Further Information

About me

I am Žoel Kastelic. I'm interested in many different things (from art to sport). After I have finished Secondary School of Design and Photography (Srednja šola za oblikovanje in fotografijo) in year 2014, I concentrated on making comics and stop-motion animation for younger audiences and for those young at heart. I love stop-motion animation because it allows me to bring everyday objects to life. I am a self-taught stop-motion animator but in the future I would like to study animation at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia.

My first and so far the only animation - To the top (Do vrha, 2015) was nominated on the Film festival of Slovene youth film: Videomanija. It has been shown in cinema Kinodvor. Later that year, the animation was also shown in Maribor on the 5th International Film Festival StopTrik.
With help of Stripburger I have released my first small comic book Neletalčev let (The Flight of the Flightless Bird) in 2016. This comic was exhibited as one of the best comics at the international comic contest for primary and secondary schools Živel strip! 2014.

About the project A Boat and a Paddle

Through my comics and animations I want to show the audience important educational and inspiring messages for life. In this modern world there are too many bad things happening and therfore many people give up before reaching their goals. I want to share my stories to a wider audience on different festivals. In previous two projects the main message was about not giving up and being persistent even when it is tough and even if you are 'handicapped' (like the small and a bit funny flamingo bird in my comic, which is the flightless kind of bird).

In this project I want to make an animation about how each one of us is different and each one of us has their own features and through cooperation and by uniting all those features it can become something bigger and better than if we are on our own. For example, the main characters are a snail (which you can see on the main picture above) and a land turtle. A snail cannot swim, but he can row with a paddle, and a land turtle has a shell which has a shape of a boat... So both together they have a paddle and a boat. But they cannot achieve anything without each other.

This story also teaches us that we have to respect different people and we all have to cooperate, because together we are stronger.

Why do I need your help?

I created my first animation in my own room in poor conditions. It was worth the effort, but it took me one month to finish the animation, which I could have finished in a few days would I have proper equipment. So the total length of the animation was not as I expected it to be, but I was stubborn and persistent and I finished it.

For the new animation it would take me too much time and money to finish it under the same conditions. That is why I started to save money for all the equipment in the fall of 2015. I have saved for a new camera (this camera will allow me to film some takes that I could not film with the old camera), a microphone and a some other equipment. Now I am at the part where I need your help. With your support I would be able to buy a stop-motion computer software which costs 295 USD and is required in every animation studio and I would be able to pay the rent for a basement where I will set up my studio (because unfortunately my cozy room is too small for such aproject).

I am really thankful for every pledge and support, and your help in bringing the snail, turtle and the whole story to life. With your help I will be able to share the message and the story. Of course, for every pledge you get a reward from me, which I plan to ship before I start filming the animation (that will be on October 1st 2016).