currently still touring through festivals, but if you're interested you can view a little of the making process on my website. Although, I hope to share the film with you soon!
ABI: That’s so exciting! We can’t wait to see it. Through your research making this film and learning more about gender diversity and expression, could you teach us something you’ve found most interesting?
JH: Very recently, I went to a workshop about gender diversity & inclusion on the work floor, and they had a great, basic explanation about gender:
We are all cookies with four ingredients.
Body
Identity
Expression
Sexuality
We see these ingredients as one and look for connections between them, but they truly are separate things that have nothing to do with one another, that end up making something whole — you.
“Make sure that animating is fun
because animation is time-consuming.
We give life to drawings
by giving up our life.”
ABI: We’d also love to discuss the film we worked on together — Find Me in the Clouds! How was animating this film a different process for you than other projects you have worked on since everything on screen had to line up with specific musical cues?
JH: The animation process was different in a way, because it was the first time a project started with music instead of visuals for me. My previous projects always originated from sketches, short story ideas or a message I wanted to convey. Music and sound usually came last.
Sticking to the music cues and lining those up with your written story cues in a storyboard was trial and error. This goes for all projects though; you never make the storyboard in one session.
At the beginning, I was feeling how much freedom I had when it came to timing, i.e. which key story components are most important to you. Are they fixed on that one musical cue, or am I allowed to move it by some seconds?
With other projects, I had that freedom – to play with timing over and over again – but with Find Me in the Clouds the roles were reversed, which was challenging, but definitely a great experience that I’ll take with me to future projects.
Find Me in the Clouds
is a film festival finalist.
Find Me in the Clouds is an Official Selection for the 2022 Canberra Short Film Festival. See it screened live in Australia at the Smith’s Alternative on November 15th at 8pm.
ABI: At the start of developing Find Me in the Clouds, we wanted scenes of the characters running in a field of flowers, climbing ladders, jumping from cloud to cloud. You were very clear with us that this was not possible with the budget and timeline we had.
At first, this was frustrating for us to hear, but once you started animating, and we saw the high quality and professionalism of your work, we realized that had you not set those boundaries from the start, the end product would not have been as beautiful and well-crafted as it was.
How do you set limits when working with collaborators – those who are animators and those you aren’t (like us)? Have you ever not set those limits? What happened in that case?
JH: As an artist, I believe, you’re always looking for the best possible outcome for any project. What the collaborator or client had originally envisioned is not always possible for various reasons. You set boundaries, not to limit or frustrate them, but to help them create the best film within their means. I’m very open about the possibilities and limitations of a project from the start, that way people know what to expect, and we’re less likely to run into any unforeseen budget or time limitations later on. Although, telling someone something isn’t possible is never fun.
Official poster for “Find Me in the Clouds”
It’s a puzzle to find the right balance for any project when it comes to this. For me it’s most important to know what people want to say with their film, which feeling do they want their audience to feel, which message is important? With that information I can make thoughtful decisions and brainstorm about other possibilities that may better fit the project. This will always be something you have to discuss with collaborators of course.
As the artist, it’s most important to have a good understanding of your animation capabilities and timeframe. If you don’t have a good understanding about how long something takes to animate, you will ultimately run into time and budget complications.
For projects where I did not set similar boundaries, we ran into time issues. One of those projects was a collaboration between me and 4 other animators. I was one of the producers/head planners of the project along with someone else. It was a great collaboration, but we both had different views on how time consuming the work was. I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and see how far we’d get. In the end we barely finished on time. We rendered the film 2 hours prior to the final pitch. Although it did work out in the end, it was a stressful situation to be in, which I hope to avoid in my projects.
ABI: What advice has a mentor given you that you hold onto closely or that guides you in your practice?
JH: The advice one of my tutors gave me was to always go back to your original idea — why did you want to create this animation? What was the message that was so important to you, and does your work convey that at this stage?
A still from one of Jorinde’s films
However fun something may seem to animate or to keep in your animation, ultimately, the message is what’s important. Always keep that in mind when making a film.
Use the ideas that didn’t make the cut in other ways. Make sure that animating is fun because animation is time-consuming. We give life to drawings by giving up our life.
ABI: OK, now for a final question — we have to know what music influences you! You can only listen to 3 songs for the rest of your life. What are you choosing?
JH:
I Will Always Return (Finale) by Bryan Adams (from the animated film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) — My favorite childhood film!
Duet by Everything Everything — Everything Everything will forever be my favorite band!
Coraline by Maneskin — Currently at the top of all my playlists.
Quick Links:
Watch Find Me in the Clouds, here.
Learn more about Jorinde and Studio IJlie:
Website: www.studioijlie.com
Instagram: @studio_ijlie
Check out more amazing artists like Jorinde on the Across Disciplines Database.