EXCLUSIVE Interview with Andrea Ricca creator of FURFANGS

With all the over-hyped CGI of films like Transformers II, its nice to see it put to its intended use: creating aliens to chase someone around their house. If you have fond memories of 80’s films like Gremlins or Critters, then you’ll like the short film Furfangs.

The story is a simple one. A guy is home relaxing when a bunch of fuzzy aliens invade his home. We had a moment to interview the director, writer and star of the film, Italian comic book creator and artist Andrea Ricca.

Where did the idea for this film come from?

In my shorts I try to reproduce the kind of cinema I love best, that’s to say science fiction, fantasy and adventure. “The Guardian” was a tribute to the films with stop-motion special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

“Ufo Race” dealt with the U.F.O. topic, which many people love.

“The Furfangs” means to be a tribute to the science fiction films of the eighties, which were full of irony.

You can see the shorts and the international reviews on the following site: http://www.andrearicca.com/

There’s a strong influence of the 80s horror sci-fi movie “Critters.” Was this intentional?

Really, the subject of “The Furfangs” is inspired by “Critters” a low budget but very amusing film.

For my part, in “The Furfangs” I tried to remove the second-rate elements like blood or weapons, and for this it is more similar to “Gremlins”, also for the domestic battles.

The movie has no dialogue and all the messages in the film are through body language.Was there another reason for this?

The movie was purposely with no dialogues becouse it was thought to be understood by everyone in the world on the web.

Was it hard for the lead actor to emote?

The acting was not difficult for the irony of the short, more hard it was to calculate the spaces where to insert the virtual creatures.

The special effects in this film are impressive. Tell us about the development of these effects.

In my two previous short movies I made the 3D effects by myself. For “The Furfangs” I relied upon the graphic Gennaro Acanfora (http://www.genaca.com) who modelled the virtual creatures upon my preliminary sketches. He has animated and put them in the real life scenes by the software Lightwave.

Here some backstages of the short: http://video.tiscali.it/canali/Tecnologia/3D_Short_Movies/

Your film has won quite a few accolades. They’re all brilliant, but which one was most memorable and why?

I think that all the reviews are important for a home-made and zero budget product.

They give you authoritativeness and the appreciation of the public lay the foundation for being accepted by the critics.

The feel of the short is both menacing and whimsical, was it hard to strike a balance between the two?

Actually it was not easy to keep the balance. I have limited the scenes with direct violence and have inserted some ironic moments, without exceeding.

So, what’s next? Do you have any other projects planned?

In this period I am planning a new short based on the subjects of a volcanic eruption, for I would like to try new special effects like lava, fire, smoke etc. And I am looking for cooperators for 3D works.

Thank you and bye!

Thanks Andrea. If anyone wants to know more go to http://www.andrearicca.com/.

What do you think about the film Furfangs?

Update: Fixed typo