Karni and Saul’s ‘Unavoidable’ Partnership of Opposites

Husband and wife tag-team Karni Arieli and Saul Freed are a British-Israeli hybrid of creatives spanning photography, filmmaking and animation. They have been crafting together since 2014, delivering a perfect blend of fresh aesthetics and groundbreaking creative approaches. Together, they run their boutique animation studio, Sulkybunny, in Bristol, where they are based with their two sons.

The two met in college at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where they both had the coincidental dream of becoming art teachers after graduation. That didn’t go too far, however, because within a year of knowing each other, they already had a single passion that married Karni’s love of photography and Saul’s passion for animation. 

Post-graduation, Karni lingered in Tel Aviv shooting for fashion magazines in newspapers, but soon moved to London where she and Saul mixed their crafts and skills fully. Saul himself started off as a freelance CG artist in Israel, and although CG was ‘pretty raw’ in those times, it was exciting and new. In London, a bit before he and Karni got signed together, Saul dipped his toes into the British freelance scene as well.

This blend led to them using photography in animation, pixilation side by side with CG elements - all approaches fairly new to the scene in 2003. As the two put it, “It was fresh and indie, and it quickly got noticed. Following that, we got signed by Flynn Productions.” 

Despite possessing  perfectly fitting passions, Karni and Saul didn’t grow up too similarly. While Saul claims to have art in his DNA - due to his artistic mother and the way she brought him up - Karni didn’t view her family as particularly artsy. “However, my father and grandfather owned a printing press and loved photography,” she remembers. “I messed around with old cameras in my twenties and started getting serious about photography first and later on about moving images. I would take pictures of my sister a lot and of friends, then people I would stop on the street.” This is where she found her connection with fashion photography and magazines, as well as why she attended the college where she met Saul. 

While most people might turn their nose up at the idea of working with your spouse, it turned out well for Karni and Saul. “Being alone here in the UK after moving from Israel and feeling like we are on an adventure together made the process make more sense,” Saul says. “Our joint skills and visual sensitivities created a hybrid that none of us would do on our own. It felt, and still feels, unavoidable. Luckily, we don’t do the exact same thing - Karni is more involved with the creative development, shooting live action, art direction, and I lean towards the animation, compositing and design side of things. With time, we both developed and now these borders are less clear.” 

This divide also reflects where each of them feels most empowered in the production process.  For Saul, it’s the concept creation stages and the initial development, encompassing storyboarding and animatics, or coming up with ideas that break the mould. For Karni, it is the end process when things come together - light, planning, talent, casting, music, and feeling. 

Their shared journey isn’t the only reason Karni and Saul chose to stay together as a professional duo, however. Directing, often seen as a lonely job at its core, is many times better when done in a team. “It’s nice to have someone next to you,” says Saul. “While we don’t always agree on everything, that’s not a bad thing.” 

For Karni, being in a team is a powerful feeling.  “We can outnumber someone who says that’s not good or whatever else. We have similar influences, so in the end, we have similar tastes. We are stubborn. But we do things like we mean it, with heart and with effort. With conviction. It’s the only way.”

Today, their blend is so seamless that Karni and Saul have turned into somewhat of a family business, involving their eldest son. At 16, he shoots the drone footage that they need, and while he does that, the youngest one tags along and throws in his own ideas in the mix. And while Karni and Saul both agree their sons are talented and have clearly taken after them  when it comes to creative vision, it sometimes proves difficult to work not only as a duo, but as a whole family. 

The joint visual aesthetics that created the hybrid style Saul speaks of are possible only because of the way their inspirations moulded together over time. According to him,  both he and Karni share a similar passion for telling stories about home and journey - something reflective of their move from Israel to the UK. 

Family and parenting - a lived experience that they both went through - also go hand in hand, as well as all things that humans experience day to day - a truth nobody can run from. Drawing inspiration from all these corners of life and their own journey is, however, a long and meandering process.  Of course, it’s not easy to merge two brains together, however big the likeness between the two is. “Like any relationship, romantic or professional, ours has gone up and down and sideways many times,” shares Saul.

Karni adds: “We often ask ourselves - is the vision diluted as a directing duo, or stronger? Ultimately, I think the mix of the two is stronger. Female-male photo animation. I am, for example, very people-friendly but I like silent films with loose narrative. Saul, on the flip side, is more reclusive like most animators, but likes lots of dialogue and a clear story. So the combination with fantasy elements is more complex and diverse, I think. We make the films we want to see. And we make them for our kids too. Also, we are each other’s first audience, which helps loads.” 

This steady rhythm of creativity that the duo has harnessed over the years together is also evident in the way Sulkybunny  is run. But Karni and Saul prefer to just call it their home. “We work from our studio in the back garden, and in most cases it includes us two,” explains Saul. “Over the years we have produced projects ourselves, and we kind of liked that independence. This peaked in our recent BFI short film, which was epic, shooting in Iceland and producing more than 150 VFX shots.” Besides, Karni admits to quite enjoying telling bank managers her company’s name is ‘Sulkybunny’.

The recent BFI short film Saul speaks of is also one of his two favourite pieces of work from their time  together. The production process is one to which he equates near full creative control and freedom. Called ‘Wild Summon’, the film stems from an idea the two had at the back of their minds for a couple of years. So, when BFI announced the new short form animation scheme, it felt perfect. They pitched, and unsurprisingly - they got it. Although the making of ‘Wild Summon’ coincided with covid-19, they managed to commence the adventure. 

“For the film, we trained in underwater filming, and we trained our son - who was 15 at the time - in drone operating. We spent time at an art residency in Iceland where we were shooting, writing, talking, experimenting, swimming, playing with our seven year old, fighting, laughing. Then we spent a year and a half in our studio doing the rest.” 

‘The rest’ is what helped Karni and Saul put together this powerful film on humanity’s relationship with nature, and the journey of a parent and artist. “The journey of a salmon,” says Saul. “It’s philosophical and also natural history with a twist. It’s shocking and strange and powerful. It’s narrated by the fabulous Marianne Faithful. Now it’s an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and screening in Annecy and other festivals throughout the year.”

‘Wild Summon’ serves as a reminder of the endless creative wingspan of this duo and their constant strive towards the unknown. During their BAFTA nomination for their short film ‘Turning’, they kept being asked about the genre of the film, so they decided to coin ‘casual fantasy’ - something that today is probably more commonly known as ‘magical realism’. “It means fantasy that exists in the casual,” says Saul. “While you’re having breakfast, or showering. Not huge drama, wars, or spaceships. It’s a philosophy that runs into our own ways of thinking - we don’t plan for ages and our storyboards are loose. We shoot live action background plates to be as fresh and true as possible. We trust our guts and our eyes enough to be casual about it.”

Skipping through creativity with a fresh feeling to each new step, Karni fondly names their filmmaking style as ‘cowboy style’ (this is also how she dubbed their trip to Iceland as the ‘cowboy trip’) - letting loose, embracing any happy accident and allowing magic to walk through the room. Saul’s description of their vision is “playful, with a pinch of darkness and a lot of emotion.” Karni agrees, adding that there is always a duality to every feeling they depict on the screen - the other side of playfulness, seen as melancholy in their work, is always felt even during the bright moments. “God is in the details,” she adds.

‘Wild Summon’ wasn’t the only project Karni and Saul embarked on during the pandemic. ‘Eye Mama’, a project collecting the motherhood gaze by photographers worldwide was also started in covid-19 times. “We got 50,000 submissions by photographer mamas worldwide, which I then  started working on turning into a book,” says Karni. The ‘Eye Mama’ book became the narrative of care and motherhood, portrayed solely by photographers who identify as mothers, including unseen narratives of both the dark and light of care and parenting. “It launches throughout May and June 2023, and it features 200 powerful images. It’s a project coming from our hearts, another baby for us really.” Published by teNeues, the book ‘Eye Mama’ is now out everywhere.

When looking through their portfolio of work, regardless if it is award-nominated films or done-at-home projects from the very beginning of their journey, one is immediately drawn to the space that Karni and Saul create within their work, allowing the viewer to breathe deeply. ‘Casual fantasy’, is truly the most accurate descriptor for their work - one that makes its way calmly to the deepest parts of the heart, creating films that watch you right back. 

One recurring element in most of them, though, is the stop motion-like effect, which, as it turns out, is mostly CG masked as stopframe work. “We love stopframe because we love dirt, grain and real work,” says Saul. “It’s organic and feels like someone has poured time and love into it. Which we do.”

Karni adds, “We thrive off imperfections. As humans we aren’t ever perfect, so I think we relate to real flaws more than perfection. Still with a lot of beauty and visual pleasure in it too.”

So, what’s next for Karni and Saul? They leave us with this: “We are excited about creating great imagery and continuing to tell stories that engage and break norms. We think we offer an angle which is on one hand real, casual and human and on the other hand, original and filled with playfulness and imagination.”