Night cap with Ugly

An interview with Nikita Diakur, director of Ugly

 How much were you interested in small acts of malice and reality’s hardness?
It is something that everyone encounters. Plus, small acts of malice can turn into big ones very quickly. Therefore, it is an important topic to talk about.

 Why were you interested in a Native American look-alike character?
Native American culture has an admirable relationship towards the earth, nature and all living beings. Redbear (the Native American protagonist of the movie) is the good soul of the project. He stands for the good things in an otherwise cruel and ugly world.

 Which software did you use to create Ugly‘s universe?
We simulated the movie via the physics engine inside of Cinema 4D.

 Why were you interested in the broken effect every item has in this universe?
I think broken objects have more character than those that are perfectly made. Broken animation, or in our case simulation, is more random and sometimes hard to work with, but is more fun since the outcome is always unpredictable and new.

 Are you generally interested in distorsion and do you want to make further films on this theme?
Yes, I think I am barely scratching the surface. There is much more to explore! We are currently making some ugly follow up clips and I believe there will be a bigger project soon.

 Why did you want blue color and pink lights to prevail in this world?
The color scheme was set very early on in the project. It is a very artificial scheme and I think it works well with the Ugly world, which has a touch of artificiality.

 What sort of freedom would you say the short format allows?
The biggest advantage for a short film maker is independency and freedom to explore and experiment. You can be more bold with story, form or process. You will never get rich by making short films, but you grow immensely as a film maker.

Ugly is being shown in Lab Competition L1.