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Hadis: Tell us a bit about the aesthetic you chose for the film.

FX Goby: We had in mind the aesthetic used in Hollywood movies from the 1920s. We wanted to use a simple lighting scheme with a lot of contrast, which helps suggest more than what is revealed, and we tried to produce images similar to those old monochromatic photographs that have colors added later on. That is, over a base layer of sepia, we've laid touches of color (pink over the cheeks, red over the woman's dress and some other colors in various elements...).

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Hadis: How did you approach the task of character design?

FX Goby: Choosing the visual design for the characters wasn't easy, we had to decide on a stylized aesthetic but one which could also be human and glamorous (so that it could mirror a true dance of tango). Regarding their psychology, we talked at lengths about it. We wrote a good deal about what happens to their lives before and after what takes place during the short film, so that we could get to know them, and that enabled us to film them better.

Hadis: How were the sounds for the film recorded?

FX Goby: We worked with a sound design specialist, Xavier Drouault. He was responsible for creating the sound effects and ambient sound for the film, following the instructions we gave him. All in real-time. It was an awesome part of the production process!

Hadis: What have you learned from working on this project, and which parts of the process did you enjoy the most?

FX Goby: We learned to organize ourselves, to plan our work in advance, to spend time early enough during pre-production to decide on the aesthetic and cinematographic aspects of the film. This way, when a project is prepared well in advance, there aren't many bad surprises during the time of production.

What Edouard enjoyed the most was animation, for me, the best parts were directing and animation, and for Matthieu, directing, editing and the coffee.

Hadis: When did you get to see the animated short projected on the big screen, and how did that make you feel?

FX Goby: The first time we saw the short projected on the big screen was during the final exams. The audience received it with a lot of enthusiasm, it was a very emotional experience, seeing the work of 2 years finish that way… It made us feel very satisfied and happy with the short film.

Hadis: Any interesting or funny anecdotes that you would like to share with our readers?

FX Goby: We made this short as part of our studies, the school is located in an academic center where all kinds of courses are taught. For a whole year, students would see three men show up every week, who would passionately and for no apparent reason start dancing tango… There were many stories and legends about this regular event, but the students only managed to find out what was going on when they saw the short film, that we did all this to analyze and understand the movements of tango.

Hadis: Any upcoming projects?

FX Goby: A good number of professional projects, many for TV, and we have a new short film project that we're going to work on using 3D animation once again.

Hadis: Many thanks to François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour for answering our questions regarding their film.

Music:
En Tus Brazos - Music by Carlos Zárate, Lyrics by Elizardo Martínez Vilas (Marvil)
El Huracán - Music by Edgardo Donato and Osvaldo Donato, Lyrics by Manuel "Nolo" López

SEE the movie. You can see "En Tus Brazos" in full at the film's official website.

Thanks to Argentine tango composer, guitar and piano player Néstor A. Díaz for his assistance on this feature article.

Original interview conducted in Spanish ("Castellano"), French to Spanish translations where needed provided courtesy of François-Xavier Goby. Pablo Hadis is a writer/contributor to AnimWatch, and the Editor of MaxUnderground.com. Many thanks to him for this article.