Channel Frederator Blog

Illustrator and animator Eli Krupitsky’s film “I’ve Got Nothing” is a clever depiction of the ultimate creative block. Here he tells us what has influenced his style and why he’s a self-proclaimed nerd.

Channel Frederator: Where did you get your animation education?

Eli Krupitsky: I’ve got a BDes in Graphic Design (specializing in Illustration) from the awesome Shenkar college. “I’ve Got Nothing” is actually my thesis project.

CF: Who or what has influenced your style the most?

EK: Russian cut-out animation, especially by Yuri Norshtein, creator of “Hedgehog in the Fog” and “Tale of Tales” - if you haven’t seen those yet, you really should!

CF: Can you tell us a little about what inspired the idea for this film?

EK: The idea came to me after many unsuccessful attempts to write a script. At some point I became incredibly frustrated, and then it hit me - why not make a script about creative frustration?

CF: Are you working on any new projects you can tell us about?

EK: Not at the moment - not in animation, anyway…

As for my project… Well, what I’d call “my current project”, as opposed to my day jobs (some illustration, some web design/development, lots of teaching at a community college) is a website I’m building with the kind help of my programmer friends, with me doing the design/front-end development. It’s at a very early stage, so it’s pretty hush-hush at the moment.

Being a huge nerd, my current hobby is reading about both relevant (for the above mentioned project) and completely obscure programming languages/technologies. Kinda like a programmer that likes to paint in his free time, but the other way around

CF: Do you have any secrets for overcoming creative blocks?

EK: Turn them into the subjects of your work?

Of course! Thanks for the interview, Eli!

You can watch his film “I’ve Got Nothing” right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher