Meet Rika Nakayama | Experimental & Stop-motion Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rika Nakayama and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rika, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have always had a passion for creativity. When I was young, I liked to write and draw my own stories, and I grew my interests in diverse subjects to feed my imagination. Writing and drawing stories also made me observe my surroundings and explore new places to find inspiration.

During my freshman year in college, I had opportunities to create artworks using diverse physical materials, and I fell in love with creating tactile artworks such as mixed-media paintings and woodworking. Tactile works contain marks and textures, which evoke the creator’s presence and their creation process. I love seeing traces on objects that tell the object’s history.

My creative process always involves observation, research, experimentation, and problem-solving, which lead to new discoveries. Through this process, I can learn more about the world and people around me as well as about myself, reflect on my experiences and memories, and develop a relationship with materials by interacting with them. Materials itself has the power to evoke emotions and feelings, and I found it is a great non-verbal communication and learning medium. Once a work is done, I give birth to a new expression in this world, and the work communicates with the viewers by itself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am an animation filmmaker specializing in experimental and stop-motion techniques. My animated works are often inspired by nature, childhood memories, and sensory experiences, using tactile materials. Materiality is a big part of my work — I love to express intangible feelings and emotions through tangible materials.

To me, stop-motion is a magical medium with unlimited possibilities. Anything in the world can be animated if we have a camera, and we can create an animated world where objects and puppets come to life and breathe, living in a world that is different from our reality yet familiar and close to us. In 2022, I made a film “Under A Shooting Contrail” at CalArts, which is a stop-motion film about a puppet who leaves the studio and explores the outdoor world. Stop-motion films, especially with puppets, are usually shot in a highly controlled environment with constant lighting and a secured stage. But I wanted to bring uncontrollability and serendipity to stop-motion by bringing the stop-motion puppet outdoors. I animated the puppet walking on a grass field, where I could not stop the wind from flapping his cape nor control the change of weather, lighting, and shadows in the environment. I had to shoot every frame in the same intervals to get a constant movement of shadows around the puppet. The result was very interesting and rewarding, because the puppet is living in nature and he experiences the environment and passage of time differently from humans. The shadow is constantly moving so he would run to chase it, and the sun and moon are also traveling fast so he wants to catch them. Luckily, this film has been screened in many international festivals worldwide and has connected me with many filmmakers and artists. It received the Best of the Fest Award at the Los Angeles Animation Festival in 2022 and some more awards in Japan.

Each of my work goes through different processes and challenges because I like to experiment and incorporate new techniques when I start a new project. I really enjoy tackling various challenges and problem-solvings, which makes me keep learning new things and growing as an artist.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are surely many fun places around LA, but some places I discovered and loved after moving here are the Museum of Jurassic Technology and Joshua Tree National Park. The museum has quite interesting, unusual collections and a nice roof garden with teas, cookies, and birds. It is a small museum displaying a mixture of artistic items and some (probably fictional) natural history objects, reminiscent of the cabinets of curiosities in the 16th century, a predecessor of natural history museums. Before I visited the museum, I took a class called Projected Objects taught by Janie Geiser at CalArts, where we explored pre-cinema projection devices such as magic lanterns and Pepper’s ghost. Many collections in the Museum of Jurassic Technology use these projection techniques that create optical illusions, and with other mysterious collections that evoke our curiosities, it was a unique experience different from other art and science museums. I also love going to nature places but have only had one chance to go to Joshua Tree National Park. I would love to explore more national parks when I have time.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to credit my parents and many creative works I was exposed to when I was young. My parents are both immigrants to Japan and they took me to travel many places when I was little. Being exposed to various cultures and people growing up, I got a skill to adapt to unexpected situations which helped me overcome difficult times after I started living in Canada and the US by myself. I got a lot of inspiration from the places I traveled and lived, which influenced me to develop my interests and artistic voice. My parents have always supported me and loved my artworks, so I am very grateful for their presence and influences in my life.

Also, there are many books and movies which influenced me to pursue a creative career. I love stories of people (including non-human characters) thriving in hardship yet still finding beauty and happiness in their lives. There are too many books to list, but one animation director I really love is Isao Takahata. I also love stories of someone’s life from young to old, which makes me think about the passage of time and recall different places I have lived. Subtle beauty and memories are some of the themes in my work.

Website: https://rikanakayama.com

Instagram: @rika_stopmotion

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikanakayama/

Twitter: @rika_animation