Brincante is a docufiction feature film that explores the life and work of Brazilian musician, performer and folk culture researcher Antonio Nóbrega. This journey shows an artist’s path using Brazilian popular culture to create a work that alternates through theatre, music and dance as the movie progresses. Coutinho was the art director for the closing credits, working all the way from pre-production to post-production, while also helping conceptualize the project. From this rich cultural tapestry, Coutinho forged a unique aesthetic expertly, accomplishing what is undeniably Brazilian.
“Being able to build something about my culture, take it out of Brazil, and still gain recognition around the world of the excellence of what we have done, is deeply gratifying not only as an artist and a designer, but as a Brazilian,” said Coutinho.
Besides a strong reception throughout the Internet, the Brincante end titles went on to win multiple awards, including Germany’s IF Design Award in Communication in 2015, the New York Festival World’s Best Advertising 2015 Third Prize Award in Design, The One Show 2015 Merit Award in Broadcast and Moving Image/Animation, and was a finalist for the SXSW 2015 for the Excellence in Title Design Award. This great success would never have been possible without Coutinho’s vision and passion.
“Couts is a brilliant designer and art director. He is always passionate about his work, and he always approaches each challenge with enthusiasm. He is always striving to push the creative further,” said Lee Peffer, the animation director for the project.
When Coutinho was offered the proposal to work on Brincante, he had already been developing other projects with the director, Gabriel Nóbrega. The two have very good synergy, and their dynamic allowed Coutinho to execute Nóbrega’ ideas while putting his own spin on them. It made working on the credits enjoyable while also perfecting the finished product.
“One of the qualities that I always liked in Couts, is the way he faces each project. It’s like a look of a child, always excited to discover and do something new. I have no doubt that it is a very contagious energy,” said Nóbrega.
This energy can sometimes be a challenge for Coutinho, as he strives for perfection with everything he does. For this project, he originally struggled with finding a balance between where he wanted to take the art in the credits versus what was used in the actual film. What he decided on was portraying the work and aesthetic universe of Antônio Nóbrega instead of referring only to the film. Coutinho then had to delve into the history and work of Antônio Nóbrega to understand his references, his creations, his works, and to know who his characters were. This understanding is how his creativity is cultivated.
“It was learning not only about an artist but a deep dive in the history of Brazilian art and culture, referring back to its European roots,” Coutinho described. “Undoubtedly, the piece we created had a result that went far beyond what was expected.”
To portray the history and work of Antônio Nóbrega, Coutinho divided the film into eight different parts, each one portraying a subject that belongs to the artist's universe, which he describes below.
1. The rooster and the moon: “We had Antonio Nóbrega mounted on a rooster, that is an important element of another theater piece of the artist. In his piece, Nóbrega mounts his chicken and goes to the moon. Inside the moon, I made a combination and I put Rosane Almeida (wife of Antonio Nóbrega and character in the movie) in the window as it appears in Walter Carvalho's movie.”
Coutinho also used a color palette of golden yellow and blue. He considered this from the logic used in the colors of the Byzantine icons and chose blue, red and yellow. The limited combination of colors would be used throughout the project for enhancing the contrast of colors throughout the whole scenes. The thought process that went into creating every image of Brincante’s credits show why Coutinho is considered one of the industry’s best. You can view his work on the credits and read an in-depth description of the process here.