You can do it all, be friends and work on animation

The success story of BAP BACKBONE 

This film studio started their operation 10 years ago, and the team involved, all working in the animation film industry, decided to move their operations to Portugal at a time where it was difficult to profit regularly from films, but through a trial of fortunate events, the place they operated was secured and collaborators leaned in to work despite their previous experience in the industry. 

“We started to make films of our own and we shared the same desire of us, same willing, same property spirit.”

The power of having a space liberated the stress and anxiety of unfortunate possibilities with Vasco Sa reflecting on it:  It’s very important for us to have space. And I think the space in the table that still exists is the main thing that keeps us there. Because if you split away, okay, we can work together, and we know each other, it’s okay, but it will not be so good. 

But most importantly the besides sharing a space, the power of building in friendships contributed to the tone of work and general vision of the team as said during the presentation: Almost all almost all our films became a little like, both anthropological and sociological in the thematic like the theme of the fractal: society becomes very predominant in the studio and becomes a nerve of the studio. And that’s because we are always sharing experiences within us, and we are differentiating ourselves and different friends of yours and different perspectives. 

Their ethos involves not only in relaxing in an organized structure, the power of calendarization but most importantly how the team interacts with each other. Even though their career backgrounds might slightly differ with some part of the collective might work in production, but also might have different approaches – nothing can beat tolerating each and everyone’s process. Like every other collective that works together they face their problems in the search for a fluid process of orienting the tasks. But this doesn’t stop them adapting to new realities with agility. 

Discussing the behind the scenes of a collective that works in animation is very refreshing and creates ease in reflecting on the working conditions behind beautiful works. Just as Vasco and Marta highlight during the Q&A session, there are still problems to face but since there is a sense of familiarity within the team, while also having freedom to pursue the career each and everyone dreams allows space to grow and learn. 

It was a pleasure having members of the BAP BACKBONE in Anibar, while the fast paced days of the festival go by, this talk was a sudden calm in the busy halls of the cinema.