new filmmaker Kurtis Hough: Bed of Moss

Kurtis Hough: This is the second half of a two part film with moss as the subject. I am currently working on the first part called Mossgrove which has a much faster pace and timelapse images of slugs, sliding across mossy meadows. Slugs and moss seem to be a quintessential Oregon feature and is a theme I wanted to explore.

Kurtis Hough: I moved to Oregon 18 months ago and have been wanting to make a film illustrating the unique beauty of this landscape. Also the music of Rachel Grimes who I’ve worked with before on an animated film called “Water From the Same Source” was a large inspiration. We seem to share a lot of similar themes in our work and is a natural impulse to collaborate together.

Kurtis Hough: Another driving force in the making of this film was as an exercise in learning the new camera I recently purchased. I used the Canon 5D Mark II with a 100mm Macro Lens and it has really opened the door of creative possibilities. I have experimented in nature photography for years but the ability to shoot HD video with a small and powerful camera is extremely liberating.

Kurtis Hough: I went to an art school in Minneapolis and mostly studied computer animation. Over the past eight years I have experimented in a lot of areas from 3D animation and film, to digital photography and oil painting. The making of this was another learning process where I hopefully can bring knowledge from all those areas into new work.

Kurtis Hough: This particular short film was most influenced by the remarkable French film Microcosmos by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou. The connections will be more evident in Mossgrove, but the idea of finding a whole new world just by closely looking below is a fascinating endeavor.