Aleksandr Petrov

Aleksandr Petrov

Birth : 1957-07-17, Prechistoye, Yaroslavl Oblast, USSR (Russia)

History

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Petrov (Александр Константинович Петров) (born 17 July 1957 in Prechistoye, Yaroslavl Oblast) is a Russian animator and animation director. Petrov was born in the village of Prechistoye (Yaroslavl Oblast) and lives in Yaroslavl. He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV) and was a disciple of Yuriy Norshteyn at Moscow's Advanced School for Screenwriters and Directors. After making his first films in Russia he moved to Canada where he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea, resulting in a 20-minute animated short — the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took him over two years -- from March 1997 through April 1999 -- to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. After this, Aleksandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea, where he works on commercials. He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love, which was finished in spring 2006 after three years' work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on 27 August, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize. On 17 March 2007, My Love was theatrically released at the Cinema Angelika in Shibuya, (Japan) by Studio Ghibli, as the first release of the "Ghibli Museum Library" (theatrical and DVD releases of Western animated films in Japan). In a 2009 interview, Petrov stated that he was jobless and using-up the last of his previously earned money. A 2010 article stated that Petrov wants to create an animated feature film with his technique, but cannot start because of lack of funds. Four years later he directed a three-minute animated sequence for the Sochi Paralympic Games called Firebird (Жар-птица). In an interview later that year, Petrov confirmed that if he can find the funding, he would like to work on a feature film in the future using his signature style, and stated that he is currently working on a film project but that it is progressing with great difficulty. In July 2016 Petrov sat on the board of directors for the International Film Festival of Poetic Animation held in Pergola, Italy.

Profile

Aleksandr Petrov

Movies

Жар-птица'
Director
Firebird is a three-minute animated sequence directed by Russian animator Aleksandr Petrov for the Sochi paralympic games.
Russian Railways
Writer
Russian Railways
Director
The Rose
Writer
The Rose
Director
Encore!
Director
Released to honor the 1000th anniversary of the city of Yaroslavl, Russia.
The Night
Director
One More Time!
Producer
Paint-on-glass animated short project overseen by Aleksandr Petrov.
My Love
Screenplay
In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.
My Love
Production Design
In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.
My Love
Writer
In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.
My Love
Director
In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.
Miracle Factory. Animation Director
The history of Russian animated films.
Winter Days
Director
Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
The Old Man and the Sea
Storyboard Artist
An old fisherman goes out on his fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life.
The Old Man and the Sea
Animation
An old fisherman goes out on his fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life.
The Old Man and the Sea
Art Direction
An old fisherman goes out on his fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life.
The Old Man and the Sea
Writer
An old fisherman goes out on his fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life.
The Old Man and the Sea
Director
An old fisherman goes out on his fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life.
Mermaid
Art Direction
An elderly monk, while training the young novice who will succeed him, recalls the mysterious lost love of his past - just as his young successor appears to be encountering her himself.
Mermaid
Animation
An elderly monk, while training the young novice who will succeed him, recalls the mysterious lost love of his past - just as his young successor appears to be encountering her himself.
Mermaid
Writer
An elderly monk, while training the young novice who will succeed him, recalls the mysterious lost love of his past - just as his young successor appears to be encountering her himself.
Mermaid
Director
An elderly monk, while training the young novice who will succeed him, recalls the mysterious lost love of his past - just as his young successor appears to be encountering her himself.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Screenplay
An animated short film based on the 1877 short story written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing to live for in the world, and is therefore determined to commit suicide. A chance encounter with a young girl changes his mind.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Director
An animated short film based on the 1877 short story written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing to live for in the world, and is therefore determined to commit suicide. A chance encounter with a young girl changes his mind.
Assassin of the Tsar
Set Designer
A new doctor from Moscow arrives at a provincial mental institution. His interest is the peculiarities of the psyche of a patient who believes that he is Yakov Yurovsky, the man who assassinated the last Russian tsar. In the course of their conversations it transpires that the patient is a kind of philosopher, not without a gift for suggestion. In a while the doctor himself falls under his patient’s influence: he tends to relive that fatal night of June 16-17, 1918 when, without any investigation or trial, Tsar Nicholas II, who had recently abdicated, was murdered, together with his wife, daughters and incurably ill heir. Soon the doctor realizes that the tragedy of the last Russian tsar is in part his own tragedy, too...
The Cow
Writer
Animated short based on the story of the same name by Andrei Platonov.
The Cow
Screenplay
Animated short based on the story of the same name by Andrei Platonov.
The Cow
Animation
Animated short based on the story of the same name by Andrei Platonov.
The Cow
Director
Animated short based on the story of the same name by Andrei Platonov.
The Marathon
Animation
The director Misha Tumelya and animators Sasha Dorogov and Alexandr Petrov presented this short to Roy E. Disney as a tribute for the 60th anniversary of Mickey. A little over two minutes in length, the cartoon shows a young boy in black silhouette going to a line that divides the screen image in half. It is like a mirror with the young boy on one side and the classic black and white Mickey Mouse in black silhouette on the other side.
The Marathon
Director
The director Misha Tumelya and animators Sasha Dorogov and Alexandr Petrov presented this short to Roy E. Disney as a tribute for the 60th anniversary of Mickey. A little over two minutes in length, the cartoon shows a young boy in black silhouette going to a line that divides the screen image in half. It is like a mirror with the young boy on one side and the classic black and white Mickey Mouse in black silhouette on the other side.