Francesco Coppola

Francesco Coppola is a Chinese-Italian experimental filmmaker and researcher based in London. He produces site-specific films and installations that reflect upon the ways we romanticise spaces and places. In particular, the spaces where there is a form of decay, conflict, or ongoing change in spatial narratives. For example, his recent work examined nationalism in Italy, challenged gentrification in Canary Wharf and interrogated perceived whiteness in China.

Francesco has made commissioned films for the BBC, screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and worked as a freelance animator for multiple historical institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution. His films have screened at multiple festivals, winning shortlist awards for the Zealous Amplify: Mental Health and Wellbeing competition and the 2022 OPPO Renovators Emerging Artist competition

My work seeks to draw out memories of specific spaces in order to subvert and challenge forms of nostalgia. I take cues from organisations that lie in the field of Critical Spatial Practice; the critical, the spatial, and the interdisciplinary. For example, my recent films have examined nationalism in Italy, challenged gentrification in Canary Wharf and interrogated perceived whiteness in China. Alongside filmmaking, I create installations to more experientially tap into and challenge nostalgia. My installations have exhibited at galleries and group shows. After the RCA I intend to shape these installations for retail spaces.

I embrace a blend of digital and analog animation methods in my spatial storytelling. I utilize 3D animation to create immersive digital spaces, uncanny character animations and time-lapse simulations. I selectively manipulate this imagery by transferring the digital image on to physical materials such as agar-agar*. The physical memory of agar imposes upon each frame simultaneously degrading It and enhancing its nostalgic qualities.

My pivot to animation was preceded by other academic and creative disciplines. My BA in International History and Economic History equipped me with methodologies for research that are still central to informing my critical and spatial practice. Professionally, I have worked in the luxury design and retail sectors. I intend to marry this commercial experience with my current installation practice.

*agar-agar is a gelatine derived from algae

Il Cherubino Crudo – ‘Il Cherubino Crudo’ (Italian for The Raw Cherub) is a multimedia animated film that seeks to elicit images of childhood and in turn systematically pull them apart. Drawing imagery from my home region of South of Italy, we follow the journey of the Cherub through romanticized spaces of home, church and countryside. Rather than a linear progression, the Cherub and his surroundings mutate into something far more awkward and messy.

Medium:

3D animation and other mediums

Close-up of Character – Fully rendered view of character

Cherub in space

Warping the character using principles from 'Bad Animation'

Sculpting the Cherub in 3D software

In Collaboration with:

Ella Pilleggi

Movement Director and Motion Capture Dancer

Process of creating the agar and transferring footage

Agar-Agar – An exploration into how the material qualities of agar play with memories and images. The physical memory of agar imposes upon each frame simultaneously degrading It and enhancing its nostalgic qualities. The footage is inspired by anachronistic memories of an idle summer in Italy. Old movies, pop stars and nervous feelings. The images are printed as 35mm frames on to the agar

Pieces of Agar

Piece of Agar

PDF: Movement and Potential in analog futures

Article written about my development of this process and potential implications. Published in the Analog Cookbook Journal.

Medium:

Cameraless animation, Agar-Agar

agar-agar cameraless-photography experimental materiality

Dancers on set

Dance long exposure pixillation

Transferral on to agar

In Collaboration with:

Ella Pilleggi

Movement Director

Holly Vance

Dancer

choreography dance long-exposure motion-capture pixillation

Film Installation 'Out of hand' Group exhibition – Back projection on to curtain

Sound: Field Recording on location – The soundtrack for the film is entirely created by field recordings taken in South Italy

Planning Installations

Simulations of plant growth – Houdini and other softwares were used to create simulations

In Collaboration with:

Laura Selby

Sound Artist

God Luck Hope – GodLuckHope Island is a luxury urban development in Canary Wharf, London. It typifies newly gentrified urban spaces where lifestyle is the commodity; Arts Clubs, Yoga, Fusion Foods. This film exposes a less glamorous underbelly. Historically, the site of the former colonialzing East India Company, it housed stolen goods, a toxic chemicals industry and one of the poorest slums in 1930s Britain.

Medium:

3D Animation and other mediums

Francesco Coppola

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In Collaboration with:

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Social

About

Royal College of Art