What is Awooga!?

Awooga! is a short film I did in my third year at the Turku Arts Academy. The Film is done in stop motion puppet animation technique. The story is quite straightforward: it's a striptease performance unlike any you've ever seen!

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Awooga! explores the theme of striptease and sex work in general. Is it about exploitation or empowerment, a passionate form of self expression or a job like any other? What's interesting is that Awooga! has been met with a  vast variety of interpretations, some totally opposing each other. Awooga! opens the conversation on this delicate and taboo subject matter. 

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Though if you're not really interested in all that, you can just enjoy view of the sexiest stop motion puppet you will ever see doing the sexiest stop motion pole dance you will ever see! Boobs and pubes guaranteed;D

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Unfortunately it isn't available on the internet right now, but you might catch it at a film festival or two!

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Creation

Awooga! was another project I did for school, specifically for our stop motion module; the core team consisted of me, Pinja Peltonen and Riikka Friman. Aside from coming up with the story, directing and animating, I got to work on the puppets, do the editing and help with the sound design.

 

I think what's really special about the creation process of Awooga! is involving professional strippers in its development. With such an intricate subject matter, I felt that it's important to include the voices of the people that actually live through it. We consulted a few dancers before finishing the story as well as got some help with the choreography. I think they really added to the soul of the project!​

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What have I learned?

I didn't have any experience in puppet animation before this, so I definetly had to learn a lot, from animating the puppet to setting up lights and working with Dragon Frame. ​​​

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I also learned that I prefer working in stop motion as opposed to drawn animation, and working with physical materials over a computer (I dont' see these as superior, they just work better for me personally)

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I have also been inspired to try a more documentary-style approach in the future. Letting other people directly shape my stories is definately something I want to explore.