tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44995193574989150582024-02-19T21:03:52.890-05:00Stop Motion GeekA stop motion animation-centered blog featuring interviews with giants of the industry and up-and-coming talent—from directors to animators, producers to writers, model-makers to puppet fabricators, and everything in-between—with a commitment to spotlighting the making-of process behind the stop motion short films, features, television, and commercials of today and yesterday.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.comBlogger400125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-27614113012570016622019-01-01T20:06:00.000-05:002019-01-02T09:11:53.749-05:00Interview with Heather Colbert, Filmmaker Behind The Music Video for Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos looking on at the moon. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/296300999?color=f7e848&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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“After talking with Tom, I just let the track play, while I drew or noted down ideas that came into my head,” Heather Colbert—a Bristol-based animator and filmmaker—tells Stop Motion Geek about the origins of her newest project: creating, almost single-handedly, the music video for English singer-songwriter Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”—a haunting and beautiful acapella piece off his latest album,<i> Z-Sides</i>. “He told me the album was about sleep and so the images that came to me were of nocturnal and natural things. I also saw a connection in the beautiful lyrics to a character living with mental health issues, especially in the line ‘I woke up, but it didn’t go away’. So I began to see a creature trying their best to get on with their task, but being hindered by the fear of the world that they inhabit.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos (left) and Shadow (right) in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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The third music video she’s directed since graduating university in 2016, <i>How Have You Been?</i> sees Colbert reach new heights in her ability to craft subtle performances that tell much and show little, as well as to expertly interlace tangible, handcrafted stop motion of the breed that embraces the look and feel of a physical puppet animated by artist’s tender touch.<br />
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Beautiful and breathtaking, <i>How Have You Been?</i> is much an occupation of the same space its namesake inhabits—that of a fragile dream, woven from half-forgotten memories—and more, adding to it a sense of mystery and wonder the song itself only grazes in passing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos holding a dream in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Colbert discusses the making of <i>How Have You Been?</i>—from allowing herself to simply “sit” with the song itself to overlaying the finished animation with hand-drawn 2D animation—the impact working in a shared studio has made on her as an artist, and her reaction to the response the music video has gotten since its release.<br />
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You can read our interview below.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Heather! Thank you for returning to the blog to do this interview! It would seem you’ve become something of a frequent guest—and much to my gratitude!<br />As you came to create your latest film and third music video—Tom Rosenthal’s <i>How Have You Been?</i>—how did the lessons you learned from <i>Dolly Said No to Elvis</i>, whether in making it or in the attention it received upon release, change your approach to the film?</b><br />
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<b>Heather Colbert: </b>The major change in approach to this film was setting up camp at Hangar Puppet Animation Studio, which Joseph Wallace initiated in Bristol. The opportunity to talk with him and fellow animation director Roos Mattaar was so valuable to this video. I was trying to adapt to a more professional practice, so being able to ask for their opinions on the animatic, lighting a larger set, and learning from Roos how to silver solder all made such a difference.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="425" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/g2a4US1l9u1uaIz9mueLvOpFen_2CqdR3uLp5yL-ssdLWKTTpHHZpASXBmtKw3OZRqnFsXQavmKQsZqyH7UKpftmZJm_E6f-qUszMLbB-ZLkshBaYyu0aQ3iKKXmFrQcCzDuazHL" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silver soldering for very small tie-downs. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Character concept sketches of Hypnos and Shadow. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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Something that I took from making <i>Dolly</i> was taking the time to really sit with the concept; researching all the themes that surrounded sleep, making mood boards to create a reference of the tone I wanted for the film and spending a long while sketching different variations of the characters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Character concept sketches of Hypnos and Shadow. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="448" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/UvVZGwiBI6WnafZuR8sXUzeWmff5FMHS1k8KLq55SiOtdY6uId-kYeO06V5dsJQz_d4oknW6SoV6lhM5cxcf8TPnnTouqUb8C9Cu1RRHeKkmGatX7reLqpe108IM9-WxHzO1fOoG" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A mood-board created by Heather Colbert during the early creative process of <i>How Have You Been?</i> Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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This was my first opportunity to work with a moco rig (kindly lent to our studio by Devon-based animator Simon Tytherleigh)– which meant I could be a little more ambitious with the variety of shots I could use.<br />
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The most rewarding part of releasing <i>HHYB?</i> has been hearing directly from the audience. Tom has a devoted following on Spotify and YouTube, so reading people’s kind and emotional comments in response to the film has been amazingly heart-warming. When designing the characters, the intention was for people to see themselves in the story. Reading that people feel such a connection with the characters has been very special. I was actually asked to make a plushie version of Hypnos for someone, so that level of love has been extraordinary for me. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plushie toy commission of Hypnos. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A character concept sketch for Hypnos. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?” is a haunting acapella piece, stripped of anything but the barest bones of its melody...and yet it’s amazingly beautiful.<br />In our interview about <i>Dolly Said No To Elvis</i>—which, as a rocking, high-energy acoustic piece, is about as different from “How Have You Been?” as you can get—you mentioned, concerning your initial creative process, that you listened to the track on repeat.<br />Can you tell us a bit about translating <i>How Have You Been?</i> to the screen?</b><br />
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<b>HC:</b> Yes, it is a very different tone to <i>Dolly</i>, but initially I still used the same process. After talking with Tom, I just let the track play, while I drew or noted down ideas that came into my head. He told me the album was about sleep and so the images that came to me were of nocturnal and natural things. I also saw a connection in the beautiful lyrics to a character living with mental health issues, especially in the line ‘I woke up, but it didn’t go away’. So I began to see a creature trying their best to get on with their task, but being hindered by the fear of the world that they inhabit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="740" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/HTwL-nw3PvaHJ2FwCRcvwkR9biSrQfD_LBu84fOo7hRyjIOlLqsBGta9BfjKJsGZ3FPYqy6Xqo4L4YPNnic2xg5DpXE86cqabAP_7zq5uJRd3qF8xsTEE2vcadZr_z6FH8N_Sd_k" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sketches of variations of Shadow. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storyboards for the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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Initially Tom had imagined the characters being human, as it is his first track solely made up of his voice. But I felt strongly that by creating something new—not quite human, and not animal either—it would make them more relatable to everybody in the audience. I wanted the film to reflect an experience of all people. I am so pleased Tom granted me creative freedom in this way, as the response from people around the world, seeing themselves in these characters, has been just what I had hoped.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mffBP1ZnEig/XCwBZFacPWI/AAAAAAAAGA4/mM4-zV3qqP4-CkjcsSK75DjrWaJ4z5jiwCEwYBhgL/s1600/concept%2Bof%2BHypnos%2Bin%2BCave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1129" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mffBP1ZnEig/XCwBZFacPWI/AAAAAAAAGA4/mM4-zV3qqP4-CkjcsSK75DjrWaJ4z5jiwCEwYBhgL/s640/concept%2Bof%2BHypnos%2Bin%2BCave.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An early concept sketch. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xz1rizHZUhA/XCwBcg0EVVI/AAAAAAAAGBU/2t6cGsIP8b88oHjjsP7al_bJ4UgJdnz8wCEwYBhgL/s1600/natural%2Bmaterials%2Bfor%2Bcave%2Bdressing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xz1rizHZUhA/XCwBcg0EVVI/AAAAAAAAGBU/2t6cGsIP8b88oHjjsP7al_bJ4UgJdnz8wCEwYBhgL/s640/natural%2Bmaterials%2Bfor%2Bcave%2Bdressing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A selection of various props. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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Getting the design of the white fluffy character, who I nicknamed ‘Hypnos’ (as that was the starting point of his job; a kind of god of sleep crossed with the Sandman), was very tricky and I had many variations of him. I had started to make the puppet, but it still did not feel like I had found ‘him’. Fortunately, I had a flash of an idea (at 3am!) and altered his hands and head shape which finally made him come to life. He needed dexterity in his hands to perform his tasks, and I softened his head shape to make him more endearing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="324" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/vYueVXJ84jSMNLpJ2ghr4NGIz1Z-Pg2mXDXeyVK4_pq-EsSHmFe4CJ_CL67SVq3HJWKbh-Jyrvadmnj1KsBrwwscZk7GINJsYsxuIViqqxkRl2876y3hOPCCB4Z6ItClPVIOmpYp" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puppet reconstruction. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos armature. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: One thing I’ve noticed across your career is that the animated performances you craft have grown increasingly subtle with every successive film. This is particularly evident in <i>How Have You Been?</i> which features some of the most stunning and subtle performances I’ve seen from you—period. This subtly makes your performances such a wonderful pairing for a track as dozy and uncluttered as “How Have You Been?”<br />Can you talk a little about the evolution of your animation style, and the performance-related choices you saw yourself take on this film?</b><br />
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<b>HC:</b> Well thank you for starters! That is very kind. I am definitely trying to learn more about the performance of animation through each project. Coming to this method of filmmaking from illustration, I had not considered the fact that animation is a form of acting, until I made my graduation film – ‘Courage to Make a Fool’. I was so scared of the movements looking jerky that I went much too far the other way, and made them move verrry sloowly! So, with each project and new puppet, I am trying to be braver in my commitment to the movements. Luckily, Roos was also on hand to be my video reference actor some days and that also really helped!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="416" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/1uCUunBl5zoaMUjbV0UXbn3ehdGPNvpMyCFZHJGhnQBf-9xSk2Q2xIpxsgg626l1vTW6Xc3SVlXIpk9haBW8l6cZVCfCu6OeoHCrIRK3_iGFXzIpX-pkxEF3xzJFjILvXI-UwMUZ" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set prepared for animation. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ORLA1AOrS0I/XCwBe08fLGI/AAAAAAAAGBU/FbZJPO6YOKUja2ldIaMu3gbu6kI9pb3pwCEwYBhgL/s640/sea%2Bmade%2Bout%2Bof%2Ba%2Bdress%2Band%2Bsparly%2Bthread.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set prepared for animation. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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With that idea of improving the performance in my mind, I knew I needed to show the different sides to both characters and make clear the arc that brings them together. It is important to see Hypnos as lonely and fearful at the beginning, which very cautiously changes to bravery and acceptance. I was acting the beats out, listening to the music (having found this useful for <i>Dolly</i>), but the greatest transition was in the Shadow. I wanted her to start off as almost a scrap of fabric, not really a recognisable shape, and for the audience to be unsure of her motives. Then gradually we begin to see her morphing, becoming more animal, and then mimicking Hypnos to show she is a friend. She could even be just another part of him.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="351" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/LuZd8FP7tDdne-RVQBheGtDls_D0WMAg2cTObvKzLU8NvrZIERg2qnhLEJ3flSohT7oLgOevzt8eewGGf5nByNvpRjI6XmevDmIBoZSuMlEQ_G7CAx6KJTPr-eJ9WmNBz0ewHNvS" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadow and Hypnos as seen in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1bkepYvt1VehQ0ECZBE0kJN_Bj-jLXYQ4TtzAOb7oKydqjhXqD8O58flMa1bwHByUUeQFfxHP6uJsFUDoZ0deTOJNQTg2HkJerXc2G5Jtu6qHvCCdMC5qu5URUrXrlpDerTKh3A2yyM/s1600/CIRLCE+SHOT.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1bkepYvt1VehQ0ECZBE0kJN_Bj-jLXYQ4TtzAOb7oKydqjhXqD8O58flMa1bwHByUUeQFfxHP6uJsFUDoZ0deTOJNQTg2HkJerXc2G5Jtu6qHvCCdMC5qu5URUrXrlpDerTKh3A2yyM/s640/CIRLCE+SHOT.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An overhead shot of Shadow and Hypnos from the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One of my favorite elements of <i>How Have You Been?</i> is your blend of 2D animation and stop motion, especially as the lines between those two mediums become progressively blurred and eventually come to a head towards the end of the film.<br />As my final question, could you describe for us your process on <i>How Have You Been?</i> for mixing 2D animation with stop motion, as well as any challenges it may have posed along the way?</b><br />
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<b>HC:</b> Oh my goodness! Yes, this often felt like a big mistake on the tough days through this shoot! It basically doubled the minutes of animation for the 3 minute video. But I was very determined to push myself again with this opportunity, and animate the two characters in different mediums, to show they were of different states.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2D elements are added to a frame from the film in TVPaint. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadow as seen in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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Each scene was a little different to construct, depending on whether ‘Shadow’ was interacting with ‘Hypnos’ or if the camera was moving. The static scenes were less complex, as usually I used some video reference as a guide, and I could block out roughly where the shadow would be. For example, in the scene where they clasp hands, the puppet is holding onto a piece of black wood placed at the right angle, that I painted out in post.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="351" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/MkIFpiU_-ixlFwG8SBL0dd-TQDRtxQYK2WRvamxhi9W-su4aaZ66DV9RNbiha60oNeTcG6Ke8MMyKgcL7TnexZzro8kFWCttrtbvP0j5O2hEDNyn9ebGrzuNBY-mo-ByBSHGbEdz" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A stick used to give Hypnos something physical to hold. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-doMomLAHglI/XCwBVvv5JvI/AAAAAAAAGCA/O6sGqsx6YSEvxuC5egxh1_qIS-GNo1C7gCEwYBhgL/s1600/SQUARE%2BHYPNOS%2BRIG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-doMomLAHglI/XCwBVvv5JvI/AAAAAAAAGCA/O6sGqsx6YSEvxuC5egxh1_qIS-GNo1C7gCEwYBhgL/s640/SQUARE%2BHYPNOS%2BRIG.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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However, the scenes shot using the moco rig were very complicated. The hug in the final scene was the hardest to create the sense that both characters were there together in the cave. I had no idea how to create that illusion, so I am incredibly grateful to my amazing friend Abel Carbajal (who is making a stop motion film ‘El Gran Corelli’ at ESCAC, Barcelona) for his technical wizardry. He patiently taught me about turning the footage into a 3D space, so that Shadow would stand next to Hypnos, and effectively ‘shrink’ at the same pace as the real puppet.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="351" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/OzzHRNTO9PLBdG7aZFowQYUweae6WsrWhUoO88E6Bs5cCRT6Dw1onUf8ARfvUVOSpmCQss5OOPNuTFJqT_wBFg2CoLpviAPPruZnwwZmwORL-3CFZNVyjfjUB6cRE-iNnEmvHiYH" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moco shot with real bottle and drawn Shadow. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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Another tricky shot was trying to make a 2D drawing look like she was carrying a real bottle in a moving moco rig scene. Eventually I decided on taking a series of frames of the glass bottle (on a dark background) in the swaying motion that I was imagining, then cutting the shape out in TVPaint and animating the bottle’s path first. Finally I animated the shadow on a separate layer, as if she was holding the bottle, gradually changing shape on her journey up to the shelf in the cave wall.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Huq6U2wdeo/XCwBWahbBPI/AAAAAAAAGBw/2eZHI2PoutAYlKZhO2S3N1pVVXGimO8sQCEwYBhgL/s1600/animating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Huq6U2wdeo/XCwBWahbBPI/AAAAAAAAGBw/2eZHI2PoutAYlKZhO2S3N1pVVXGimO8sQCEwYBhgL/s640/animating.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heather Colbert animating Hypnos on-set. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Colbert’s work by visiting her <a href="https://www.heather-colbert.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bertieanimation/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/bertieanimation?lang=en">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/user26799010">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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This interview is the third Heather Colbert has done with Stop Motion Geek. You can read the first—an interview about her music video <i>Bibimbap</i>, a jazz-infused homage to Nat King Cole for the titular song by Canadian jazz musician Ori Dagan—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/01/interview-with-heather-colbert-director.html">here</a>. You can read the second—the focus of which is her viral music video <i>Dolly Said No To Elvis</i> by Mark Nevin, which tells the story of how country music star Dolly Parton refused to sell rock-and-roll icon Elvis Presley the rights to her song “I Will Always Love You”—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/03/interview-with-heather-colbert-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TY5926oxYPI/XCwBpgEI8yI/AAAAAAAAGBw/E7XxV67ofY4_dz3UnqNw_DTsQxApp8_iwCEwYBhgL/s1600/BOTH%2BHANDS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TY5926oxYPI/XCwBpgEI8yI/AAAAAAAAGBw/E7XxV67ofY4_dz3UnqNw_DTsQxApp8_iwCEwYBhgL/s640/BOTH%2BHANDS.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadow and Hypnos in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Colbert mentions working closely with fellow animators Roos Mattaar and Joseph Wallace on this film, both of whom have done interviews with Stop Motion Geek in the past.<br />
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To read our interviews with Roos Mattaar—the first of which focuses on her work as an animator and set maker on the music video for Spark’s <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i>, the second of which focuses on her short film <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>, which tells the story of the origins of her birthplace—you can go <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-roos-mattaar-animator.html">here</a> and <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-roos-mattaar-director-of.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can read our interviews with Joseph Wallace—the first of which concerns his direction of <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i>, the second of which concerns his direction of the music video for Canadian indie musician Parker Bossley’s <i>Chemicals</i>—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a> and <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2zARGLrhc4/XCwBuBk3qLI/AAAAAAAAGB4/sTWzhxvoRcI9fS5K_l_NycGZ7PYjjkpgwCEwYBhgL/s1600/HYPNOS%2BSCARED.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2zARGLrhc4/XCwBuBk3qLI/AAAAAAAAGB4/sTWzhxvoRcI9fS5K_l_NycGZ7PYjjkpgwCEwYBhgL/s640/HYPNOS%2BSCARED.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hypnos in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert.</td></tr>
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You can purchase Tom Rosenthal’s album <i>Z-Sides</i>, which includes “How Have You Been?” by going <a href="https://tomrosenthal.ffm.to/z-sides.OYD">here</a>. To learn more about Rosenthal, you can visit his website by going <a href="http://tomrosenthal.co.uk/">here</a>.<br />
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You can watch Heather Colbert’s music video for Tom Rosenthal’s <i>How Have You Been?</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/296300999">here</a>.<br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on<a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/"> Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "spectral"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-24727852799116806452018-12-21T10:45:00.000-05:002018-12-21T10:45:29.727-05:00Interview with Gavin Strange (aka “Jam Factory”) – Senior Designer at Aardman, Director of Aardman’s “Masters of Merry” Fortnum & Mason Christmas Ad, and Author of Motivational Self-Help Book, “DO Fly”<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait photo of Gavin Strange. Photo courtesy of Gavin Strange.</td></tr>
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“There are a million and one reasons to not do something, to not start something,” Gavin Strange—a Bristol-based, ten-year veteran at Aardman Animations, where he works as a director, most recently having directed the Christmas ad campaign <i>Masters of Merry</i> for London-based, luxury department store <a href="https://www.fortnumandmason.com/">Fortnum & Mason</a>, as well as a senior designer in the studio’s digital department, whilst also pursuing his passion projects on the side under the alias Jam Factory—tells Stop Motion Geek. “Life, work, family, health, time, space, location, mood, emotion—all of these things can throw you off your game.”<br />
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“So, I think you have to do anything you can, <i>use</i> anything you can, to get and to stay motivated,” Strange continues. “Pick the lowest hanging fruit, set yourself a goal that’s easy, really easy. Because it’s all a step in the right direction. It can be so overwhelming when you’re trying to plot and plan where you want to go, or who you want to be. I think it helps to just take it a step at a time, one foot in front of the other—it makes it achievable!”<br />
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Strange’s career is one hard to summarize, and almost impossible to compartmentalize in response to that oft-dreaded, age-old question: “What do <i>you</i> do for a living?”<br />
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Under the name Jam Factory—an alias he first assumed nearly twenty years ago, after graduating college, doing so without ever dreaming of the success he’s come to claim under it—Strange has managed to explore numerous passion projects, each a different size and shape, and feed his yearning desire to create artwork in as many mediums as possible—from sculpture to filmmaking, animation to graphic design, from writing a book to giving motivational talks.<br />
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Amongst his past talks—some of the venues for which have included TEDx Bristol, Wired Next Gen, Apple Stores UK, and Hustlemania—Strange spoke at Teen DO, a branch of The DO Lectures—a motivational conference that takes place annually in West Wales. After giving the talk, Strange approached another branch of The DO Lectures—The DO Book Company—with an idea for writing a motivational self-help book called <i>DO Fly</i>—a book now available for purchase.<br />
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In describing <i>DO Fly</i> on his <a href="https://www.jam-factory.com/dofly">website</a>, Strange says, “Do Work You Love. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But the reality can be quite different. Whether you're just starting out or simply ready to head in a new direction, you're going to need some help turning your natural skills into success-seeking missiles of radness.”<br />
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In our interview, Strange discusses the unconventional path he took to earn the diverse career he has today, as well as his philosophy on fueling his creativity, learning from his mistakes, and motivating himself to step outside his comfort zone and explore new pursuits and ideas—both in the workplace and on the side. He also tells us about directing “Masters of Merry,” and the challenges associated with representing the three-hundred years of history behind Fortnum & Mason. He also speaks about the process of writing <i>DO Fly</i>, and gives us a run-down of what, as of late, has inspired him.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Gavin! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’m quite taken with your charisma and passion for everything you do—animation, filmmaking, web design, sculpture, photography, writing, graphic design...to list only a few—as well as your burning desire to inspire as many people as you can to pursue a career doing what they love.<br />You mention in your inspirational keynote speech “You Have The Same 24 Hours As Everyone” that you took an unconventional path to get to where you are today, earning a career nigh impossible to sum up quickly, yet which spans across numerous mediums.<br />Can you give us a short-and-sweet summary of the journey you took to getting where you are today?</b><br />
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<b>Gavin Strange:</b> Hello! Aww, well that is very VERY kind of you to say such nice things, thank you very much! And thank you for having me, it’s a real pleasure! Let me compliment you—your questions are so well researched and unique, that’s very kind of you to do!<br />
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Right then, let’s get started! To answer your first question, here’s a short-and-sweet summary of my journey:<br />
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I studied Graphic Design at college in the UK but didn’t go to University, instead I got into the industry and started my first job as a junior designer when I was 17. I was encouraged and inspired to experiment with all the different mediums I was interested in, in my spare time, which I did with glee. Over the years I brought those passions into my day job. I put out those passion projects under the artist name of ‘Jam Factory’, just for fun. It was my online space where I hosted all the things I enjoyed to do: filmmaking, illustration, character design and more.<br />
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Fast forward nearly 20 years and I still do the same thing—only now my passion for filmmaking fully weaved its way into my professional career as I am, very proudly, a Director for the prestigious Aardman. I joined, 10 years ago, as a Senior Designer, and that’s a role I still hold—so I jump between Director and Designing, and I absolutely love it!<br />
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I still go home though and indulge my curiosity for trying my hand at new things. That excitement for just tinkering, creatively, has never left me and I hope it never well!<br />
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Right now I hope between brushing up my 3D skills in Cinema4D and learning to make beats using Ableton Live!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Images from <i>Masters of Merry</i>. Photos courtesy of Gavin Strange.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In “You Have The Same 24 Hours As Everyone,”<a href="https://vimeo.com/222596558#t=350s"> you say something else</a> that really struck me: “I think it’s best if you don’t have a plan, because, if you have a plan, you’re going to measure yourself against it and you’re going to be terrified. But if you just go forwards—as long as you’re continually moving on and just say, ‘I don’t know where this is going to go, but at least I’m going.’”<br />Could you elaborate on this thought a bit—specifically as if you’re giving this advice to those in our readership who have yet to make the decision to pursue what they’re passionate about?</b><br />
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<b>GS: </b>I think, for me, it’s about doing anything you can to motivate yourself to take the steps towards where you want to be. But, it’s SO easy to say that, I know the difficulty comes in the reality of it. There are a million and one reasons to not do something, to not start something. Life, work, family, health, time, space, location, mood, emotion—all of these things can throw you off your game.<br />
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So, I think you have to do anything you can, <i>use</i> anything you can, to get and to stay motivated. Pick the lowest hanging fruit, set yourself a goal that’s easy, really easy. Because it’s all a step in the right direction. It can be so overwhelming when you’re trying to plot and plan where you want to go, or who you want to be. I think it helps to just take it a step at a time, one foot in front of the other—it makes it achievable!<br />
<br />
And then, when you’ve taken those first few steps, you use the satisfaction and pride you’ll feel of actually making moves, to fuel your future endeavours.<br />
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Your brain can be a tricky thing, it’ll be throwing everything it can at you to NOT do something. You have to fight back, and I think doing that in little stealth bursts can only help!<br />
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<b>A.H.: To focus in on one of your most recent projects—<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V75Iqx-j-_M"><i>Masters of Merry</i></a>, a Christmas ad campaign you directed for London-based, luxury department store<a href="https://www.fortnumandmason.com/"> Fortnum & Mason</a>, which you directed for Aardman, where you work as a Senior Designer and Director—can you tell us a bit about how you came to the project, and how the initial development process progressed?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> Sure! <i>Masters of Merry</i> for Fortnum & Mason was great fun! It’s such a prestigious place and as we learnt more and more about its 300 year history, it just got better and better!<br />
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The initial development phase was working out how we tell the story of a 300 year old business, against the background of how much the world has changed within those three centuries, all within a minute of screen time! As you can imagine, a lot has changed in that time—so it was really about working with Otherway, Fortnum’s agency, to work out the best and most succinct moments we could pick to really show a wide range of human endeavours, but also the ones that related closely to Fortnums itself—like the Suffragette movement for example.<br />
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We also got to bring the iconic illustrations of Edward Bawden to life too, who was Fortnum’s go-to illustrator in the 20th Century. We used both the original scans of his work mixed with painstakingly redrawn versions, then set about animating them!<br />
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To top it all off we threw in a section of custom-shot live-action, which was all done on location within the F&M store in London’s Piccadilly.<br />
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That’s what made it so exciting—this heady mix of mediums and history—blending it all together!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Images from <i>Masters of Merry</i>. Photos courtesy of Gavin Strange.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: When working with an iconic client like Fortnum & Mason, a music artist such as P.O.S., or even an iconic character like Shaun the Sheep, what processes have you developed for representing them in media they solicit you to create? What kind of communication do you emphasize between you and such clients to make certain they’re satisfied with the path you and your creative team are going down with such a project?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> I think it’s just all about regular, clear communication. More importantly, just being human I guess. Maybe it comes down to that stuff I was talking about earlier—being a realist in making things happen—I like to be a realist in communication I guess, especially with clients. We’re all human beings and we all just want to make something great, so let’s not waste any energy or time hiding behind formalities or protocol—let’s cut to the chase and make something great! That’s not to say, of course, that you shouldn’t be professional, far from it—I just like to make friends and make great stuff, and I’m very proud and pleased that the people I’m fortunate to work with feel the same. Long may that continue!<br />
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<b>A.H.: How often—if at all—do you recommend looking back on work you’ve done in the past, and assessing or judging the the way a project turned out—especially in terms of analyzing the mistakes one makes in their earlier work?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> Oh all the time! I think you should look back and be proud of what you’ve made! Yes, of course, you’ll spot the flaws but there’s definitely something to be said for just taking the time to reflect! It’s hard to make something, so you should be proud that you made something from nothing, and put it out into the world. What a job!<br />
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I’m lucky enough to give talks, and part of writing a new talk each year is looking back, and I really like it. I’ve found it really healthy for developing my own work and my own mind actually.<br />
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To prepare for the future you have to learn from your past!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RiWNl1kw03A/XB0EbaXNNCI/AAAAAAAAF9s/VCWseUTEi6csBQIfipPFN6PIRL19xElOQCLcBGAs/s1600/Fortnum%2B%2526%2BMason_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="1600" height="186" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RiWNl1kw03A/XB0EbaXNNCI/AAAAAAAAF9s/VCWseUTEi6csBQIfipPFN6PIRL19xElOQCLcBGAs/s640/Fortnum%2B%2526%2BMason_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Images from <i>Masters of Merry</i>. Photo courtesy of Gavin Strange.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: To bring up something else you talked about in “You Have The Same 24 Hours As Everyone,”<a href="https://vimeo.com/222596558#t=632s"> you mention another concept</a> I find particularly remarkable: “I think all this stuff—making things, doing thing, being a human being and just being out there and and having ideas, being a doer—kind of can split in two: It can be about time and energy. It can kind of really boil down to these two simple things.”<br />What methodologies have you developed and do you recommend people utilize to spend these two resources in the most profitable way?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> I do believe that it can boil down to Time and Energy. Obviously, I know life is way more complicated than that, but I look for any way I can to simplify things and make stuff achievable! So I tried to identify the things that get in the way when trying to make things happen, especially outside of your general responsibilities. You have to make the time and find the energy! As you might be able to carve out an hour to get stuck into that new thing that tickles your fancy… but you don’t have the energy or enthusiasm to do so. Or, you might be humming with excitement to do a deep dive into a new topic, only to find you simply don’t have the time amongst your duties as a functioning member of society!<br />
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For me, it’s trying to, where I can, marry up those two elusive entities—time and energy. That’s why, like I mentioned earlier, I think it’s important to do anything you can to get a ‘win’. Even finding the time and energy to spend 20 minutes doing something that's an indulgence for you—that’s a win! Sure, getting lost for 8 hours into a new topic would be lovely, but that’s really tricky, especially when life gets in the way!<br />
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A thing I like to do is make my own ‘time circle’. I draw a circle and split it up into 24 different sections—each hour of my day represented visually. I then plot and colour in what I spend each hour doing, to see if I can be spending my time better!<br />
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Now, there’s a huge caveat here, and that’s to say having more time to spend won’t make you a better creative. There’s a real issue of ‘struggle porn’ at the minute, glamourising working a lot and sleeping a little. That’s not what I’m advocating, at all. What I might achieve in 3 hours might take you 30 minutes. It’s different for everyone. It’s about working <i>smarter</i>, not harder.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a bit about the origins and development of your book, <i>DO Fly</i>?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> Ahhh yes, well long story short—it came about because I spoke at the wonderful ‘DO Lectures’ in 2014. They have a publishing imprint, called ‘The DO Book Company’, which publishes pocket ‘guides’, on all sorts of subjects, by the speakers from The DO Lectures.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of Strange's book <i>DO Fly</i>. Source: https://www.jam-factory.com/dofly</td></tr>
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I was blown away by my visit to the event—it’s more accurate to call it a ‘festival’ than a conference. Whilst I was there, I was given a copy of ‘Do Purpose’, by David Hieatt—co-founder of the Howies, Hiut Denim and the DO Lectures themselves. Reading his book I was blown away, I was heartily inspired but also, it was written in a way similar to how I structure my own talks. For the first time ever, I found myself thinking “...maybe I could write a book!?”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo of the interior of <i>DO Fly</i>. Source: https://www.jam-factory.com/dofly</td></tr>
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I reached out to Miranda, the founder of the DO Book Company and shared the ideas I had. There were all subjects and thoughts I’d been expanding on, over the years, in my talks—so it was about collecting them all together, in a cohesive fashion, and making it into something tangible!<br />
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A friend of mine described it best as “It’s a self-help book for people who ******* hate self-help books!” I’d have to agree with that, I never describe it as that myself, but I do hope it’s a helpful guide. A practical and realistic guide to doing things you want to do. A set of tips and tricks to get the best out of yourself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo of the interior of <i>DO Fly</i>. Source: https://www.jam-factory.com/dofly</td></tr>
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I loved the writing process. It was a real challenge for me, but I did love it. The feeling of having a book out there, in the world, for people to (hopefully) enjoy is wonderful! Much like filmmaking, it’s a body of work that you’ve held dear to your heart, for a long time, is then released into the wild, to be looked at and (again, hopefully) poured over for decades to come. That’s really special. I feel very, very privileged to have had that opportunity. To be honest, I’ve got the bug to write another...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="272" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/161295093?color=f7e848&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<b>A.H.: To wrap up this lovely interview, what art—and I’m going to leave it up to you to define what exactly “art” means, although it could mean anything from books to films to illustration to plays—have you found particularly inspiring as of late, and why?</b><br />
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<b>GS:</b> Oh boy, well, my inspirations change all the time, so I’m going to list a bunch of bits that has tickled my fancy as of late:<br />
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<b>God of War</b><i>PS4 Game</i>Put simply, it’s a masterpiece. I *just* completed it last night! A beautifully designed video game with a really powerful narrative arc: the tale of a father and his son, as they set out on an arduous quest of honouring their late wife/mother’s wishes and scattering her ashes from the highest peak. It’s beautiful, brutal and I loved every second of it!<br />
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<b>The Art of Design</b><i>Netflix Documentary Series</i>A brilliant suite of docs focusing on all sorts of creatives—there’s an illustrator, shoe designer, set designer and all sorts. Really well shot, in-depth and muchos inspiring. Highly recommended!<br />
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<b>Be More Pirate</b><br />
<i>Book by Sam Conniff Allende</i><br />
This great read is all about the golden age of pirates from history, and actually how socially and morally progressive they were for their time—they were equal opportunities ‘employers’, the first of their kind, with equal pay and conditions for all members of their crew with no regard for gender or race. It’s taking these fascinating tales from the high seas and applying them to modern society and encouraging us all to ‘Be More Pirate’.<br />
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<b>Hilda</b><br />
<i>Netflix Animated Series</i><br />
A beautiful series by Luke Pearson, about a young girl called Hilda and her fantastical magical adventures she goes on in the town of Trollberg. My wife, my son and I all love it—so it’s enjoyable from 22-months-old to 36-years-old!<br />
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Thank you for having me! Merry Christmas!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait photo of Gavin Strange. Courtesy of Gavin Strange.</td></tr>
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You can explore more Strange’s work by visiting his <a href="https://www.jam-factory.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamfactory/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/JamFactory">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jamfactory/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamfactory">Vimeo</a>, and <a href="https://www.aardman.com/work/showreel-3/">Aardman showreel</a>.<br />
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You can watch Strange’s keynote speech—“You Have The Same 24 Hours As Everyone,” which he gave at DO Teen—by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/222596558">here</a>. You can learn more about The DO Lectures by visiting their <a href="https://www.thedolectures.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/thedolectures">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DoLectures">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/@dolectures">Medium</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thedolectures/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/DoLectures">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/thedolectures">SoundCloud</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedolectures/">Facebook</a>.<br />
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You can go <a href="http://2018.offf.barcelona/artists/l4rq/gavin-strange-present-hustlemania">here</a> to learn more about Strange’s “Hustlemania”—an annual conference featuring speakers representing a wide spectrum of artists.<br />
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To learn more about and purchase Strange’s book—<i>DO Fly</i>—you can go <a href="https://thedobook.co/products/do-fly-find-your-way-make-a-living-be-your-best-self">here</a>.<br />
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You can watch Strange’s <i>Masters of Merry</i> ad for Fortnum & Mason by going <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V75Iqx-j-_M">here</a>, and you can learn more about Fortnum & Mason by visiting their <a href="https://www.fortnumandmason.com/">website</a>.<br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-83921487278410839122018-12-03T23:01:00.002-05:002018-12-21T09:56:14.009-05:00Interview with Chris Randall, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Second Home Studios<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Randall in the Mills & Reeve Innovation 50 list. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/904681346060230656</td></tr>
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“I came to animation mainly from a point-of-view of blind curiosity,” Chris Randall—the creative director and co-founder of Second Home Studios, a Birmingham, United Kingdom-based, award-winning animation studio—tells Stop Motion Geek. “I’d always loved the medium but never took it seriously, or saw myself with a part to play in it. It wasn’t until after Uni that I realised I basically like tinkering and trying out new things, whilst at the same time telling stories. So, animation is a perfect fit for me.”<br />
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First founded in 2004, Second Home Studios has garnered multiple BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards and nominations for many of the films in their diverse repertoire of artistic and commissioned projects, encompassing all styles of animation—from stop motion to CGI to 2D—as well as puppetry and mixed-media. In their fourteen-and-counting years, they’ve worked with universally known brands and broadcasts such as the BBC, Bechtel, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Lego, National Express, PayPal, and Sony to create a variety of online campaigns, music videos, commercials, title sequences.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Randall speaking at ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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At the studio, Randall has directed and produced a number of projects, including the BAFTA Children-nominated film <i>The Mechanical Musical Marvel</i>, the RTS-winning stop motion short film <i>My Motorbike</i>—made as a part of the CITV ‘Share A Story’ competition—the commercial<i> Book of Legends</i> for Pilsner Urquell, which won a British Animation Awards Public Choice prize for Best Commercial and a Golden Panda at 2013 Sichuan TV Festival in China. He also co-directed the short film <i>The Animal Book</i>, which was made possible by the the Digital Shorts Scheme and was screened at over forty festivals, including Cannes Film Festival, Anifest, and Edinburgh Film Festival.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>The Animal Book</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Earlier this year, Randall appeared as a guest speaker at the annual ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum—with whom Stop Motion Geek collaborated to organize this interview, the fourth in a series of interviews with several of the distinguished guests at this year’s ANIMARKT—where, alongside the creative duo Kijek/Adamski, he spoke about his experiences working with agencies and clients in commercial projects, and the presence of stop motion in the marketing communications.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l13DsHgMstk/XAXwqexK4kI/AAAAAAAAF7M/9ub-c5dA8bs7EKKLkeEPFmHw44wvBKGQACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B9.55.22%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l13DsHgMstk/XAXwqexK4kI/AAAAAAAAF7M/9ub-c5dA8bs7EKKLkeEPFmHw44wvBKGQACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B9.55.22%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Pilsner Urquell – Book of Legends</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Randall discusses his path to his career, his employment process at Second Home Studios, and how he and his associates choose which medium to make a given project in. He also tells us how his approach to creating educational material differs from other kinds of projects, why he believes the funding process for animated short films needs to be revolutionized, and the thought process behind Second Home Studios’ Manta Motion Control.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Chris! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’m quite excited to feature you and your work on Stop Motion Geek—you’ve created an incredible body of work thus far, and it would seem you show no sign of stopping any time soon!<br />To start, can you tell us a bit about how your passion for filmmaking—animation in particular—was first ignited, and how you got from that point to where you are now—the founder and Creative Director of your own studio, as well as a director and producer of numerous music videos, commercials, title sequences, and theatrical projection design, spanning many mediums, from stop motion to 2D computer animation to CGI to puppetry?</b><br />
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<b>Chris Randall:</b> I started out as a camera assistant on motion control and VFX shoots in the mid-90’s working on things like BBC’s <i>Red Dwarf</i>, which was great fun - helping to blow up spaceships in my uni semester breaks. I was very lucky to learn from a great mentor, Peter Tyler, who taught me camera discipline. From there I worked for Central TV, running a small rostrum studio for the broadcast design department. I’d always made models so this was a nice way of working in front of and behind the camera at the same time. I started messing about with animation in my lunch breaks and ended up making tonnes of stuff for CiTV, the children’s strand. My first proper bit of animation (although it looks very basic now) was <i>The Junkyard Jungle</i>, which unexpectedly won a Gold Promax Award. When a swathe of redundancies happened, Second Home Studios was a way to carry on not just with animation for broadcast, but with theatrical projection design too. It’s been 14 years and counting...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--u59HcTPbZY/XAX7r7CMKnI/AAAAAAAAF88/03vzi2hg0fYmo6qfgX3eneqCz27XyF3BgCLcBGAs/s1600/Chris%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--u59HcTPbZY/XAX7r7CMKnI/AAAAAAAAF88/03vzi2hg0fYmo6qfgX3eneqCz27XyF3BgCLcBGAs/s640/Chris%2B7.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo from the commercial <i>Together Works</i> for Touchwood, made by Second Home Studios. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/1035427979684442112</td></tr>
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<b></b>
<b>A.H.: The <a href="https://accelerateanimation.com/portfolio_page/second-home-studios/">website Accelerate Animation</a>, in its article on Second Home Studios, purported that, prior to 2014, you hired “in a regular pool of freelancers as needed on a project by project basis,” and that in early 2014 you took on two part-time staff.<br />What experiences and qualities do you look for in new employees, and how have you gone about hiring freelancers, as well as your part-time staff?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> The number of inquiries I receive (both for paid work and work experience) has gone up from one or two a week, to around 1-2 per day. If people send in some useful visual references of their work, it makes selection reasonably easy. For some jobs, we just need to go to experienced hands, for speed and convenience. We do work quite organically and have to be flexible, so people who can think on their feet and fix problems in whatever format will always be called upon. The job has become a lot more about cultivating a decent working environment, so having people with a shared level of passion makes a project smoother and more enjoyable.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J7qo3YJbyxg/XAXzo3GqayI/AAAAAAAAF8M/455jGwcKuRIPKNwyYORPhHvuJWIdUpfrACLcBGAs/s1600/Chris%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1024" height="550" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J7qo3YJbyxg/XAXzo3GqayI/AAAAAAAAF8M/455jGwcKuRIPKNwyYORPhHvuJWIdUpfrACLcBGAs/s640/Chris%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stills from Second Home Studios' four-time BAFTA winning "Share a Story" competition for CITV. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/952966637761781760</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Second Home Studios is known for utilizing a myriad of techniques—all styles of animation, as well as mixed-media and puppetry—to produce films for all kinds of clients, and for every audience.<br />Although I imagine it differs from project to project, how do you, your associates, and your clients decide on which medium to use to produce a given film?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> It’s mainly down to budget and time. If a project won’t fit either case, we make recommendations for alternative approaches. As a rule, I’ll always try to interrogate the brief as to why a particular medium has been sought by a client and if it can’t be told better through other means.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y0rxK81e-Egwa3Sn6hDaLMqrvLxwo8LhnCZJAya6SKcgdZ-jOM2UhMhD2QtEOpAMq0ydSxXOapx1D0SC0JWdVuWS3ZnMERB63KiBp4nMTxRUUU5NbBObnKF3lma2F-SqGl4wHr0snrk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-12-03+at+9.59.17+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y0rxK81e-Egwa3Sn6hDaLMqrvLxwo8LhnCZJAya6SKcgdZ-jOM2UhMhD2QtEOpAMq0ydSxXOapx1D0SC0JWdVuWS3ZnMERB63KiBp4nMTxRUUU5NbBObnKF3lma2F-SqGl4wHr0snrk/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-12-03+at+9.59.17+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Pilsner Urquell – Book of Legends</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Many of Second Home Studios’ commissioned projects have had the challenge of having to educate an audience (one that’s often very young) about a particular real-world piece of engineering. The examples that come to mind are the mixed-medium piece <a href="https://secondhomestudios.com/portfolio/bechtel-the-engineering-machine/"><i>Bechtel – The Engineering Machine</i></a> (created to promote Bechtel’s educational STEM outreach), and the hand-drawn/CGI, BAFTA Children-nominated film <a href="https://secondhomestudios.com/portfolio/the-mechanical-musical-marvel/"><i>The Mechanical Musical Marvel</i></a>, which you directed and produced.<br />For these pieces in particular, but also in general, what has been your approach to conveying an educational message across these and other projects?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> I get a real kick out of the educational stuff. And the feedback we’ve had from these kinds of projects is always amongst the most rewarding.<br />
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Regarding approach, there is no formula, but sometimes the film is a means to a different end. For example, the prerequisite for <i>Bechtel</i> was that it had to have a student crew. Another project we did, <i>Chasing Fate</i> (for which we did the projection design) took sixty or so teenagers who were considered to be at risk, and turned them into a confident, performing ensemble cast. <i>The Mechanical Musical Marvel</i> had to be technically on point whilst speaking to a wide age bracket – the work here was 80% front loaded into script development. All different projects with different needs. Recognising the need being solved by the film I suppose is half the battle.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hP5GZ19_x2I/XAXwpEXidPI/AAAAAAAAF7E/pdTaR3fgCh4sAAsoNfF0Kb6u5_TZDuHmQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B9.53.35%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hP5GZ19_x2I/XAXwpEXidPI/AAAAAAAAF7E/pdTaR3fgCh4sAAsoNfF0Kb6u5_TZDuHmQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B9.53.35%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>My Motorbike</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: On <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrandall1976/">your LinkedIn profile</a>, a past associate of yours—<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfenwickuk/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BfmdqIlT7SbSYyRa%2FQ1bZFw%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base-recommendation_details_profile">Adam Fenwick</a>—remarks that you are “so hands on with every project that not only is he involved with scripting, designing, modeling and animating himself, he is also directing a whole team of animators and modelmakers while supervising the post production to bring the whole job together – I don’t know how he does it, but he does it brilliantly!”<br />How do you manage to do everything you do in a given day, week, month, or year? Do you have any tips for time-management to offer creatives—specifically those in charge of a group of people on a given project?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> Adam is very kind and someone I wish I could sincerely work with more often. I try to plan as much as possible whilst leaving enough room for interpretation, especially rom animators. No tips really, other than learning Excel helps. Sounds dull, but blocking things out in simple terms, schedule, storyboard, or props list can be helpful.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gDuwRdOScMs/XAXwoWmwHkI/AAAAAAAAF68/h8EOrKVEXuMH9222acTLY0KNT0L1TcnTQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B10.04.53%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gDuwRdOScMs/XAXwoWmwHkI/AAAAAAAAF68/h8EOrKVEXuMH9222acTLY0KNT0L1TcnTQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-03%2Bat%2B10.04.53%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>The Mechanical Musical Marvel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: Can you tell us a bit about Second Home Studios’ Manta Motion Control system? What led to the decision for Second Homes Studios to engineer their own motion control system, and what have the results been thus far?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> Basically the rig is upcycled from an old 35mm film rostrum which I’d been hanging on to for about 10 years. I’m glad I did. We used it to build the chassis and the track bed. For the rest of the mechanics, I did some very rudimentary sketches which were interpreted by the brilliant Rich Sykes who made it all a reality to work with Dragonframe. I grew up with MOCO, and love the capabilities it opens up creatively, so it’s a nice tool to have ready. We’ve used it pretty much non-stop since we switched it on. The last project we did was for Penny’s latest Christmas ad, through Glassworks, shooting some pretty big miniatures to have the CG characters dropped in. I’m really pleased with the results especially the Arctic stuff. It’s on air in Germany and will be available to see (I believe) on December 26th.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m6zBA45RoNs/XAXx-U6hUeI/AAAAAAAAF7w/xYNSKdYc6Fcub1_PUysswTgfW-EUazL3gCLcBGAs/s1600/Chris%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="1024" height="368" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m6zBA45RoNs/XAXx-U6hUeI/AAAAAAAAF7w/xYNSKdYc6Fcub1_PUysswTgfW-EUazL3gCLcBGAs/s640/Chris%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Several stills of the Manta Motion Control system. Source: https://secondhomestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Manta_Axes_Montage_SFW_1-1024x589.jpg</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7TR6GmlapgE/XAX58V1B3RI/AAAAAAAAF8k/FJkpcy8pktsGNuxe7QtInrKlPlPK1B5lACLcBGAs/s1600/Chris%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="1200" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7TR6GmlapgE/XAX58V1B3RI/AAAAAAAAF8k/FJkpcy8pktsGNuxe7QtInrKlPlPK1B5lACLcBGAs/s640/Chris%2B5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from one of Second Home Studios' most recent projects—a commercial for Germany's Penny store. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/1065992240651227136</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Also on Accelerate Animation, you’re quoted as saying, “I wish I’d known how to animate! I taught myself. I didn’t really take it seriously until I landed a job that gave me the chance to experiment with animation. It would have made life a lot easier rather than learning on the job, if I had I understood the basic principles better before I started. But then if I had studied animation, I might not have ended up practicing it!..Don’t always believe what you are told, or where you are pushed at University.”<br />Speaking from your own experience, can you elaborate on the point you make in those latter two sentences, specifically gearing your advice towards those at or considering university?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> I came to animation mainly from a point-of-view of blind curiosity. I’d always loved the medium but never took it seriously, or saw myself with a part to play in it. It wasn’t until after Uni that I realised I basically like tinkering and trying out new things, whilst at the same time telling stories. So, animation is a perfect fit for me. Some of the things at Uni I learned to death until I no longer cared about them. Learning on the job was how I came to animation, and I’m very grateful for that opportunity. Would I have had the same confidence to experiment my way into it, had I not been to Uni? Who knows?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rWbbhu-5hp8/XAX6ivKCwoI/AAAAAAAAF8w/8JVXcAkP7o40XqP2uw4FECX5XV99SFRMACLcBGAs/s1600/Chris%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rWbbhu-5hp8/XAX6ivKCwoI/AAAAAAAAF8w/8JVXcAkP7o40XqP2uw4FECX5XV99SFRMACLcBGAs/s640/Chris%2B6.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from an ident for Sony's Movieland made by Second Home Studios. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/943795580614135808</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you and Second Home Studios?</b><br />
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<b>CR:</b> We’re a small operation and we’ll keep going for as long as we’re able. At the moment we've got plenty to keep us occupied, so long may it continue.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w0sfggS4h6Y/XAXyOLtI5jI/AAAAAAAAF74/8ZFe3pmCVYAqjp8DKRfk2yYDFsfMiXTLgCLcBGAs/s1600/ANIMARKT%2B2018_Chris%2BRandall_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w0sfggS4h6Y/XAXyOLtI5jI/AAAAAAAAF74/8ZFe3pmCVYAqjp8DKRfk2yYDFsfMiXTLgCLcBGAs/s640/ANIMARKT%2B2018_Chris%2BRandall_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Randall speaking at ANIMARKT. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Chris Randall’s work by visiting his <a href="https://twitter.com/secondhomechris">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrandall1976/">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/channels/chrisrandall">Vimeo</a>. You can also do so by visiting the Second Home Studios’ <a href="https://secondhomestudios.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-home-studios/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SecondHomeStudiosUK/">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/secondhomestudios">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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This article is the fourth in an ongoing series of articles Stop Motion Geek organized with several of this year’s prestigious keynote speakers from ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, about which you can learn more by visiting their <a href="http://en.animarkt.pl/">website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/animarktPL"> Facebook</a>, and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/animarkt/?hl=en"> Instagram</a>.<br />
<br />
You can read the first article in this series—an interview with the acclaimed director and animator Barry Purves, most well known for his groundbreaking short films<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097966/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_10"> <i>Next</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212681/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_8"> <i>Operavox</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164317/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_7"> <i>Achilles</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186163/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6"> <i>Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314143/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_5"> <i>Hamilton Mattress</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2667888/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4"> <i>Rupert and the Flying Dragon</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068707/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4"> <i>Rupert Bear</i></a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2053416/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_3"> <i>Plume</i></a>, and<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096623/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2"> <i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i></a>—by going<a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-renowned-stop-motion.html"> here</a>. In our interview, Purves discusses his outlook now as a more seasoned veteran of the industry on his critically acclaimed work, his philosophy when it comes to creating art, and what’s next for him.<br />
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You can read the second article in this series—an interview with Carlos Bleycher, a scriptwriter, content consultant, and story editor on numerous animated, children-oriented content in his native Spanish as well as English for the likes of Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA, and Discovery Kids—by going<a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-carlos-bleycher.html"> here.</a><br />
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You can read the third article in the series—an interview with Angela Poschet, a veteran in the stop motion industry with credits including production supervisor of Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, head of scheduling of Tim Burton’s Oscar®-nominated film <i>Frankenweenie</i>, and director of photography of <i>Bob the Builder</i>—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-angela-poschet-line.html">here</a>.<br />
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As always, thanks to Iwona Buchcic—ANIMARKT’s PR and Marketing Manager—for arranging these interviews and making sure everything went along smoothly.<br />
<br />
Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles in this series and others by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our<a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/"> homepage</a>, by following us on<a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/"> Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on<a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/"> Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "spectral"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-63842841719884407782018-11-26T23:53:00.000-05:002018-12-03T23:02:47.997-05:00Interview with Angela Poschet, Production Supervisor on "Isle of Dogs"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8EMEmvS3TSM/W_zJgWkSULI/AAAAAAAAF6c/tv8Ka9jZtTU4RGfpQr0j5SKv4d7c36sqACLcBGAs/s1600/Angela%2B1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8EMEmvS3TSM/W_zJgWkSULI/AAAAAAAAF6c/tv8Ka9jZtTU4RGfpQr0j5SKv4d7c36sqACLcBGAs/s640/Angela%2B1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela Poschet. Source: http://en.animarkt.pl/masters/masterclasses/</td></tr>
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“I have worked for many different producers and production companies based in different European countries, and I’ve had to adapt to the specific needs for each production,” Angela Poschet—a veteran in the stop motion industry, whose credits include production supervisor of Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, head of scheduling of Tim Burton’s Oscar®-nominated film <i>Frankenweenie</i>, director of photography of <i>Bob the Builder</i>, as well as numerous others credit on feature films, television series, and commercials—tells Stop Motion Geek. “Therefore, you have to be very open and you have to approach each production individually to get it up and running for their needs and the capacity they can deal with.”<br />
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Poschet began her career in the stop motion industry in 1998 as the director of photography on the preschool series <i>Bob the Builder</i> for BBC UK—on which she worked for three years across thirty-nine episodes. She proceeded to work as a director of photography on various productions including the Dutch preschool series <i>Miffy and Friends</i>, the Canadian/German/Korean children’s series <i>Dragon</i> and <i>Ludovic</i>, <i>Haunted Hogmanay</i> and <i>Glendogie Bogey</i> for BBC Scotland, and the stop motion feature film <i>Sandmaennchen – Abenteuer im Traumland</i> (<i>Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams</i>).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Frankenweenie</i></td></tr>
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Only in 2010, after working in the industry for over a decade, did Poschet shift her attention towards taking on a more managerial position in the industry with her work as the production manager and scheduling supervisor of <i>O Apóstolo</i> (<i>The Apostle</i>), and then as the head of scheduling of <i>Frankenweenie</i>, the line producer of the two Norwegian films <i>Solan og Ludvig – Herfra til Flåklypa</i> (<i>Louis & Luca – The Big Cheese Race</i>) and <i>Solan og Ludvig – Jul i Flåklypa</i> (<i>Louis & Luca – Christmas in Pinchcliffe</i>), and the VFX production supervisor of the German-Australian CG film <i>Maya – The Bee Movie</i>, and the production manager of the Oscar®-nominated short film<i> Revolting Rhymes</i>. Most recently she was the production supervisor of <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, on which she worked from a very early stage to create a budget breakdown, production schedule, and shooting schedule, the latter of which she worked closely with the film’s producer, line producer, and consulting producer to monitor along with the progress of the set and puppet fabrication across the film’s entire production.<br />
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In October, Poschet gave a masterclass at the ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum—with whom Stop Motion Geek collaborated to organize this interview, the third in a series of interviews with this year’s ANIMARKT keynote speakers—in Lodz, Poland entitled “How to plan and schedule stop motion production to not lose money and do it successfully,” in which she focused on her work on <i>Isle of Dogs</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela Poschet teaching her masterclass at ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Angela Poschet discusses her beginnings in the stop motion industry, what personality traits and skill-sets make for the best line producers and production supervisors, and her biggest tip to those looking to schedule a stop motion production without going over budget. She also tells us about creating a budget breakdown for <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, and the challenges Wes Anderson’s practical effects-centered approach posed to the production.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Angela! Thank you so very much for doing this interview! It’s a great pleasure to have you here!<br />To start off, can you tell us a bit about your journey to having the illustrious career you have today, as an award-winning line producer, production supervisor, and—among other things—consultant for animation productions in Europe, with numerous credits including many highly acclaimed animated features, short films, and television shows?</b><br />
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<b>Angela Poschet:</b> In 1998 I started my career in the Animation industry as a DoP (director of photography) on the very first ‘Bob the Builder’ show, produced by Hit Entertainment and shot at HOT Animation in Manchester. From 2009 onwards I have been working in the Production Department, since I felt that this field suits my interest very well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Isle of Dogs</i></td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What skills, knowledge, and personality traits would you say are needed to work as line producer or production supervisor of projects in the stop motion medium?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> I have worked for many different producers and production companies based in different European countries, and I’ve had to adapt to the specific needs for each production. Therefore, you have to be very open and you have to approach each production individually to get it up and running for their needs and the capacity they can deal with. The challenge is always setting up the shooting studio—because you need to find the right facilities, which needs to be turned into a stop-motion shooting studio.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Revolting Rhymes</i> poster</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Recently, at the stop motion forum ANIMARKT in Lodz, Poland, you gave a masterclass entitled “How to plan and schedule stop motion production to not lose money and do it successfully,” where you discussed your work as production supervisor of Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, planning and monitoring the shooting timeline and the set and puppet fabrication progress during the whole production.<br />If you had to boil your talk down, what is the most vital secret to planning and scheduling a stop motion production successfully, without losing money?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> Most important is that the production company is aware to get as early as possible an analyses of their script done to get an overview of the amount of workload they will face to have the opportunity to way it up against their budget and timeline, which is most of the time already defined beforehand.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Miffy and Friends</i></td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: To quote something else you say in your interview with Animationweek, “Currently, everyone tends to do effects in post-production and not do it in camera, but Wes was insisting to do all effects in stop-motion and it took months of animation testing to find out which material was the best to use for water, clouds, rain and fire.”<br />How aware were you before creating your first breakdown for the film of the extent to which Wes wanted to incorporate in-camera, practical effects, and how did Wes’s approach affect your “breakdown,” as well as the production as a whole?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> At the start when I was analyzing the script I was not aware about the shooting method, this came when we were starting to talk through each sequence shot-by-shot. However I had already planned to have a team of assistant animators to shoot background animation and elements parallel to the primary animation, which included effects as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A poster for <i>Frankenweenie</i></td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What would you say a good producer/production supervisor relationship looks like?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> The main thing when working within a team is that you trust your partner and that you’re trusted by them and are respected by your collaborators. Equally important is that everyone is listening to each other and always aiming to produce the best end result within the given time and budget.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Bob the Builder</i></td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Across your career, you’ve worked in many different roles—among them those of DoP, camera operator, production supervisor, scheduling supervisor, studio director, line producer, and consultant for animation.<br />What advantages has performing so many roles across dozens of productions given you?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> The advantage I have in working in different roles and positions on various projects is that I do understand the work of those departments and can therefore judge their workload to plan the schedule. If I feel or see that I can be helpful in advising someone to get their job better done, I offer my help, but I’ve always been lucky to work with a team which has been very good doing their jobs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>O Apostolo</i> (<i>The Apostle</i>)</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What tips do you have for staying organized, and keeping track of a production’s progress and crewmembers?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> Basically you have to monitor your production progress on a daily and weekly base against your defined targets and milestones to allow you to react in a fairly quick way if things are getting delayed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Dragon</i></td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What—if you’re allowed to say—are you working on now, and what kind of project would you like to work on in the future?</b><br />
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<b>AP:</b> I’m currently consulting some feature projects within Europe in various states and I’m always interested in feature projects.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela Poschet teaching her masterclass at ANIMARKT. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Poschet’s work by visiting her <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-poschet-51598412/?originalSubdomain=de">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1356228/">IMDb</a>, and <a href="https://www.rixfilm.de/index.html">website</a>. You can also go <a href="http://animationweek.uk/isle-of-dogs-behind-the-production/">here</a> to read her interview with Animation Week about her work on <i>Isle of Dogs</i>.<br />
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This article is the third in an ongoing series of articles Stop Motion Geek organized with several of this year’s prestigious keynote speakers from ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, about which you can learn more by visiting their<a href="http://en.animarkt.pl/"> website</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/animarktPL">Facebook</a>, and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/animarkt/?hl=en"> Instagram</a>.<br />
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You can read the first article in this series—an interview with the acclaimed director and animator Barry Purves, most well known for his groundbreaking short films <i>Next</i>, <i>Operavox</i>, <i>Achilles</i>, <i>Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models</i>, <i>Hamilton Mattress</i>, <i>Rupert and the Flying Dragon</i>, <i>Rupert Bear</i>, <i>Plume</i>, and <i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i>—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-renowned-stop-motion.html">here</a>. In our interview, Purves discusses his outlook now as a more seasoned veteran of the industry on his critically acclaimed work, his philosophy when it comes to creating art, and what’s next for him.<br />
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You can read the second article in this series—an interview with Carlos Bleycher, a scriptwriter, content consultant, and story editor on numerous animated, children-oriented content in his native Spanish as well as English for the likes of Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA, and Discovery Kids—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-carlos-bleycher.html">here</a>. In our interview, Bleycher discusses nearly every facet of the industry—from the simple-yet-effective philosophies he recommends aspiring screenwriters follow to improve their writing, to gloriously indulgent advice about the “nuts-and-bolts” of the craft itself, in everything from creating and developing characters to structuring a story to writing animated and children’s oriented programming.<br />
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As always, special thanks goes out to Iwona Buchcic, ANIMARKT’s PR and marketing manager, for all the time she poured into arranging these interviews and making sure everything went along smoothly.<br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles in this series and others by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-27876997152178457832018-11-18T20:17:00.000-05:002018-11-25T20:49:35.924-05:00Interview with Carlos Bleycher – Scriptwriter, Content Consultant, and Story Editor for Children's Oriented Animated Programming on Netflix, Discovery Kids, Disney xD, and Cartoon Network LA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carlos Bleycher profile photo. Source: http://carlosbleycher.com/index.html</td></tr>
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“The most important thing for any genre are the characters,” Carlos Bleycher—veteran scriptwriter, content consultant, and story editor, with numerous credits spanning animated and children-oriented content in his native Spanish as well as English for the likes of Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA, and Discovery Kids—tells Stop Motion Geek. “That’s why it’s so important to have strong characters that feel real, and then use your premise as an ‘excuse’ to flesh out their personalities, dreams, fears, everything.”<br />
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After getting his start in the industry writing for sitcoms, Bleycher—inspired by the “countless hours of watching cartoons” he consumed as a child along with a healthy dose of ambition—made a conscious shift towards writing for animated programming aimed at children—an oft-snubbed dimension of scripted programming. To Bleycher, however, respecting such an audience is his highest priority in creating his work.<br />
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“I think an audience of children is the most critical and sophisticated one you could ask for,” says Bleycher, “they’re evolving every minute, they’re unpredictable, but at the same time they know exactly what they want. They’re tremendously creative, so it’s going to be very hard for a 7-year-old boy or girl to stick to a show that uses step-by-step, classical three-act structure. You need to play with that structure, deconstruct it, to create something new.”<br />
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Aside from his work as Head of Story & Script on stop motion series such as Netflix’s <i>Horacio y los Plasticines (Horatio & The Plasticines)</i>, Discovery Kids’ <i>Los Papelnautas (The Papernauts)</i>, <i>Puerto Papel (Paper Port)</i>, <i>Tienda de Mascotas (</i><i>Cagemates)</i>—which won the MIFA Creative Focus Pitch in the International Animation Festival of Annecy 2013—with also having worked as the Head of Content at the animation studio Zumbastico Studios, Bleycher sustains a side-career teaching screenwriting masterclasses. He gave his most recent talk— “Character Development & Storytelling”—at this year’s ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum—a prestigious, week-long animation conference, through whom Stop Motion Geek had the wonderful opportunity to coordinate this interview, the second in a series of interviews with several of ANIMARKT’s featured speakers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carlos Bleycher at ANIMARKT. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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(To read the first article in this series—an interview with Barry Purves, one of the leading voices in the stop motion industry, most well known for his groundbreaking short films <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097966/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_10"><i>Next</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212681/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_8"><i>Operavox</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164317/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_7"><i>Achilles</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186163/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6"><i>Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314143/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_5"><i>Hamilton Mattress</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2667888/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4"><i>Rupert and the Flying Dragon</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068707/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4"><i>Rupert Bear</i></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2053416/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_3"><i>Plume</i></a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096623/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2"><i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i></a>—you can go <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-renowned-stop-motion.html">here</a>).<br />
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Bleycher’s genial mein makes his already easily applicable advice even more accessible, proving a vast wealth of knowledge for those interested in forging careers for themselves in screenwriting.<br />
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Regardless of how complex and diverse Bleycher’s career becomes, his mantra remains the same—as does his core advice to all writers, whether aspiring are industry professionals: “Write. Rewrite. Coffee.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carlos Bleycher profile photo. Source: http://carlosbleycher.com/home-eng.html</td></tr>
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In our interview, Carlos discusses nearly every facet of the industry—from the simple-yet-effective philosophies he recommends aspiring screenwriters follow to improve their writing, to gloriously indulgent advice about the “nuts-and-bolts” of the craft itself, in everything from creating and developing characters to structuring a story to writing animated and children’s oriented programming. He also gives us a rundown of the lessons he’s learned from working remotely, teaching writing workshops, and rising in the hierarchical system of television scriptwriting—from starting out getting his first job writing for sitcoms to ultimately running a television show and becoming the Head of Content at Zumbastico Studios.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Carlos! Thank you so very much for doing this interview! I’m extremely excited to feature you and your work on Stop Motion Geek!<br />To start, can you tell us how you came to write for television—specifically for animated programs—and how you came to be in the place you are today—a professional screenwriter, content consultant, and story editor who’s worked on many animated series for several networks (namely Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA, and Discovery Kids), a former Head of Content of an animation studio, a teacher of a numerous screenwriting workshops and programs...not to mention the creator of your own animated children’s series?</b><br />
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<b>Carlos Bleycher:</b> Hola! The pleasure is mine.<br />
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How I started writing for animation and television? Well, I must thank my bad choices in college for that. I decided to study advertising. I was sure that after graduation I would be making T.V. commercials, and for me that sounded like fun! But no, you need quite a lot of years to actually get into that in advertising.<br />
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So with my Creative Writing in Advertising degree I realized that I don’t like advertising at all. Back in 2004, after a year working as a Copywriter in an ad agency, I came across the opportunity to write a puppet T.V. show for kids. That was the whole first calling, and I saw that as an opportunity—the same opportunity that the producers saw in someone writing the show for free. Of course, I had zero experience on scriptwriting, I just had countless hours of watching cartoons as a kid. So, I wrote the show focusing on the kind of show that I would love to have watched as a 6-to-9-year-old. The show aired in a local Chilean broadcaster... And I just loved the result. So I decided to quit advertisement and become a writer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Los Papelnautas (The Papernauts)</i> title card. Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7488982/mediaviewer/rm154543360</td></tr>
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My first jobs as a writer were in local telenovelas and sitcom adaptations. I started telling people that I love cartoons and children’s oriented content and that’s how my first jobs in animation started to pop up. Back then, I was one of the few writers that had worked in animation, and I decided to keep that track. In 2010 I met Alvaro Ceppi, the creative director of Zumbastico Studios. I collaborated with them a couple of years, until finally I ended up being Head of Content of the studio for 6 years.<br />
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Now I’m living in Barcelona where I still write for television, give creative and content consultancies, and impart workshops in storytelling and character development.<br />
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<b>A.H.: While working on the story and script-writing side of many television shows, shorts, and feature films—and in many different capacities—you also sustain a side-career of speaking about the craft of writing, and you teach screenwriting workshops—most recently “Character Development & Storytelling” at ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum.<br />The ANIMARKT website says about your workshop, “[Students] are going to see with theoretical and practical examples how they can develop characters that fit organically into their stories and give the key points to structure their episodes, from the springboard to the actual script.”<br />As the first part of this question—the second part being my next question—what, if you had to boil it down, were some of your key discussion points, thoughts, and takeaways specifically concerning creating characters?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> Any creator loves their characters. And that’s fine, you need to love them! But the problem is that they love them so much that they don’t think of the bad stuff of their characters. They focus on the amazing side and how cool they are. So, you end up having perfect characters: Smart, athletic, with a golden heart, always ready to lend a hand to whomever needs it, good looking and save-the-whales/stop-global-warming/carrots-have-feelings-too kind of guy/gal. So I ask creators: Where is the conflict in that? It’s no fun to see a perfect character going through a challenge, because, if he’s perfect, it’s not a challenge at all! Besides that, a super-good character is emotionally far from the audience. We want no heroes. We want normal people struggling with their limits to become a hero.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Martian Soap 2111 – </i>a television show Carlos Bleycher developed for Disney xD – title card. Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7289722/mediaviewer/rm3187220480</td></tr>
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I try to teach the importance of the flaws in the workshops. Having a character with flaws, a bad temper, childish behaviors or some ghost from the past that comes to visit them once in a while creates an emotional link with the audience. This makes the characters believable and sympathetic to the public. Especially in comedy, people tend to think that it’s just about the joke, the slapstick, but it’s not: The most important thing for any genre are the characters, that’s why it’s so important to have strong characters that feel real, and then use your premise as an “excuse” to flesh out their personalities, dreams, fears, everything.<br />
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<b>A.H.: To piggyback off my last question: the summary of your ANIMARKT workshop also mentions you teaching about the structure of teleplays.<br />Can you give us a few examples from your own work of story structures you’ve followed? How necessary do you think it is for screenwriters hoping to write for children’s television to follow certain story structures?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> I’m a big defender of the narrative structure. But at the same time I say: “Don’t take it too seriously”. Because trying to write something—something that comes out of your creativity and imagination—and make it fit in a mold (structure) following the rules can be tremendously discouraging.<br />
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There’s some key elements of any structure that you need to have in your script. And any book that you read will tell you that in the first 3 pages you need for something specific to happen in your story. I say, “Yes, it needs to happen, but don’t be so harsh on yourself. Don’t break your head trying to fit – for example – the b-plot set-up in the second page of your script. Just play with it, have fun in the process.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Telonio y sus demonios</i> title card. Source: https://vimeo.com/51792468</td></tr>
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Make sure your story has a clear beginning, middle part and resolution, and move the pieces in the middle to tell that story in a unique way: Your way. I think an audience of children is the most critical and sophisticated one you could ask for—they’re evolving every minute, they’re unpredictable, but at the same time they know exactly what they want. They’re tremendously creative, so it’s going to be very hard for a 7-year-old boy or girl to stick to a show that uses step-by-step, classical three-act structure. You need to play with that structure, deconstruct it, to create something new.<br />
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So again, the answer is a big ‘yes’: Structure is super important, but, at the same time, you need to be the boss of it and if something needs to be re-structured, please be my guest. You don’t need to ask for permission.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Your website mentions that you “currently live in Barcelona delivering global services in generation and content and script consultancy.”<br />Can you tell us about your personal experiences of working remotely? What advice or thoughts do you have to give to writers considering working remotely?</b><br />
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<b>CB: </b>Get used to Skype, xD. Learn to love those pixelated producers and directors. I think for a writer it’s very easy to work remotely. Nobody wants the writer in the office, haha. Anyone can send you the bible, have a Skype call to discuss it, and then all of the rest is just via email. This also produces something very cool: When you actually meet the person that you been working remotely in some animation market or festival, it’s great! It creates an instant bond; you get used to talking, laughing and fighting with that person through the screen, and that also have something of impersonality, so when you meet them in flesh and bone it creates a great moment (but maybe is just for me and all the people that I met in reality after hours of Skype actually hate me).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k5i4R-Hfp_o/W_H5DmfD5CI/AAAAAAAAF4E/NHyKUlk32lIQn3NhJtMVvnM_UMXA-25yACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-18%2Bat%2B6.23.24%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k5i4R-Hfp_o/W_H5DmfD5CI/AAAAAAAAF4E/NHyKUlk32lIQn3NhJtMVvnM_UMXA-25yACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-18%2Bat%2B6.23.24%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Puerto Papel (Paper Port)</i> title card. Source: https://vimeo.com/149335084</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Amidst your body of work, you have held the senior position of “Head of Story and Script” on the animated series <i>Puerto Papel (Paper Port)</i> (stop motion and 2D, 52x11’, broadcasted in over 9 countries), <i>Zumbastico Fantastico</i> (2D, 30x7’, broadcasted on Cartoon Network LA and Netflix), <i>Hostal Morrison (Morrison Hostel)</i> (2D, 26x11’, broadcasted on PakaPaka and Cartoon Network LA), and <i>Horacio y los Plasticines (Horatio & The Plasticines) </i>(puppets and stop motion, 52x7’ broadcasted on Netflix).<br />Can you talk about the responsibilities you’ve held as a Head of Story and Script? What is the workflow like concerning the writing process and the turnaround deadlines you and your associates have faced?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> It’s so much stress, haha. But it’s great to be in that position.<br />
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It’s like being the president of your characters and, of course, of your stories. You can fight (professionally speaking of course) with some producer’s decisions, defending what you know is best for the story, but it’s very demanding. You never actually stop working, because during all your free-time or weekends you’re watching everything with your character/show filter. Oh, this will be great for an episode! You take your own life and mold it to create new stories. It’s not an easy job coming up with 52 ideas for a show!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hostal Morrison</i> title card. Source: https://vimeo.com/72978758</td></tr>
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When pre-production starts, it’s like heaven—you just focus on creating hundreds of springboards for the episodes, and then writing the outlines and the actual script. But when the show enters production, you, as a writer, are still writing the rest of the episodes, so now you not only need to write new scripts, but also need to apply the producer’s and co-producers’ comments on the scripts that you already delivered. So from one blink to another you are facing loads of work. You need to be very good at multitasking in order to accomplish the final deadlines meanwhile keep writing new material. You need to switch very quickly to the moods of the characters and story structure of the script that you received the comments about—let’s say—episode 06, but right now you’re writing episode 26, and your characters have gone through a lot in the time in-between.<br />
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And sometimes the feedback from a new version doesn’t stop flooding your inbox. It can be very scary when you need to write the sixth draft, so you open your fifth draft with the producers feedback… You need to scroll very slowly, hoping that there’s no comment on the next page. There’s a classic answer that I hate/love—when I’m completely overwhelmed with the rewriting and new changes or commentaries arrives, I ask them when they need it for, and the answer is always the same: “For yesterday”.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about your experiences <i>developing</i> shows—such as <i>Martian Soap 2111</i> for Disney xD and <i>The Papernauts</i>—versus merely writing on a show already that’s already developed? What have you learned about working with different networks to develop shows?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> It’s like preparing a homemade chili con carne versus a canned one. When you develop a show you need to construct everything; not only the characters and premise, but also what tone the show will have, how the characters will relate to each other, what kind of narrative elements will the show consist of comedy or dramatic. Will it be a dialogue-driven series or a more visual-slapstick one? You need to create a whole universe. Which is extremely fun and I love to do, but, it takes time. A LOT of time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TK4p8XB8TRk/W_H5Dwd-tSI/AAAAAAAAF4I/PSyPtfmHMDY9Sel9ZdU2_44NF8pIkMhTwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-18%2Bat%2B6.23.16%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TK4p8XB8TRk/W_H5Dwd-tSI/AAAAAAAAF4I/PSyPtfmHMDY9Sel9ZdU2_44NF8pIkMhTwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-18%2Bat%2B6.23.16%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Los Papelnautas</i>. Source: https://youtu.be/ra9UvAiSK5U</td></tr>
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On the other hand, working as a writer for an existing show is much more straightforward; you don’t need to create the characters and everything else. They give you all the ingredients and you just need to play with them to create a new recipe. I don’t know why I’m using so many food references... Still, this also takes time, because you need to enter this unique universe already created by someone else, get to know the characters in order to make them do things and speak in a reliable way.<br />
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Developing a show could take several months, even years depending on the kind of show. Writing for an existing show can take just a couple of weeks.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about pitching your original animated series, <i>Tienda de Mascotas (Cagemates)</i>, which won the <a href="http://www.annecy.org/a-propos/archives:fr/2013:fr/carrefour-de-la-creation-2013/palmares-appels-a-projets-2013/fiche-projet-2013:proj-20137451">Disney Channel Prize</a> of MIFA at the International Animation Film Festival of Annecy 2013, France? What goes into a good pitch, and what are the best routes for a writer go about pitching their project?</b><br />
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<b>CB: </b>It was an amazing experience for sure. Being able to pitch my show at the most important animation festival in the world was like a dream come true. But to be honest, I was super scared. There I met Shamik Majumdar, Creative Director, Animation & Live Action Content of Disney EMEA—he was the tutor for the pitch and gave us a lot of advice to improve it, so thanks again Shamik if you’re reading this.<br />
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Basically what I learned is that your pitch needs to communicate the tone of your show. <i>Cagemates</i> was a comedy show, so the pitch needed to be extremely funny, but at the same time, extremely clear on its content. The show focused on the relationship of two best friends – a hamster and a rabbit. It was a 100% character driven show, and Shamick said to me and Alvaro Ceppi (I went with him as a producer of the show to pitch it in Annecy) that the best way to demonstrate that was to quickly show an episode which fleshed out the relationship between these characters. So, along with Alvaro, we pitched a storyboard of an episode, with both of us making the character voices and special effects. When the people started to laugh before the first joke I knew the pitch was working.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mini Beat Power Rockers</i> poster. Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7478542/mediaviewer/rm861742336</td></tr>
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Of course, you can’t do something like this if you’re pitching a drama set during the First World War. So you need to be consistent with the genre and type of production. I’ve seen a lot of pitches, and always the best ones are the ones that you can feel the emotional connection of the author with the project. My advice is to put insights and emotional milestones that connect with the audience. Don’t bore the audience—everything that comes out of your mouth during those 7 minutes of pitching should be extremely necessary to understand not only your project, but also how it will feel once is it on the screen. Rehearsal in front of your friends is a great way to test the pitch.<br />
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<b>A.H.: You’ve written for a variety of different mediums (2D computer animation, stop motion, puppetry, live action).<br />How much does a given medium—especially stop motion and 2D animation—restrict your writing? What lessons have you learned to use a given medium to your advantage when writing and outlining plots?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> Well, actually there aren’t many more restrictions than money. The budget. That will define how many characters, sets and props you’ll be able to use. And in stop motion this uses up a huge part of the budget, because everything that you put in the script the art department needs to design and build. Ca-shing! Every little prop or detail that you write must be built. So you need your limits. You know that you have, let’s say, 8 characters and 6 sets. And that’s it. Now you play with that and explore them, and something magical starts to happen: You go very deep into your characters and come out with amazing backstories or sidestories to play with. And the same with the sets: The audience doesn’t need to know that they always go, for example, to the park to play because there’s no more budget to build an arcade place. So you ask yourself: Why do the character always go there? And you start to justify that and create a story around that set.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Telonio y sus demonios</i> title card. Source: https://vimeo.com/51792468</td></tr>
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These “limitations” are also a great way to construct the universe of the series, because you will stretch and explore them until the last dark corner. And the same with the characters. It’s great actually.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Do you have any advice for aspiring screenwriters for how to “break in” to the animation industry—specifically children’s television?</b><br />
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<b>CB:</b> Write. Rewrite. Coffee.<br />
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Watch everything new that is coming out in the animation world and create your own stuff.<br />
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Also, attending animation markets and festivals such as Annecy, 3D Wire, or Animarkt—just to name a few—is super necessary. Even if there is a small festival close to you, go! In those places you get to meet all the people involved in the animation industry around the world, and if you are charming enough nobody will stop you from actually giving a quick pitch of your project to creative directors, producers or other fellow writers from the major studios and broadcasters around the globe.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--YTEVu1FZ5c/W_Hq3r-eXCI/AAAAAAAAF3A/K0NM3toiTZQaLHw3eZImzglpLa67xrEuACLcBGAs/s1600/ANIMARKT%2B2018_Carlos%2BBleycher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--YTEVu1FZ5c/W_Hq3r-eXCI/AAAAAAAAF3A/K0NM3toiTZQaLHw3eZImzglpLa67xrEuACLcBGAs/s640/ANIMARKT%2B2018_Carlos%2BBleycher.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carlos Bleycher at ANIMARKT. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Carlos’s work by visiting his <a href="http://carlosbleycher.com/home-eng.html">website</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-bleycher-87a6944/">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2798165/">IMDb</a>.<br />
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You can watch Carlos’s enlightening talk about character development and storytelling at the 2018 edition of the annual ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum—where he discusses many of the subjects he references in our interview in greater depth—by going <a href="https://www.facebook.com/animarktPL/videos/539706183146672/">here</a>.<br />
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This is the second in an ongoing series of articles Stop Motion Geek organized with several of this year’s prestigious keynote speakers from ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, about which you can learn more by visiting their <a href="http://en.animarkt.pl/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/animarktPL">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/animarkt/?hl=en">Instagram</a>. Special thanks goes out to ANIMARKT’s PR and Marketing Manager, Iwona Buchcic, for all the time she poured into arranging these interviews, making sure everything went along smoothly.<br />
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You can read the first article in this series—an interview with the renowned director-animator and veritable legend in the stop motion industry, Barry Purves—by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/11/interview-with-renowned-stop-motion.html">here</a>. In our interview, Purves discusses his outlook now as a more seasoned veteran of the industry on his critically acclaimed work, his philosophy when it comes to creating art, his outlook on stop motion versus CGI, and what’s next for him.<br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles in this series and others by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-12835304246399845762018-11-12T22:44:00.001-05:002018-11-12T22:44:57.550-05:00Interview with James Wilkinson, Writer and Director of Stop Motion Short Film "Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i> title card. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“I think it must have been early Aardman stuff that first got me interested in stop motion,” filmmaker and animator James Wilkinson tells Stop Motion Geek, identifying the traits of his influences in animation that fashioned his own cinematic sensibilities, and were, at least in some small way, part of the genesis of his latest film—the charming, funny, and gorgeously realized noir spoof, <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. “The gentle English ambiance and humour were so appealing to me as a kid and I just wanted to try and replicate it!”<br />
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First seen as a youth, Wilkinson’s stop motion inspirations made a lasting impression on him, giving him a passion for the medium that initially took shape as a hobby. As an adult, that passion stayed with him, fueling his studies of film production at university. After graduation, it blossomed into a fully-fledged career as the Managing Director of Tentacle Media—a Staffordshire-based animation studio he co-founded with two members of his graduating class.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Wilkinson and Tentacle Media have since remained dedicated to producing high-quality, animated content of all varieties—from children-oriented television and films to media created to advertise businesses and brands—for a worldwide client base.<br />
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In the nine years proceeding co-founding Tentacle Media, Wilkinson began to toy with disparate ideas for projects, geared more towards being personal rather than professional pieces. The origins of one such idea began in his sketchbook as a few drawings of a scruffy cat with big, bulging eyes, a wily grin, and dark, matted fur, clad only in a striped tie hanging loosely round his neck.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QLcEuJgwMrc/W-o6DczqvZI/AAAAAAAAF1g/Pr1yfN9FzgULTVOt-pRIFAmLhNMZE1iyQCLcBGAs/s1600/Billy%2BWhiskers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QLcEuJgwMrc/W-o6DczqvZI/AAAAAAAAF1g/Pr1yfN9FzgULTVOt-pRIFAmLhNMZE1iyQCLcBGAs/s640/Billy%2BWhiskers.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Wilkinson's initial sketch for the character of Billy Whiskers. Source: http://www.billywhiskers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/sketches-comp-1.jpg</td></tr>
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This image quickly captured Wilkinson’s imagination, as well as his thirst to innovate techniques used to bring stop motion films to life, and his vision for the story this character would tell soon became a rollicking, mystery noir, featuring a hard-boiled, rough-and-ready detective, who just so happens to be an anthropomorphic cat named Billy Whiskers.<br />
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Filling the margins of the paper featuring the first sketches of what would become the character of Billy Whiskers can be found detailed blueprints for several dozen designs of mouth-mechanisms for stop motion puppets—a strong hint towards which technique Wilkinson found himself concocting ways to improve upon.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“After finishing uni and my graduation film I immediately started planning my next short film,” says Wilkinson. “I knew I wanted to have talking characters, but had no idea how lip syncing worked. I mulled on this problem and tried and tested various ideas and methods over a number of years, eventually deciding that a method of animating the mouth electronically could be a viable option.”<br />
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This question—how to most efficiently approach lip-syncing dialogue to puppet’s mouth beyond the traditional, time-consuming methods of replacement animation and frame-by-frame facial animation—drove Wilkinson on in his spare time during late nights and weekends to find an answer. And, after much trial and error, he devised a feasible system.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aC-n2mcWScc/W-o5AKVEa7I/AAAAAAAAF00/5nvXH9DEwzwTNJNzImjjxx7hw2zLNZ1ZwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-12%2Bat%2B9.25.22%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aC-n2mcWScc/W-o5AKVEa7I/AAAAAAAAF00/5nvXH9DEwzwTNJNzImjjxx7hw2zLNZ1ZwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-12%2Bat%2B9.25.22%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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With this new technique on his mind, <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel </i>curiously enough became to Wilkinson something of an experimental project with the goal being to perfect such a system for lip-sync. It does so to great effect, with the vast majority of its nine-plus-minute runtime dedicated to a captivating monologue given by Billy as he puzzles through the film’s whodunit. The end result of Wilkinson’s electronic, primarily arduino and servo motor powered solution is a performance that’s entirely believable, and a film that, even apart from the technical wizardry, is something truly extraordinary in its own right.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storyboard for <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i> by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Wilkinson gives us an in-depth look at the making of <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>—his experiential labor of love—from start to finish, covering nearly every facet of the production, and shares with us the lessons he learned from the experience, including what, in retrospect, he wishes he’d done differently. He also discusses his approach to drawing inspiration from his influences, as well as his next big projects, and his plan to getting them made.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello there, James! Thank you so very much for doing this interview! It’s an absolute pleasure to feature you and <i>Billy Whiskers</i> on the blog!<br />I’d like to start by asking one of my favorite questions: How and when did stop motion first pique your interest and become something you wanted to pursue as a career, and how has your journey into the craft thus far led you to where you are today—the director of your first, professional stop motion short film, <i>Billy Whiskers - The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>?</b><br />
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<b>James Wilkinson:</b> Hey! I think it must have been early Aardman stuff that first got me interested in stop motion. The gentle English ambiance and humour were so appealing to me as a kid and I just wanted to try and replicate it! Stop motion was also pretty accessible, I could do it on a camcorder by pressing stop and start really quickly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A finalized storyboard for <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced</i> trowel created by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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I’ve also always been keen on making things, so stop motion seems like the perfect synergy of crafting and film making.<br />
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As well as stop motion films I made a bunch of live action films and flash animations when I was young. I went to uni and studied film production, but quickly realised my heart was in animation so carried on doing little bits of animation and we managed to persuade our tutor to let us do a stop motion animation as our graduation film.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sketch of the toolshed set for <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i> by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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I also set up a small business whilst I was at uni, along with two other guys, and we’ve been building that up for the last 9 years producing mostly digital 2d animation. That ate up most of my time but I always had plans for stop motion shorts in the back of my head and any time I didn’t spend working on corporate projects was spent working on my stop motion ideas.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Could you tell us a bit about the beginnings of <i>Billy Whiskers</i>—from the inception of the idea to your first steps in making the film a reality?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> After finishing uni and my graduation film I immediately started planning my next short film. I knew I wanted to have talking characters, but had no idea how lip syncing worked. I mulled on this problem and tried and tested various ideas and methods over a number of years, eventually deciding that a method of animating the mouth electronically could be a viable option.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first version of the armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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Around 5 years ago I was also getting into 3D Printing and fiddling around with arduinos. I scaled up my designs for the mouth mechanism so they could be printed on a 3d printer. This started about a 3 year project of research, re-designs and tests. Once I thought there might be something workable I immediately wanted to make a film so designed a character around a big mouth. At the same time I started putting ideas together for the story of <i>Billy Whiskers</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first version of the head armature built for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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I carried on producing the film in my spare time for about another year or so, writing the script, storyboarding, planning the set etc. late into the night most nights. Eventually it got to a point where I was ready to start production and things got real when I ordered all of the wood to build the set.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original armature for Billy Whiskers's hand. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: On your blog, you mention that you were on a very tight budget while making <i>Billy Whiskers</i>—a place almost every single filmmaker finds themselves in when they start out. This led you to build almost everything yourself, and to perform practically every job on the film except for a select few.<br />Can you give us an idea of the budgetary restrictions on this film, and the best methods you found to stretch a small budget to go as far as it can?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> Yeah the budget was very small for <i>Billy</i>. If you take my time out of the equation the total spent was about £2000 (~$2500). I think there were a couple of key things that kept the cost down. As you say I did most things myself, including spending most evenings for several years beforehand researching different parts of production and working on the pre-production. Having detailed and well developed pre-production was also super important. If you play the animatic next to the final film it almost matches exactly, so there was no wasted time animating things that weren’t in the film. I planned the set precisely in CAD beforehand so I knew exactly what materials I would need and how much they’d cost. A lot of the props and bits in the set were scavenged, that was the advantage of making a full scale stop motion film!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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Having one character and one set also kept the cost down a lot. The original screenplay I wrote had more characters and locations and I decided to pare it back to make it more manageable. Getting the rest made in budget just relied on lots of favours and persistence and planning!<br />
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With my time and all the time other people spent helping out on the film the budget is much higher and it was a huge commitment for our small studio to dedicate the time to the project.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The armature for Billy Whiskers's head compared with the fully fabricated puppet. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One of the things you mention on your blog—in the posts “<a href="http://www.billywhiskers.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/17/building-the-rest-of-billy/">Building the rest of Billy</a>” and “<a href="http://www.billywhiskers.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/24/head-mk-ii/">Head Mk II</a>”—is that you created a fully functional head for Billy, a 3D-printed armature and mouth mechanism you fully fabricated, which you actually ended up throwing out <i>completely</i> and redesigning from scratch to create the head we see in the film.<br />Can you tell us a bit about the history of the “Mk I” and “Mk II” versions of Billy’s head—how you created each, what materials you used, and what you taught yourself along the way? Furthermore, can you tell us about the thought process behind ultimately making the decision to scrap the first design in favor of creating an entirely new version?</b><br />
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<b>JW: </b>The first head worked pretty well. But I just wasn’t happy with the overall look of Billy. He looked a bit creepy! The position of his features was informed by the practical design of the head. So the second head gave me a chance to say, “I want the eyes closer together, the forehead bigger, etc.” It was a big decision though as the first head took so long to develop. I didn’t actually throw it out either. It’s still around somewhere.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original version of Billy Whisker's fabricated head (right) compared with the finalized version of Billy Whiskers's fully fabricated head (left). Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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The re-design also gave me a chance to iron out a few issues in the design and change the servos for stronger ones. The 2nd head was still entirely 3d printed though. The 3d printed armature saved me a lot of time and money as it is so cheap to design and build. It’s not as strong as a steel one, but easy to re-print and replace parts.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uCFhb88jqG4/W-o5BIMLJzI/AAAAAAAAF1E/p8uslyrtwik-wMIj3gtXdKHTp_PcZKStACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-12%2Bat%2B9.26.04%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uCFhb88jqG4/W-o5BIMLJzI/AAAAAAAAF1E/p8uslyrtwik-wMIj3gtXdKHTp_PcZKStACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-12%2Bat%2B9.26.04%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set for the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: On your blog, one of the elements of the production you barely touch on is the actual process of animating—which, by the way, was of a highly professional grade, and I laud you for you work!<br />How much expertise did you have going into the animation process, how long did the animating take in total, and what techniques and resources did you find the most useful to you while animating?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> Thanks! I haven’t done a heap of stop motion animation, so it took a while to get used to how the puppet moved, its strengths and weaknesses. The whole animation process took about 4 months, averaging about 8 seconds a day. The lip syncing technique saved a lot of time as I could pre-programme the mouth movement and didn’t have to think about it too much while I was animating.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set for the film, in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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I do a lot of digital 2d animation and I think this helped. I normally animate in twos and the whole of <i>Billy</i> was shot at 12fps. I used Dragon as I think most stop motion animators do! Its motion control features and compatibility was really helpful as it allowed me to build my own motion control rig and get some great camera movement on a budget.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from the set of the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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Billy was held up with a rig most of the time, I did try to avoid it or hide it where possible to cut down on post production. But I built a really big walking rig on a slider so I could get a consistent and smooth walk. Billy’s not the most poseable character, he’s overweight with short limbs so his range of movements aren’t great (He can’t even touch his own hands together). I had to employ some stop motion “sleight of hand” occasionally to pull off certain shots.<br />
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I don’t go to the extent of filming myself, but I do act a lot of the shots out before I film them. Making notes at what frames certain actions should happen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from set of the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Perhaps it’s just me—and please let me know if it is—but at <a href="https://vimeo.com/292694858#t=91s">1:31 into <i>Billy Whiskers</i></a>, I thought I spied Billy giving a little, subtle gesture with his fingers that to my eyes looks very reminiscent of a gesture Gromit makes throughout <i>Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out</i>—which, if a nod to Nick Park, was very well done!<br />What were your biggest inspirations for <i>Billy Whiskers</i> within the medium of stop motion, and did you emulate them consciously or unconsciously while working on the film?</b><br />
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<b>JW: </b>The finger movement was definitely a nod to <i>A Grand Day Out</i>! I think it’s impossible to be a stop motion animator, particularly British, and not be influenced by Aardman. The characters were so familiar yet absurd. The worlds they create are friendly and welcoming and the humour has always struck a chord with me. <i>Hamilton Mattress</i>, <i>Harvie Krumpet</i> and <i>Flatworld</i> were all super inspirational for me as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set of the film during the process of animation. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: Another element of <i>Billy Whiskers</i> I found to be extremely professional and magnificent in all respects was the sound design—in everything from the music to the voice acting to the lip-sync.<br />Can you talk a bit about the sound design of this film, and the solutions you engineered to address the film’s use of lip-sync?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> The lip syncing, as I’ve mentioned, drove the whole project. Basically the mouth and lips are controlled by servos, that are controlled through an arduino, connected to a computer. So that the lip syncing can be pre-programmed. This was just my answer to the problem of lip syncing and I think it worked well. I’m a pretty lazy animator so the thought of animating the lips as I was animating everything else just seemed absurdly complicated and too much like hard work!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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I also hadn’t really seen anything like it done before so thought it would be interesting to try out something different.<br />
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The rest of the sound design was put together with the help of my really talented collaborator Mike Hayes. I gave him the vague brief of ‘British brass band meets film noir’ for the soundtrack and I think the score he produced was amazing and perfectly captured the atmosphere I wanted. The rest of the sound effects we recorded around the studio with whatever we could find. The chainsaw was actually a petrol strimmer mixed with an old lawnmower.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One of the things you mention on your blog that I find novel about the early days of <i>Billy Whiskers</i> is that it seems‚ in many ways, you consciously designed this film to be a vehicle to teach yourself everything it takes to make a stop motion film of this calibre—in everything from engineering Billy’s armature and mouth mechanism, to lip-syncing dialogue, to creating your own motion control system, to building sets and props, to the actual animating. In so doing, you seem to have intentionally given yourself the room to fail, and to do better—both of which I believe are great virtues in this medium.</b><br />
<b>Looking back on the film now, if you <i>could</i> do it over again, what do you wish you had done differently or had known going into it, now knowing what you do?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> I’m really happy with how the project and film turned out and I’ve learned loads from the process, as you do with any big project. There are of course lots of things I’d do differently. I’d animate it over summer for a start, the studio was freezing! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The camera setup for the film on-set. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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Although the idea behind the project was to test out the lip syncing system, I think there’s too much dialogue and exposition in the film. I feel like the film could be shorter but with better pacing.<br />
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As you say, I made the film for myself but looking back I wish I’d thought a bit more about a purpose or target audience for the film. I made the film as something I’d like to watch without thinking at all about what I’d do with it afterwards. Now I have finished, it I’m still not sure what to do with it! So I wish I’d have put a bit more thought into that from the start.<br />
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I’ve had some great response on Instagram from showing lots of the making of process and I wish I’d have shared the production more as I was making it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Wilkinson animating on the set of the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Now that you’ve completed <i>Billy Whiskers</i>, what do you aspire to do in the stop motion medium and industry <i>now</i>, and how do you see yourself proceeding towards those goals?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> I’d love to make more films and tell more stories. I have a bunch of ideas for a longer format, around 20-30 minutes, the sort of length where you can get fully engrossed in a world and its characters. I have plans to shrink the the mechanism down for the mouth and improve the workflow so I can be more ambitious with the scale of future projects. Having spent time getting this system to work I’d love the opportunity to develop it further.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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I’m hoping <i>Billy Whiskers</i> will show enough potential that I will be able to keep making films. I’d love to have got more people involved in the production of <i>Billy</i> and make it more of a collaborative process so hopefully this is something I can do on larger projects in the future.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Wilkinson animating on the set of the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.</td></tr>
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To explore more of James Wilkinson’s work for Tentacle Media—at which he’s the Managing Director, as well Head of Animation—you can visit their <a href="http://tentaclemedia.co.uk/home">website</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/tentacle-media/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/tentaclemedia">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://dribbble.com/tentacle-media">Dribble</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tentacle_media/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tentaclemedia">Facebook</a>, as well as his personal <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wilkinson-b2597637/">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TentacleJames">Twitter</a>.<br />
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You can watch <i>Billy Whiskers – The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/292694858">here</a>.<br />
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You can learn more about the film and find Wilkinson’s in-depth production diaries transcribing the making of the film, from pre-production to post—a fascinating and insightful look at the creative process—by visiting its website <a href="http://www.billywhiskers.co.uk/">here</a>.<br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.</div>
A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-34313900072583261722018-11-04T22:54:00.000-05:002018-11-18T12:43:44.042-05:00Interview with Renowned Stop Motion Director and Animator Barry Purves<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barry Purves holding the Tchaikovsky puppet for his film <i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i>. Source: http://puppetsandclay.blogspot.com/2011/08/lo-ultmo-de-barry-purves-plume-y.html</td></tr>
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“I worry that animators strive to recreate reality, whereas I think animation should liberate us from reality,” Barry Purves—critically renowned film and theatre director, scriptwriter, stop motion animator, and author of celebrated books about and lecturer on the art and craft of the medium—tells Stop Motion Geek, in a snapshot articulating a philosophy that’s colored his approach to performance in theatre and animation, embodying a theme recurring throughout our interview: of finding himself in a unique season of reflection upon his career thus far, and the legacy in the wake of which he’s already left behind.<br />
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“Not just in the movement,” he goes on, “but in the storytelling, the use of colour, and sound, and so forth. I find ballet and opera and theatre to sometimes be so painfully honest and truthful—and, yes, they are not realistic in the slightest. I think this is about being aware of the limits, the process, and yet that something transcends the technique. I love how in galleries you see the visitors straining forward to look at the brush strokes.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Next</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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One of the most recognized auteurs in the stop motion industry, Purves’s award-winning short films began with 1990’s Aardman-produced <a href="https://barrypurves.com/next/"><i>Next</i></a>—which, in a remarkable feat, succeeds in telling the complete works of Shakespeare in five minutes. He continued with 1993’s Academy Award-nominated <a href="https://barrypurves.com/screen-play/"><i>Screen Play</i></a>—which tells the “Willow pattern story” through Kabuki—the stunning, BAFTA-nominated retelling of Homer’s <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="https://barrypurves.com/achilles/"><i>Achilles</i></a>, and his most recent film, 2011’s breathtaking exploration of Tchaikovsky through the composer’s music, as well as excerpts from his diary and personal letters, in the titular film <a href="https://barrypurves.com/tchaikovsky-an-elegy/"><i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i></a>. They are the titles of only a select few amongst Purves’s filmography—a profound elevation of the stop motion medium—many of which are studied in animation courses all over the world, as well as having been discussed at length in books by authors Paul Wells and Clare Kitson, as well those by masters of the craft such as Ray Harryhausen and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord.<br />
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Aside from his personal projects in the stop motion medium, Purves has also worked on feature films such as <i>The Wind in the Willows</i>, Tim Burton’s <i>Mars Attacks!</i>, and Peter Jackson’s <i>King Kong</i>, as well as television series such as <i>Rainbow</i>, <i>Chorlton and the Wheelies</i>, <i>The Pied Piper of Hamelin</i>, <i>The Wind in the Willows</i>, <a href="https://barrypurves.com/rupert-bear/"><i>Rupert Bear</i></a>, <i>Postman Pat</i>, <i>Bob the Builder</i>, <a href="https://barrypurves.com/tobys-travelling-circus/"><i>Toby’s Travelling Circus</i></a>—of which he directed fifty-two episodes—and BBC’s <a href="https://barrypurves.com/twirlywoos/"><i>Twirlywoos</i></a>, on which he was the supervising director of 100 episodes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barry Purves sitting on a theatre set. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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“It doesn’t matter to me if they are films for children or adults,” says Purves. “I put the same amount of work into them. I guess every frame matters in my films, and that can perhaps mean an intense viewing experience…you can’t blink in my films.”<br />
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This economic approach to filmmaking has culminated in a many dazzling and dense frames of animation—at times beautiful, whether aesthetically verbose or trim, at others shocking, while still others are otherworldly, illusory tapestries, breathed to life by Purves’s rough-hewn sensibilities.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Screen Play</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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If the <i>effect</i> of the “Barry Purves” breed of animation were to be named, it is—quite simply—in perfect harmony with his own assessment: in watching his films, one <i>can’t</i> blink. And yet so immersive are Purves’s dreamscapes that such a respite is one strangely unwelcome, and the thing that allows his work to transcend beyond the mere sum of any given one of his project’s components.<br />
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In our interview, Purves discusses his outlook on animation and art as a whole—in everything from his approach to “art as artifice” to the nitty-gritty details of crafting strong and vulnerable performances <i>through</i> the medium of something beyond oneself, such as a puppet. He also contemplates the evolution of his career—including the point he’s reached in his career <i>now</i>—as well as what projects he’d like to undertake as his final, crowning achievements. Furthermore, he speaks about how his film’s critical successes have changed his outlook on his work, his thoughts on the space stop motion has yet to be explored, as well as on performances in CG animated films versus those in stop motion.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello there, Barry! Thank you so very much for doing this interview! It’s a great honor to have you here, and to feature you—one of the most influential animators of the last few decades, a true pioneer in the medium—and your groundbreaking work on Stop Motion Geek!<br />In a recent mini-documentary about you and your work, “<a href="https://youtu.be/1LTyUd6DQbE">What is a puppet? Barry Purves between animation and theatre</a>,” you say, “I love the idea that something artificial is use to tell the truth. It’s this device of artificiality that really obsesses me, and animation is such an artificial thing.”<br />Can you elaborate on this idea that “art is artifice”—across all mediums, though specifically when it comes to animation and theatre? How has this philosophy driven your approach to your work, whether in stop motion or theatre?</b><br />
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<b>Barry Purves:</b> Yes, I worry that animators strive to recreate reality, whereas I think animation should liberate us from reality. Not just in the movement, but in the storytelling, the use of colour, and sound, and so forth. I find ballet and opera and theatre to sometimes be so painfully honest and truthful—and, yes, they are not realistic in the slightest. I think this is about being aware of the limits, the process, and yet that something transcends the technique. I love how in galleries you see the visitors straining forward to look at the brush strokes. I could write a book about all this…<br />
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<b>A.H.: To quote something you said in <a href="https://barrypurves.com/2018/10/the-swimmer/">the most recent post on your blog</a>—entitled <i>The Swimmer</i> after the 1968 film of the same name starring Burt Lancaster—you said, “He [Lancaster] is a device through which we learn what the film maker wants to talk about – this is the theme of most of my talks at the moment.”<br />In another blog post you name this year a “very challenging” one where often you’ve had to rely on the kindness of others on your cultural trips, although you’ve still chosen to give talks at various festivals and universities.<br />First off, I would like to thank you for the vulnerability and transparency you exhibit on your blog. It is truly inspiring to hear how you continue to take the plunge to follow your passion for stop motion, theatre, and teaching even in hard times.<br />Can you tell us a little about your talks, as well as your personal takeaways from them (ANIMARKT being the most recent)? What effects—both in respect to how you’ve seen your talks impact others and the effects those who have heard and coordinated your talks, as well as with those who you mention having to “rely upon”—have such opportunities had on you, personally?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> Yes, Burt Lancaster in that film is the device through which the film maker lets us see the other people. This device is often an outsider, or a mythical character like Mary Poppins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Rigoletto</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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I love festivals and I always come away excited and a little depressed. I worry that what I feared so much has finally happened—that I have become an observer, not a participant of the craft. I see so many great films, and am so grateful for such exciting feedback, but it upsets me that I am not being creative.<br />
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The worst thing is for me to feel that people think I have run out of ideas. Not in the slightest: I think I am now at my most creative, my most insightful, but my most frustrated. I’m aware my career is fading but I want one last big film before I’m done. I love festivals as the audience get to see films on the big screen…as they should be seen. I hope that doors might be opened for such events.<br />
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<b>A.H.: The impact your career in animation—now spanning over forty years—has made across the whole animation industry is quite astonishing, to the point where today your work is taught to students all over the world in many animation courses, as well as having been analyzed in many books on animation (namely those written by Ray Harryhausen, Clare Kitson, and Paul Wells).<br />How has the knowledge that your work is being studied in animation courses—where every aspect of your films are scrutinized and, in a way, form the foundation for the next generation of animators’ understanding of the craft—impacted your approach your work? How does it impact the way you view yourself and the films you’ve worked on?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> I’m unaware when or if the films are studied, but I am very pleased that they are. I would hope big studios are aware of the films, but I fear they’ve never seen them. I would hope that they stand up to scrutiny, as I put enough planning and preparation into them. It doesn’t matter to me if they are films for children or adults, I put the same amount of work into them. I guess every frame matters in my films, and that can perhaps mean an intense viewing experience…you can’t blink in my films.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Achilles</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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I have heard that on a certain recent big feature, one of my films was shown as reference—it would have been good to have the phone ring and been offered a job on that film. But I guess my films have a few rough edges due to small budgets, no reshoots, and having to shoot so much a day—they do not have the finesse of the big features and perhaps feature producers can’t see past that. But one thing I do know, however much I apologize for my films, is that there is a wealth of reasonably intelligent and innovative ideas in them. I’d love it if producers or theatre producers and such would recognise that a good idea is a good idea—whatever the medium—and that such ideas can be applied to other art forms. I would so love to collaborate with other artists in different media, taking the experience and artists I have worked with into new areas.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Gilbert and Sullivan – The Very Models</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Considering your personal stop motion films are so overwhelmingly lauded by critics and have received upwards of sixty prestigious awards, it’s hard to imagine a time when there wasn’t a corner of the stop motion medium that belonged to Barry Purves, and was defined by your style.<br />However, with your films being as unconventional—and, at times, controversial—as they are, was there ever a point <i>before</i> your films began to receive the attention and accolades they have where you questioned the kind work you were doing, and whether you shouldn’t make something...well, <i>different</i>? Do you ever question the kind of work you’re doing <i>today</i>, whether in theatre or film?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> Good question.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Tchaikovsky – An Elegy</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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No, I’ve never doubted the integrity of the films, and by comparison to artists such as the Quays, my films are quite straight laced. I don’t see the films as controversial—it is the medium that is perhaps generally seen as a bit prudish, essentially aimed at children. As long as I feel I’ve done something in my own voice, as it were, then I’ll be happy. Of course, this is all about the audience, and I think of the audience in every frame. I cannot understand the thinking of young artists wanting to be the next so and so. I can not understand borrowing anyone else’s styles or ideas.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Where do you think there’s a space for stop motion to yet be explored in the television and films of today?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> Adults, adults, adults, more cultural things. Taking risks, not being afraid of culture, whatever that may be. Darker things. Dark can be commercial. Probably the most successful theatre of recent decades has been <i>Les Miserables</i>—a three hour historical and political epic with much suffering and only a couple of jokes, and without a talking animal in sight, and yet it sells out around the world. People come out in tears having had the best time. I worry that animation is in its own bubble. I’d love to flirt more with the other arts.<br />
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<b>A.H.: To go back to your most recent blog post, you mention <i>The Swimmer</i> as being “A very brave film and a raw performance from Lancaster in nothing more than a pair of shorts.”<br />I think many critics of film and animation would agree with me when I say that you do an exceptional job both at making films that are brave and which feature extraordinarily raw performances. In a way, you mark creating such performances as your end goal in “<a href="https://youtu.be/1LTyUd6DQbE">What is a puppet? Barry Purves between animation and theatre</a>,” saying, “My role as a puppeteer, as a director of actors, as the storyteller is to tell the audience what these characters are thinking.” To quote <i>Tchaikovsky: An Elegy</i>: “How can I express those sensations so difficult to define that one experiences when composing a piece of music, that musical confession?”<br />As both an animator and a theatre director—someone well accustomed to, in both mediums, crafting a performance <i>through</i> something (or someone) beyond yourself—how can an animator, a performer invisible to the audience except through a puppet or “subject,” strive to create “raw” and “brave” performances?”</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> Another good question. Thank you.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Hamilton Mattress</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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It must be hard in CG films to create a performance when the process is so fragmented and success depends on a good animation director bringing all the elements together. But to answer your question, maybe the fact that I never really have the chance to do reshoots or rehearse gives a certain edge to my performances. Perhaps that is like being an actor on stage…you can’t really start again, you have to keep going. This results in you working with the puppet, and letting the puppet contribute, letting it be spontaneous. Digital playback allows you to finesse and finesse, but perhaps a little edge is lost in repeatedly doing the shot again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Plume</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Much of your work—especially many of your breathtaking short films, such as <i>Next</i> and <i>Tchaikovsky: An Elegy</i>—explores <i>artists</i> as well as their art (<i>Achilles</i> being a particularly poignant example of the latter), your examination of whom often involves artists dealing with their inner demons.<br />What are your thoughts on the so-called “tortured artist”? Is it an idea you subscribe to?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> I love the creative process, and that an artist will use his work as a mask, not to conceal, but to reveal. <i>Tchaikovsky</i> probably says more about me than it does about Tchaikovsky. ‘Tortured artists’ perhaps is a little strong, but I suspect we are all a little damaged and that drives us to make sure our stories, our voices are heard, and celebrated. Maybe our voices were never heard, or suppressed—animation and art is a release, and therapy, it really is. We can lose our inhibitions through art. It is the red nose on a clown that allows us to be honest.<br />
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<b>A.H.: To return to the subject of your blog, in recent posts it seems you’ve been lamenting the less appealing aspects of the stop motion and theatre industries—namely inconsistent work (or a consistent <i>lack</i> thereof) and of this industry being, let’s say, <i>less</i> than especially lucrative. In one post you say, “On a gloriously sunny evening it’s hard to be down, but heck, i’m worried that this is it. Have I made my last tv series or short film? My birthday is looming and I’ve been reflecting on the last year, which was pretty disastrous professionally and certainly financially and the only real satisfaction came from the unpaid stage production of Ladies in Lavender.”<br />Once again, I thank you for being as honest and as open as you are in your blog posts.<br />For other animators and professionals who work in this strange industry—one <i>so</i> strange it can be taxing even on someone of your stature—do you have any advice to offer for how to sustain one’s morale during times where one is out of work? What do you recommend one do during such “low points” in one’s career?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> I guess we have all had to stack shelves, or do less than fulfilling work. If you can have another string to your bow, that’s great. I’m not sure I have. I’d love to do more voice-over work or writing to keep me going.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Toby's Travelling Circus</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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For young animators, I would say to be prepared to travel. I think at my age I like my creature comforts and being home, and I have been spoilt as I have worked in studios near to my home for a long time. My theatre work keeps me going, but this is mainly unpaid. I have to confess that a day without being creative is a killer. It nourishes me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from <i>Rupert Bear</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In closing: What’s next for you? What would you yet like to explore in the stop motion medium?</b><br />
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<b>BP:</b> To keep working is the essential, but I have to do a feature, I simply have to. In a way I want to thank all the people I have worked with, or give the young people I have vaguely nurtured something to work on. I want to put this forty years’ experience into a project, rather than for it to just fade away as a bit of a joke. I certainly have the feature scripts—innovative, commercial, entertaining, and very unique. Any producers out there listening?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barry Purves on the set of <i>Twirlywoos</i>. Source: barrypurves.com</td></tr>
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You can learn more about Barry Purves by visiting his <a href="https://barrypurves.com/">website</a>—the platform on which he’s the most active—<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Purves">Wikipedia</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/user20863613">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0701000/">IMDb</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/barrypurves?lang=en">Twitter</a>. You can also watch the short documentary about Purves mentioned in the article—<i>What is a puppet? Barry Purves between animation and theatre</i>—by going <a href="https://youtu.be/1LTyUd6DQbE">here</a>.<br />
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You can purchase Purves’s highly-rated book “Basics Animation: Stop Motion”—an exploration of the elements of every facet of a stop motion production—on Amazon by going <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Animation-Stop-motion-Barry-Purves/dp/2940373736">here</a>. You can purchase his second, and equally acclaimed book—“Stop Motion – Passion, Process and Performance,” in which Purves pulls from his experiences making his own films as well as including extensive interviews with industry professionals to provide some insight into the creative process—on Amazon by going <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240520602/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barry Purves teaching at ANIMARKT. © Tomasz Kaluzny.</td></tr>
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You can also purchase a DVD compilation of the first six of Purves’s short films—<i>Barry Purves – His Intimate Lives</i>—on Amazon by going <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Barry-Purves-Intimate-Collection-Rigoletto/dp/B0018BF1PO/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&&qid=&&sr=">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-14167868891800817982018-10-29T13:33:00.000-04:002018-11-18T12:44:03.059-05:00Interview with Norman Yeend – Director, Animator, and Co-Producer of Ident for "Aquaman" Director James Wan’s Production Company, Atomic Monster<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Atomic Monster logo. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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“At the time he made contact, he was working as an assistant to James Wan on the film <i>Aquaman</i>,” Norman Yeend—a thirty-year veteran in the stop motion industry as a director, animator, and model maker—tells Stop Motion Geek, describing a moment towards the end of 2017 when he got the call from his friend, coworker, and fellow Australian, Craig Sinclair, a producer, who pitched to Yeend what became his next labor of love—one which checked all the right boxes for him to stoke his passion for classic, practical-effects movie monsters and their delightfully fun flavor of mayhem. “James had mentioned to him that he was keen to re-create his company logo using primarily stop-motion and miniatures, and Craig figured he knew just the guy for the job.”<br />
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For Yeend there isn’t a pivotal <i>moment</i> he can pinpoint when his passion for stop motion was first ignited, his love for the medium instead one which slowly grew from his youth, the earliest roots of which began with his childhood fascination with dinosaurs—one that’s carried into adulthood. “As a youngster I was fascinated by them,” he comments. “I was always drawing dinosaurs or attempting to make models of them from modelling clay. I would place them in crudely made dioramas or have them battle in the primordial landscape I imagined in our backyard.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Atomic Monster ident set. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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However, it was only after watching televised screenings of films like 1933’s <i>King Kong</i> and Irwin Allen’s 1956 film <i>The Animal World</i> that Yeend really became aware that there was a <i>craft</i> to bringing these surreal beasts to life before the camera—one he soon wanted nothing more than to learn.<br />
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From that point on, Yeend, then in his early teens, began to devour what information he could find about the effects used in these films and the visionaries responsible for them in the pages of soon dog-eared copies of behind-the-scenes film magazines such as <i>Famous Monsters of Filmland</i> and <i>Cinefantastique</i>. “Not only did I learn that a process called stop-motion animation was responsible for bringing those dinosaurs to life, but loads of other fantastic creatures as well,” says Yeend. “Needless to say, I was hooked!”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from the final Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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Several decades later and now a thirty-plus-years professional in the industry, the secrets of which he dreamt about as a child, and the momentous films of his childhood still stay with him, continuing to make an impact on his future by providing him with a constant source of inspiration. “While films such as <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, and any number of recent, short stop-motion works are of course brilliant,” says Yeend, “I find that it’s the older films that I still return to for inspiration. Films such as <i>King Kong</i> (1933), <i>The Valley of Gwangi</i> (1969), or my favourite feature length stop-motion film, <i>Mad Monster Party</i> (1967), are timeless works that have gone on to inspire many others in one way or another.”<br />
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These films are also what Yeend imagines as being the primary reason Wan, who Yeend describes as being “a real monster kid at heart,” decided to reimagine the ident for his company—Atomic Monster Productions, whose recent work includes <i>The Nun</i>, <i>Annabelle: Creation</i>, and <i>The Conjuring 2</i>—saying, “I think it’s this same fondness for the old monster movies we grew up with, films like <i>It Came From Beneath the Sea</i> (1955), that inspired James to want to re-create his logo using the same or similar techniques.”<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAENvzKpFtk/W9c_ibWlpPI/AAAAAAAAFuQ/EsAzrQ3RP60nWqvedXdgXad2AC1AHpuuQCLcBGAs/s1600/Rktman_01_X1_0013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" height="422" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAENvzKpFtk/W9c_ibWlpPI/AAAAAAAAFuQ/EsAzrQ3RP60nWqvedXdgXad2AC1AHpuuQCLcBGAs/s640/Rktman_01_X1_0013.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocket-Man puppet from the Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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The revamped Atomic Monster ident—helmed by Yeend as director, animator, and co-producer—still sports many elements from the company’s original, black-and-white, CGI ident: a massive, tentacle monster wreaking havoc on an urban city, only to be defeated by a rocket-man, his identity masked as he dives down from the dark skyline to blast the creature with laser rays shooting from his gauntleted hands, with which he ultimately comes to form the company’s logo upon landing.<br />
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“While the original concept of ‘rocket-man vs monster tentacles in the heart of the city’ would essentially remain the same, James was also after something a bit different,” says Yeend, noting, “Even though he already had a serviceable logo, he was keen to use old school techniques combined with digital technology to create something new and fresh.”<br />
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The final result—through brief—is quite astounding, immediately awakening nostalgia for the “creature features” of the days of special effects pioneers Ray Harryhausen and O’Brien, the premise lending itself perfectly to stop motion, its short runtime only leaving one craving for more: A rocket-man—now a fully three-dimensional, silicone puppet, tinted silver and cast over a <i>mostly</i> ball-and-socket armature, his arms and legs modified from an action figure and his head a reworked ping-pong ball—stands out amidst the night sky as he soars over a blazing cityscape and swoops in to do battle with a five-armed tentacle monster, silicone rubber spotted with dozens of tiny suckers built over armatures made of aluminum wire and resin discs, menacing a laser-cut city, through which runs a disorderly stream of traffic, above which the hero to eventually lands to form the Atomic Monster logo with his laser rays.<br />
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In our interview, Norman Yeend tells us about his journey into the stop motion industry and ultimately attaining the career he has today. He also gives us an in-depth look at the making of the Atomic Monster ident, discussing everything from pre-production to post. Moreover, he gives his advice to creatives aspiring to craft their own career in the stop motion industry—in everything from tips to finding and sustaining creative energy to how to best interact with coworkers to methods of analyzing the work of the masters of stop motion and applying lessons learned by them to one’s own style.<br />
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You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Norman! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s a pleasure to feature you and your work on the blog!<br />To start, could you tell us how—and <i>why</i>, exactly—your passion for the stop motion medium was sparked? Could you give our readers, in brief, an overview of the steps you’ve taken since that springboard moment to reach the place in your career you now find yourself—a thirty-year veteran in the stop motion industry as an animator, model maker, and director, whose work spans an award-winning documentary, as well as numerous commercials, short films, and music videos, many of which have received prestigious accolades?</b><br />
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<b>Norman Yeend:</b> Hi A.H. My pleasure. Thank you for your interest.<br />
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I think my passion for stop-motion all started with dinosaurs. As a youngster I was fascinated by them. I was always drawing dinosaurs or attempting to make models of them from modelling clay. I would place them in crudely made dioramas or have them battle in the primordial landscape I imagined in our backyard. I don’t recall the pivotal moment, but it was most likely a screening of <i>King Kong</i> (1933) or perhaps Irwin Allen’s <i>The Animal World</i> (1956)—which I seem to recall watching on television—which got me to thinking that there was a way to bring them to life somehow. I also found information, and some great pictures to do with stop-motion and the men who were responsible, in the pages of good old <i>Famous Monsters of Filmland</i> magazine, which I discovered in my early teens. Not only did I learn that a process called stop-motion animation was responsible for bringing those dinosaurs to life, but loads of other fantastic creatures as well. Needless to say, I was hooked!<br />
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When I was 14, I began making short stop-motion films on Super 8. My very first attempt was of my plastic Aurora Allosaurus kit battling my Aurora King Ghidorah. The showdown took place in broad daylight, near the creek that ran across our backyard. I recall squeezing the trigger on my camera in short bursts. Sometimes I’d get two frames, sometimes four, sometimes three, etc. But when the film came back from being processed, there they were. They were alive!!... albeit somewhat jerky.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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Realising that I needed a more reliable way of capturing single frames, I invested in a simple cable release mechanism, after which I embarked on making a couple of highly ambitious Super 8 short films. One of these was a <i>Sinbad</i>-type epic called <i>Colossus</i>, while the other was a science fiction effort I called, would you believe, <i>Atomic Monsters</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "spectral"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 4.5pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I honed my model-making and animation skills, I was bewildered as to why most of my footage was out-of-focus. Because my weekly allowance would only allow me to buy so much modelling clay, my figures were quite small, maybe only a few inches in height. No one had ever mentioned anything about scale or depth of field, so of course the closer the camera, the blurrier the result</span>.<br />
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Undaunted, I knew that a career in stop-motion was what I wanted to do. I still recall the day in High School where students would see the careers advisor about the type of occupation they might be best suited for. While most students had either not given it much thought, or wanted to be something more practical like a doctor, a nurse or mechanic, for example, I had no hesitation in saying I wanted to be a stop-motion animator. Of course I had no idea how to go about it, especially in Australia, but I was somehow buoyed by the fact that the advisor seemed to actually know what is was.<br />
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From there it was a matter of perseverance. I enrolled in an evening college to hone my drawing and painting skills, only to meet a fellow who worked in an animation studio in Sydney where they needed a layout artist. While I knew that cartoon animation was not really what I wanted to do, I saw it as a stepping stone to my goal, and so I applied. I must have seemed keen because I got the job, despite the fact that the work I initially presented was not very good.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from the final Atomic Monster Ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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Several months later the studio went bankrupt and I was out of a job, however a friend knew a fellow named Yoram Gross (<i>Blinky Bill</i>, <i>Dot & the Kangaroo</i>, etc.) who had a successful animation studio. As it happened, Yoram wanted to make a stop-motion film about prehistoric Australia. Ultimately that film never happened, but my time there allowed me the opportunity to further hone my sculpting and model-making skills. It was also there that I later met a like-minded fellow named Graham Binding, who made fabulous ball-and-socket jointed armatures, and who I would later work with on our own stop-motion dinosaur film, <i>Muttaburrasaurus</i>.<br />
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After Yoram’s, I worked at a company called Mirage FX, which was sort of the Weta Studios of its day. Any time a job that required stop-motion would crop up, I’d put up my hand. There, I worked primarily on commercials, although I was originally hired to sculpt and make models for a film called <i>The Time Guardian</i> which had Carrie Fisher in it. After my time at Mirage I went freelance, and have been ever since.<br />
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For a while I was also represented by a few production companies in Sydney as animation director, which allowed me to have more of a say in the creative process.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a little about how you became involved with your most recent project: the recreated, stop motion ident for Atomic Monster—<i>Saw</i>, <i>Furious 7</i>, <i>The Conjuring</i>, <i>The Nun</i>, and <i>Aquaman</i>’s writer-director James Wan’s production company?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> Towards the end of 2017 I was contacted by a producer friend named Craig Sinclair. I’d worked with Craig on a number of stop-motion jobs in New Zealand. At the time he made contact, he was working as an assistant to James Wan on the film <i>Aquaman</i>. James had mentioned to him that he was keen to re-create his company logo using primarily stop-motion and miniatures, and Craig figured he knew just the guy for the job.<br />
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From there it was a matter of liaising with James and his business partner, Michael Clear. A meeting with James on the set of <i>Aquaman</i> answered a few questions, and helped get things rolling.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocket-Man puppet for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What was the turnaround and workflow like on this project?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> I’d originally estimated 12 weeks from start to finish, however it went a little bit beyond that, primarily because of James’ commitments on <i>Aquaman</i>.<br />
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One of the first things needed was to have a 3D previs made and approved. The previs would determine such things as the timing of the fairly complicated camera move, the flight path of the rocket-man, etc. Originally there was also meant to be a rocket in there as well. The rocket was to zoom in, and our rocket-man would fly out to do battle with the monster tentacles, but we couldn’t make it work within the ten-second-or-so timeframe. It was James who made the wise call to lose the rocket which made sense, especially as our rocket-man was, after all, a rocket-man.<br />
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One of the first people I contacted to help out was Guy Jamieson from guy@pokethebear.tv. I’ve recently joined with Guy to try to push for more of this type of work. Guy oversaw all the VFX, while an artist named Jason Morice was the compositor. I also contacted a terrific DOP I’d worked with in the past named Simon Higgins. Simon was responsible for the lighting and motion control using Dragonframe and his own motion control system. All these professionals did amazing work!<br />
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While the previs was being worked on, a model-maker friend named Warren Barnard was going above and beyond, making the laser-cut miniature city, complete with the stream of traffic that’s visible in the background. Meanwhile, I worked on the rocket-man puppet and liaised with James and his business partner. The construction of the rocket-man puppet itself proved to be more difficult than I had first imagined.<br />
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We filmed the wide shot of the buildings and tentacles first, using the information from the previs for our motion-control camera. The rocket-man from the previs was isolated and used as a line-up movie to help with the animation of the puppet, specifically his flight path. The rocket-man himself was suspended on a custom made flying rig.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p4qXLhh8yVc/W9c_fciQQYI/AAAAAAAAFt4/95rSLJIGc3sCGF3dRNEd9p0wyvRY50QyQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMAG1583.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="364" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p4qXLhh8yVc/W9c_fciQQYI/AAAAAAAAFt4/95rSLJIGc3sCGF3dRNEd9p0wyvRY50QyQCLcBGAs/s640/IMAG1583.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How did you and your associates develop the concept behind the ident, ultimately adapting and updating the ‘50s-esque, monster-movie style seen in the finished piece, reminiscent of the work of Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, and Phil Tippett, as well what I’d pin as a bit of the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102803/"><i>The Rocketeer</i></a> and Ultraman (which, perhaps not accidentally, is a character you’ve work with in the past on <i>Ultraman: Towards the Future</i>)?</b><br />
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<b>NY: </b>Yes. <i>Ultraman</i> was great fun! Lots of miniatures, monsters and destruction, although not in stop-motion.<br />
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The logo was actually based on James’ existing Atomic Monster company logo which was originally done several years ago in black-and-white using CGI. It showed a city being menaced by gigantic tentacles which were defeated by a rocket-man who zooms down from the sky and blasts them before landing and forming the words ‘Atomic Monster’ with his laser ray.<br />
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Funnily enough, I already happened to have the same number of animatable tentacles which I’d made and animated for a Jeep commercial several years prior. Being made of silicone rubber, they were still in good condition. They were about 2 feet long, and perfect for the job.<br />
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While the original concept of ‘rocket-man vs monster tentacles in the heart of the city’ would essentially remain the same, James was also after something a bit different.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r1e5n_027hM/W9c_ddIv8AI/AAAAAAAAFts/Av8INPoflrctFXe9mC65Rqoj2cnzw06pgCLcBGAs/s1600/Atomic%2BMonster%2B3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r1e5n_027hM/W9c_ddIv8AI/AAAAAAAAFts/Av8INPoflrctFXe9mC65Rqoj2cnzw06pgCLcBGAs/s640/Atomic%2BMonster%2B3.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from the final Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As a follow-up to the latter question: much of your work is clearly inspired by the work of Harryhausen and O’Brien. Can you tell us how you became acquainted with their work, and—if you had to say—how it’s influenced your own? From your own experience, how do you suggest animators examine the work of their creative inspirations with a critical eye to learn from them?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> I probably would have been introduced to the work of Ray Harryhausen, Willis O’Brien, Jim Danforth, and stop-motion in general, via screenings of their films on TV, although I wouldn’t have known the names of the men responsible at the time. As I said earlier, it all started with dinosaurs, so films like <i>King Kong</i>, <i>One Million Years BC</i> and <i>When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth</i> were eagerly anticipated events. This was long before the internet, DVDs or videos, so the only real access to these films were infrequent screenings on television. My fascination was reinforced by reading <i>Famous Monsters</i>, <i>Cinefantastique</i>, and anything else I could get my hands on with even a snippet of information.<br />
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As far as influencing my own work, undoubtedly the work of these past masters was, and still is, a huge influence. While I entered the field of miniatures, practical effects and stop-motion hoping to make my own ‘Harryhausen-esque’ type films with dinosaurs, aliens and other fantastic creatures, but by the time I made my first real dinosaur film computer animation was starting to take over. I still remember watching <i>Jurassic Park</i>, knowing that we still had a few stop-motion shots left to do, with a mixture of awe and a kind of sinking feeling.<br />
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Since then, the type of animation Ray Harryhausen is best known for has pretty much become the realm of the computer animator. No longer do you see dinosaurs or monsters done in stop-motion, unless it’s used in odd, low budget, independent films.<br />
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As far as mainstream films are concerned, stop-motion has for a long time now been relegated to either the more stylised, family friendly films such as the Wallace and Gromit series, <i>Nightmare Before Christmas</i>, or <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, etc., or some of the more ‘arthouse’ type film such as <i>Anomalisa</i> or a film I worked on some years back called <i>$9.99</i>. Having said that, I see that <i>Force of the Trojans</i>, a film that Ray proposed after his last film, <i>Clash of the Titans</i>, may be resurrected using the stop-motion process, which is great news. It may just pave the way for a resurgence of these movies.<br />
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Another of my inspirations are the wonderful old Warner Bros. cartoons, especially the work of Chuck Jones, etc. I’ve often tried to apply the same brilliant comic timing to some of my own work, where appropriate.<br />
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As for how animators can examine the work of their creative inspirations to learn from them, try to watch as many of their films as you can. Learn how they were done. If possible, study scenes you admire frame-by-frame to get an idea of the flow of the movement. This goes for not only stop-motion, but all animation. Also try to learn from live action films you may have been impressed by, in terms of timing, storytelling, even characterisation.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PqmrLdzL37I/W9c_e9ouKfI/AAAAAAAAFt0/bUJjG4o1cbkhslJgkW2FPH9tGYOtZz_NgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMAG1579.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="364" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PqmrLdzL37I/W9c_e9ouKfI/AAAAAAAAFt0/bUJjG4o1cbkhslJgkW2FPH9tGYOtZz_NgCLcBGAs/s640/IMAG1579.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: What materials and processes did you and your associates utilize to build the puppets and sets for the Atomic Monster ident?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> As mentioned earlier, I already happened to have the tentacles for Atomic Monster from a commercial I did many years prior. For these I firstly sculpted one tentacle (without the suckers on it) out of modeling clay. I then made a two part mold from fibreglass. The suckers were sculpted and molded separately and applied later. For the armature, I used a number of thicknesses of aluminum wire over a series of resin discs. The wire was of a heavier grade towards the base of the tentacle, while a finer grade was used towards the tip. I repeated the process five times to make all five tentacles.<br />
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As for the rocket-man, he posed a number of challenges. As he had already been designed and was central to James’ logo, I had to adhere to the design quite closely. The main body was sculpted from modelling clay, and a silicone mould taken. It was then cast over a ball-and-socket, jointed armature from a different silicone which was tinted silver. For the head I actually used a large ping-pong ball, while the arms and legs were modified from an action figure. The hands were silicone rubber, while his gauntlets were custom-made. The attachment of the arms to the shoulders, and head to neck were quite tricky, especially the shoulders which were balls with the arms jutting from them. To use regular ball and socket joints in those areas would have meant that any extreme movement of his arms would have exposed a hole or slot. The same would have been true of his head, so it was clear that ball and sockets, or even wire, was not the way to go for those areas. After much trial and error I came up with a method of using magnets.<br />
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As mentioned earlier, the miniature city set was built by a model maker friend named Warren Barnard using a laser cutter machine. He built it to a scale of roughly 1:160, or N-scale in model railroad terms. Single-handedly, he designed and built the entire miniature city, complete with internal lighting and the animatable line of traffic visible in the background.<br />
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Because of a number of constraints (time, budget, space) it was necessary to create the rest of the city, as well as the dramatic night sky, using a digital matte painting created by Jason Morice.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zJXE-cN3zVg/W9c_hDDb9NI/AAAAAAAAFuE/ngOBgnER-UQAspEQXyjfC55KgSUTiiQ5wCLcBGAs/s1600/Rktman_01_X1_0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1103" data-original-width="1600" height="440" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zJXE-cN3zVg/W9c_hDDb9NI/AAAAAAAAFuE/ngOBgnER-UQAspEQXyjfC55KgSUTiiQ5wCLcBGAs/s640/Rktman_01_X1_0005.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocket-Man puppet for the Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFoAkpX2Ti0&t=0s&index=2&list=PLlOHnr0zyWiebJheRPxcLk6SLxE4rKIHL">showreel</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlOHnr0zyWiebJheRPxcLk6SLxE4rKIHL">YouTube playlist featuring much of your work over the years</a> testify, you’re no stranger to working very closely with many top ad agencies—both international and domestic—to create commercials, idents, and other such material to promote and represent a myriad of brands and companies. Undoubtedly, such a responsibility can prove difficult at times...especially when one has a particularly short amount of time—both in production time (you mention having less than two days to animate “almost a full minute of single frame, stop-motion footage” on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om4GjBC8ne8&t=0s&index=28&list=PLlOHnr0zyWiebJheRPxcLk6SLxE4rKIHL">commercial for the international supermarket chain Aldi</a>) and in screen-time—to accomplish such a task.<br />Broadly—although specifically concerning the Atomic Monster ident—when it’s your job to develop a commercial or to otherwise represent the final “look” of an already-developed idea, what is your process for making certain you’re representing a company as best you can? Have you developed any criteria to measure these ideas by?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> When contacted about any job, big or small, it’s always good to find out as much information as you can. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask for any creative material that might be relevant to your involvement in the project: script, designs, storyboard, etc. Find out how much time they’ve allowed so you can best work out if you can actually do the job to the level they expect and in the allotted time. Also, if possible, find out if they have a budget in mind, even if they ask you for a quote. More often than not a client is quite guarded about this information, but there’s no harm in asking.<br />
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With regard to Atomic Monster, at first I was liaising with James and his partner, Michael, via email, but because James was so busy on <i>Aquaman</i> at the time it soon became apparent that I’d actually need to see him so that I could ask him those questions personally. I went up to the Gold Coast where <i>Aquaman</i> was being filmed. My friend Craig introduced me to him, between takes. We managed to chat for a bit where I found out, among other things, what a cool guy he is. He’s a real monster kid at heart.<br />
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Even though he already had a serviceable logo, he was keen to use old school techniques combined with digital technology to create something new and fresh. From our meetings I learned how much how much freedom I had for interpretation, and how much he wanted kept close to his original logo (the design of the rocket-man, for example). He was quite open to suggestions, but ultimately it was his logo, so it was nice that we were pretty much on the same page throughout.<br />
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As I mentioned previously, when I was in my teens I made a stop-motion film on Super 8 called ‘Atomic Monsters.’ When I mentioned that, and the fact that I already had some rubber tentacles ready to go, his response was that it must have been ‘kismet’. :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Eaw2FxzvWrk/W9c_fg9xseI/AAAAAAAAFt8/NsExsmH2M2Q0wwBYOJdQkM_pVeBc8KdIgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMAG1584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="911" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Eaw2FxzvWrk/W9c_fg9xseI/AAAAAAAAFt8/NsExsmH2M2Q0wwBYOJdQkM_pVeBc8KdIgCLcBGAs/s640/IMAG1584.jpg" width="364" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Having worked in the stop motion profession for as long as you have, I can only imagine you have a thing or to say about sustaining a career in this industry.<br />Firstly, how do you live your life in a way—in everything from the day-to-day to a thirty-year span—to find the emotional and creative energy to pursue your creative passions, full-time? Secondly, what skills—specifically people skills and non-artistic skills—have you found are the most beneficial to crafting a sustainable career in this industry?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> That’s kind of a tricky one. Being a creative type can be a bit of an emotional and financial rollercoaster at times, especially when you work freelance in such a niche occupation as stop-motion, and in a country that’s not particularly known for it like Australia. It becomes even trickier when you have a family to support. My wife is also in the arts, being an illustrator, so it’s not like one of us has a steady job to support the other.<br />
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I have a number of my own projects that I’m working on, some more developed than others. Some are animation projects and some live-action, while others I hope to have published in the form of either novels or picture books. Sometimes it can be difficult to sustain the enthusiasm for a particular project by yourself, especially when times are a bit tough. Experience has shown that something always comes up, which then allows me to be able to concentrate further on developing my ideas.<br />
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Living where I do, in the Blue Mountains, two hours west of Sydney, is a great place for inspiration and creativity. There are also many other artists of all disciplines in the area, so I appear to be in good company.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58lBWkntMXkdG1ldI2GSDu9j2Da2YwYDvvd6ezXBONcHO2KKZr7nfTC4vzf5ouIR9dKvHl5-_prmMmVVNVY5pfAxfzQn5ERwp7OHevu7fTdRjHawJEzRw4VjlhLFJbtAXQc6o6p7_fdY/s1600/Rktman_01_X1_0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1131" data-original-width="1600" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58lBWkntMXkdG1ldI2GSDu9j2Da2YwYDvvd6ezXBONcHO2KKZr7nfTC4vzf5ouIR9dKvHl5-_prmMmVVNVY5pfAxfzQn5ERwp7OHevu7fTdRjHawJEzRw4VjlhLFJbtAXQc6o6p7_fdY/s640/Rktman_01_X1_0010.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocket-Man puppet for Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Next to your work as an animator and director, you’ve also taught the craft of stop-motion at the University of Technology, Sydney, the Design Centre, Enmore, and at other schools.<br />If you had to distill your lectures into a short-an’-sweet summary, what are the most essential pieces of advice for an animator to learn and kinds of experience to get, and what resources do you recommend to learn such skills?</b><br />
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<b>NY: </b>I guess everyone has their own way of learning, and at their own pace, but for me, observation and practice are key. Practice, probably goes without saying, as it’s important no matter which discipline you are trying to master, be it music, painting, writing or whatever. Observation is also an important factor in disciplines such as drawing and painting. As an animator, though, I think it’s important to be observant and to study, not only the work of other animators, but also the movements of people, animals, even objects in motion, so as best to get a sense of overall timing.<br />
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Ray Harryhausen, for example, took life drawing lessons to better get a sense of the human form and how to apply it to his creations. His pre-production artworks show his skill and understanding of anatomy.<br />
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There are many valuable resources available to the student, and even the veteran animator: certainly a lot more than when I was starting out. A lot of online material is available on places like Youtube where you can find tutorials on almost any subject.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set for the Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: To draw our interview to a close: what stop motion or model-making work have you seen in recent years that you’ve found the most inspiring? Why?</b><br />
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<b>NY:</b> To be honest, I still tend to draw inspiration from discovering, or re-watching, some of the older effects films. There are still so many old movies and TV shows I’ve yet to discover, that I tend to not go and see the latest movies so much any more. While films such as <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, and any number of recent, short stop-motion works are of course brilliant, I find that it’s the older films that I still return to for inspiration. Films such as <i>King Kong</i> (1933), <i>The Valley of Gwangi</i> (1969), or my favourite feature length stop-motion film, <i>Mad Monster Party</i> (1967), are timeless works that have gone on to inspire many others in one way or another. Aside from stop-motion, I’m also a big fan of the Japanese kaiju films. Some of the miniature work in the Godzilla or Gamera series is simply astonishing. Even some of the smaller budget, b-movies of the fifties are not without their charm. What they may have lacked in budget, they more than made up for in creativity. I think it’s this same fondness for the old monster movies we grew up with, films like <i>It Came From Beneath the Sea </i>(1955), that inspired James to want to re-create his logo using the same or similar techniques.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ul_NB6nn1zw/W9dBiTchLDI/AAAAAAAAFu0/OsN3jJ1RyvU-ihiiQiq3DtetI47ywc96ACLcBGAs/s1600/Atomic%2BMonster%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ul_NB6nn1zw/W9dBiTchLDI/AAAAAAAAFu0/OsN3jJ1RyvU-ihiiQiq3DtetI47ywc96ACLcBGAs/s640/Atomic%2BMonster%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norman Yeend animating on the set of the Atomic Monster ident. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Norman’s work by visiting his <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/103083949852450009951">Google Plus</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/norman-yeend-a95b19b/?originalSubdomain=au">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnawman/">Flickr</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0947202/">IMDb</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlOHnr0zyWiebJheRPxcLk6SLxE4rKIHL">YouTube</a>. <br />
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You can watch the new Atomic Monster ident by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/289432082">here</a>. You can watch the black-and-white Atomic Monster ident by going <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSn16AYvgJM">here</a>.<br />
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You can find more behind-the-scenes information concerning the project by going to the ident’s VFX producer Guy Jamieson’s <a href="https://www.pokethebear.tv/atomic-monster-stop-motion/">Poke the Bear Animation website</a>. You can watch the animation time-lapse for the ident by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/292837349">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.</div>
A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-86086467710541026722018-10-23T14:53:00.004-04:002018-11-18T12:44:37.332-05:00Interview with Mattzilla Duron, Art Director, Sculptor, and Puppet Fabricator of "The Tin Woods," Stop Motion Short Film About Oz's Tin Woodman's Origin Story<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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“I had just started listening to the audio books of the <i>Wizard of Oz</i> series and the Tin Man struck me as the most tragically interesting character,” Mattzilla Duron—a sculptor, mold maker, prosthetic makeup artist, and twelve-year veteran at Laika—tells Stop Motion Geek about the moment that sparked his most recent project: <i>The Tin Woods</i>, a short film created in collaboration with photographer and videographer Nick Boxwell, which—based upon author L. Frank Baum’s <i>Oz</i> series—tells the origin of The Land of Oz’s Tin Woodsman. “My sculpture was of the Tin Man mid-swing, frozen in time. A sad ‘Oh no, I’m stuck but still alive’ moment. He was that way for over a year before Dorothy found him and freed him. It really struck a chord with me. How awful it would be to not be able to die, and frozen and aware of everything around you?”<br />
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Shortly after creating it, the product of that moment’s inspiration—Duron’s Tin Woodman sculpture, which he created nearly five years ago, birthed from that sentiment of tragic horror and empathy for the Tin Woodman’s struggles—kindled <i>another</i> spark of inspiration—this time in the mind of Nick Boxwell, Duron’s good friend and occasional creative partner, for whom the idea of what would become <i>The Tin Woods</i> began to take shape.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ND4VfD6fUGM/W89nvPdw5nI/AAAAAAAAFsI/TGkB80zNRvcS4_KR5_AiGGsjjuZbMI8ygCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="680" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ND4VfD6fUGM/W89nvPdw5nI/AAAAAAAAFsI/TGkB80zNRvcS4_KR5_AiGGsjjuZbMI8ygCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B9.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> production crew. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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“When I saw him working on a Tin Man sculpture and speaking very passionately about it,” Boxwell told Stop Motion Geek in <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/10/interview-with-nick-boxwell-writer.html">our recent interview with him about the project</a>, “I thought, <i>hey there is a really cool backstory to this guy most people don’t know</i>.” It wasn’t long after that Boxwell wrote a screenplay for<i> The Tin Woods</i>, where he expanded upon the original story told in Baum’s The Tin Woodman of Oz.<br />
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“Nick’s story got me very excited to recreate my sculpture as a full-on stop motion puppet, and bring it to life,” says Duron.<br />
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Not long after writing the script, however, Boxwell was struck by a personal health crisis, which forced the two to put the project aside for several years while Boxwell recovered. The the script only again came to light this past summer, whilst the two once again looked for a project on which to collaborate.<br />
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Currently, the project, still in pre-production, is live on Kickstarter—and can be viewed <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1571279892/the-tin-woods-a-stop-motion-short-film?ref=project_link">here</a>. It has already blown past its initial goal of $5,000, and now, as of writing this, has, with sixteen days left in the campaign, raised over $11,000—putting the film well on its way to being as high-quality as possible.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Wood</i>'s stretch goal chart. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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Duron and Boxwell still have several stretch goals planned Kickstarter, the funds from of which will solely go towards enhancing the production value of the film, with the current stretch goal—$15,000—aimed at enhancing the sound design so the film’s composer, Jake Hull, can hire a full orchestra to record the soundtrack and an audio engineer finish the mix, while proceeds will also go towards expanding the film’s sets to make the world of <i>The Tin Woods</i> feel fully realized and lived-in.<br />
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For backers of the Kickstarter, Duron and Boxwell are offering several rewards, such as an access code to the film once its finished, pins sporting the likeness of the Tin Woodman, disc media, props and puppets from the film once retired from production, varying levels of producer credits, and other such incentives which all can be viewed on the Kickstarter page.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqai6LUPht3vVfKGHBA581WvH6pjpD-73NleAth8INm4ealf2lugUGH-AuEWdtX2F_mr0J7Mvw2hc9T18CAWevEvyMcv9IisLRyP88McMLjihiXyhVqri8NhyphenhyphenWCt_24YGpFDSPmfFfnM/s1600/Tin+Woods+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="680" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqai6LUPht3vVfKGHBA581WvH6pjpD-73NleAth8INm4ealf2lugUGH-AuEWdtX2F_mr0J7Mvw2hc9T18CAWevEvyMcv9IisLRyP88McMLjihiXyhVqri8NhyphenhyphenWCt_24YGpFDSPmfFfnM/s640/Tin+Woods+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman pin reward for Kickstarter backers donating a certain amount. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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“Bringing ideas to life from our imagination is what it’s all about for me,” says Duron. “There isn’t much of a delineation between the two of us and our ideas, small bits here and there but I want to tell his story and make it look how I want.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> promo photo. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Mattzilla Duron tells us about how and why he first fell in love with the practical effects medium, how he came to Laika, as well as one of his most crowning achievements there. He also digs into what it is about <i>The Tin Woods</i> that excites him, the creative dynamic between him and Nick Boxwell, and the philosophy they have come to adopt in realizing their own, personal projects. He also gives us a glimpse at his thoughts on Portland, Oregon, his thoughts on the necessity to experiment with one’s craft, and his healthy obsession with Godzilla. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Mattzilla! Thank you so much for doing this interview! Your work and this new film of yours, <i>The Tin Woods</i>, are truly inspiring works of art—‘tis an honor to feature them, as well as you, on the blog!<br />I’d like to start out by asking one one my favorite questions: Can you tell us a bit about how you discovered your passion for practical effects—sculpture, mold making, prosthetics...<i>and</i> every other kind of magic you work—and how you’ve gotten to the place you are today—a 12-year veteran mold maker at Laika, not to mention your part-time work as a sculptor, prosthetic costume builder, and special effects makeup artist?</b><br />
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<b>Mattzilla Duron:</b> Hello! Thank you for this opportunity!<br />
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I’ve always had a pretty vivid and wild imagination and one of my favorite things to do as a child was to play with toys. Seeing movies with monsters, dinosaurs, and amazing costumes made me realize that practical effects are just incredibly detailed, intricate and awesome toys. Sometimes we can become lucky enough to get paid to play with them in front of them camera!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh5apRDpsuw/W89oxWzUfdI/AAAAAAAAFs0/dWmmIatLN_0KPF2a0iDqch6s72WgaFEawCLcBGAs/s1600/tin_man-Life.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh5apRDpsuw/W89oxWzUfdI/AAAAAAAAFs0/dWmmIatLN_0KPF2a0iDqch6s72WgaFEawCLcBGAs/s640/tin_man-Life.gif" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> test animation by Mattzilla Duron. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: The press release for <i>The Tin Woods</i> states that your creative partner on this project, Nick Boxwell, wrote the screenplay for this film “five years ago after seeing an amazing Tin Man sculpture” that you created.<br />Alright—take us back five years. Can you tell us a bit about that original Tin Man sculpture, and what possessed you to create it?<br /><br />MD:</b> I had just started listening to the audio books of the <i>Wizard of Oz</i> series and the Tin Man struck me as the most tragically interesting character. My sculpture was of the Tin Man mid-swing, frozen in time. A sad “Oh no, I’m stuck but still alive” moment. He was that way for over a year before Dorothy found him and freed him. It really struck a chord with me. How awful it would be to not be able to die, and frozen and aware of everything around you?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fz1Y7yV1yPY/W89ntYVgeVI/AAAAAAAAFrw/Z0bd8jKRNMwtDjG8wk5RGCZlFF9Jqze2ACLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fz1Y7yV1yPY/W89ntYVgeVI/AAAAAAAAFrw/Z0bd8jKRNMwtDjG8wk5RGCZlFF9Jqze2ACLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What was it about <i>this</i> story—the script Nick wrote based of the original story by L. Frank Baum—that clicked for you? With the story coming from a very personal place for Nick, how much of it do you see it as “<i>your</i> story” versus “<i>his</i> story,” or is there no delineation between the two in your mind?</b><br />
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<b>MD:</b> Nick’s story got me very excited to recreate my sculpture as a full-on stop motion puppet, and bring it to life. To play with a unique toy made from our imagination based off of a story we knew.<br />
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Bringing ideas to life from our imagination is what it’s all about for me. There isn’t much of a delineation between the two of us and our ideas, small bits here and there but I want to tell his story and make it look how I want.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X5vAmtkjeOA/W89nuX8-cdI/AAAAAAAAFr8/yUV3BfaJWUk4IkHYo6IiFDbbi01XXF_zgCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1019" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X5vAmtkjeOA/W89nuX8-cdI/AAAAAAAAFr8/yUV3BfaJWUk4IkHYo6IiFDbbi01XXF_zgCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B6.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman puppet created by Mattzilla Duron. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: I asked Nick a question similar to the one I’m about to ask you, but I’m keen to hear your perspective on it: How did you and Nick come to know each other, and what would you say is the creative dynamic between the two of you—the separation of labors, the fusing of your imaginations?</b><br />
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<b>MD:</b> We knew each other through a mutual friend and our love of films and making them pretty much sealed the deal. We worked on small photography projects and even other short films together and always had a blast. Nick’s photography and ability to frame things have always really resonated with me, which is why I always bugged him for us to make a short film.<br />
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<b>A.H.: You can tell us a bit about your work at Laika in “mold making puppet fabrication,” as you describe yourself on your website? What has been one of your proudest moments and most crowning achievements there?</b><br />
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<b><br />MD:</b> One of my most crowning achievements at Laika was on <i>Coraline</i>. Shortly after coming on board I was reading the script to get an idea of what puppets needed to be made and what they needed to do and I saw there was a puppet called “slugzilla,” and I immediately got excited (for obvious reasons). I asked if I could make it. I had imagined all sorts of monstrous things, but it was just a large slug for Wybie to play with after excitedly finding it in the fog. I had made multiple awesomely slimey prototypes and Henry Selick loved one of them. After the approved slugzilla was finalized, I got to work on making a few versions for the filming of the scenes it was in. That’s one of my proudest moments at Laika.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5GUFT05jh1YklDAVdSj4aDbrcOXbNE_EO1HKQ3unSRmVrATYcSTpf4tLFdjcqHCm0P_Vm-a9iu-viD0sfcleZV-jB9NrCxV7mcvw4Dp-jMPIOJCzJNBRPFOY-8-bEyr8bJaFqkj8i1c/s1600/Tin+Woods+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="680" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5GUFT05jh1YklDAVdSj4aDbrcOXbNE_EO1HKQ3unSRmVrATYcSTpf4tLFdjcqHCm0P_Vm-a9iu-viD0sfcleZV-jB9NrCxV7mcvw4Dp-jMPIOJCzJNBRPFOY-8-bEyr8bJaFqkj8i1c/s640/Tin+Woods+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In your Kickstarter video you mention, “I moved here to Portland twelve years ago to work for the stop motion studio Laika, and I’ve been involved with each of their films since then.”<br />Now having lived in Portland, OR—and, more specifically, one of the hubs for stop motion <i>within</i> Portland—for twelve-plus years, what are your thoughts on the city itself, and the stop motion community there? What advice would you give to industry professionals—and, yes, I’m speaking directly at myself here—interested in moving to Portland?</b><br />
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<b>MD:</b> Portland is an incredibly unique and beautiful city, the artist community here is very beautiful and energetic. I absolutely love that about this place. Advice for industry professionals? Keep on keepin on, I suppose! I’m always up for an adventure, new beginnings can be scary. I’ve always tended to be a “jump first, figure out how to land later” sort of individual, so I wouldn’t say I’d take my advice, though. After all, I DID legally change my name after a fictional giant Japanese movie monster.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LIBYXoOba48/W89ntH7790I/AAAAAAAAFrs/RtYtlopjbCEixRVLz-mp8kd8PDWUjjI0ACLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="680" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LIBYXoOba48/W89ntH7790I/AAAAAAAAFrs/RtYtlopjbCEixRVLz-mp8kd8PDWUjjI0ACLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> commemorative axe featured as one of the rewards for Kickstarter backers of a certain amount. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: On your website, you mention that, “Halloween is my favorite time of the year. It gives me the ability to explore ways I can change my appearance and experiment with various materials.”<br />Can you speak a bit about your personal experience with and thoughts on experimentation when it comes to one’s craft—specifically in the mediums you’re involved in—and the processes you’ve developed to shake things up and to keep a fresh perspective on your professional work?</b><br />
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<b>MD:</b> Before I got hired at Laika, a lot of my work outside of college was for very “quick and dirty jobs” for a wide variety of projects—from make up props for theatre to make up on a seasoned film actor for independent films—and I said yes to all of them. Figuring out how to do what I was asked with what I had was a very exciting challenge. Each of those projects left me with a lot of “ok, this is what I learned—moving forward don’t do that, certainly don’t promise this” sort of attitude, which I felt really helped me with the pace of working on feature stop motion films: It needs to be perfect, but it also might change fifteen times before it’s finished. It’s always a creative challenge and the outcome is always worth it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SsS4aZc8ijI/W89otylXQ5I/AAAAAAAAFso/hw1e_Mvxf50xrokfh7uS0u2q4MC6Wk1uQCLcBGAs/s1600/tin_woodman_puppet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SsS4aZc8ijI/W89otylXQ5I/AAAAAAAAFso/hw1e_Mvxf50xrokfh7uS0u2q4MC6Wk1uQCLcBGAs/s640/tin_woodman_puppet.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman puppet created by Mattzilla Duron. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: You and Nick are working on <i>The Tin Woods</i> in your own spare time—on weekends and such—and, because of the time-consuming nature of the stop motion medium, you except it to take at least a year before you complete the film.<br />What advice do you have to give those in our readership who have ideas for their own films, have a passion for the medium, and aspire to “one day” make their ideas a reality—yet who have jobs, or sheer “life” keeping them from doing so—for how to begin to bring their ideas to fruition, as you and Nick are doing?</b><br />
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<b>MD:</b> “Nobody is going to read your book if you don’t write it because you feel like you don’t have time to write” is a quote I may have read somewhere or I am butchering from a movie I saw, but Nick and I have a very good work dynamic and we have a lot of fun with all of the projects we have collaborated on. The point is: nobody is going to watch it if we don’t get it done. I want people to watch this film, and I am excited to get started on filming <i>The Tin Woods</i>. Sure, there will be nights and weekends we’ll miss our partners and families, but think of how awesome it will be when we’re done!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> promo photo. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: To wrap up our interview, I’d like to end with <i>another</i> of my favorite questions: What work have you seen of late in the mediums in which you work—whether in films, television, commercials, short films, a specific artist’s creation—have you found particularly inspiring, or work to aspire to?</b></div>
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<b><br />MD:</b> I recently had a birthday, and I watched one of my favorite Godzilla films: 1962’s <i>King Kong vs. Godzilla</i>. That movie has a bit of it all—men in monster suits bashing, amazing miniatures, ridiculously fun storylines, straight comedy humor (I’m not sure they were aware of it) and even a bit of stop motion. It’s comical fun on so many levels, and it’s a movie that makes me forget of everything in my life and absolutely enjoy the world being shown to me. Any movie than can do that is a movie worth seeing. I aspire to do that for other people. (You’ve probably noticed I have a healthy obsession with Godzilla. I even legally changed my name!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UsENo37cah8/W89oqiNgfiI/AAAAAAAAFsg/qSPcqEQDgCUbH1moQLRGBoYyMDIuGwZ5ACLcBGAs/s1600/Mattzilla_working_still.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UsENo37cah8/W89oqiNgfiI/AAAAAAAAFsg/qSPcqEQDgCUbH1moQLRGBoYyMDIuGwZ5ACLcBGAs/s640/Mattzilla_working_still.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mattzilla Duron animating the Tin Woodman in a test animation. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Mattzilla Duron’s work by visiting his <a href="https://mattzilla.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/majirra/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/majirra">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzilla-duron-78a4ab2/">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3264075/">IMDb</a>.<br />
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You can learn more about and can donate to <i>The Tin Woods</i> by visiting the film’s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1571279892/the-tin-woods-a-stop-motion-short-film?ref=project_link">Kickstarter</a>.<br />
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This article is the second in a two-part series about <i>The Tin Woods</i>. To read the first part—an interview with Nick Boxwell, the film’s director and writer—you can go <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/10/interview-with-nick-boxwell-writer.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook @StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.</div>
A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-74898506269895700352018-10-16T20:52:00.003-04:002018-10-23T14:56:21.855-04:00Interview with Nick Boxwell, Writer, Producer, and Director of Stop Motion Short Film About the Tin Woodman of Oz, "The Tin Woods"<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> promo photo. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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“When you have a near death experience almost everything you want to do that’s emotionally important becomes more urgent,” says Portland-based videographer and photographer Nick Boxwell, explaining to Stop Motion Geek his driving motivation for collaborating with close friend Mattzilla Duron—a sculptor, character designer, and twelve year veteran at Laika Studios—to launch the ongoing Kickstarter campaign to fund their first stop motion short film, entitled <i>The Tin Woods</i> after the character whose story hope to tell—that of the Tin Woodman of Oz. “I have lots of half-baked scripts and half-started projects going on at all times,” Boxwell continues, “but if I do die soon I’d like to leave behind one personal film, and I hope it’s this one.”<br />
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Inspired by author L. Frank Baum’s classic books set in the Land of Oz, <i>The Tin Woods </i>tells the story of how Nick Chopper, a human, came to be the Tin Woodman of Oz—a story which Boxwell translates pieces of his traumatic, near-death experience, and hopes to use as a device to draw out certain subtext in the story to, as he says, address “some of the issues we are dealing with as a culture.”<br />
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The defining moment for Boxwell that initially sparked his interest in telling the story that ultimately became <i>The Tin Woods</i> came five years ago when he was saw a sculpture Duron had created of the Tin Man. “When I saw him working on a Tin Man sculpture and speaking very passionately about it,” says Boxwell, “I thought, <i>hey there is a really cool backstory to this guy most people don’t know</i>.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-g1Lvt6th8/W8aBe_CpPaI/AAAAAAAAFqA/G2xBFXryiekWBq6kZpwsH4bHn6xM9KbbQCLcBGAs/s1600/tin_man-Life.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-g1Lvt6th8/W8aBe_CpPaI/AAAAAAAAFqA/G2xBFXryiekWBq6kZpwsH4bHn6xM9KbbQCLcBGAs/s640/tin_man-Life.gif" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> test animation by Mattzilla Duron. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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Boxwell went on to write the screenplay for <i>The Tin Woods</i> and hoped to begin producing the film along with Duron. However, shortly thereafter, Boxwell was debilitated for the preceding months by a personal health crisis—about which he’s written the singular blog posts “<a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/blog/2018/6/19/bouncing-back">Bouncing Back</a>” and “<a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/blog/2017/1/17/no-guts-no-glory">No Guts, No Glory</a>”— in the midst of which he and Duron put <i>The Tin Woods</i> aside.<br />
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After recovering and returning to work, Boxwell again began to look for a project on which to collaborate with Duron once the two again had the opportunity. In summer of 2018, the opportunity came to them when their schedules opened up, and as the two began to look for the right project,<i> The Tin Woods</i> resurfaced.<br />
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In the time since, Boxwell and Duron have fully finished developing the story, as well as creating the puppets for <i>The Tin Woods</i>. Moreover, the two have many of the tools, materials, and equipment needed to shoot and edit the film. However, the two began a Kickstater for the film—to which can be found <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1571279892/the-tin-woods-a-stop-motion-short-film?ref=project_link">here</a>—to fund the building of two large sets and to hire Portland-based composer Jake Hull to compose a custom score for the film once principal photography is finished.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-ptZGiXE6Y/W8aCzdxlt2I/AAAAAAAAFrA/tOswcI5I0kAmxoo5VbD5mIqT_ZkYVAukwCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="680" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-ptZGiXE6Y/W8aCzdxlt2I/AAAAAAAAFrA/tOswcI5I0kAmxoo5VbD5mIqT_ZkYVAukwCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B9.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> production crew. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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Amazingly, the Kickstarter managed to meet its initial goal of $5,000 within 24 hours of going live, and in the subsequent days has—as of writing this—raised over $7,600, with the talley steadily moving to meet the first of several planned stretch goals, all of which will go towards enhancing the production value of the film. These goals include building a stage on which to shoot beyond the barest bones of a set, as well as purchasing a 85mm lens for high-quality close-ups in the film, and sturdy tabletops and heavy duty C-stands with and on which to film, along with several smaller grip and construction items that will go towards making the production run as smoothly as possible.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PLtehOz8zfQ/W8aCyog54GI/AAAAAAAAFq4/FmCK7DTJHxUgxFiCyixryy9urttW6X_XQCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="680" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PLtehOz8zfQ/W8aCyog54GI/AAAAAAAAFq4/FmCK7DTJHxUgxFiCyixryy9urttW6X_XQCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B7.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> budget breakdown. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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For backers of the Kickstarter, Duron and Boxwell are offering several rewards, such as an access code to the film once its finished, pins sporting the likeness of the Tin Woodman, disc media, props and puppets from the film once retired from production, varying levels of producer credits, and other such incentives which all can be viewed on the Kickstarter page.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrM-n9DsY0DtBJN_F8Tv4rPu_tHounXHSYt2qabIIbF3EZrWjLVSZ2dv-yVQRQSchRp-JTbr6_gcKG9g9pVUI9aAjaMt9Ayy75M3MN04rA8XBDaVz6M78yffxRAE6UN3oZRrbuM1UVZU/s1600/Tin+Woods+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="680" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrM-n9DsY0DtBJN_F8Tv4rPu_tHounXHSYt2qabIIbF3EZrWjLVSZ2dv-yVQRQSchRp-JTbr6_gcKG9g9pVUI9aAjaMt9Ayy75M3MN04rA8XBDaVz6M78yffxRAE6UN3oZRrbuM1UVZU/s640/Tin+Woods+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman pin reward for Kickstarter backers donating a certain amount. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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The whole of the film will be completed in Boxwell and Duron’s spare time, who will be doing everything from set construction to shooting and editing the film. In order to see the film through to being the best it can be, they anticipate it taking a year before they’re finished.<br />
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“Most people don’t realize that the original author [L. Frank Baum] wrote many more stories set in the land of Oz,” says Boxwell <a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/blog/2018/7/8/the-tin-woods">on his blog</a>, “and some of his ideas were way ahead of their time. I really want to share one of these stories and perhaps draw attention back to those original books. As someone who recently lost a body part, I think the Tin Woodman’s story is a reminder that when we put ourselves back together after trauma, we might be a different person, but that doesn’t me we are no longer ourselves.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bNj2X1iMXzA/W8aBYnGEd9I/AAAAAAAAFpo/06AEdXGq5ooaquIktJTrlLdLKCcL-jCoACLcBGAs/s1600/Mattzilla_working_still.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bNj2X1iMXzA/W8aBYnGEd9I/AAAAAAAAFpo/06AEdXGq5ooaquIktJTrlLdLKCcL-jCoACLcBGAs/s640/Mattzilla_working_still.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mattzilla Duron animating Tin Woodman in a test animation. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Nick Boxwell tells us about the moment he first came to fall in love with films, as well as of the strange twists and turns his career has taken him as he’s pursued photography, videography, and graphic design, and what he hopes to accomplish in his career in the future. He also digs into the origins of <i>The Tin Woods</i> and the process he and Mattzilla Duron have developed in their collaboration. Furthermore, tells us about how his health crisis has impacted his view on life and his work, particularly this project. In closing, he tells us his thoughts on Kickstarter, the lessons he’s learned through interacting with the film’s backers, and his advice to those thinking about using the service. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Nick! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s truly a pleasure to feature you, your work, and this new project of yours, <i>The Tin Woods</i>, on the blog!<br />I’d like to start by asking my favorite opener: How did you first fall in love with this medium, filmmaking (although feel free to approach the term “medium” however you like, as you’ve done quite masterful work across many mediums in the visual arts)? What were the steps that you took to get to this place in your career—now a videographer and photographer for 15 years?</b><br />
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<b>Nick Boxwell:</b> I didn’t know I wanted to be a filmmaker at the time, but I do remember the moment that sparked my love of film. I was 18 and watching Alfred Hitchcock’s <i>Notorious</i> and felt a strange tingling in my brain during the climactic scene that slowly spirals down the staircase. The combination of music, movement and dialogue was so masterfully put together. I spent the next couple of years chasing that odd sensation by watching all the weird films I could find. Then one day, I was standing in line to sign up for Community College and their newish Video & Film department had set up a monitor playing student work nearby. This was in 2001 and up until then film school was pretty expensive, so I hadn’t even considered it as a career option, although I’d often fantasized about being an animator as a kid. But digital video was blossoming then, and it was all becoming much less of an exclusive thing. I never finished that video degree, but I was already working at a small studio within a few years so I didn’t worry about it. My career has had complicated ups and downs and dovetails with a career in home furniture retail, where I learned things that the film industry doesn’t teach by default. Things like a sense for design, details and even advanced customer service. Those are the real abilities that help me maintain freelance work, not just my technical knowledge of the camera.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kMGExxNnM9Y/W8aCxckMbaI/AAAAAAAAFqo/A7FyH1j1VKosLUc4X8YdB-ALMZRTTcU4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kMGExxNnM9Y/W8aCxckMbaI/AAAAAAAAFqo/A7FyH1j1VKosLUc4X8YdB-ALMZRTTcU4ACLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a little about the story behind <i>The Tin Woods</i>—a project circumstances forced you to put on the shelf for a little while before you had opportunity to pick it up again? Why does this film feel—as you say in your Kickstarter video—“more urgent and relevant than it ever did before” to you, and why is it a story <i>you</i> had to tell?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> I don’t remember what I was feeling when I said those words, but when you have a near death experience almost everything you want to do that’s emotionally important becomes more urgent. I have lots of half-baked scripts and half-started projects going on at all times, but if I do die soon I’d like to leave behind one personal film, and I hope it’s this one. Mattzilla REALLY wanted to make a Godzilla film, and while there is certainly space for fan-films I was hesitant to put forth effort into anything requiring a legal license. When I saw him working on a Tin Man sculpture and speaking very passionately about it, I thought, <i>hey there is a really cool backstory to this guy most people don’t know</i>, but I also realized that the character is public domain. It just seemed like a lot of elements that could make a successful film (beyond just a good story) came together. Besides expanding on the Oz mythos for more casual folks, there is a lot of subtext that sums up some issues we are dealing with as a culture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PrO1BQbKQw8/W8aCxnhO7uI/AAAAAAAAFqs/rMvdYvuayZgzdGMk8cMRrmQt6ZAFUzR0wCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PrO1BQbKQw8/W8aCxnhO7uI/AAAAAAAAFqs/rMvdYvuayZgzdGMk8cMRrmQt6ZAFUzR0wCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman maquette sculpture featured as one of the rewards for Kickstarter backers of a certain amount. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.:<i> The Tin Woods</i> is the first film you and your collaborator, Mattzilla Duron, have worked on together, although from what you say in your Kickstarter video—“The entire time that I’ve known Mattzilla, he’s told me over and over again, ‘We should make a film together.’”—it sounds like you’ve had a hankering to find the right project to collaborate on for a while.<br />Can you describe the dynamic between the two of you—both personality-wise and creatively—and tell us why <i>this</i> is the right project to mark the debut of your collaboration?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> Well we have collaborated on small single day type things and helped each other out with personal stuff. We’ve had a few false starts on bigger projects though, and for a while this one seemed like it was going to be one of those. In the creative industry professional work comes and goes and it’s always seemed like one of us is working while the other has extra free time. This past summer I realized that Mattzilla was in-between films and I had a free day or two each week, so I felt like if we were going to be on the same page about something bigger this was the time. Personality wise I tend to edit my ideas and dwell on them while Mattzilla is a little more spontaneous. We meet once a week to plan out what we want to accomplish and look ahead but for the most part we give each other space to focus on our own duties.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E7jb9rl20AY/W8aCxVIacfI/AAAAAAAAFqk/_WFVEIHz89Aiod9vXFu6cF7gWOOmvUjjwCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="680" height="238" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E7jb9rl20AY/W8aCxVIacfI/AAAAAAAAFqk/_WFVEIHz89Aiod9vXFu6cF7gWOOmvUjjwCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> commemorative axe featured as one of the rewards for Kickstarter backers of a certain amount. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In the press release for <i>The Tin Woods</i>, you reference a defining moment in your life which happened two years ago—perhaps <i>the</i> defining moment—saying, “As someone who recently lost a body part, I think the Tin Woodman’s story is a reminder that when we put ourselves back together after trauma, we might be a different person, but that doesn’t mean we are no longer ourselves.”<br />If you’re comfortable talking about it—as you have in two, extremely remarkable blog posts of yours, “<a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/blog/2017/1/17/no-guts-no-glory">No Guts, No Glory</a>” and “<a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/blog/2018/6/19/bouncing-back">Bouncing Back</a>,” for which I thank you for your vulnerability and strength—could you tell us a bit about that moment in your life, and how it has since then changed your perspective on life and artistic expression—particularly in regards to <i>The Tin Woods</i>?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> If only it was just a <i>moment</i>! A few years ago my colon burst, and had to be removed. I almost died and was in a coma for a few days. I've spent a lot of time since in the hospital and recovering at home. I almost died a couple of times, and while I’m considered healthy now, every moment feels like borrowed time. It wasn’t like a lightning bolt moment of change, the way it happens in movies. It was an accumulation of many strange, sad, painful, scary and draining moments. When Mattzilla suggested we pick this project back up, I re-read the script and didn’t really feel a need to change much, the themes were almost prescient as to what I was going through at the moment. I think then I also realized that I hit a sweet spot in abstracting the story enough where different people will be able to watch it with different lenses on, and get different meaning out of it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SUtW-YqzkZA/W8aBbuJ9YDI/AAAAAAAAFpw/_FEofC18CH4S4mNgPpzeelcAdjGHjJq8wCLcBGAs/s1600/tin_woodman_puppet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SUtW-YqzkZA/W8aBbuJ9YDI/AAAAAAAAFpw/_FEofC18CH4S4mNgPpzeelcAdjGHjJq8wCLcBGAs/s640/tin_woodman_puppet.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tin Woodman puppet created by Mattzilla Duron. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Incredibly, <i>The Tin Woods</i> Kickstarter reached its goal—$5,000—within 24-hours of going live. How does it feel now to have now met your goal—and in so little a time—and what, for all the money now raised that exceeds your initial goal, are funds going to support?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> Oh gosh, I severely underestimated the generosity of people across the internet. I wish I hadn’t lowballed the goal so much, especially once I realized that Kickstarter adds the funds you collect for shipping toward the goal tally, effectively lowering the total you can actually use. I wrote the script planning for a 5K budget, so a lot of how it all plays out on screen does so for practical reasons. I was also expecting to have to pay out of pocket for some things. Even submitting to film festivals has fees that can add up quickly. I still think I’ll have to cover costs such as that on the back end, but for now everything extra we raise is going to be reflected on-screen. I have stretch goals planned out in stages, but the final goal that I think is attainable is to add back in some scenes inspired by the book that were left out for brevity. These involve another puppet and set that haven’t even been sketched out yet so be on the lookout for those.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uTEbmrwXHcA/W8aBb8fSVYI/AAAAAAAAFp0/HPoXNmLSDvES1l9HDdU9OQWXallRLh8DwCLcBGAs/s1600/tinWoods_concept_art_print%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1031" data-original-width="1600" height="412" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uTEbmrwXHcA/W8aBb8fSVYI/AAAAAAAAFp0/HPoXNmLSDvES1l9HDdU9OQWXallRLh8DwCLcBGAs/s640/tinWoods_concept_art_print%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Photo courtesy of Nick Boxwell.</td></tr>
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<b> A.H.: What has been the response from the fans of Oz and how has your relationship with your backers thus far been in regards to <i>The Tin Woods</i>? With this being the first project you’ve utilized Kickstarter for, what are your general thoughts on its advantages and drawbacks?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> I’m pretty humbled by how many complete strangers are donating money to our project. I’ve also received some messages through social media from folks who can’t afford to donate but still want to let me know that they appreciate what we are trying to do, which is very sweet. This is my first personal project but I’ve been involved helping others run their Kickstarters so I’ve been able to see what works and what doesn’t. I think the advantage is that really anyone can do it, so it’s very democratic. But a drawback might be that there are so many wild success stories out there that it sets up unrealistic expectations. Building our mailing list and talking up the film before hand is what led to our first day going so well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYOiUGrjc1eM4LWbaGIoKhFLGRKRcENioJKfHVj8Wjb5Di5lapG3mr4OZfGCD7KBS9czuuzutVI_semH9tWnp2ffRiasuUDIWPjSFQx2-yFMV2xbvYwvs1TdgV6OLU5M19FmOf9pCA6EM/s1600/Tin+Woods+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="680" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYOiUGrjc1eM4LWbaGIoKhFLGRKRcENioJKfHVj8Wjb5Di5lapG3mr4OZfGCD7KBS9czuuzutVI_semH9tWnp2ffRiasuUDIWPjSFQx2-yFMV2xbvYwvs1TdgV6OLU5M19FmOf9pCA6EM/s640/Tin+Woods+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Woods</i> concept art by Ann Tseng. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: So for you, where from <i>here</i>—particularly concerning the timeline for completing <i>The Tin Woods</i>, as I understand you and Mattzilla are working on it in your spare time?</b><br />
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<b>NB:</b> I’m estimating it’s going to take a year to finish the film. I’m really trying to hit a certain date because there are a few local film festivals I want to make it to without having to wait to the following year. Full production probably won’t start until January, because running a Kickstarter and all of the marketing and delivery around that has been a job in and of itself. But if we had just thrown up a Kickstarter page without all of the marketing and prep work we wouldn’t have hit our goal so quickly, if at all! I do have the math worked out for a stretch goal we would need to hit in order to take off time from our jobs and just work on the film and finish sooner, but it’s pretty high. My hope is that delivering this film successfully on time and within budget will justify us being able to ask for that much on our next film, whatever it is.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qt0gn3HOu5U/W8aCy5VQJBI/AAAAAAAAFq8/NILqp5D_JcosAEc13UPkohea_76FPiSnQCLcBGAs/s1600/Tin%2BWoods%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="680" height="358" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qt0gn3HOu5U/W8aCy5VQJBI/AAAAAAAAFq8/NILqp5D_JcosAEc13UPkohea_76FPiSnQCLcBGAs/s640/Tin%2BWoods%2B8.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tin Wood</i>'s stretch goal chart. Source: Kickstarter.</td></tr>
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If you would like to explore more of Nick Boxwell’s work, you can do so by visiting his <a href="http://www.nickboxwell.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nboxwell/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nboxwellmm/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2Ym2B3IUIk86S2xAhNrSw">YouTube</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/nboxwell">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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You can donate to<i> The Tin Woods</i> and learn more about the project by visiting the film’s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1571279892/the-tin-woods-a-stop-motion-short-film?ref=project_link">Kickstarter</a>.<br />
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This article is the first in a two-part series of interviews coordinated by Stop Motion Geek with the creative team behind <i>The Tin Woods</i>, the second of which—an interview with Mattzilla Duron—will go live soon. You can stay tuned for it and other upcoming interview articles by subscribing to our Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.</div>
A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-71316606208797817142018-10-02T09:35:00.000-04:002018-11-18T12:45:01.828-05:00Interview with Victor Haegelin, Director and Animator of Stop Motion Action Mini-Movie, "Captain 3D"<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain 3D in Haegelin's <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Snatching a moment’s respite, a moment now drawing to a close, animation director Victor Haegelin—sporting wide-rimmed 3D glasses with big, red and blue lens—flips through the last few pages of a comic book boasting in big, red letters, “Captain 3D.” He reclines in a leather-backed computer chair, sitting at his desk, every inch of it crammed with <i>something</i>, though <i>what</i> exactly is anyone’s guess, stocked as it is with an animator’s lightbox, a glass jar filled to overflowing with colored pencils that lies an arm’s distance from of a litany of neatly stacked books and magazines—complete with a smattering with glossy comics coated in celluloid—the array finished off with every creator’s most essential companion: a sketch-pad and pen, the items lying <i>closest</i> at hand.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victor Haegelin in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pBVMVU8VaMM/W7LXHAmvmLI/AAAAAAAAFnU/hdSGEPV35vUkP73HWAowZFAgWrq_cVZxwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.00%2BPM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victor Haegelin closing the cover on the "Captain 3D" comic in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pBVMVU8VaMM/W7LXHAmvmLI/AAAAAAAAFnU/hdSGEPV35vUkP73HWAowZFAgWrq_cVZxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.00%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pBVMVU8VaMM/W7LXHAmvmLI/AAAAAAAAFnU/hdSGEPV35vUkP73HWAowZFAgWrq_cVZxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.00%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a>
Finally, coming to an end of the comic, Haegelin—chuckling at the final few exploits of our dashing hero, Captain 3D, a spandex-wearing superhero without <i>any</i> superpowers save for <i>his</i> pair of 3D glasses—sets aside the book, stacking it on the shelf along with the rest, just in front of which he rests his glasses.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-071ydSBl5oQ/W7LXIgqAH_I/AAAAAAAAFn4/AmQEGJ5TlHMSP4Mb_XyL3ln6_VSEACxlACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.48%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-071ydSBl5oQ/W7LXIgqAH_I/AAAAAAAAFn4/AmQEGJ5TlHMSP4Mb_XyL3ln6_VSEACxlACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.48%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haegelin's desk in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U5UbcShO07g/W7LXI1IhyLI/AAAAAAAAFn8/EWcrX2-cZWYOYfIl2EROiXuqqdL6I43EQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.49%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U5UbcShO07g/W7LXI1IhyLI/AAAAAAAAFn8/EWcrX2-cZWYOYfIl2EROiXuqqdL6I43EQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.49%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haegelin leaves his room in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Upon leaving the room, Haegelin slams the door behind him...which, displacing a casually misplaced book, triggers a chain-reaction of apparatus along the neatly ordered, near-chaos of his desk to fall, domino-style, until the last of the chain knocks over a flashlight, flickering on to shine through Haegelin’s oh-so-perfectly-placed 3D glasses projecting a blue-and-red light across the cover of the <i>Captain 3D </i>comic, at which change the eponymous hero himself bursts from the cover of his own comic book—where he’s poised in a running pose, suggesting a high-chase pursuit—and emerges, fully three-dimensional, into the zany world of Haegelin’s desk and room.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dwdbvAvaOKY/W7LXJKXmIpI/AAAAAAAAFoE/oHN-B90RTpUGjRm0hKPBPyHuSTeqPpaowCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.56%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dwdbvAvaOKY/W7LXJKXmIpI/AAAAAAAAFoE/oHN-B90RTpUGjRm0hKPBPyHuSTeqPpaowCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.56%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apparatus along Haegelin's desk is upset by the door slamming, triggering a chain reaction in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e4SHjUCRj0A/W7NtXh4AsbI/AAAAAAAAFow/ny1uYWeFo3EDhIK3R5MIuSt6fZa7k83kgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-02%2Bat%2B9.02.08%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e4SHjUCRj0A/W7NtXh4AsbI/AAAAAAAAFow/ny1uYWeFo3EDhIK3R5MIuSt6fZa7k83kgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-02%2Bat%2B9.02.08%2BAM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain 3D emerges from the cover of his titular comic book. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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And so the adventure—Haegelin’s self-described “HO-LLY-WOO-DIAN” “stop motion action movie,” which made its <a href="https://vimeo.com/287416555">online debut</a> at the beginning of last month—begins.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nFrvUmEt-m0/W7LXJqJfL8I/AAAAAAAAFoM/0WiFYLVvj-glrw0vECLXnr0XUrBqoFVrQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.59.03%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nFrvUmEt-m0/W7LXJqJfL8I/AAAAAAAAFoM/0WiFYLVvj-glrw0vECLXnr0XUrBqoFVrQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.59.03%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain 3D stands atop Haegelin's desk in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“I’ve always been interested in mini-stuff, miniature worlds, little mysterious hidden creatures,” Haegelin tells Stop Motion Geek. “The day I understood how frame-by-frame animation worked was the day I realized I could create and give life to these inanimate things, and that was all it took for me to realize I’d found my passion.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eYnU6yYPq9s/W7LXCvQIPaI/AAAAAAAAFlk/eLBMGzNQDo8eT61J5oC85TPE4n1LZkjdwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.07%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eYnU6yYPq9s/W7LXCvQIPaI/AAAAAAAAFlk/eLBMGzNQDo8eT61J5oC85TPE4n1LZkjdwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.07%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haegelin on the set of <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Haegelin discusses everything from his humble beginnings of discovering the medium of animation in the days of VHS-C to how he’s fashioned for himself an illustrious career as an animator and director, which spans tvcs for the likes of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=iwbueIJZgsk">McDonald’s</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/287225080">Lego and Renault</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQlCtPwTULw">Bionade</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17qsjxP3a0">Christofle Paris</a>, to music videos such as <a href="https://vimeo.com/patatorprod/kliq"><i>Wire and Flashing Lights</i></a> for instrumental-EDM extraordinaire Professor Kliq to short films like the “pixelated” stop motion <i><a href="https://vimeo.com/80978356">Le curieux dîner de Noël</a> </i>and stop motion/live action hybrid<i> Captain 3D</i>. He also gives us an in-depth look at the making of <i>Captain 3D</i>, walking us through every step of the production—from initial concept to final edit—his story of the film’s beginnings as an ill-fated green-lighted tvc pitch serving as much a wary caution to aspiring directors of the unpredictable world of television advertising as it is a story of creative and collaborative triumph. He also tells us exactly why he is, ironically, extremely proud of and content with the final result of <i>Captain 3D</i> when viewed in two-dimensions, and why he’s <i>less</i> than satisfied with the film when seen in three-dimensions, providing some insightful tips for filmmakers who wish to create a 3D film. You can read our interview in full below.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Victor! Many thanks for doing this interview! I’ve been a fan of yours since <a href="https://vimeo.com/patatorprod/kliq"><i>Professor Kliq – Wire and Flashing Lights</i></a>, so it’s a great pleasure to finally feature you and your outstanding work on Stop Motion Geek! I’d like to start off with the basics: Can you tell us about how you became interested in the medium of stop motion, and how you’ve come to have a career as a director and animator in the animation industry?</b><br />
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<b>Victor Haegelin:</b> Hi! Thanks for being a fan of me! :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yEzoKkcdPJI/W7LXBpaY3iI/AAAAAAAAFlc/4hAUhiioVSgZstjxuxozMAWw-H_RzS_twCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.55.45%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yEzoKkcdPJI/W7LXBpaY3iI/AAAAAAAAFlc/4hAUhiioVSgZstjxuxozMAWw-H_RzS_twCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.55.45%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A storyboard from the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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I’ve always been interested in mini-stuff, miniature worlds, little mysterious hidden creatures. The day I understood how frame-by-frame animation worked was the day I realized I could create and give life to these inanimate things, and that was all it took for me to realize I’d found my passion.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hc0q9ibTCmY/W7LXBZxYSZI/AAAAAAAAFlQ/oEeTdOyDJrE5Zy4OBKOL4zMpjCTsEd7LACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.55.43%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hc0q9ibTCmY/W7LXBZxYSZI/AAAAAAAAFlQ/oEeTdOyDJrE5Zy4OBKOL4zMpjCTsEd7LACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.55.43%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A storyboard from the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo. </td></tr>
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When I was young I bought a camera (VHS-C!!!), with which my friends and I would make little films and saynète. Ever since those early, experimental days, I’ve been continually fascinated by film and cinema, so after trying math and physics studies at university I reoriented myself toward audiovisual and cinema studies. After that I went through a period of learning the craft of stop motion on my own, at which point I made my first animations, which helped me get some training at a few stop motion studios. That ultimately led to me getting an internship at <a href="https://www.partizan.com/category/animation">Partizan Studios</a>, where I was noticed by a producer who gave me my big break by giving me chance to direct my first commercial! That’s basically how it started!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQsLojbA9YU/W7LXHWGsvWI/AAAAAAAAFnY/NQqRRmm2v8U_vwiwUqAkxeIicvaMLGvuACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.04%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQsLojbA9YU/W7LXHWGsvWI/AAAAAAAAFnY/NQqRRmm2v8U_vwiwUqAkxeIicvaMLGvuACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.04%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain 3D as seen during the end credits of <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: <i>Captain 3D</i> is an older project of yours—one you and your associates finished in 2015, the year it premiered at the prestigious Annecy Film Festival—and one that has only recently been released online. What made you want to make this film in the first place, and how does the final film differ from early iterations of it?</b><br />
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<b>VH:</b> Initially this film was created while I was pitching for a commercial in 2011. Nokia wanted to promote their newest phone at the time (the Nokia N8) and were looking for ideas for how to best show off the high-tech, HD cam integrated in the phone.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhRQALMH0XA/W7LXEYOTohI/AAAAAAAAFmI/G5H04A-3bdUTMAtY-uth2Wycp-MyKbUtwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.31%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhRQALMH0XA/W7LXEYOTohI/AAAAAAAAFmI/G5H04A-3bdUTMAtY-uth2Wycp-MyKbUtwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.31%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Captain 3D</i> post-production workflow as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4yp5VX0RS4/W7LXEnJNJJI/AAAAAAAAFmM/d76vV4rytcohGRNhfIYHL3TFhUNKd52OQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.34%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4yp5VX0RS4/W7LXEnJNJJI/AAAAAAAAFmM/d76vV4rytcohGRNhfIYHL3TFhUNKd52OQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.34%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Captain 3D</i> post-production workflow as seen in the "Making of<i> Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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They had done a few short films promoting the N8’s HD camera in the past with other directors (Thomas Hilland’s live-action <a href="https://vimeo.com/15874124"><i>Dragonfly Love</i></a>, as well as Aardman’s stop motion short films <a href="https://vimeo.com/26877221"><i>Gulp.</i></a>—the world’s largest-scale stop motion animated short film—and the micro-scale production <a href="https://vimeo.com/15055444"><i>Dot</i></a>) and they came to me, asking if I had any ideas. I suggested we film with <i>two</i> phones, side-by-side, so we could shoot in 3D! After the initial idea, I wrote a script, and that’s how <i>Captain 3D</i> was born! But, suddenly, almost three weeks before we began shooting, they stopped the production because they said they had no more money for it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisaW8pZ72s4YmHnGgf8yZSrKQBY0_OsmBFq1d5_xH4kpn3NTkYFY2Qh48bM3jTMOVgEPl4idyB8szl8WnikiAmmwCjrTCRmRq0K_pQYCOOhd_iNyL6SxzYlo5tZo7qMf69HT7XROlcpOU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-01+at+9.56.37+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisaW8pZ72s4YmHnGgf8yZSrKQBY0_OsmBFq1d5_xH4kpn3NTkYFY2Qh48bM3jTMOVgEPl4idyB8szl8WnikiAmmwCjrTCRmRq0K_pQYCOOhd_iNyL6SxzYlo5tZo7qMf69HT7XROlcpOU/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-10-01+at+9.56.37+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D-printed facial expressions for the character of Captain 3D as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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That’s something that happens in commercial world: Until you’ve finished shooting and are no longer on-set, you don’t know if you are going to finish making a film.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XMtg-wilNS8/W7LXE2aVRFI/AAAAAAAAFmU/RWBIS_rgI-MdPUI86ym4zDyjJcOeC1jwQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.41%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XMtg-wilNS8/W7LXE2aVRFI/AAAAAAAAFmU/RWBIS_rgI-MdPUI86ym4zDyjJcOeC1jwQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.41%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D-printed facial expressions for characters in <i>Captain 3D</i> as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7bcwmLHA-OgzYov3X8L9F71Hl_KIL46CM7ZzGyNmmxigghAk6ZHawYYWfr_CU9SbROsNas7fnJi1WPgHyQnuzYWVsXhtMe2MrfawREEizdnZCxawUbnBd7jY4jexCWwIlkKW45sNGO4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-01+at+9.56.42+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7bcwmLHA-OgzYov3X8L9F71Hl_KIL46CM7ZzGyNmmxigghAk6ZHawYYWfr_CU9SbROsNas7fnJi1WPgHyQnuzYWVsXhtMe2MrfawREEizdnZCxawUbnBd7jY4jexCWwIlkKW45sNGO4/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-10-01+at+9.56.42+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Armatures for characters in <i>Captain 3D</i> as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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By that point I had the story ready to shoot, and I <i>really</i> wanted to make it. Fortunately, I crossed paths with our two wonderful producers, Gizem and Nathalie, who funded the project till we finished it!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-beONsrDLH2c/W7LXFYxHhEI/AAAAAAAAFmk/9_POeC7ZcJYmh2V_tOOoMt0N9xSRYAbXgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.49%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-beONsrDLH2c/W7LXFYxHhEI/AAAAAAAAFmk/9_POeC7ZcJYmh2V_tOOoMt0N9xSRYAbXgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.49%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A puppet being cast for <i>Captain 3D</i> in the "Making of<i> Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
Four years after finishing the film, I actually looked at the first storyboard for the film—some of the material I’d created while Nokia still intended to produce it—and I was a little amazed to find that it was pretty close to the film in its final form!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9FVH_aZKXjE/W7LXFYmqepI/AAAAAAAAFmo/NR_MDnlSoH8tmInR_BRFW097rR1ujevFgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.55%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9FVH_aZKXjE/W7LXFYmqepI/AAAAAAAAFmo/NR_MDnlSoH8tmInR_BRFW097rR1ujevFgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.55%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A replacement facial expression for the character of Captain 3D as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6NSHZg_C5c/W7LXFjuNQfI/AAAAAAAAFms/bAdIjgrh6EIFaCgGtFGVoOmydm6__bHNwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.57%2BPM%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_6NSHZg_C5c/W7LXFjuNQfI/AAAAAAAAFms/bAdIjgrh6EIFaCgGtFGVoOmydm6__bHNwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.57%2BPM%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A replacement facial expression for the character of The Girl as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: Earlier this year Stop Motion Geek interviewed the <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-ru-kuwahata-and-max.html">director duo</a> and <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-edwina-liard-co-producer.html">producer</a> behind the 2018 Oscar®-nominated short film <i>Negative Space</i>—produced in France—who helped shed some light on the process of getting animated short films produced in France. How did you and your producers go about getting funding for <i>Captain 3D</i> and amassing your outstanding ensemble of animators, puppet, prop, and set makers, graphics team, and editors—not to mention your camera operator, artistic director, composer, and sound mixer?</b><br />
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<b>VH:</b> We had a few grants—one from CNC (National Cinema Center) and one from Brittany Region, and we also raised a little crowdfunding through Ulule.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OgoR47-6LSY/W7LXFzNZFzI/AAAAAAAAFm0/K5ADX36QGTELM9iViUlTkRSP9bKhZLyHACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.08%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OgoR47-6LSY/W7LXFzNZFzI/AAAAAAAAFm0/K5ADX36QGTELM9iViUlTkRSP9bKhZLyHACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.08%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post-production workflow as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
The film is a co-production:<br />
–Partizan held the film from the beginning and produced all of the post-production work on it with their post-production department Royal Post.<br />
–JPL Film, a Brittany based studio, built the puppets and helped us get the Brittany Region grant.<br />
–Manuel Cam Studio is also a co-producer. The studio’s owner is actually Jean Louis Padis—one of the producers of <i>Negative Space</i>, and someone I’ve worked with for more than ten years now—let us use his studio, and also transported and lighted material during the whole month of shooting. Thank you, again, Jean Louis!<br />
<br />
We actually <i>didn’t</i> get all the money we estimated needing to make the film, but we decided to start the shooting, anyway, with the money we ended up raising—half of the money we predicted needed.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPxLLL5lWtc/W7LXCCdgsrI/AAAAAAAAFlg/0U9D9ZB7kOgYfs196YLNQCDR0W4GTcSjgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.00%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPxLLL5lWtc/W7LXCCdgsrI/AAAAAAAAFlg/0U9D9ZB7kOgYfs196YLNQCDR0W4GTcSjgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.00%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set for <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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The crew was made up of people I know and who I’m used to working with. They knew it would be a long, hard production—with them working underpaid—but, nevertheless, they did it! Thank you guys!<br />
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<b>A.H.: A place where <i>Captain 3D</i> really pushes the envelope of the stop motion medium—and, I should say, to immense success—is with its action sequences, which is a style rarely seen in stop motion (most likely due to its being a great challenge to animate, and something that is not quite as natural to stop motion as it is for, say, CGI or cel animation). You mention in <a href="https://vimeo.com/287443936">the film’s behind-the-scenes video</a> that it was your intention from the outset to create a “stop motion action movie,” which seems to me quite an ambitious undertaking. Can you walk us through the process you and your team took to create such enthralling action sequences?</b><br />
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<b>VH:</b> It was a really ambitious ‘yes’! Since the beginning and during the shooting my keyword was “HO-LLY-WOO-DIAN”!!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-83CuKcNPTjM/W7LXGcF0doI/AAAAAAAAFnA/LW4s8NKAtAMil1l6C20Is_ODGzImaZxewCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.41%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-83CuKcNPTjM/W7LXGcF0doI/AAAAAAAAFnA/LW4s8NKAtAMil1l6C20Is_ODGzImaZxewCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.41%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "Captain 3D" comic book page in the midst of being designed as seen in the "Making of<i> Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FBMUuPEv1rw/W7LXGrmiWCI/AAAAAAAAFnI/V4Zwet4HxgoY4TdOInVzmTk-JHcpTD8_QCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.48%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FBMUuPEv1rw/W7LXGrmiWCI/AAAAAAAAFnI/V4Zwet4HxgoY4TdOInVzmTk-JHcpTD8_QCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.48%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "Captain 3D" comic book pages in the midst of being inked as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
That approach in this medium, of course, did lead to some challenges, but those mostly amounted to spending a lot more time in prep than we anticipated. Some shots—like one of the first where Captain 3D starts to run—took about a day to prepare and another day to shoot!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9DjtDCy6aBk/W7LXGyjlNHI/AAAAAAAAFnQ/LNyS2g68jQQTNStuqmcmBZUkW8A9fiQrwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.56%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9DjtDCy6aBk/W7LXGyjlNHI/AAAAAAAAFnQ/LNyS2g68jQQTNStuqmcmBZUkW8A9fiQrwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.57.56%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "Captain 3D" comic book pages in the midst of being inked as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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One of the biggest challenges was preparing those “helicopter shots” with frame-by-frame travelling: We a motion control rig that we could incrementally move, frame-by-frame, and monitor with Dragonframe, but configuring the whole move before the shot was really time consuming.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o9Qq5HMsNVw/W7LXIR3rujI/AAAAAAAAFnw/KbVDnCcDB88EzU_qAgUD8jWcbZ_2DYLrgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.39%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o9Qq5HMsNVw/W7LXIR3rujI/AAAAAAAAFnw/KbVDnCcDB88EzU_qAgUD8jWcbZ_2DYLrgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.39%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haegelin reading the final "Captain 3D" comic book as seen in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: I’m fascinated by the behind-the-scenes photo seen in <a href="https://vimeo.com/106658082">the “pre-making of” video about the film</a>, which shows that you split your studio/set in two—animating the animated segments in one half and filming the live-action segments in the other. This sounds like a fascinating challenge for you, the director—to manage your time between two sets! How did you end up managing your time and direction, and did you learn any tips or tricks that might help aspiring directors deal with similar situations?</b><br />
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<b>VH:</b> Actually, I was one of two animators, as well as the director! So, yes, it was non-stop. As a director, I couldn’t animate <i>and</i> prepare a shot for the other animator. Fortunately, some shots are really long, which allowed us to spend a lot of time animating peacefully without having to move on to the next shot very quickly.<br />
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<br />
A good tip for stop motion directors is to <i>always</i> be available on-set, and to be able to react at any time on any frame during the animation.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="400" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/G2RxhjSUhTQNzGj9nNRoTCmEA7NJQHFiEtWM0bGdg3hqkoJkPX5-MVWUIawiXEpp45H9m4skLSdWUMLuKNMhmnY-CH51jE_VVzsHgK5KhkjWgG--PQ0-VtmvCNFzxCc3UFc9ckJ-" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set for <i>Captain 3D</i> as seen in the "Making of<i> Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: What, in your mind—if you had to pick one—was the greatest challenge you and your team faced on <i>Captain 3D</i>, and why? How did you and your team work to overcome it?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>VH:</b> As I’ve already made mention, I think it was the camera movements.<br />
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Another hard point was configuring the 3D capture: We basically applied some calculations, and on each frame the camera moves from left to right to capture the photos for each eye. The space between two pictures depends on the distance of the subject you shot and ranged from 3 mm to 8 cm!!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gU8485FNvuM/W7LXHynb2SI/AAAAAAAAFnk/DYtcTBOfIcEUr-5GWbU2NdB_2FpjShK9wCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.34%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gU8485FNvuM/W7LXHynb2SI/AAAAAAAAFnk/DYtcTBOfIcEUr-5GWbU2NdB_2FpjShK9wCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.58.34%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final "Captain 3D" comic book page as seen in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
Also, when filming in 3D, you have to consider the time the camera “travels” from left to right. For example: when the space was about 8 cm, it took about 45s for the camera to come back to its left position once you pressed “enter” to capture the frame. 45s doesn’t sound like much...but when you’re shooting a 200-frame shot, it’s about 2 hours and 30 minutes lost!!! That’s something significant we discovered on this shooting.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Being someone who has worked in the stop motion industry for quite a few years, looking back on your career now, what is the single most important skill or lesson you learned that has helped grant you the success you’ve had, and why? What resources would you recommend to animators just starting out to help them learn such a lesson or skill?</b><br />
<br />
VH: 1st lesson: make films and show them to people...and to people <i>other</i> than your parents. Observe their reactions. Look at what <i>doesn’t</i> work in your films, then ask yourself, “Why?”<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3phMNSKZ1GY/W7LXCwEnimI/AAAAAAAAFlo/F5TecrZyK5YeHPF7AFZsCV2nBIJgEIjVQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.08%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3phMNSKZ1GY/W7LXCwEnimI/AAAAAAAAFlo/F5TecrZyK5YeHPF7AFZsCV2nBIJgEIjVQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.08%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haegelin on the set of <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
2nd lesson: watch animation you find really cool, frame-by-frame, and try to understand why the animator did what they did, and why.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8YoBZBHOf0U/W7LXF6h9KcI/AAAAAAAAFmw/UnkF1n41xZE6jzQOZMFv2YnEtQkQ3HbOgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.59%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8YoBZBHOf0U/W7LXF6h9KcI/AAAAAAAAFmw/UnkF1n41xZE6jzQOZMFv2YnEtQkQ3HbOgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.59%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain 3D as seen in <i>Captain 3D</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
3rd lesson: make films and show them to people!<br />
<br />
<b>A.H.: One of the things I’m most impressed with in <i>Captain 3D</i> is the film’s ability to use the 3D effect to advance its story and to raise action sequences to exciting new heights for the medium. It’s curious to note that the 3D effect in films at large has, historically—and even in recent years—been viewed by many film critics as a “gimmick” to heighten spectacle instead of being used to best suit a film. From a technical and conceptual standpoint, what was your team’s approach to the film’s 3D effects—both of shooting the film to be viewed in 3D and of having a large part of the story surround 3D effects—and how did your approach change over the course of the production? Did you consciously attempt to avoid the “gimmicky” nature of 3D effects, and, if so, how did you go about doing so?</b><br />
<br />
<b>VH:</b> The 3D effect was actually the starting point of this film—that was the technique it was suppose to show off in the original pitch.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qLgIt11wYBU/W7LXC7mF79I/AAAAAAAAFls/4pqaEdxzW0Ix0M7YH_KtesB8qZqbKoTvACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.11%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qLgIt11wYBU/W7LXC7mF79I/AAAAAAAAFls/4pqaEdxzW0Ix0M7YH_KtesB8qZqbKoTvACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.11%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of the final 2D result of a finished frame of <i>Captain 3D</i> as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AQqdI_EmuKw/W7LXDNf1U9I/AAAAAAAAFlw/MH_klkNS8oEm8Vl4aczAVL9Y6Ykw5cwTwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.14%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AQqdI_EmuKw/W7LXDNf1U9I/AAAAAAAAFlw/MH_klkNS8oEm8Vl4aczAVL9Y6Ykw5cwTwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-01%2Bat%2B9.56.14%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of the final 3D result of a finished frame of <i>Captain 3D </i>as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
That being said, what I wasn’t happy with was the added challenge that, during the shoot, I had to sometimes think about whether a shot would only “work” in 3D and, thus, decrease its quality in 2D. It’s a backwards way of thinking.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The camera setup for <i>Captain 3D</i> as seen in the "Making of <i>Captain 3D</i>" featurette. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Also, curiously, I’m really happy with the final result in 2D...but not that much with the final result in 3D. I think some of the 3D effects are mind-blowing, but the film can be hard to watch because of those effects, resulting in headache!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Captain 3D</i> set. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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And I know what mistake I made that led to this problem: we did the editing in 2D (which is actually more comfortable on the eyes). Our approach to certain decisions in the editing, like the length of a close-up shot between two other shots, were made with a mindset of how to best edit a <i>2D</i> film that best serve a film viewed in 2D, and some times these decisions don’t work so well in 3D, and, unfortunately, we didn’t focus on those differences or take the necessary time to check between 2D and 3D while editing.<br />
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<b>A.H.: What’s you’re next big project?</b><br />
<b>VH: </b>I’m thinking to turn Captain 3D into a series of short episodes!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opening title sequence of <i>Captain 3D.</i> Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Victor Haegelin’s work by visiting his <a href="http://www.victoranimator.fr/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/patagraph/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/VictorPatator">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2oW7c5ToCYi2qyBXcda6Sw">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vichae">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/patatorprod">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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If you’re interested in learning more about the making of <i>Captain 3D</i>, you can go <a href="https://vimeo.com/106658082">here</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/287443936">here</a> to watch the first and second making-of featurettes. You can also go <a href="https://www.stashmedia.tv/scenes-victor-haegelin-captain-3d/">here</a> to read Victor Haegelin’s interview with Stash Media.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/287443936?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to our Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Captain 3D</i> Title Card. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-4217349112497239502018-08-15T23:50:00.001-04:002018-11-18T12:45:14.370-05:00Interview with Roos Mattaar, Director of Stop Motion Short Film "Nieuwstad (New City)," A Film About the Birth of a City<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Dutch family as seen in <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/281599118?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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In the twelfth century, a Dutch peasant family of three – mother, father, and son, each clad in rough-spun wool tunics, the mother in a broad-brimmed white bonnet and apron – living on wetlands of the small peasant village of Paveien in Netherlands, just outside of the town of Culenborch (modern-day “Culemborg”) and the village of Lanxmeer, are themselves a strange distillation of their surroundings. To our twenty-first century eyes, their lives – from birth to death – are shaped so starkly by the world in which they live – a world of toil and soil, with the stuff plagued by uncertain flooding patterns and gray, gray weather.<br />
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With the benefit of hindsight and an eye looking back from the twenty-first century, everything from their clothes to their very way of life – one of mere survival, of settling wild lands by building house and barn and then cultivating the land remaining – has a look and feel total alien to most inhabitants of the earth today, a look and feel that is entirely unique to the aesthetic of their physical environment.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ifN8LNixImo/W3Tu-RhBODI/AAAAAAAAFgc/NJ63-ZFUJ-YONt4y92EaVaCoMrVFfp9FwCLcBGAs/s1600/Lanxmeer%2Barrival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ifN8LNixImo/W3Tu-RhBODI/AAAAAAAAFgc/NJ63-ZFUJ-YONt4y92EaVaCoMrVFfp9FwCLcBGAs/s640/Lanxmeer%2Barrival.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A family traveling in <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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Yet, it’s not a phenomenon unique to twelfth-century Dutch family. If one stops to think on it, <i>we</i> – denizens of the twenty-first century, even, to be more specific, Dutch inhabitants of modern-day city of Nieuwstad (New City) (which is the name the village of Lanxmeer eventually adopted once it was ultimately incorporated into Culenborch after many emigrated to its higher, drier land than that of the area around it) – are just as much products of <i>our</i> world and time as they were products of theirs – a world and time which undoubtedly seemed absolutely ordinary to them. Through their eyes, <i>our</i> reality is the one actually strange. The only true, discernible difference between us and them is that we are products that come in twenty-first century packaging – an end result determined by culture, something which only forms by building upon what’s come before the <i>now</i>, the present.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A family in <i>Nieuwstad (New City) </i>building a house. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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For Culemborg-born stop motion auteur Roos Mattaar, this very shift in Dutch culture – and the gears which turned it – is exactly what she was interested in exploring in her most recent film, fittingly titled <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>, which she was commissioned to make as part of an interactive historic walk for primary school children in Nieuwstad. Although the film only stocks up to a one minute and forty-eight second total runtime, the snapshot of life dictating life from the twelfth century to modern today is incredibly fascinating and deftly executed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A man cutting down a tree in <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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“A big part of the film is actually taking place in a village near the town (Paveien) which doesn’t exist anymore,” Mattaar tells Stop Motion Geek concerning the process of reconstructing in miniature for stop motion the village and land which once comprised what ultimately became the city of her birthplace. “Because the film is taking place in the 12th century at this time most houses were either wooden or like the farms made with clay and straw roofs. So the only shot that is really recognisably my hometown is the time lapse of the map. This I based directly on a historical map of the town from 1621. Many streets and buildings are still in the same place. For the historical details I discussed with the client who was passing on my questions to a local history expert. This way I made sure I had the right references for the type of houses and layout of the land plots in the village. It did help to be familiar with the landscape to add details such as the pollard willows which are still very typical in the landscape today.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LZORcpxtuM/W3Tu-3_E0XI/AAAAAAAAFgk/DPun34icppEKuyfLWqVlY9AzfAamozQSwCLcBGAs/s1600/Ploughing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LZORcpxtuM/W3Tu-3_E0XI/AAAAAAAAFgk/DPun34icppEKuyfLWqVlY9AzfAamozQSwCLcBGAs/s640/Ploughing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A woman tilling a field as seen in <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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“I wanted the film to look and feel handcrafted and took inspiration from medieval illustrations, wooden carved figures and 17th century Dutch oil paintings,” says Mattaar. “For wide shots I made use of forced perspective using different scales and all sky backdrops are hand painted on canvas and repainted between the shots. To achieve the right textures for the landscapes and props I used materials such as real wood, sheep wool, scouring pads, rubber kneeling pads and the coco fibre bundles of a deconstructed broomstick.”<br />
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Mattaar’s meticulous attention to detail and to getting the history of the film’s titular city accurate undeniably shine through in the final film, with almost all of that which is seen having been fabricated and filmed in-camera, amounting in an expertly crafted and fascinating portrait of life in the land now occupied by Nieuwstad spanning several centuries.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4MFUsy16s9A/W3Tu-VDN9DI/AAAAAAAAFgg/dq09167LCDEW_KF1uw3BbOc1kgihBjqIgCLcBGAs/s1600/Paveien%2Bis%2Bflooded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4MFUsy16s9A/W3Tu-VDN9DI/AAAAAAAAFgg/dq09167LCDEW_KF1uw3BbOc1kgihBjqIgCLcBGAs/s640/Paveien%2Bis%2Bflooded.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The farmer character looking over the flooded village of Paveien. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Mattaar gives us an in-depth look at the origin, development, and final realization of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>, discussing at everything from the process of pitching for the commissioned project to doing the historical research for the film to how she decided on <i>which</i> details to implement into her film’s sets, characters, and props as she designed, built, and ultimately animated the piece. Coming from a background primarily in the design and construction of puppets and sets, Mattaar also tells us about the criteria she adheres to for how to design and build sets, props, and puppets, sending a warning of the pitfall of implementing <i>too</i> much detail into a film’s physical elements. She also walks us through the challenges unique to directing, and how a director can best eliminate unnecessary stress. Mattaar also discusses her work as an armature engineer on the recent and highly acclaimed stop motion features Aardman’s <i>Early Man</i> and Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs</i>. Furthermore, Mattaar tells us about her plans and goals for the future, as well as about the dynamic of her partnership with several other animators in forming the grassroots animation studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Roos! It’s great to have you back and to again feature your work on the blog! Can you start by telling us about how you came to work on your newest film – <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>, a “historical educational video for primary school children in the Netherlands as part of a historic walk in a Dutch town for project <i>Verborgen Verleden (Hidden History)</i>” – which you created entirely on your own?</b><br />
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<b>Roos Mattaar:</b> The video is made for my hometown in the Netherlands. This year it has been 700 years since the town received ‘city rights’ and there have been several events throughout the year related to the town’s history. I had actually been discussing and pitching for another possible commission with one of the organisers. He initially found my work through the Sparks music video I worked on (directed by <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">Joseph Wallace</a>) as a fan of their music, which I’d done an interview about for a local newspaper.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l2uBHnWDtGg/W3TvBheBNFI/AAAAAAAAFhA/nVO2aelkg6cTmTTZj913xdqe4sKfDv57ACLcBGAs/s1600/Press%2Bphoto%2Bby%2BWilliam%2BHoogteyling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="694" height="432" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l2uBHnWDtGg/W3TvBheBNFI/AAAAAAAAFhA/nVO2aelkg6cTmTTZj913xdqe4sKfDv57ACLcBGAs/s640/Press%2Bphoto%2Bby%2BWilliam%2BHoogteyling.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar with a group of primary school children for whom she created <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Press photo by William Hoogteyling.</td></tr>
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It proved more difficult to get the funding together for this first proposed animation. At the same time this educational project was already happening, requiring a shorter animation, and there was some budget available.<br />
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<b>A.H.: As a related question to my first, you mentioned to me prior to this interview that you’re aiming to work on more commissioned films as a director. For those who are unfamiliar with the procedure, can you tell us about the process of how one gets commissioned work? Furthermore, how do you as a single entity – an artist working without a team at your disposal – manage your time and your tasks to ensure that you deliver a satisfactory end result on schedule?</b><br />
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<b>RM:</b> I am still fairly new to this myself. I am hoping that having this example as first commissioned film as an animation director might help to find more opportunities.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-of4CbnBu8Bw/W3TvC9UyXcI/AAAAAAAAFhM/meoLcRDWESYdgzvKMuWuG0dPvLBcAkp0QCLcBGAs/s1600/Animating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1600" height="376" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-of4CbnBu8Bw/W3TvC9UyXcI/AAAAAAAAFhM/meoLcRDWESYdgzvKMuWuG0dPvLBcAkp0QCLcBGAs/s640/Animating.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar animating on the set of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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Previously I have found that it is important to have relevant examples of work in the field you want to find more work in. For example, when I made the armature for my graduation film <i>Moonbird</i> and approached studios for work, there weren’t many people learning the skills to build ball and socket armatures, so this led to opportunities in work in that field. When I wanted to find more work in other areas I figured that I would need relevant examples showing other skills.<br />
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How you present yourself – online and through your work and portfolio – is very important, I think. I have found that the work I spent on getting my website together seems to be paying off. I have been approached for several potential puppet making and miniature set building commissions, simply through someone finding me and my work through my website. Unfortunately it often happens that these jobs fall through in the end for various reasons.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMb7wH6293s/W3TvCeoMobI/AAAAAAAAFhE/UBBiQ8934tI1VTyoyHWecG4cDZdGH2n5gCLcBGAs/s1600/Puppets%2Bat%2BQR%2Bcode%2Bpole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMb7wH6293s/W3TvCeoMobI/AAAAAAAAFhE/UBBiQ8934tI1VTyoyHWecG4cDZdGH2n5gCLcBGAs/s640/Puppets%2Bat%2BQR%2Bcode%2Bpole.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Several puppets from <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> as seen next to a pole on location in the neighborhood of "Nieuwstad," where children doing the historic <i>Verborgen Verleden (Hidden History) </i>walk can stop and scan the QR code which leads to a page online where can be watched Mattaar's video about this part of the town. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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Managing time and tasks on a project like this is always a challenge. I am still learning… I had a fairly long time frame to work within, but of course I had to be realistic with the available budget and the time I could and/or should spend on it. I will always try to break the project down in the different stages: puppet making, set building, production (set dressing, cinematography and animation) and, finally, editing. However, often some of these overlap, as well. For this project I started to build the puppets, made the main props and established the kinds of materials I would use for the main landscape elements. But then I started animation as soon as possible which meant I still had to do more set building between animating shots. I think this worked quite well and helped in keeping the process efficient. I could re-use a lot of elements and was building each set in front of the camera, straight away seeing it on the screen and under the correct lighting. This meant that I could see exactly what I needed and make new props and background elements as and when I needed them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aGiL1l85TlM/W3TvC1QmuWI/AAAAAAAAFhI/Abpn9_VBMHceqzmBBjMZYS96f6CaVbgFQCLcBGAs/s1600/Puppet%2Bmaking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aGiL1l85TlM/W3TvC1QmuWI/AAAAAAAAFhI/Abpn9_VBMHceqzmBBjMZYS96f6CaVbgFQCLcBGAs/s640/Puppet%2Bmaking.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar creating the puppets for <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: I’m sure designing the physical landscape of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> was an unique experience, as it’s a model of your hometown...just as seen in the 12th century. How did you go about developing the story and aesthetic of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> and how, if at all, did your familiarity with your hometown play into designing the film?</b><br />
<br />
<b>RM:</b> A big part of the film is actually taking place in a village near the town (Paveien) which doesn’t exist anymore. Because the film is taking place in the 12th century at this time most houses were either wooden or like the farms made with clay and straw roofs. So the only shot that is really recognisably my hometown is the time lapse of the map. This I based directly on a historical map of the town from 1621. Many streets and buildings are still in the same place. For the historical details I discussed with the client who was passing on my questions to a local history expert. This way I made sure I had the right references for the type of houses and layout of the land plots in the village. It did help to be familiar with the landscape to add details such as the pollard willows which are still very typical in the landscape today.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimMCsWZmAuNjW0OwfIITs4ZY8sc-7ktRT5KPosTyrsPurGgSfUjlwXVQJWDuAP057B-1EfrGGmFpfE7wZpIkv5OC6f9vftNMqGHgfJ1ZzAtZCFVtuadbOsUUme_11SvZiDsn2KSbQLsPQ/s1600/animating+mini+cows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1600" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimMCsWZmAuNjW0OwfIITs4ZY8sc-7ktRT5KPosTyrsPurGgSfUjlwXVQJWDuAP057B-1EfrGGmFpfE7wZpIkv5OC6f9vftNMqGHgfJ1ZzAtZCFVtuadbOsUUme_11SvZiDsn2KSbQLsPQ/s640/animating+mini+cows.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar putting the final touches on set dress on the set of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
For the story I had a very clear brief of what needed to be told through the film, so the main challenge was HOW to tell it in the best way, in such a short film. Initially the brief was a 50 second film. Later on it was decided that this particular video could be a little longer. It would have been really hard otherwise to tell the story properly. So I was still making changes halfway through the production, adding in extra necessary shots.<br />
<br />
For the designs I was inspired by medieval illustrations as well as Dutch oil paintings and old wooden carved puppets. I initially planned for the aesthetics to be more stylised to the medieval illustrations, but I didn’t have a very clear plan on how I wanted to execute this. Eventually I decided to let the style and aesthetic grow dynamically, using references I had collected as inspiration but also allowing the materials and textures I was finding and testing bring about the final look. The possibilities of using textures and qualities of real materials are something I love about the stop motion medium, and it seemed the right style for a historical film.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvNPNHCO2Tk/W3TvKDbuogI/AAAAAAAAFhs/0mOGDdo0CEcCt_DBQJ_NncgW3x-7lqlMwCLcBGAs/s1600/bts3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvNPNHCO2Tk/W3TvKDbuogI/AAAAAAAAFhs/0mOGDdo0CEcCt_DBQJ_NncgW3x-7lqlMwCLcBGAs/s640/bts3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar animating on the set of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: With <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> being the first film you directed since your award-winning graduation film, <i>Moonbird</i>, what did you learn in terms of taking on the responsibilities of a director (as well as that of cinematographer) that you wouldn’t have learned if you had only been an animator and/or modelmaker?</b><br />
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<b>RM:</b> That it is more stressful! Haha. But also exciting. <br />
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As an animator or model maker I will try to work to someone else’s vision. As a director I am creating this myself and need to manage all the other roles as well. Some important lessons I think were about how much style choices early on impact the rest of the production. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3-ZzJKU9CQs/W3TvLRAlREI/AAAAAAAAFh0/FfSaAXJ81mwQjdZtMCND5DMGlXDRtYEFACLcBGAs/s1600/family%2Bprogress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="1600" height="448" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3-ZzJKU9CQs/W3TvLRAlREI/AAAAAAAAFh0/FfSaAXJ81mwQjdZtMCND5DMGlXDRtYEFACLcBGAs/s640/family%2Bprogress.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Armatures of the puppets in <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> created by Roos Mattaar. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
Allowing the style to develop instead of making a very clear plan at the start meant that because I started adding quite a lot of detail, I had to carry this on for the entire production. I am happy with the result, but when it comes to managing time and budget, it will be important to sometimes also make fitting style choices. <br />
<br />
Having the control over the final edit allowed me to see straight away whether something was working or not. When I knew I could make the edit a little longer I added in some changes and extra shots which I think have improved the flow of the story a lot. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kZW1FzqGkuQ/W3TvNaLwq5I/AAAAAAAAFh8/hcinxv08gdYgLnRmqOQo4vywXI3m_mvYACLcBGAs/s1600/foam%2Bbody%2Bshaping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kZW1FzqGkuQ/W3TvNaLwq5I/AAAAAAAAFh8/hcinxv08gdYgLnRmqOQo4vywXI3m_mvYACLcBGAs/s640/foam%2Bbody%2Bshaping.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A puppet created by Roos Mattaar in the midst of fabrication. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
I am not a professional cinematographer, but as with everything I try to learn more each project. There is a lot of trying and experimenting and sometimes finding I cannot quite get what I’m trying to achieve. But next time I will hopefully know a little better how to set up the lights to get what I want, which lenses to choose and which I might need to invest in for the next project.<br />
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<b>A.H.: You mentioned on your Instagram that you went “a little overboard with the details” when it came to designing the sets and characters of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Can you elaborate on what you mean by going “overboard”? How does one, as a model maker or as a director, know when to <i>stop</i> adding detail into their sets and characters?</b><br />
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<b>RM:</b> Haha! Well yes. I do like to put detail into what I make. It can be a style choice and not necessarily right or wrong. This was an opportunity for me to make a new film so I wanted to put effort into it and make it something I could be proud of. However, I also knew that the video would be made for a project where it would be mainly watched from a smartphone screen, and as mentioned in reply to the previous question, taking time and budget into account is important too. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vWvsrYza40M/W3TvLM9U-cI/AAAAAAAAFhw/mypLe4pteGwbMBpnBeTPUBm8Zlvsc1y2wCLcBGAs/s1600/huis%2Bin%2Baanbouw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="821" height="516" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vWvsrYza40M/W3TvLM9U-cI/AAAAAAAAFhw/mypLe4pteGwbMBpnBeTPUBm8Zlvsc1y2wCLcBGAs/s640/huis%2Bin%2Baanbouw.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A house set in the midst of being built. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
I like how the video has turned out aesthetically but the more realistic and detailed style did make the process very laborious. I had to re-paint the sky between almost every shot and when I was making the roof of the farm house bundle by bundle by deconstructing a broom head I definitely doubted my decisions and my sanity... I could have simplified this and made it in a much quicker way, but this way I could make the shot where you see the roof in progress and showcase this part of the build. Hopefully it is a nice detail, even if you only see it for a few seconds… <br />
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I think it was helpful that I was mostly building the sets in front of the camera. In this way I could see exactly what I needed and also how detailed it needed to be. By looking at it through the camera, how it would be seen in the final video, it was easier to know when to stop and when something looked good or when it needed something extra.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3KzrJd0UBOo/W3TvGlwMOnI/AAAAAAAAFhc/oKVQRTXbRgopbPNFMpd4dooCDtGNiDnLACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4621.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3KzrJd0UBOo/W3TvGlwMOnI/AAAAAAAAFhc/oKVQRTXbRgopbPNFMpd4dooCDtGNiDnLACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_4621.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cow puppet in the midst of being painted. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: Can you tell us a little bit about Hangar Puppet Animation Studio and how you, Joseph Wallace, and Heather Colbert came to establish it?</b><br />
<br />
<b>RM:</b> Whilst working with Joseph Wallace on the Sparks music video he already mentioned to be looking for a bigger studio space and suggested the option of sharing a space. Initially I was hesitant since I did have a space in the attic that I was using as a workshop at the time. However, when a big industrial unit located at a new artist studio complex in Bristol came available the possibilities were exciting. We had to decide quickly but we also knew that we would need a bigger group of people to make it work and to be able to afford it. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ztUIw2r6bz4/W3TvGiRNARI/AAAAAAAAFhY/NZWWoNuJ32IzBsgD9bw-ApJQ0wC7jLGjACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ztUIw2r6bz4/W3TvGiRNARI/AAAAAAAAFhY/NZWWoNuJ32IzBsgD9bw-ApJQ0wC7jLGjACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_4813.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set for <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
We were looking for people as passionate about stop motion animation and wanting and needing a space to create their work. Early on we were joined by <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/12/interview-with-katrina-hood-prop-and.html">Katie Hood</a> and Mary Murphy, later on followed by <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-marie-lechevallier.html">Marie Lechavellier</a> and Marnik Loysen and finally <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/03/interview-with-heather-colbert-director.html">Heather Colbert</a> joined to make the Hangar Puppet Animation Studio complete. <br />
<br />
A lot of work had to be done in doing the place up and making it suitable. This has taken a lot of time as we are doing it all ourselves and not everyone has had equal availability and time to dedicate to it, besides that we had to navigate this around producing the first three projects in the space already. I am really grateful that we are able to make this happen together and excited to the outlook of sharing a space with such talented individuals. It will be amazing to have a space inspire each other whilst sharing resources and knowledge. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o_jZsY-2GkY/W3TvGq4BJHI/AAAAAAAAFhU/_HErMiKDFcAkdN8Xctv9M1sgWX0MUm_0QCLcBGAs/s1600/Koe%2Bmet%2Bploeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="965" data-original-width="1600" height="386" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o_jZsY-2GkY/W3TvGq4BJHI/AAAAAAAAFhU/_HErMiKDFcAkdN8Xctv9M1sgWX0MUm_0QCLcBGAs/s640/Koe%2Bmet%2Bploeg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cow puppet for <i>Nieuwstad (New City).</i> Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
This is the main idea behind having this space: instead of everyone making films alone in their bedrooms – or attics – together we can pull resources together and create a space where we can share passion and ideas as well as tools, equipment and space. If it works out we will also have a space we can occasionally rent out to others or for example host workshops in.<br />
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<b>A.H.: The last time we talked, <i>Isle of Dogs</i> and <i>Early Man</i> – both films you worked on – had yet to be released. Now that they’re both available to the public, can you tell us about your work on them, as well as the lessons you learned from working on them?</b><br />
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<b>RM:</b> I was working at John Wright Modelmaking, a small company in Bristol specialized in high quality models, puppets, props and ball and socket armatures. They have worked together with Aardman for decades providing many armatures and models. I was asked to join them to work on the ball and socket armatures for <i>Early Man</i>. Other incoming jobs included additional armatures for <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, which I made some parts for. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--MW7vedaKuY/W3TvMbw2MRI/AAAAAAAAFh4/x9G60H4zpYgA1MVHgw9Y0n8svUjJDQiHgCLcBGAs/s1600/me%2Banimating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1600" height="376" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--MW7vedaKuY/W3TvMbw2MRI/AAAAAAAAFh4/x9G60H4zpYgA1MVHgw9Y0n8svUjJDQiHgCLcBGAs/s640/me%2Banimating.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar animating on the set of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
My experience in working on these films has been a bit different since I never was in the studios where the actual films were being created during the time of their production.<br />
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For <i>Early Man</i> we would be given the prototype of the armature of each character after this had already been through the complete design and approval stage. With the example armature as a guide we would be asked to make all the copies required for the shooting of the film. For <i>Isle of Dogs</i> most of the armatures were designed and built at the studio in London, but because there were so many characters John Wright was asked to provide additional armatures and armature parts.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KRA9BoBRcco/W3TvNSffJhI/AAAAAAAAFiA/vtGSsKu2y1Q9YdDLymEM464eeSY0-894ACLcBGAs/s1600/painting%2Bthe%2Bsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KRA9BoBRcco/W3TvNSffJhI/AAAAAAAAFiA/vtGSsKu2y1Q9YdDLymEM464eeSY0-894ACLcBGAs/s640/painting%2Bthe%2Bsky.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roos Mattaar painting the sky backdrop on the set of <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i>. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
Whilst working on these films I have mostly learned a lot of metal fabrication skills; operating the lathe and milling machine, complex silver soldering, and many other technical skills needed for the precision engineering that goes into making these armatures. <br />
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In terms of being involved from an early stage in these productions, I really did not know much about the story or the development of the creative side of the film until I saw the final film in the cinema, since I was not involved in this part of the process. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and to work and learn from people with so much experience and many skills.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3vWXZPX2xa8/W3TvJS8qVFI/AAAAAAAAFhg/2aqu7TuKZxMrAEvN0aF_fMUdwBY4YafLgCLcBGAs/s1600/Props%2Bmaking.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="358" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3vWXZPX2xa8/W3TvJS8qVFI/AAAAAAAAFhg/2aqu7TuKZxMrAEvN0aF_fMUdwBY4YafLgCLcBGAs/s640/Props%2Bmaking.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wheel props in the midst of being fabricated. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: You’ve mentioned that next to commissions, you are also working on a few personal projects. How would you like to see yourself grow as an artist – both in terms of the actual craft of stop motion and in terms of communication and collaboration – and how are your current projects getting you to that place of mastery?</b><br />
<br />
<b>RM:</b> I love many of the different roles that go into creating films and have always been keen to learn more about specific fabrication processes as much as about understanding visual storytelling and cinematography or character performance in animation. I would love to get more opportunities to direct as well as to take on roles in fabrication or animation on commissioned projects. I enjoy taking on commissions where there are interesting technical and creative challenges to take on. I hope that taking on roles with more responsibilities will also help me to grow not only as an artist but also as a creative professional and all the business side of things, decision making, communicating, collaborating, etc. that is part of that too. I have worked on my own and together with others, but I have not had much experience where I have had to communicate my vision to others within a team as a director. I’d like to get better at getting a strong pitch together at the early stage of a project, both for personal and commissioned projects.<br />
<br />
The projects I would really like to make often end up being quite ambitious. I hope that I can grow enough in all areas, from improving my own skills to knowing where and when to delegate tasks and finding the resources to make it possible to realize new films in the best possible way. I don’t believe I could ever get to a certain place that would mean I have mastered any of these skills though. I just hope I can always keep learning new things.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bebE2-53PQQ/W3TvDGM0ouI/AAAAAAAAFhQ/nF4yq_SovLkxFQr60sVAJYI86Ry0GkW4wCLcBGAs/s1600/Roos%2BMattaar%2B-%2Bhead%2Bshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1184" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bebE2-53PQQ/W3TvDGM0ouI/AAAAAAAAFhQ/nF4yq_SovLkxFQr60sVAJYI86Ry0GkW4wCLcBGAs/s640/Roos%2BMattaar%2B-%2Bhead%2Bshot.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Roos Mattaar. Photo courtesy of Roos Mattaar.</td></tr>
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<br />
To explore more of Roos Mattaar’s work, you can visit her <a href="http://www.roosmattaar.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stopmotionroos/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/roosmattaar">Vimeo</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roos-mattaar-5a07b642/">LinkedIn</a>. <br />
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You can also read more about Mattaar’s work on <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> by reading the articles written about it <a href="https://www.ad.nl/utrecht/interactieve-wandeling-legt-verborgen-verleden-culemborg-bloot~afd79a0f/">on the news site AD</a>, <a href="http://www.culemborgklopt.nl/nieuwstad">Culemborgklopt</a>, <a href="http://www.skwigly.co.uk/roos-mattaar-nieuwstad/">Skwigly</a>, and <a href="http://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/shorts/nieuwstad-new-city-by-roos-mattaar">Zippy Frames</a>.<br />
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In our interview, Mattaar mentions the names of several collaborators who she now shares a studio with, including those of Joseph Wallace, Marie Lechevallier, Katrina Hood, and Heather Colbert, each of whom Stop Motion Geek has had the incredible opportunity to interview.<br />
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Stop Motion Geek has, in fact, conducted <i>two</i> interviews with animation director Joseph Wallace – the first of which concerning his work as an animator and director on the award-winning 2017 music video for American pop/rock band Spark’s <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i>, which you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>. Our second – and very recent – interview with Wallace focuses on his work on the surrealist, psychedelic music video for Canadian alternative/indie artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, <i>Chemicals</i>, which you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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Our interview with Marie Lechevallier focuses on her work as an animator, collage constructor, and Wallace’s sole collaborator on <i>Chemicals</i>, and you can read it by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-marie-lechevallier.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can read our interview with Mattaar’s collaborator Katrina Hood – the focus of which is her work as a prop and set builder on <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me) </i>– by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/12/interview-with-katrina-hood-prop-and.html">here</a>.<br />
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Stop Motion Geek has also conducted two interview with Heather Colbert, the first of which fixated on her work as the auteur behind the music video for jazz singer/songwriter Ori Dagan’s <i>Bibimbap</i> – the Toronto-based musician’s homage to Nat King Cole – which you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/01/interview-with-heather-colbert-director.html">here</a>. Our second interview with Colbert focused as her work as the director of the music video for pop artist Mark Nevin’s <i>Dolly Said No To Elvis</i>, which tells the incredible true tale of how country music icon Dolly Parton refused to turn the rights of her song “I Will Always Love You” over to Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, which she would have had to do in order for the rock n’ roll music legend to perform her song. You can read that interview by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/03/interview-with-heather-colbert-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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Furthermore, Stop Motion Geek has also interviewed several individuals involved with the feature films <i>Early Man</i> and <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, both of which Mattaar contributed to.<br />
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First to be mentioned concerning Stop Motion Geek’s <i>Early Man</i> interviews are those with model makers Frank Harper and Marika Aakala. The former of which can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-frank-harper-model-maker.html">here</a> and the latter <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-marika-aakala-model.html">here</a>. Furthermore, as has been previously mentioned, Stop Motion Geek has also interviewed Marie Lechevallier, who worked as an animator on <i>Early Man</i>, which can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-marie-lechevallier.html">here</a>.<br />
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The first to be mentioned concerning Stop Motion Geek’s interviews relating to <i>Isle of Dogs</i> is our interview with Tim Allen, who served as a key animator on the film and whose interview can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/07/interview-with-tim-allen-key-animator.html">here</a>. Stop Motion Geek has also interviewed three other individuals who worked on the film concerning other projects of theirs: Andy Biddle, an animator on the film whose interview can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-andy-biddle-and-noah.html">here</a>, Quetin Haberham, who also worked as an animator on the film, whose interview can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-quentin-haberham.html">here</a>, as well as Gerald Thompson, whose motion control software powered the film, whose interview can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-gerald-thompson-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can watch <i>Nieuwstad (New City)</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/281599118">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>. A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-48396765934267125632018-08-07T22:35:00.000-04:002018-11-18T12:45:24.879-05:00Interview with Marie Lechevallier, Animator and Collage Artist on Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Parker Bossley’s "Chemicals"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out Parker Bossley character standing atop a mountain in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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“With <i>Chemicals</i> being a fast-paced and spontaneous project I had to keep the creativity flowing and to be constantly open to new ideas,” Bristol-based stop motion animator Marie Lechevallier tells Stop Motion Geek about her latest contribution to the medium – the psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single “Chemicals” made in the cut-out style of stop motion, on which she was the sole contributor next to animation director Joseph Wallace. “That’s also an advantage of cut-out animation and the use of magazines – you have to be inventive with what is in front of you,” Lechevallier proceeds. “I like that kind of project – it’s really fun.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out character of Bossley flying with wings in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The character of Bossley metamorphosing into a fish in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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There’s no question that Wallace’s and Lechevallier’s senses of fun and whimsy and passion for their craft come across in the final film. It, both literally and figuratively, imbues each and every detail of the film, adding a certain, palpable sense of youth and vibrancy to the surreal, make-believe reality of <i>Chemicals</i> – in everything from its boasting landscapes of forests, mountains, and seas to the exotic creatures which inhabit them – creating a world which welcomes its audience to lose themselves in. It’s an invitation easy to accept, as the film readily lends its vibrant cut-out world to exploration through the eyes of the film’s protagonist – a cut-out caricature of Bossley himself as he takes a psychedelic trip through time, space, and, perhaps most notably, the imaginations of its creators – and in time with <i>Chemicals</i>’ thumping ‘80s-style synths and melodic vocals.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley falling into a forest in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tiger peeking through bushes in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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As Lechevallier explains, “Joseph collected tonnes of magazines in which we would look to find inspiration and gather elements for the film. The best ones were nature magazines and old animal encyclopedias. They’re full of quirky animals perfect for <i>Chemicals</i>. I would put the elements together on the multiplane while Joseph was editing or preparing another shot. Before shooting he’d check that he was happy with the composition and brief me on the animation.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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For those interested in further learning about the making of <i>Chemicals</i>, you can read Stop Motion Geek’s interview with director Joseph Wallace by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>, marking the first of our two-part series about <i>Chemicals</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the kaleidoscope scenes in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Lechevallier tells us about how she discovered her passion for the stop motion medium, how she honed her craft, and how she ultimately came to work at Aardman Animations, where she was as an animator on Nick Park’s <i>Early Man</i> and is currently hard at work on the upcoming sequel <i>Shaun the Sheep</i> feature film. She also tells us about how she came to work on <i>Chemicals</i> with Joseph Wallace, how the two went about collaborating, and how she and Wallace managed to produce an astonishing 16 seconds of footage daily to complete the over-four-minute-long film within their incredibly challenging three week schedule. She also gives her advice to those aspiring to foster careers in the stop motion industry, as well as her tips on how to make the work-environment on a film – whether a production large or small – go as smoothly as possibly, which, as Lechevallier remarks, makes for the best possible final product. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H.: Hello, Marie! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s a pleasure for me to say, “Welcome to the blog!” Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, how you became interested in and involved with the medium of animation, and how you went from a budding interest in the medium to getting to where you are now – a professional animator whose work can most recently be seen in Aardman’s <i>Early Man</i> and the music video for Parker Bossley’s <i>Chemicals</i>?</b><br />
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<b>Marie Lechevallier:</b> My passion for animation came first at uni, when I started studying it. Even though I remember watching the making of <i>Chicken Run</i> as a kid and thinking “this is great!”, it was my studies at Esaat in France that really opened my eyes to the incredible creative variety in the field of animation. I loved cinematography classes, watching independent short films, all very different in terms of storytelling, rhythm, technique etc. From there I explored and experimented with drawn animation – which is at first how I got to animate – pixilation, cut-out, live action, After Effects, scratching on film etc. Step by step I got closer to puppet animation. <i>Peter and The Wolf</i> being one of my favourite films, I asked the polish studio Semafor to take me on as an intern. I’d never used a puppet before, and at the time I didn’t see the point of animating fluidly. I wanted to keep my animations childlike, quick and rough, but energetic. So stepping into a production that animated precisely at 25 frames per second (a basic animation rate is 12) was tough. After days of practice it clicked! Hard to tell why or how, but animating became fun from then on and I could focus on my character performances.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out caricatures of Parker Bossley. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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I have worked on various productions since then, directing a student puppet animation film at Volda university called <i>Frankulstein</i>, before then entering the NFTS Character Animation Course, which gave me the opportunity to work on <i>Early Man</i> as an animator.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camera setup on the set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: How did you meet Joseph Wallace and become involved with <i>Chemicals</i>? In terms of specific scenes in the film, what were your primary contributions to the project?</b><br />
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<b>ML:</b> I met Joseph after he’d done a talk about his work – some which I was already familiar with – at Bring Your Own Animation, a social animation event in Bristol which appeared to be great for making connections. We’ve wanted to work together since then and he asked me to animate a little on the teaser trailer for a new short film which he was shooting at Aardman last year, although the <i>Chemicals</i> music video is the first time we’ve properly collaborated. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Wallace animating on the multiplane set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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One of the first shots I animated on <i>Chemicals</i> was one involving paper penguins walking on an iceberg. They were absolutely tiny so I animated them with tweezers, holding back my breath to not blow them away. The whole production was a good apnea exercise.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An early scene in <i>Chemicals</i> animated by Marie Lechevallier. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: When coming to a smaller project like this – or even a big budget project like <i>Early Man</i> – how do you approach collaboration with your associates, whether it be with the director, cinematographers, other animators, model makers, lighters, riggers, etc.? Have you uncovered any techniques you would suggest utilizing to make communications amongst a film crew go smoothly?</b><br />
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<b>ML: </b> I think communication varies depending on the size of the project. I learned a lot about it on <i>Early Man</i> because it was a big crew and I didn’t always work with the same people. Aardman Studios has a dynamic that’s been created over the years to do things in the best way. Each person has a specific role, and the first thing is to understand is who is doing what so you can rely on them to help make the best performance. Having a well-built rig, good access to a puppet on set, a well tensioned puppet, etc., really help the process of animating and create a good performance. In general it’s important to listen, to be aware of what’s going on, to be clear about your intentions, and to be flexible. I try to avoid assumptions and to ask a lot of questions to make sure I’m on the same page as the director and the other team members.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie Lechevallier creating a cut-out character. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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That being said, on <i>Chemicals</i> there was not much time for questions! We had to shoot 16 seconds of animation per day so it was all very fast. I understood Joseph’s style from discussing the concept of <i>Chemicals</i> and watching his previous film <i>Natural Disaster</i>, so he trusted me to get on with things, giving me a lot of creative freedom. It flowed nicely.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O4OwTFtrn0g/W2pJ8KhxPoI/AAAAAAAAFfI/fqJ19FOTXmQ3vlnmzaw3kqkU6WPV_SdkwCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O4OwTFtrn0g/W2pJ8KhxPoI/AAAAAAAAFfI/fqJ19FOTXmQ3vlnmzaw3kqkU6WPV_SdkwCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out character of Parker Bossley. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about the process of allocating materials and constructing the collage seen in <i>Chemicals</i>?</b><br />
<br />
<b>ML:</b> Joseph collected tonnes of magazines in which we would look to find inspiration and gather elements for the film. The best ones were nature magazines and old animal encyclopedias. They’re full of quirky animals perfect for <i>Chemicals</i>. I would put the elements together on the multiplane while Joseph was editing or preparing another shot. Before shooting he’d check that he was happy with the composition and brief me on the animation.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D2TOsZCSunk/W2pJ9_17N4I/AAAAAAAAFfY/qeMbihzuupcPz2eTsG-ZI6DQQ0u8ESlNACLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D2TOsZCSunk/W2pJ9_17N4I/AAAAAAAAFfY/qeMbihzuupcPz2eTsG-ZI6DQQ0u8ESlNACLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_7.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos and cut-out characters for <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xi60mZgwrw4/W2pKBaJPfLI/AAAAAAAAFfg/WpDSLcJLapkDVItEOsQ7Cc8U7M3_uLJJQCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xi60mZgwrw4/W2pKBaJPfLI/AAAAAAAAFfg/WpDSLcJLapkDVItEOsQ7Cc8U7M3_uLJJQCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_9.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Several cut-out characters and pieces of scenery from <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>A.H.: What does working on a project such as <i>Chemicals</i> (where it was essentially just you and Joseph for most of the production) with a small crew size offer you in terms of creativity, mental health, and whatever other contributing factors you can think of that a larger production with a comparatively enormous crew such as <i>Early Man</i> or the new <i>Shaun the Sheep</i> film don’t provide? Conversely – barring a film’s budget – what benefits go along with a larger production that a smaller production doesn’t provide?</b><br />
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<b>ML:</b> With <i>Chemicals</i> being a fast-paced and spontaneous project I had to keep the creativity flowing and to be constantly open to new ideas. That’s also an advantage of cut-out animation and the use of magazines – you have to be inventive with what is in front of you. I like that kind of project – it’s really fun. In comparison,<i> Early Man</i> and <i>Shaun the Sheep</i> are much longer-term projects, a bit more relaxed with more hierarchic layers to go through. It offers less creative freedom but I learn a lot from working on those films, they are more demanding and on them I can really focus on my character performance and polish my animation skills more than I can on a smaller project.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz28O4eAn3UTALMhndbDVH4oQ_7HHlKkDnqYj4WuwleOZjXomIMx67i0jsb9PDPtjkWNqSy_pdqWxKpRKdvauMz4zg_S_B6gEULCYnVLmcivI8FpSemkneXJIbH-CYREsKm7ffhnKYpKM/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz28O4eAn3UTALMhndbDVH4oQ_7HHlKkDnqYj4WuwleOZjXomIMx67i0jsb9PDPtjkWNqSy_pdqWxKpRKdvauMz4zg_S_B6gEULCYnVLmcivI8FpSemkneXJIbH-CYREsKm7ffhnKYpKM/s640/Chemicals_BTS_5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaleidoscopic camera effect setup on <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mjbb0mxzbpM/W2pJ7LVJUeI/AAAAAAAAFe8/IAjRBKzPZG4GDtsyeJ9HFRkvllDYQNZYgCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mjbb0mxzbpM/W2pJ7LVJUeI/AAAAAAAAFe8/IAjRBKzPZG4GDtsyeJ9HFRkvllDYQNZYgCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multiplane setup on <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced on <i>Chemicals</i> and how did you and Joseph manage to overcome them? What lessons did these challenges teach you?</b><br />
<br />
<b>ML:</b> I think the most challenging part was building the multiplane. It took much longer than we expected and it overlapped with the shooting time, but we wanted to have it well-built to be able to use for future projects.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gTYGNLfQJ-I/W2pJ76AOTJI/AAAAAAAAFfA/MlWRksG919UxXE0D_KbL8VeC8bJVZPD9QCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gTYGNLfQJ-I/W2pJ76AOTJI/AAAAAAAAFfA/MlWRksG919UxXE0D_KbL8VeC8bJVZPD9QCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_13.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie Lechevallier animating on the set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rTSV4slAyf4/W2pJ3cb9hVI/AAAAAAAAFeo/qLQKJ94g01o--MWdIjcu9mwrU9ubZ8LsQCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rTSV4slAyf4/W2pJ3cb9hVI/AAAAAAAAFeo/qLQKJ94g01o--MWdIjcu9mwrU9ubZ8LsQCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multiplane built for <i>Chemicals</i> in the midst of being built. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>A.H.: Do you have any advice or knowledge to share with animators who aspire to have a professional career in the stop motion industry? What resources – if any – would you recommend to animators looking to improve their craft?</b><br />
<br />
<b>ML:</b> For any kind of creative job I think it’s important to keep observing and seeking inspiration. It can come from theatre, literature, music, painting – anything. For me, having personal projects beside my work as an animator and exploring other things like music and puppetry really help keep my energy flowing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIA1itXqlow/W2pJ5nlJRYI/AAAAAAAAFew/ewny8j9cL2AiQCDoTDAdgeVnjkZkYpQYQCLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIA1itXqlow/W2pJ5nlJRYI/AAAAAAAAFew/ewny8j9cL2AiQCDoTDAdgeVnjkZkYpQYQCLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_10.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mutliplane created for <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIl4W4wUtWv6MNArlvwD2iTUBZ-t17XvixiJrjMh2V6N_hmhfvR7b7dpXQ9W4LTg26Gnb0GiI5G6ua9alS7sJaBv5mBGNGdksu9KF9KW8RWIcn-2AuTxjqR687Kqo8Py-g8jmMSN9Shmo/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIl4W4wUtWv6MNArlvwD2iTUBZ-t17XvixiJrjMh2V6N_hmhfvR7b7dpXQ9W4LTg26Gnb0GiI5G6ua9alS7sJaBv5mBGNGdksu9KF9KW8RWIcn-2AuTxjqR687Kqo8Py-g8jmMSN9Shmo/s640/Chemicals_BTS_11.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A kaleidoscopic scene in the midst of being animated seen within Dragonframe. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: To wrap-up our interview, have you recently seen any stop motion productions – whether films, television shows, commercials, or short films – where the animation made a particularly strong impact on you as something to be aspired to? If so, could you tell us what exactly made it so great?</b><br />
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<b>ML:</b> I love <i>Stems</i> by Ainslie Henderson. His craft is raw but delicate and creates a beautiful intimate atmosphere. I also found <i>The Great British Bake Off</i> advert by Mikey Please very funny and impressive in the way he experiments with materials, pushing the boundaries of stop-motion.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aiwz05ZC2a0/W2pJ72-EMPI/AAAAAAAAFfE/hL1w31u5j9M4Ho0DkWQrPzv2nbuAKBROACLcBGAs/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aiwz05ZC2a0/W2pJ72-EMPI/AAAAAAAAFfE/hL1w31u5j9M4Ho0DkWQrPzv2nbuAKBROACLcBGAs/s640/Chemicals_BTS_4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie Lechevallier animating on the set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You can explore more of Marie Lechevallier’s work by visiting her <a href="https://www.marielechevallier.com/about-1/">website</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/marielechevallier">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/marie.lechevallier/">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/marielcvl">Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
This is the second and last interview in Stop Motion Geek’s two-part series on the making of <i>Chemicals</i>. You can read our prior interview with director Joseph Wallace by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>, which marks our second interview with him, the first of which – a discussion about the making of the stop motion music video for the band Spark’s <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i>, which Wallace directed – can be read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can stream and purchase Parker Bossley’s debut single, “Chemicals,” by going <a href="http://smarturl.it/PBChemicals">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can watch <i>Chemicals</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/josephwallace/chemicals">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-86369242838240544072018-08-04T11:18:00.001-04:002018-11-18T12:45:52.430-05:00Call for Submissions: ANIMARKT Pitching, Branch of Polish Event ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, Extends 2018 Pitching Submission Deadline<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPUQgR9En88rI_856mwMCRd9cf-HCUwjB62I8xXOUJXG55RLRxRo9_8B6AGMSb4qhZxldmObrf-rf7ruUD2_omJ_-kkwh51p0HHLB5ivDf53MINquxvpsQ34b8l3eisHkgKBn-_wYs_0/s1600/deadline+extended_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPUQgR9En88rI_856mwMCRd9cf-HCUwjB62I8xXOUJXG55RLRxRo9_8B6AGMSb4qhZxldmObrf-rf7ruUD2_omJ_-kkwh51p0HHLB5ivDf53MINquxvpsQ34b8l3eisHkgKBn-_wYs_0/s640/deadline+extended_1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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As of August 1st, 2018, ANIMARKT Pitching – a branch of <a href="http://en.animarkt.pl/">ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum</a>, an annual puppet animation-centered conference based in Łódź, Poland, where producers, distributors, representatives of TV broadcasters, animators and other professionals in the stop motion industry share with those who attend the conference their experience and practical knowledge about working in animation industry, including pitching sessions, discussions, presentations, workshops, and individual face-to-face meetings, the first event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe – has extended its pitching submission deadline for stop motion short film projects to August 5, 2018.<br />
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“We are excited by the substantial number of all submissions that have already been submitted. Nevertheless, in order to maximise the opportunity for creators to present themselves and their projects in front of professionals from many countries, we are pleased to extend the deadline for projects of stop motion shorts,” says Agnieszka Kowalewska, programmer of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum.<br />
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The regulations for pitching are as follows: The film being pitched must be at the development stage. It must not have a final runtime over over 26 minutes, and at least 80 percent of the film should be made with the technique of stop motion puppet animation. Projects may include animated shorts or television special episodes made with the use of puppet technique.<br />
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Furthermore, an additional asset of the project must include the artistic input of creators (Animation Director, Storyboard Author, Author of Artistic Designs, Composer, or an animator responsible for the realization of a significant part of the animation) from at least one of the following countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia. However, the event’s organizers welcome creators from all over the world.<br />
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The full list of pitching regulations are accessible on <a href="http://www.en.animarkt.pl/pitching">www.en.animarkt.pl/pitching</a>. Applications are to be submitted by an online application form at: <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/jrbY9FSjEI0fmagJ3">https://goo.gl/forms/jrbY9FSjEI0fmagJ3</a> until August 5th, 2018.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8dfRrCVgFa4/W2XC4a_1SKI/AAAAAAAAFcU/PYN7EsvClk8H1wjfWs_yr_OqKbMG5GO5gCEwYBhgL/s1600/ANIMARKT%2Bpitching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8dfRrCVgFa4/W2XC4a_1SKI/AAAAAAAAFcU/PYN7EsvClk8H1wjfWs_yr_OqKbMG5GO5gCEwYBhgL/s640/ANIMARKT%2Bpitching.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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From all the applications being sent, the Selection Committee will choose 15 projects which will be presented on October 11th, 2018 as part of Pitching during the ANIMARKT event. The selection committee includes: Agnieszka Niewadził (CeTA, Poland), Nikodem Szlęzak (CeTA, Poland), István Mráz (Mozinet Ltd., Hungary), Michal Podhradský (ASAF, Czech Republic), Andrej Gregorčok (Fest Anča International Animation Festival, Slovakia), Agnieszka Kowalewska-Skowron (MOMAKIN, Poland), and Paulina Zacharek (MOMAKIN, Poland). The pitching jury will be announced later this month.<br />
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The person responsible for presentation of the selected project will be provided with a hotel accommodation (7 nights) and a reimbursement of 80% of travel costs (up to EUR 150). Moreover, they will participate in two training sessions. The script session with Wim Vanecker – a producer, screenwriter, director, script consultant, and the project manager of European Short Pitch – will be organized in a form of individual meetings focused on a given participant’s projects. Training sessions with Nancy Denney-Phelps – an animation historian and journalist who cooperates with the prestigious <a href="https://www.awn.com/">AWN.com</a> publishing group – will have a similar form. Nancy will conduct a training sessions that will aim at improving the participants’ skills connected with presenting projects.<br />
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Among the projects presented during the ANIMARKT event, the Pitching’s jury will select two main winners. Information concerning the awarded projects will be announced on October 13th, 2018 during the Closing Gala of the Łódź Animation Festival LAL.KA. <br />
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The prizes in the contest are the Audiovisual Technology Center contribution in kind in the amount of: 60.000 PLN (ca €14.000), 40.000 PLN (ca €9.300) and additional awards, such as accreditation to Mifa 2019 and sound post production including studio and sound engineer for 5 days (offered by Playade Sound Studio).<br />
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The organizer of ANIMARKT is MOMAKIN (<a href="http://www.momakin.pl/">www.momakin.pl</a>) – a multi-tasking unit working for popularizing and propagating animation and supporting creators in Poland <br />
and in international arenas. The partners of ANIMARKT include: Audiovisual Technology Center (CeTA) from Wroclaw which is also the founder of the awards for pitching winners, ASAF (Czech Republic), Mozinet (Hungary), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Slovakia). ANIMARKT is partially funded by the International Visegrad Fund <br />
and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-SgOpPty2Y/W2XC4R0wVVI/AAAAAAAAFcY/uYjl2YltukAPc0-fRwCLSL9foGnhnQUzgCEwYBhgL/s1600/ANIMARKT_pitching%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-SgOpPty2Y/W2XC4R0wVVI/AAAAAAAAFcY/uYjl2YltukAPc0-fRwCLSL9foGnhnQUzgCEwYBhgL/s640/ANIMARKT_pitching%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.</td></tr>
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ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum – which includes ANIMARKT Pitching – will take place in Łódź, Poland from 8th to 13th October, 2018.<br />
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To learn more about ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum you can visit their website by going <a href="http://en.animarkt.pl/">here</a>. For additional information concerning ANIMARKT Pitching, please email Iwona Buchcic, ANIMARKT PR and Marketing Manager, at <a href="mailto:i.buchcic@momakin.pl">i.buchcic@momakin.pl</a>, or at +48 502 598 925.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-54240655433946496302018-08-02T00:19:00.002-04:002018-11-18T12:46:05.022-05:00Interview with Joseph Wallace, Director and Animator of Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Canadian Artist Parker Bossley's "Chemicals"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parker Bossley as seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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“I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation,” muses British stop motion animation director Joseph Wallace – currently based in Bristol, UK, where, in January of this year, he founded the stop motion studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio – in discussion of the medium he employed in his most recent film – the surreal, psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, <i>Chemicals</i>, which has already won a Vimeo Staff Pick. Perhaps more than anything else – perfectly suiting the film’s subject matter –the style and medium allow to film to transcend to time itself, just as Wallace implies, undoubtedly allowing the film to become just <i>that</i> – immediate. Almost so much so one gets the feeling they’re clawing at air in search for a handle on reality as they fall…along with Bossley – also the film’s protagonist – deeper and deeper into the film’s fantastic, bizarre dreamscape, one dreamed up entirely by Wallace.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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“I’m really not a fan of sitting in front of a computer for hours tweaking things in After Effects and, being inspired as I am by the methodologies of Eastern European animation, I always strive to do as much as I can practically and in-camera,” Wallace goes on to tell Stop Motion Geek. “There’s something about placing an effect on footage afterwards which feels a little soulless to me. Of course it can be a huge risk shooting these kind of effects in-camera as you can’t really adjust them afterwards, they are what they are, but I love that. There are subtleties and surprises and qualities in the way that textures and light respond that you couldn’t emulate with a digital effect.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A frog seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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Aided by the medium’s handmade, heartfelt quality and Wallace’s whacky wit, the film is far from soulless, chock-full with zany surprise after zany surprise, both in terms of the journey the film takes its viewers on as well as the film’s extraordinarily imaginative application of the medium – a breed of cut-out which takes use of collages constructed from found images, encyclopedia pages, and magazines.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley metamorphosing into a polar bear in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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Undoubtedly the final manifestation of these colleges – constructed and animated by Wallace and animator Marie Lechevallier – their “subtleties and surprises and qualities in the way that textures and light respond that you couldn’t emulate with a digital effect,” as Wallace so keenly puts it, would have been nearly impossible to achieve had Wallace not implemented the piece of equipment often utilized in stop motion as well as pre-digital cel animation known as the “multiplane camera.” The design of the multiplane was originally pioneered in the early twentieth century by German animators Charlotte “Lotte” Reiniger, Berthold Bartosch, and, in the United States, Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The animation pioneer whose multi-billion dollar company still bears his namesake describes the way in which the multiplane camera works in <a href="https://youtu.be/YdHTlUGN1zw">this video</a>, the technique essentially boiling down to a many separate “planes” – plates of glass on which various elements of an animated scene are fixed, including characters, hand-drawn effects, and backgrounds – being stacked atop each other on a rack at varying distances from each other, giving a sense of depth when a camera films all of the layers head-on.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley falling through a jungle in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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Wallace is no stranger to the style of cut-out animation, with <i>Chemicals</i> only being his most recent project to utilize the technique, preceded by 2009 short film <a href="https://vimeo.com/26677364"><i>The Life and Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel</i></a> – what Wallace deems his first “proper” cut out film, a film made whist he was at film school – and his 2014 short film <a href="https://vimeo.com/102643750"><i>Natural Disaster</i></a>, a film equally curious and bizarre to <i>Chemicals</i>, despite the former taking place in a world slightly more grounded and emotionally relatable. A true aficionado of the medium, on each of his cut-out films Wallace worked to improve upon the design of his animation workflow by drawing from his expansive knowledge of the history of animation to improve upon the equipment’s design, advancing from a rudimentary one-layer system on <i>The Life and Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel</i> to a slightly more sophisticated yet still rudimentary multiplane on <i>Natural Disaster</i>, to his more final, intricate multiplane used to bring <i>Chemicals</i> to life, taking inspiration from the design for Russian director Nicolaï Troshinsky’s and American animator Hayley Morris’s multiplanes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley metamorphosing into a fish in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wall</td></tr>
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Despite cut-out being the style of animation used to bring to life <i>Chemicals</i> and several of his prior films, as well as being a medium he expresses interest in exploring in the future, Wallace admits that his true passion is for puppet animation. The most recent example of his work in puppet animation is the highly acclaimed, award-winning music video for the American pop/rock band Sparks, <a href="https://vimeo.com/231590670"><i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i></a>, about which Stop Motion Geek interviewed Wallace – an article you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a> – as well as his associates: animators and model makers Roos Mattaar (whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-roos-mattaar-animator.html">here</a>) and Aiden Whittam (whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-aiden-whittam-animator.html">here</a>), and model maker Katrina Hood (whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-aiden-whittam-animator.html">here</a>).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bossley with wings as seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Wallace discusses the inception of <i>Chemicals</i> – from his first being approached by Bossley to final concept – as well as how he used the time constraints <i>Chemicals</i> stipulated to his advantage, making for the project to become one of his most intimate undertakings. Furthermore, he gives us an in-depth look at how he built his own multiplane camera system, and how his style of cut-out evolved on the film, culminating in astonishingly intricate scenes and complex kaleidoscopic in-camera effects. He also discusses his process of selecting only one collaborator – the ingenious animator Marie Lechevallier, with whom our interview about her work on <i>Chemicals</i> will be soon released – to work with on the film, and describes their creative dynamic. Wallace also tells us about how the success of <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i> has impacted his life and career, as well as what’s next for him. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Joseph! It’s great to feature you and your work on the blog again! The last time we talked <i>Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)</i> was just picking up steam, both in terms of virality and its critical reception... proving strikingly successful in both realms. What are your takeaways from the success of <i>Edith Piaf</i>, especially in terms of your philosophy on your work and on the direction of your career?</b><br />
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<b>Joseph Wallace:</b> Thanks for having me back. Well I have been humbled by the response to the Sparks video, partly from the critical reception and it’s subsequent life on the festival circuit but also the reaction from fans of the band and others for whom the video struck a chord. I’ve had some wonderful emails from people who found fantastical escape in the video or who discovered my work through the piece, which is wonderful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out photos of Bossley for the collage seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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Of course, it’s always great to have work out there on the circuit, both online and at festivals. It helps keep your name in people’s minds and enables the films to find an audience which is the ultimate goal. The Sparks video trended on both YouTube and Vimeo, played on BBC’s <i>Newsnight</i> and <i>The One Show</i> and featured on the Guardian online. It has since screened at over thirty international film festivals, won two awards and was nominated for the Kinsale Shark Awards and the British Animation Awards. I’ve met a lot of people through the video including some high-profile Sparks fans who’ve told me they love the video which is as surreal as it is charming! So it’s certainly opened some doors and there are two larger projects now brewing as a result of the video.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out photos for the collage in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you break down the timeline of the early development process of your most recent project – the music video for Parker Bossley’s <i>Chemicals</i> – from how you first became involved with the film to the start of the actual animation process?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> <i>Chemicals</i> was a fast turn around by all accounts. In January this year I founded a new stop motion studio in Bristol called Hangar Puppet Animation Studio. There’s been a lot of work to do on the space to get it set up for shooting animation productions, so I was in the middle of a lot of building work when the video came in and it was a great excuse to push towards some deadlines and also to build a new multiplane. My 2014 short <i>Natural Disaster</i> also employed cut out animation, but the multiplane set-up had been fairly basic and – in some ways – restrictive, and I was keen to have more scope for this video. So after Parker had approached me to make the video, we talked about the themes and ideas and the first thing I did was build a large new multiplane, then the actual animation, just over four minutes, was animated in about three weeks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cut-out puppet of a monkey for the collage seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In our previous interview, you mentioned that, “Collaboration is a hugely important aspect of creative practice for me. I know a lot of animators who work alone and I have a great deal of admiration for that but don’t think I’d be able to work like that myself. I really value having other artists around me to help realise my vision and to bring fresh energies, methodologies and ideas to a project.” Who were these creative people you collaborated with on <i>Chemicals</i>, and what did they bring to the table in terms of skill-sets, problem solving, and brainstorming?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> This video was a much more intimate affair than some of the other projects I’ve been working on recently. I wanted to have a creatively open process, allowing for improvisation and spontaneity. I also wanted the project to be manageable and not have to deal with a big team so I hired one collaborator: the brilliant French animator Marie Lechevallier who is a part of my new studio and also works at Aardman Animations here in Bristol. Marie joined me sporadically throughout the shoot and, having a background in cut out animation, her collage skills, movement ideas, and sense of humour were brilliant to have on board.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cut-out puppet of Bossley for the collage seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: You’re no stranger when it comes to cut-out stop motion, most notably in the form of your wildly funny gallivant through relatable real-life calamity and bizarre dreams, <i>Natural Disaster</i>, which won a Vimeo Staff Pick. How did your approach to <i>Chemicals</i> differ to that on <i>Natural Disaster</i>?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> <i>Natural Disaster </i>is probably the most real-world film I’ve made, in that most of my other films have been more poetic, dream-like fantastical worlds and <i>Natural Disaster</i> has human characters in a recognisable world, dealing with emotions that hopefully people can relate to. In some ways the visuals became a little too literal and bound by naturalism. For <i>Chemicals</i> I returned to the technique, most likely due to the Vimeo Staff Pick, as the singer Parker Bossley had seen the film online and wanted the video for his debut single to have the cut out animation technique. Because the song was really about taking a trip and had this slightly eighties feel with the synths, I felt the video could have a surreal, psychedelic quality to it. So I think the main differences are in the approach to the visuals, having more strange, collaged imagery, and also in terms of the approach, as the <i>Chemicals</i> video was improvised and dealt with associative imagery.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Wallace's camera setup positioned above his multiplane. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: <i>Chemicals</i> very strongly takes root in experimental psychedelic animation in the style of The Beatles’ <i>Yellow Submarine</i>. What art – art in any medium – inspired the aesthetic and animation style of <i>Chemicals</i>? As a related question: Do you consciously draw from art that may be deemed an “inspiration” for a film you’re currently working on, or are you the type of artist who prefers to let your inspirations reveal their impression on your work unconsciously?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> I’ve actually, somewhat controversially and despite being a great lover of the Beatles, have never seen <i>Yellow Submarine</i>! As an artist, I’m constantly being inspired by many different things from music to performance, sculpture, nature, architecture. I have a hard drive on which I collect images and films, as well as physical folders with clippings from newspapers, postcards and prints. My apartment is full of old puppets and antiques and I have a huge library of art books from Picasso’s sculptures to the photography of Man Ray. I’m constantly surrounding myself with inspiration and letting that seep into my work in different ways.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ykRkhUzEB1Y/W2KAoR7u0rI/AAAAAAAAFbE/r7rLZfIyVq4w-9UEfd7JKaEs5RzfaJQdwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ykRkhUzEB1Y/W2KAoR7u0rI/AAAAAAAAFbE/r7rLZfIyVq4w-9UEfd7JKaEs5RzfaJQdwCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_13.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie Lechevallier animating on Wallace's multiplane for <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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Because the turnaround on <i>Chemicals</i> was relatively quick and I’d had the provocation from Parker to return to cut out animation, I didn’t actually gather particular reference for the project as I might often do. When people think of cut out animation there are certain names that come to mind: Terry Gilliam, Michel Ocelot, Oliver Postgate. But for me there’s a wider world of cut out with the work of Polish artists like Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk (who actually inspired Gilliam in his youth) and then, beyond that, the surrealist collages of German artist Max Ernst and Czech artist Jindrich Styrsky are absolutely sublime. Those are the artists that tend to be in the back of my head when working in this medium. For <i>Chemicals</i>, the one artist that I did think of before production, who created neither animation nor collage, was Dutch painter Karel Appel. I love the energy and colour and abstraction in his paintings and I wanted to capture a sense of that in the video.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3gBUQ-YTcu8/W2KAthJWs9I/AAAAAAAAFbg/gracOw6qY5MI5gE211GGIUZxAi9vxn37ACEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3gBUQ-YTcu8/W2KAthJWs9I/AAAAAAAAFbg/gracOw6qY5MI5gE211GGIUZxAi9vxn37ACEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_9.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut-out photos for the collage seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you describe for us how you built the multiplane camera system for <i>Chemicals</i>? What are the pros and cons – as far as you see it – to working with a multiplane in terms of your animation workflow?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> My first proper cut out film, <i>The Life and Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel</i> (2009) – which was made whilst at film school – had very little animation and the animation it did have was fairly limited. It was shot all on one layer and consequently lacked depth. For my second cut out film <i>Natural Disaster</i> (2014), which was made whilst living and working in France, I set up a modest multiplane which consisted of two sheets of glass stacked up on bricks and had the possibility of three layers including the background. This allowed for a sense of depth, objects and characters being able to pass each other, and more of a three-dimensional space. Whilst in France I saw a film called <i>Astigmatismo</i> by Russian director Nicolaï Troshinsky. I was blown away by the film’s sense of depth and the contrast between cut out paper and three dimensional space so, for <i>Chemicals</i>, I was keen to purpose-build a multiplane. I wanted to make a structure that would enable a larger field of vision and also greater possibility for depth, and could be used not just for this project but also for future projects.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mIcr_BXKtaw/W2KAl6FGVSI/AAAAAAAAFaw/Wm2nKO3uo7Y2KBTGKPWcW4sfOPKUQn5WQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mIcr_BXKtaw/W2KAl6FGVSI/AAAAAAAAFaw/Wm2nKO3uo7Y2KBTGKPWcW4sfOPKUQn5WQCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_10.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wallace's multiplane built for <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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There are various approaches to building multiplanes, from Disney’s early behemoth to Troshinsky’s complex contraption with various moving parts. I’d seen images of American animator Hayley Morris’s set up which looked effective, and also my friend, Rotterdam-based animator Tess Martin, had built her own multiplane which I’d seen up close in the Netherlands last year. Tess advised on thickness of glass and a few other points, which was useful, and I then ordered lots of steel and had big sheets of glass cut to size at a local glass shop and put the whole thing together with Marie in a couple of days. In the end it is taller than I am, but allows for many possibilities in terms of where the glass layers can sit. They’re easily moved by unscrewing bolts and moving the shelves up and down. Having a tall multiplane allows for a massive amount of depth but actually, in using magazine cut outs and found images, the compositions tend to be relatively small so, in the end, we were only using a small field within the glass sheets.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sihzg5zvcXI/W2KAoibIb6I/AAAAAAAAFbI/dmSy77p-c_Mu4BwVEFmuq3lYgdqFwaLDwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sihzg5zvcXI/W2KAoibIb6I/AAAAAAAAFbI/dmSy77p-c_Mu4BwVEFmuq3lYgdqFwaLDwCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie Lechevallier animating on the mutliplane set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation. I’ve run workshops before where I’ve got participants making animations with cut outs under the camera as it’s quite instinctive and you can learn the principles of animation very quickly. It enables you to play with timing and shape and movement without worrying about gravity and other physical factors. Although puppet animation is really where my heart is, cut out animation is a technique I want to return to at some point and, instead of using found images, actually paint or draw all the elements and then animate them, similar to some of the early Polish works.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ue2S0HclTI/W2KAj2jm9sI/AAAAAAAAFas/mdxg2pka51cJbkNC7AXQ8Ye22429WvGbACEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ue2S0HclTI/W2KAj2jm9sI/AAAAAAAAFas/mdxg2pka51cJbkNC7AXQ8Ye22429WvGbACEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wallace's multiplane in the midst of being built. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One of the most stunning sequences in <i>Chemicals</i> begins at about 2:25, when the style of animation transitions from a slightly more simplistic style where a single cut-out puppet represent each subject to a kaleidoscopic realm where every character is seen in multiples. As I imagine this effect was done in-camera – and please correct me if I’m wrong – it seems quite an intimidating endeavor to animate. How did you go about solving this technical puzzle?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> You’re absolutely right: Every effect you see in the video was done in-camera other than some subtle augmented camera moves. The moment where Parker looks into the water and sees the fish was shot through glass and the kaleidoscope visuals were a practical effect under the lens. I’m really not a fan of sitting in front of a computer for hours tweaking things in After Effects and, being inspired as I am by the methodologies of Eastern European animation, I always strive to do as much as I can practically and in-camera. There’s something about placing an effect on footage afterwards which feels a little soulless to me. Of course it can be a huge risk shooting these kind of effects in-camera as you can’t really adjust them afterwards, they are what they are, but I love that. There are subtleties and surprises and qualities in the way that textures and light respond that you couldn’t emulate with a digital effect.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Mn8qXk1cZU/W2KApZedXjI/AAAAAAAAFbQ/IVKHu5OtK24olvEP-eW4Uvl5X-4ev8WAQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Mn8qXk1cZU/W2KApZedXjI/AAAAAAAAFbQ/IVKHu5OtK24olvEP-eW4Uvl5X-4ev8WAQCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Wallace's in-camera kaleidoscopic effect as seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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It is possible to buy kaleidoscope lenses that fit onto Canon cameras but, costing prohibitive amounts of money, I decided I could most likely build a rig that would work to achieve the same effect. After a morning of trial and error, as there often is, I built a rig that strapped onto the camera with a ring sitting just underneath the camera lens where I could place a kaleidoscope lens which could then be animated millimetre-by-millimetre, frame-by-frame, to give the impression of spinning duplications.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2xCTNMLNXFY/W2KAi_b_N4I/AAAAAAAAFac/BDr4kpZTwcApyngcm5YqU34oE82c1aCqgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_Still_69.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2xCTNMLNXFY/W2KAi_b_N4I/AAAAAAAAFac/BDr4kpZTwcApyngcm5YqU34oE82c1aCqgCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_Still_69.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final kaleidoscopic effect seen in <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In closing, what art – and I’m going to leave the definition of this up for your interpretation – has inspired you lately, and why?</b><br />
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<b>JW:</b> Right now, I’ve been listening to a lot of old Italian film soundtracks. Those are particularly evocative whilst I’ve been writing the screenplay for my new film. I’m also particularly fascinated by sub-Saharan African art and Oceanic sculpture. This kind of work has been a big inspiration for the look of my new film, which I’m working on at the moment.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TzkxdYbGCrQ/W2KAmadH7DI/AAAAAAAAFa0/xo0wi5ndqCA009dBwZPokglbJ6EzpnwtQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TzkxdYbGCrQ/W2KAmadH7DI/AAAAAAAAFa0/xo0wi5ndqCA009dBwZPokglbJ6EzpnwtQCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_11.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the kaleidoscopic scenes seen in Dragonframe. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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In the realm of animation, the other month I went to a screening at Regents Street Cinema with my colleague Suzanne Buchan, who’s just taken over running the MA at the Royal College of Art. There we saw a programme of works by the Czech filmmaker Jiří Brdečka. whose films I wasn’t particularly familiar with previously. The scope of his animations and the styles he employed were really breathtaking, in particular <i>Metamorphoses</i>, which is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and has an underlying commentary about the occupation of Czechoslovakia in the sixties.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BathQR6fCPQ/W2KAoPCn44I/AAAAAAAAFbA/SQgb59jV6yQ9fiQVN0Fqe8d2TfK6YpGAQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BathQR6fCPQ/W2KAoPCn44I/AAAAAAAAFbA/SQgb59jV6yQ9fiQVN0Fqe8d2TfK6YpGAQCEwYBhgL/s640/Chemicals_BTS_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mutliplane set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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I’ve also been watching and re-watching the work of Kurt Weiler. Weiler’s history is incredible: He escaped a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, studied the arts in Oxford having fled to the UK and, like many animation artists from Svankmajer to Trnka, worked for a time in the puppet theatre. His films are full of such humour and wit, surreal imagery and brilliantly vivid characters, that they are an absolute inspiration for me right now. For those who haven’t seen his under-appreciated body of work, seek it out!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibq-qVAXBHaYyy9FjRdsn5fiHKft_mC8O0T5aL_DfarKTnS2gQo_BtgbgpQdHOcCArpjGYMgBPxdjUz6N_oWEDAR3Kdo2rx8C7O7ZmJBuMzp9BlM0PRTHnLvFAD1EiDFC7JfFoAc2tH2E/s1600/Chemicals_BTS_14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibq-qVAXBHaYyy9FjRdsn5fiHKft_mC8O0T5aL_DfarKTnS2gQo_BtgbgpQdHOcCArpjGYMgBPxdjUz6N_oWEDAR3Kdo2rx8C7O7ZmJBuMzp9BlM0PRTHnLvFAD1EiDFC7JfFoAc2tH2E/s640/Chemicals_BTS_14.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Wallace animating on the set of <i>Chemicals</i>. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Joseph Wallace’s work by visiting his <a href="http://www.josephwallace.co.uk/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/josephwallaceuk">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/josephwallaceuk">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/josephwallaceuk">Twitter</a>.<br />
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You can read Stop Motion Geek’s previous interview with Joseph Wallace – the subject of which is the music video for the band Spark’s “Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)” – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-joseph-wallace-director.html">here</a>. You can also read Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with Wallace’s associates on the project by clicking on their successive names: animator and model maker <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-roos-mattaar-animator.html">Roos Mattaar</a>, model maker <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/12/interview-with-katrina-hood-prop-and.html">Katrina Hood</a>, animator and model maker <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/11/interview-with-aiden-whittam-animator.html">Aiden Whittam</a>.<br />
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You can stream Parker Bossley’s “Chemicals” by going <a href="http://smarturl.it/PBChemicals">here</a>.<br />
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You can watch <i>Chemicals</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/josephwallace/chemicals">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-32469946036238583262018-07-15T23:05:00.000-04:002018-11-18T12:46:17.699-05:00Interview with Tim Allen, Key Animator on Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E7tbvdHrIQQ/W0v_vW9xB6I/AAAAAAAAFTU/LWZHep3_Ho8oG6QOcy7DxfE6IYxg3hfxACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-07-15%2Bat%2B1.19.23%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E7tbvdHrIQQ/W0v_vW9xB6I/AAAAAAAAFTU/LWZHep3_Ho8oG6QOcy7DxfE6IYxg3hfxACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-07-15%2Bat%2B1.19.23%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of <i>Isle of Dogs</i>. Source: YouTube.</td></tr>
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“The Wes style of movement has a simplicity & a more experienced animator has to learn to not put in the little tricks or flair that they may have used animating elsewhere,” Tim Allen – an animator whose career spans decades and includes credits on prestigious projects such as <i>Shaun the Sheep</i>, <i>Postman Pat</i>, <i>Fireman Sam</i>, <i>The Flying Machine</i>, <i>Creature Comforts</i>, the Oscar®-nominated films <i>My Life as a Zucchini</i>, <i>Corpse Bride</i>, <i>Frankenweenie</i>, <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>, and the Oscar®-winning short film <i>Peter & the Wolf </i>– tells Stop Motion Geek, describing the metamorphosis his animation style underwent on one of his most recent projects – Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, currently available on digital and set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 17th. “The Wes style is direct & clear,” he goes on. “I take the old stop motion phrase & embraces it: ‘Less is more’.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TZFHEI0PSkk/W0wGvEGtggI/AAAAAAAAFYg/k6s5xP6WXrsH-64NyMnfSrJ0_9NLt81lACLcBGAs/s1600/Atari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="851" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TZFHEI0PSkk/W0wGvEGtggI/AAAAAAAAFYg/k6s5xP6WXrsH-64NyMnfSrJ0_9NLt81lACLcBGAs/s640/Atari.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Atari" <i>Isle of Dogs</i> character poster. Source: Google Images.</td></tr>
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Although the “Wes style” <i>is</i> something of a “back to basics” approach to stop motion – in the sense that the animation style featured in <i>Isle of Dogs</i> (as well as in <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>) embraces the byproducts of the handcrafted nature of the medium such as “boiling,” a term used in the stop motion industry to refer to the physical impression left on a puppet, set, or practical effect by an animator’s hands, giving audiences a breath of fresh air in a medium where pristine, seamless stop motion seems to be the dominating trend – in terms of scope and ambition <i>Isle of Dogs</i> is far from modest, as it very well might be the most practically and artistically complex stop motion feature film to date. In Allen’s own words, “The sheer number of sets & puppets in <i>IOD</i> dwarfs that of <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>. There are so many locations & characters made to exquisite detail, that are seen for a few seconds, then never again. Wes was more precise in the level of detail he wanted & you see this on screen with more polished & impressive visuals.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7RKB4EL8yG0/W0wGtONlzZI/AAAAAAAAFYc/u6nfm5gck7cwRi1JPzmwx1o9VFxIlGeNgCLcBGAs/s1600/Mayor%2BKobayashi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="503" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7RKB4EL8yG0/W0wGtONlzZI/AAAAAAAAFYc/u6nfm5gck7cwRi1JPzmwx1o9VFxIlGeNgCLcBGAs/s640/Mayor%2BKobayashi.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Mayor Kobayashi" <i>Isle of Dogs</i> character poster. Source: Google Images.</td></tr>
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The end result of Anderson’s vision and its execution by incredibly talented crew – not the least of which were Allen and his associates – is truly breathtaking, amounting to a film astounding in breadth, ambition, and abundant in intricacy and adroitly applied craft. The part Allen played on the production involved animating many of the primary human characters featured in the film, such as Mayor Kobayashi, Major Domo, and Atari, which – as he tells Stop Motion Geek – involved animating many incredibly subtle, emotional scenes.<br />
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As well as having a prolific stop motion career earning him credits on many of the most prestigious stop motion short films, features, and television shows of the past two decades, Allen also has an extensive side-career of teaching the craft of stop motion to animation students all over the world – commonly involving Allen lecturing to groups of students as well as working one-on-one with students to critique their animation – oftentimes taking place over the course of workshops spanning several days.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YebiVhSXMlY/W0wBkgUM_WI/AAAAAAAAFTw/nbxqQiWbLwcEJ5m8122FrbFa0BPHNaB9gCLcBGAs/s1600/TimAllen_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="1200" height="362" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YebiVhSXMlY/W0wBkgUM_WI/AAAAAAAAFTw/nbxqQiWbLwcEJ5m8122FrbFa0BPHNaB9gCLcBGAs/s640/TimAllen_03.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen lectures students about stop motion, specifically showcasing his work on <i>Frankenweenie</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Allen discusses the challenges related to the general shortages of work in the stop motion industry he ran up against early in his career and how he managed to overcome them. He also discusses the changes his process of animation underwent so that he could to animate in the “Wes style of animation,” both on <i>Isle of Dogs</i> and <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>. He also breaks down how <i>Isle of Dogs</i> managed to advance upon Anderson’s take on the medium in increasing the complexity of its production design, special effects, and animation style while still retaining the tangible, handmade quality that sets Wes Anderson’s stop motion films apart from other contemporary stop motion productions. Allen also gives us a beat-by-beat description of the evolution of one of the film’s most memorable shots, in part describing how Wes Anderson worked with him to bring his vision to fruition in the shot. He also gives his advice to those working in the stop motion industry for how to create an extensive and sustainable career. He also tells us about what he’s learned from his teaching opportunities, and how he’s applied those lessons to his life. You can read our interview in full below. <br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Tim! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s truly a pleasure to feature you and <i>Isle of Dogs</i> on Stop Motion Geek!<br />I usually like to start interviews with the interviewee telling us about how they got into the medium. However, in doing the research for this interview, I realize that you’ve gone into that subjects on several past occasions (which readers can learn about by reading your excellent interviews with <a href="http://lfs.org.uk/content/interview-animator-tim-allen">the London Film School</a>, <a href="https://www.animdesk.com/tim-allen">Animdesk</a>, and <a href="http://breakthrufilms.blogspot.com/2012/05/tim-allen-interview-with-animator.html">BreakThru Films</a>). So, to keep from retreading old ground, I would like to start with a different question.<br />In <a href="http://breakthrufilms.blogspot.com/2012/05/tim-allen-interview-with-animator.html">your interview with BreakThru Films</a>, you mention a one-and-a-half year long period in your life after graduating Glamorgan University with a degree in animation where you essentially had no paid work. Can you tell us about the personal projects, experiments with the medium, and education in stop motion you undertook during this dry-spell period for work? How did you – and what do you recommend to – keep your skills sharp when you’re being offered no professional work?</b><br />
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<b>Tim Allen:</b> The truth is that when I graduated it wasn’t so easy to animate in stop motion at home as it is now. Video assist was only just becoming more affordable, with the main player being a chunky EOS computer & rostrum costing £1500. As a graduate I couldn’t afford that & I quickly realized how lucky I’d been to have had access to the university facilities we’d had (& yes whilst at uni we moaned about lack of equipment!). So to begin with, my skills were starting to get rusty. I did start funding myself by taking all sorts of shift work as a cleaner, lifeguard, running children’s parties. I’d try to visit animation companies in the same town on the same day to save on petrol! Some of my approaches to companies did lead to unpaid work experience & it was here that I started taking my next steps to sharpen my skills.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen on the set of <i>Fireman Sam</i>, Allen's longest stop motion animation job. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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I did a couple of weeks at Hot Animation where I was animating <i>Bob the Builder</i> puppets on a test bay. They gave all work experience people the same exercises to do so that we could be directly compared as potential future animators. It was the first time I’d used a professional armature & I immediately started trying things I’d been to nervous to do with my own homemade puppets. I also got a few days as a trainee model maker at Aardman & some weeks here & there at a Bristol based company called Elm Road (where I first did unpaid work experience). I was very nervous but given simple props to make, often using materials I hadn’t used before. The standard of everyone’s work around me was much higher than it had been at university, so I had to raise my standards. It was intimidating but at each of these companies I found most people were open to be asked questions & advice so that I could learn to from them. I was paid nothing or very little, but being surrounded by professionals taught me a huge amount even though I was only occasionally working with them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating an armature. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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Technology keeps improving & today you can buy very decent webcams (I use the Logitech C902 in my workshops) to do test animation at home. There are more things like YouTube videos to help with model making techniques, but the really trick is to try to spend some time with professionals & be an information sponge. Be friendly, ask questions & learn as much from others as possible, then try it for yourself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of the <i>Shaun the Sheep</i> television show. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In <a href="http://www.skwigly.co.uk/podcast-isle-of-dogs/">your interview with Skwigly</a>, you say, “When I first started off on <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>, I did a few tests – just a bit of dialogue with Fox himself – where I was trying to get a feel for the Wes style. My stuff was too smooth and flowing and had lots of interesting little subtleties of animation. It was a bit too similar to my work on <i>Corpse Bride</i>, to be honest. I had to really learn to simplify things. In the Wes style, things move in a beat...it’s got quite a punchy, stylized way to it.” <br />Can you elaborate on this learning process? On <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox </i>as well as <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, how did you unlearn that which you before practiced in order to learn the “Wes style”?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> With every project you need a bit of time to learn what sorts of movements are appropriate for the style & characters. With the Wes style you learn to do more ‘efficient’ direct movement. For example, when turning a head, normally you’d make it turn in a slight curved arc. On a Wes movie it’s directly left to right with no curve. When making hand gestures, it goes very directly, moving from the first to last position with no overlapping action or ‘drag’ of delaying the fingers then flipping them forward at the last moment. The Wes style of movement has a simplicity & a more experienced animator has to learn to not put in the little tricks or flair that they may have used animating elsewhere. The Wes style is direct & clear. I take the old stop motion phrase & embraces it: “Less is more”.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: There was something about the style of animation on <i>Isle of Dogs</i> that felt slightly more sophisticated and ambitious, perhaps, than <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>, although it certainly still had the same handmade and tangible qualities that make Wes’s take on stop motion so lovely. <br />In a similar vein to the previous question, when coming to Wes Anderson production for a second time – and, thus, the “Wes style of animation,” again – with <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, how did you extrapolate upon your prior experience on <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i> to create the look and feel of <i>Isle of Dogs</i>? Did you feel an overall shift in the film’s aesthetic from that of <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>?</b><br />
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<b>TA: </b>One main noticeable enhancement was the handmade special effects. Credit here goes to Tobias Fouracre, the Animation Supervisor, who ran a team of assistants testing every special effect you see in the movie. Much more time & resources were given on <i>IOD</i> to developing new approaches to water, fire, animated lighting, etc. It is a real exploration & celebration of what can be achieved in stop motion. The making of video in your links below, <i>Isle of Dogs: Weather & Elements</i>, shows it better than I can ever describe it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of <i>Isle of Dogs</i>. Source: YouTube.</td></tr>
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Also the sheer number of sets & puppets in <i>IOD</i> dwarfs that of <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>. There are so many locations & characters made to exquisite detail, that are seen for a few seconds, then never again. Wes was more precise in the level of detail he wanted & you see this on screen with more polished & impressive visuals.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating micro scale puppets on the set of <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In your interview with <a href="http://www.skwigly.co.uk/podcast-isle-of-dogs/">Skwigly</a>, you say that, “Wes [Anderson] is very hands-on about all sorts of intricate little details, so it’s really a case of talking through how you think he wants the shot. He then might correct you on a few things, but it’s quite technical in terms of the positions that he wants, the exact timing he wants a character’s head to turn. So it was slightly less of a ‘I creatively go for it,’ and more of a ‘we map out every little beat of that particular shot in detail and then I just realize that.’”<br />Can you describe for us a particular shot (whichever you like) in <i>Isle of Dogs</i> that you worked on, how you worked with Wes to “map it out,” and the evolution of it from storyboard/“lavs” (live action videos of Wes acting out a scene) to final composition? Also, on <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, were you interacting with Wes on set in person or via a video chat?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> Let’s take the shot where Mayor Kobayashi stands up out of the hot tub to reveal the tattoo on his naked back. The animatic for every shot is very detailed in its timing so I knew the speed of how it should all play out & did a ‘block’ (a rehearsal with less puppet movements per frame to finish the block much faster than the final shot). Based on the block, Wes wanted to tweak certain key poses I’d made. He wanted the Mayor to hold the test cards with a more specific hand gesture to show disdain as he places them in the fire. He wanted the position on the Mayor standing naked to be just the right height, with a small gap visible between the Mayor’s legs. When Professor Watanabe turns to Yoko Ono, Wes specifically wanted the Mayor’s head to turn but not his body. I take this feedback on & make sure he gets what he’s asked for.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen proudly displays the shot described above. Source: The London Film School.</td></tr>
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Wes is in contact with so many people all day & giving out so many specific instructions that it all needs to be in writing so that nothing gets missed. Therefore most interaction is written down via email & he’ll often film himself of take photos of his hand holding objects to give a clear visual of what he’s after.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of <i>The Flying Machine</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In <a href="https://www.animdesk.com/tim-allen">your interview with Animdesk</a>, you make the point that, “Everyone wants more product, much quicker, for less money. Adding to this I’ve noticed the complexity of work has increased. So in theory you should need more time for more complex animation, but in fact less time is the trend...It can make for a stressful environment.” <br />Similarly, in your interview with BreakThru Films, you remark that, “There’s normally pressure to get things done as quickly as possible (for understandable financial reasons!). In fact the key to making beautiful stop motion fast is all in the preparation time. It’s like struggling through an obstacle course when you’d be better off removing the obstacles and just sprinting to the finish line. You’ve got to take responsible decisions to get the balance right.”<br />While also being perhaps the most complex stop motion film to date, <i>Isle of Dogs</i> also seems one of the most efficiently and effectively run productions. What do you think the <i>Isle of Dogs </i>production did <i>right</i> in terms of how it was run, and what do you think other productions should learn from it?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> With <i>IOD</i> many of the crew had worked on <i>Fantastic Mr. Fox</i> so we understood the way Wes worked & embraced that. Wes is very hands on even with establishing the structure of how he communicates with the crew. It was his second stop motion feature film of course so I feel that everyone had a better understanding of each other & how best to approach things. Essentially it was run the way I feel it should be. Everything fits around what Wes needs – one creative vision, from one source, with the crew working to provide that vision. Simple yet efficient.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of the <i>Shaun the Sheep</i> television show. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: You’ve worked professionally in the stop motion industry now for over eighteen years, which equates to quite a lot of accumulated experience. What advice would you give to stop motion animators hoping to sustain a career as long and as consistent as yours has been?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> The one constant is that things do change. Embracing that is key. Being flexible & trying new ways of working means I keep learning & having fresh challenges. It makes change a rewarding & exciting experience where I continue to learn & progress.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of the Oscar®-winning short film <i>Peter & the Wolf</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In erstwhile interviews, you discuss your extensive side-career as a teacher of the craft of stop motion animation. In your <a href="https://www.animdesk.com/tim-allen">interview with Animdesk</a> in particular, you specifically discuss what you hope your students learn from your masterclasses.<br />I would like to flip that question around: What have <i>you</i> learned about stop motion and what lessons have you incorporated into your work/life from teaching and working alongside your students?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> The first thing that teaching others taught me is communication. Learning how to get your message across to others is a skill for life & this is equal to your ability to listen to their feelings & needs. If you want to be heard & understood, you need to understand who you are talking to & what they need to hear. With animation, I am expressing emotions through a puppet. With teaching I am interacting with people, who all have slightly different ways of communicating. The more I learn about human behaviour it makes me a better teacher, better at interacting in a studio, & better at projecting thoughts & emotions through a puppet.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen demonstrates animation technique to several students. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In <a href="https://www.animdesk.com/tim-allen">your interview with Animdesk</a>, you mention that “You [an animator] do need to take a step back every so often, look at where the work is and isn’t coming from and make some informed decisions about your next steps….I love the sheer variety my career has granted me but I should try harder to not move as much. I reevaluate my direction and goals quite often.”<br />In closing, I would simply like to check in with you to see how you’re doing in reference to that comment: What are you doing now to reach that Zen-like balance between work and sustainability in your life and career that you weren’t doing ten years ago? How would you recommend fellow animators go about making such decisions?</b><br />
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<b>TA:</b> Well I’m more established as both an animator & mentor now than I was 10 years ago so I’m more relaxed in myself & fortunately am getting more offers these days. I’ve had an intense few years animating non-stop, but levels of animation work will always peak & dip, so I enjoy various forms of teaching in between to give me variety.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of the Oscar®-nominated film <i>Corpse Bride</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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I have a home in London where I’m very happy & proud to be part of the community. When possible I animate nearby & give animation workshops with the aim that local schools, businesses, festivals & of course myself can all mutually benefit from. I also have just as much fun travelling to other countries to run workshops for a week or so. It makes for a wonderful experience & shorter trips away don’t disrupt my home life. Whether near or far from home, it’s the same philosophy – I’m building bridges, making new contacts, catching up with old friends & developing opportunities that all parties will be better for.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen animating on the set of the Oscar®-nominated film <i>Frankenweenie</i>. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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We make decisions all day, everyday. To guide such decisions, I’ve learnt to be a good listener. Listen to what others want, listen to what I want. Both in life & each project. I find that by focusing on what other people need, as well as my own needs, & aiming to fulfill both, we’ve the best chance of our collaboration being rewarding for all.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Allen at Annecy Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Tim Allen.</td></tr>
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You can read and listen to Allen’s previous interviews with other blogs by clicking on the following links: <a href="http://lfs.org.uk/content/interview-animator-tim-allen">interview with London Film School</a>, <a href="http://www.revistaescaleta.com/2016/05/tim-allen-genius-behind-stop-motion.html">interview with Escaleta Revista Universitaria de Cine</a>, <a href="https://www.animdesk.com/tim-allen">interview with Animdesk</a>, <a href="http://breakthrufilms.blogspot.com/2012/05/tim-allen-interview-with-animator.html">interview with BreakThru Films</a>, <a href="http://www.skwigly.co.uk/podcast-isle-of-dogs/">interview with The Skwigly Podcast</a> (in which Allen’s interview starts at around 1:40:00).<br />
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You can learn more about the making of <i>Isle of Dogs</i> by watching several featurettes released by Fox Searchlight Pictures by clicking on the following links: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oKNcAenEJo"><i>Isle of Dogs</i> – Making of: Animators</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrBvVOoQXCA"><i>Isle of Dogs</i> – Making of: Puppets</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QVNU-cHhAU"><i>Isle of Dogs</i> – Making a World: Weather & Elements</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6Fz5F-6XE"><i>Isle of Dogs</i> – Making a World: Megasaki City & Trash Island</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNWxX62z9EE"><i>Isle of Dogs</i> – An Ode to Dogs on Set</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqXC46b1uUg">360º <i>Isle of Dogs</i> Behind the Scenes in Virtual Reality</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKzXQdA4Nw"><i>Isle of Dogs</i>: Cast Interviews</a>. You can also learn more about the film by visiting the <a href="https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/isle-of-dogs?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_campaign=isle-of-dogs-he#shop"><i>Isle of Dogs</i>’ page on 20th Century Fox’s website</a>.<br />
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You can purchase a digital copy of <i>Isle of Dogs</i> by visiting <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Isle-Dogs-Wes-Anderson/dp/B07C4825LL/">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Isle-of-Dogs/911834">Vudu</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/isle-of-dogs/id1363298490?ign-mpt=uo%3D4">iTunes</a>, and <a href="https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/isle-of-dogs-2018?cmp=fox%7Cwebsite%7Cfoxmovies%7Cisle-of-dogs%7Ccta-button%7Cpurchasemovie%7C2018-05-12">Movies Anywhere</a>. You can also pre-order a Blu-ray or DVD copy of the film – set to be released on July 17th – on Amazon by going <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Isle-of-Dogs-DVD/dp/B07BF25T17/">here</a>.<br />
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Furthermore, Stop Motion Geek has previously interviewed three more individuals who worked on <i>Isle of Dogs</i> – animator Andy Biddle whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-andy-biddle-and-noah.html">here</a>, animator Quentin Haberham whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-quentin-haberham.html">here</a>, as well as Gerald Thompson, who designed Mantis, the motion control software used on <i>Isle of Dogs</i>, whose interview you can read by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-gerald-thompson-director.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can learn more about Tim Allen, his work, and his upcoming workshops by visiting his <a href="http://www.timallenanimation.co.uk/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/timallenanimation/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timallenanimation/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/TimAnimation">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/timallenanimation/channels">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-83674258982246298322018-07-08T22:43:00.001-04:002018-11-18T12:46:31.813-05:00Interview with Matt Bollinger, Painter and Animator Behind Stop Motion/Painting Hybrid Short Film "Between the Days," a Beautiful Portrait of Routine, Unfulfillment, and Despair in Middle America<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Before Work" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger. </td></tr>
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Often – <i>far</i> too often – we forget the true weight of our actions, our everyday decisions, ranging from those big to small. And, in forgetting, we forget <i>ourselves</i> – who we truly are, where we have been, what we have done, how we have gotten here, to this very place in this very moment. For we are nothing if not the sum total of all our decisions, our actions…even the most minute, even those – perhaps <i>especially</i> those – made in the thrumming humdrum of the everyday: the act of rising from our bed and reaching over to flick off the alarm resting on our bedside table, lighting a cigarette, collecting yesterday’s trash before moving on to more, equally menial tasks. Moments spent alone, in ostensible comfort – the comfort provided us by 21st century accoutrements so many of us have grown to take for granted. Whether we are aware of it or not, each of our actions leave a mark – if only the ghost of one. To forget that <i>is</i> to forget ourselves, and is veritably to forget time. For, to us, time – time in its very essence – is nothing if but a string of our actions. It is how we choose to spend it. In every second, conscious or unconscious.<br />
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Matt Bollinger’s 18-minute stop motion tour de force, <i>Between the Days</i>, is nothing if not a stark reminder – a wake up call – to this truth. It’s there in every frame, drawn poignantly – almost <i>pointedly</i> – which itself is an inevitable byproduct lent by the medium Bollinger used to bring to fruition his nightmarish take on the American Dream: acrylic and Flashe. Paint on canvas.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"First Light" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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For every frame of the film is, itself, one of Bollinger’s paintings, or <i>variations</i> on the same painting painted by hand between each frame. Yet is never is the same painting – it never <i>can</i> be – for, with each frame, the paintings that make up the film shift and evolve. One stroke upon another before the action depicted in each painting at its first appearance is something entirely...other. Something new. Yet part of each frame’s evolution is not only the new “position” of the subject, but – because the present action depicted is, ultimately, painted on the same canvas as the actions that came before it – each of the past variations leave a splotchy smudge where the old position of a subject was painted over, leaving an ever present reminder of the past, both of each painting and of our own. And, fittingly, each painting gets “messier” – more layers of paint build upon each other, providing a more complex image – the more decisions the characters depicted in it make.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"First Smoke" painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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This provides for us, the audience, the key to the film’s title – “Between the Days,” the mundane moments and choices that measure our lives between the particularly monumental – and the truth hidden therein. And it’s in that subtle-yet-ever-present reminder that the film’s message rings true, for Bollinger’s paintings – a prime example of “the-medium-is-the-message” – draw an inescapable parallel to our lives, a “medium” measured by time just as is film which itself lends the inevitability of our actions being a necessary ingredient of life. Like the spectral presence of an artist’s brush on a painting, our actions are the thing by which <i>we</i> are measured – measured in every second allotted to us in our lifespans, just as acrylic on canvas can be measured widthwise and lengthwise in <i>that</i> medium’s two dimensions. And just as Bollinger’s paintings evolve – forever becoming something anew across their runtime – our true identity cannot be defined by who we have been in the past, but only as who we are in the now, and who our actions lead ever lead us to become.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Living Room, Day" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Bollinger tells us about his initial foray and eventually plunge into the mediums of painting, film, and animation, and how his career eventually came to flourish. He also discusses the creative process and thought behind <i>Between the Days</i> and his sister film, <i>Apartment 6F</i>, both of which were created using a style quite unique to Bollinger – that of paintings being used as the primary subject and medium within a stop motion film, which he constantly develops on and modified over the course of an animation, a development on a style of that has been around since the earliest days of animation with films such as the 1906 film <i>Humorous Phases of Funny Faces</i>. He also describes his workflow, process, and gives us the juicy details of the layout of his studio. He also gives aspiring artists his advice on how to craft a lasting career. In summation, he tells us about what projects are next for him as well as what art he’s most recently been inspired by. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Matt! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s a pleasure to have you here! To start, would you tell us a little bit about yourself and how your passion for painting and animation first began and has progressed to get you where you are today?</b> <br />
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<b>Matt Bollinger: </b>Thank you for inviting me! While I was an undergrad at the Kansas City Art Institute, studying painting and creative writing, I saw a VHS transfer of a William Kentridge film. The self-evident process and the transformative result got me really excited. I made a short animation using his technique of drawing with charcoal, shooting the result, and changing the drawing again to create the impression of movement.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storyboards for the <i>Law and Order</i> scene from the TV evening scene in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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Although I experimented with video for many years after that, it was never something I exhibited alongside my other work until 2015. Until then I made narrative paintings, drawings, collages, and books that I showed in New York, France, and elsewhere. My first film, <i><a href="https://vimeo.com/user17154201/thehouseonweirdfieldst">The House on Weirdfield Street</a></i>, evolved out of a zine project where I created a facsimile of a fictional notebook. When I drew with Sharpie in the notebook and turned the page, the mirror of the image had soaked through. I liked this effect both for how it looked and how it suggested time passing. Around this time I saw a Jake Fried animation on Vimeo and thought he had invented an interesting approach to the Kentridge technique that looked distinctly his own. With his work as a springboard, I decided to animate a notebook using ballpoint pen, Sharpie, and White-Out.<br />
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<b>A.H.: How did the idea and realization of Between the Days begin and evolve?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> <i>Between the Days</i> grew out of a few different paintings. In the exhibition I did prior to this project, I painted a large diptych, <i>Independence I & II</i>, that depicted my mother’s apartment where she lived alone at the start of her career and where she was living when she met my father. I researched the space, furniture, and objects based on an interview and subsequent conversations I had with my mother. After that show I painted an image of a basement weight room. I wrote the character of the son from <i>Between the Days</i> based on the guy I imagined would inhabit the space in <i>Weight Room</i>. When writing the loose outline for the film, I combined that character with a fictional mother and placed them in a home that resembled my parent’s house when I was growing up (although we didn’t have a basement).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"James' Weight Room" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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Because the process of making an animation is so involved, I tend to write and begin planning and storyboarding the next project while the current work is in progress. When I was painting and shooting <i>Apartment 6F</i>, I would take breaks to write and research for <i>Between the Days</i>. Immediately after I finished <i>6F</i>, I stretched the canvased for <i>Days</i> and started working.<br />
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<b>A.H.: From both a thematic and technical standpoint, what were you most interested in exploring with <i>Between the Days</i>? Can you tell us about how you went about doing so, both in regards to the thematic and aesthetic?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> I wanted to tell the story of two people stuck in their daily routines. At the same time, I had the idea that the characters would go about their business, and I might stay in the house and see something hinting at transformation. This could happen with a movement of light on the wall, a freight train passing, or a screensaver on a computer. A lot of the animation has to do with work. The mother has her job, the son his weight lifting, and I’m there laboring to make the film. The way that I animate always reveals the painting process. Figures don’t move effortlessly but instead push through a viscous reality. I’m fascinated by the way that time becomes spatial in animation (a character moves an 1/8th of an inch and that equals 1/12th of a second). The visual language I use reveals that spatial dimension of time because of the trails the characters and objects leave behind.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xzOzRbk97TQ/W0LFGnuXoRI/AAAAAAAAFSA/KPOECNxBxlcwLR_tpknb3tivuOOt1DcyACEwYBhgL/s1600/Living_Room_Night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1200" height="432" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xzOzRbk97TQ/W0LFGnuXoRI/AAAAAAAAFSA/KPOECNxBxlcwLR_tpknb3tivuOOt1DcyACEwYBhgL/s640/Living_Room_Night.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Living Room, Night" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<i>Apartment 6F</i> was the first animation I made with paint. The canvases were all small, 9 x 12 inches, so they could fit on a copy-stand. I shifted materials initially to make the animation more like my paintings and to work in color. At the same time I didn’t want to lose the ease and immediacy of working in black and white. To strike the balance, I limited my palette and scale. I only used black, white, umber, and Venetian red to make the film. I quickly found that paint’s fluidity opened up possibilities that hadn’t been there when I animated with drawing.<br />
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For<i> Between the Days</i> I used canvases in a wide range of sizes and a full palette. The framing of the small works corresponded to the framing of the shot. With the large canvases I could shoot close-ups directly on the wider views. The result was that the paintings looked different at the end of the process than they do in the film. I taped off the close-up shots to create hard-edged interruptions to the space. The light shifts as does the focus. In <i>Carolyn’s Office</i>, the painting has her hands left behind, disconnected, performing their tasks. This was a second way that the paintings showed the passage of time even though they were still.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P_Mv7wlYyws/W0LFF-dbwKI/AAAAAAAAFRw/nh5sGm8g_RILtt0zmxH7cHuut31vN764gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Carolyn%2527s_Office.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1200" height="490" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P_Mv7wlYyws/W0LFF-dbwKI/AAAAAAAAFRw/nh5sGm8g_RILtt0zmxH7cHuut31vN764gCEwYBhgL/s640/Carolyn%2527s_Office.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Carolyn's Office" finished painting featured in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you describe for us your workflow and process? What do your studio, tools, and setup look like?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> Everything I do, paintings, sculptures, and animations, all come out of the sketchbook. I make lots of drawings—storyboards, studies of the objects and environments from life or photographs, character studies. I never look at photographs when I’m painting or animating. Everything needs to be drawn first so that I can internalize and know the things I want to include in my work. I did this long before beginning to work in animation. This three dimensional understanding of the objects and figures helps with the narrative aspect of the work and is essential to knowing how to make something move.<br />
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I made <i>Apartment 6F</i> and <i>Between the Days</i> while at an artist residency, the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Brooklyn. My studio was a big open space with one wall of windows that I would black out when animating and leave uncovered for the natural light when developing the paintings. My studio is set up for painting with canvases hung on the wall and a rolling table full of paints and brushes. I work with the camera on a tripod or a copy stand depending on the size of the canvas. With <i>Between the Days</i>, I switched to using Dragonframe to capture my footage, which made my life easier. Then I edit in Adobe Premiere. Once I have a more or less finished edit, I write the music and record the audio. After the residency ended, I moved upstate with my wife. I renovated the barn on the property and now that’s my studio.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jnrkHmBhUoc/W0LFG3_Jd8I/AAAAAAAAFSg/6HVyVb7TW_w_g39A45rkK95IBzSlfdlfwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Shooting_James_Weight_Room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="478" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jnrkHmBhUoc/W0LFG3_Jd8I/AAAAAAAAFSg/6HVyVb7TW_w_g39A45rkK95IBzSlfdlfwCEwYBhgL/s640/Shooting_James_Weight_Room.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bollinger's set for shooting the "James' Weight Room" scene in<i> Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How do you mentally get into a place where you can simply paint and animate?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> I’m always there.<br />
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<b>A.H.: What visual references – paintings, films, photography – inspired the aesthetic of <i>Between the Days</i>? Do you consciously draw from your inspirations as you paint?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> I look at a lot of art, read a lot, and watch a lot of films, but I generally don’t bring that stuff into the studio as a reference. With this project I was probably thinking about the sprawled spaces in Dawn Clements’ drawings, the fragmenting in George Braque’s late interiors, the muscular figuration in David Park’s work. More directly I was thinking of the slow pace in the films of Tarkovsky and Kelly Reichardt. The factory shots were inspired by the Lumiere Brother’s films and Sharon Lockhart’s <i>Lunch Break</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_cna9cTl9SOpHrQ5RbN8pF1swOPPSy8_NV74LQSzsgRAxPyaaVVEkVt5IymsFdbaJjPKl_ebs1Nju0XLdWIpAuy9t77ePyy9eWjpVD6AEuV3L8aOjmfA0ykYMhadlpTUCz2Clzp6UZ8/s1600/Sketchbook1.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="591" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_cna9cTl9SOpHrQ5RbN8pF1swOPPSy8_NV74LQSzsgRAxPyaaVVEkVt5IymsFdbaJjPKl_ebs1Nju0XLdWIpAuy9t77ePyy9eWjpVD6AEuV3L8aOjmfA0ykYMhadlpTUCz2Clzp6UZ8/s640/Sketchbook1.tiff" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bollinger's sketches fleshing out the paintings on the wall in the evening scene in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Do you have any advice for aspiring painters and animators? What do you wish you had known when you were first starting out?</b><br />
<b>MB:</b> One of the things I love about animation is how it makes filmmaking possible without a crew or much money. I teach full time and sometimes encounter students who want to make a film but think that it needs to look just like features coming out of big studios. I encourage them to make work with what’s around them. The problem-solving that goes into <i>not</i> being able to make things the way you’ve seen before can lead to unexpected invention. Something much more distinctly personal can emerge.<br />
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When I was in school, I was a bit stuck in categories of medium. Painting was always the goal for me. It might have been helpful for someone to tell me to get over it. Someone probably did. I can be very stubborn.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bollinger's sketches fleshing out the design of the character of "The Mother" in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: So where do you see yourself going from here? What’s next for you?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> I’m in the middle of a new film project that includes paintings on canvas, watercolors on Duralar, and sculptures. The animation takes place in a house where the characters are understood only through their rooms and objects—a married couple and their daughter. A portion of the narrative is a science fiction story written by the man and based on research the woman was engaged in. Eventually it’ll be my next show.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bollinger's sketches fleshing out the house and a poster seen in the house in <i>Between the Days</i>. Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: Lastly, what art – and I’m going to leave this open-ended for interpretation – have you been inspired by lately, and why?</b><br />
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<b>MB:</b> A little over 8 months ago, my daughter was born. She has certainly reshaped my thinking about many things. I’ve also been looking at images in books, online, and seeing art when I can make it to the city. I’ve been reading a lot and watching movies on my computer. I’m still thinking about Tarkovsky and Reichardt. I watch lots of horror movies of varying quality (I tend to have movies playing while I draw). I’ve been looking at paintings by Catherine Murphy, Tal R, Brandi Twilley, Biala, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Braque, Picasso (circa 1928), David Byrd, Kerry James Marshall, 15th Century German sculpture, and Berber rugs. I’ve recently read <i>Awayland</i> by Ramona Ausubel, <i>The Dispossessed</i> by Ursula K. Le Guin, <i>Universal Harvester</i> by John Darnielle, and <i>Manhattan Beach</i> by Jennifer Egan.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bollinger in the midst of animating. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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You can learn more about Matt Bollinger and you can explore more of his exceptional work by visiting his <a href="http://www.mattbollinger.com/497.html">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mattlbollinger/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bollingermatt">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/user17154201">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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To read more about <i>Between the Days</i> as it was presented in the Zürcher Gallery in New York City for a spell last year, you can read reviews of the exhibition penned by <a href="https://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/matt-bollinger/">Art In America Magazine</a>, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/414491/matt-bollinger-between-the-days-zurcher-gallery-2017/">Hyperallergic</a>, and the press release on the <a href="http://www.galeriezurcher.com/spip.php?page=article&id_article=1506">Zürcher Gallery’s website</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">Facebook</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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You can watch <i>Between the Days</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/234157890">here</a> and you can watch <i>Apartment 6F</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/201275739">here</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-48406751253393031662018-06-24T08:00:00.000-04:002018-12-07T10:36:30.602-05:00Interview with Gerald Thompson, Director of Photography and Motion Control Artist on Australian Stop Motion Short Film "Lost & Found"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Early on, while growing up in Adelaide, South Australia, Gerald Thompson – motion control artist and director of photography on the beautiful and heartfelt Australian short film <i>Lost & Found</i> – developed an interest in photography, and it didn’t take very long for him to became enamored with making “epic” Super 8 films with his friends.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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An engineer at heart – having gone on to design <a href="http://www.bfg-motion.com/index.php?p=1_2">numerous motion control rigs</a> as well as <a href="http://www.bfg-motion.com/index.php?p=1_7">an incredible robot that interacts in real time with a dancer and musician</a> – the element of filmmaking that Thompson found the most ardor remains the technical side of film’s craft, especially in the realm of special effects, specifically practical effects (for when Thompson – now a veteran in the special effects industry – began, CGI was still only in early stages of development, and was then far from being the industry standard). During these formative years, Thompson recalls his early experiments with practical effects, saying, “I also made my own short films experimenting with timelapse and in-camera compositing systems like front projection.”</div>
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During that time, Thompson began to work with a local studio as a camera assistant, later filming commercials, short films, and documentaries. Thompson describes his first endeavor in feature films, saying, “When a local company in Adelaide developed motion control system in the nineties I also took an interest in that, which lead to work on early VFX films like <i>Dark City</i>. In Melbourne I also worked with a small company Glenart where we shot animated commercials in the days of 35mm Michell cameras, before CGI hit that industry too hard...”</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Thompson, although being affected – along with most people who worked in the practical effects industry – by the induction of CGI as a general stand-in for the way in which special effects are now accomplished where practical effects would have been utilized before the early 2000s, has nevertheless remained to sustain a career in the stop motion industry. After his early forays in commercial work, he worked on some of the last major blockbusters to utilize stop motion and miniatures in actualizing their special effects shots, such as Peter Jackson’s <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> films (of which Thompson worked on the first two, <i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i> and <i>The Two Towers</i>) – monumental achievements for both the practical and digital special effects industries – and Jackson’s 2005 epic <i>King Kong</i>, on which Thompson worked as a motion control operator on the films’ miniature units. Later on, Thompson also worked on the incredible 2009 stop motion feature film <i>Mary and Max</i> – his self-deemed “favorite gig as Director of Photography and Motion Control Supervisor.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Despite being someone who describes himself as loving “messing with motors and mechanics,” Thompson admits that he began to design <a href="http://www.bfg-motion.com/index.php?p=1_4">Mantis</a> – what has sense become an industry standard to program motion control into stop motion – in his pastime, admitting, “I was pretty much a novice with programming” when he began to design the software. However, Thompson was driven to continue to design Mantis when the need in the stop motion industry persisted for motion control software that was both affordable and had a user-friendly interface, eventually devising an end product – one that he continues to improve upon – that met both of those criteria, allowing Thompson “to implement pretty much everything that was previously possible, as well as a few more tricks…” Mantis has since been used on many productions, being most recently, next to <i>Lost & Found</i>, selected to craft the motion control work on Wes Anderson’s <i>Isle of Dogs.</i><br />
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<i>Lost & Found </i>– a seven-and-a-half minute, gorgeously realized and heartfelt film, inside and out – tells the beautiful and bittersweet love story about knitted creatures designed in the style of the Japanese art of Amigurumi, one of whom is a clumsy dinosaur called Knotjira who unravels himself in sacrifice to save his lover, a nimble fox called Knitsune, telling a poignant story both in its literal and metaphorical readings, and one that rings true about the nature of sacrificial love in a world impermanent and imperfect.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<i>Lost & Found</i> premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany this February, and has most recently won the Yoram Gross Award for Best Australian Animated Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.<br />
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This is the fifth and last of Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the stupendously talented and affable team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read the other four interviews by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/search?q=lost+%26+found">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lost & Found</i> poster. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Thompson discusses how he became interested in and eventually crafted a career for himself as a motion control engineer and director of photography, eventually working on prestigious films such as the 2009 stop motion feature film <i>Mary & Max</i>, <i>Dark City</i>, Peter Jackson’s <i>King Kong</i>, as well as the first two films in Jackson’s <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> series. Thompson also gives us an in-depth look at his work on <i>Lost & Found</i>, going so far as to give us a breakdown of everything that went into designing what he describes as “the most ambitious shot in the film.” He also discusses his motion control software Mantis, and the improvements he’s made to it over the years since its first iteration. He also gives us his thoughts on the role stop motion plays in today’s CGI-dominated special effects industry, as well as his perspective on the part <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> and <i>King Kong</i> played in the overall shift in the filmmaking industry from practical effects to CGI. To wrap up, he gives us his advice to motion control artists and directors of photography looking to break into the stop motion industry, and also tells us about his own career next steps he foresees. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Gerald! Thank you so much for doing this interview! It’s an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to pick your brain! To start off: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, and how you came to work in motion control and as a director of photography?<br /><br />Gerald Thompson:</b> I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia and developed an interest in photography quite early. From that base I started epic films with my school friends on Super 8. I began work in the local industry as a camera assistant and later shooting commercials, short films and documentaries. I also made my own short films experimenting with timelapse and in-camera compositing systems like front projection. When a local company in Adelaide developed motion control system in the nineties I also took an interest in that, which lead to work on early VFX films like <i>Dark City</i>. In Melbourne I also worked with a small company Glenart where we shot animated commercials in the days of 35mm Michell cameras, before CGI hit that industry too hard...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about your motion control software <a href="http://www.bfg-motion.com/index.php?p=1_4">Mantis</a>? What was the catalyst that made you go about designing your own motion control software and how does your software stand up next to other motion control software?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> During the production of <i>Mary and Max</i> in 2006 I used two motion control systems: Kuper and Lynx Millenium. Kuper was DOS based and Millenium required Windows 3.1. They also required an ISA slot which is now obsolete. At the time these were the only practical options, since MRMC Flair was much too expensive. After that experience I decided there was a need for something that could run on a modern Windows Laptop and be more accessible for others without so much experience to get their heads around. I was pretty much a novice with programming but came across the Dynomotion KFLOP USB hardware card which was designed for CNC. I discovered it could be adapted for the requirements of cinema motion control, and there was good support from Tom Kerekes at Dynomotion, so I taught myself programming and gave it a shot. The first Mantis was very simple, but over some years I have managed to implement pretty much everything that was previously possible, as well as a few more tricks… Since then Dragonframe has added a motion control module which also fills much of the gap, though directed mainly at stop motion. There is a real time option but it is still more expensive than Mantis, and does not include some critical features necessary for live action cinematography. For the recent production of<i> Isle of the Dogs</i>, Mantis was chosen due to its clean interface, flexibility and features. I also added several new tools that were of particular benefit to the way they liked to work. Even though the typical moves in <i>IoD</i> are quite simple, the workflow for producing them is important. I believe that having a discrete system from the capture program Dragonframe also worked better for them. Certainly I prefer it myself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mantis set-up for a shot of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As a broad question, when you’re both the director of photography (presumably responsible for the final “look” of the film) and the motion control artist on a stop motion film, how do you decide when to dedicate yourself to producing a very beautiful, artful shot using a lot of motion control versus settling for a more simplistic stationary shot, especially when you have a tight budget and schedule as well as many other shots you have to shoot on any particular film?</b><br />
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<b>GT: </b>I don’t think there is usually a conflict, though it will also depend on the preference of the director. Adam Elliot was quite new to camera moves, his previous work had always been static, and much of <i>Mary and Max </i>retains that feel, but as our equipment base expanded during the production he enjoyed exploring the use of moves to enhance some of the more melodramatic moments. It is true that time can be a constraint, but more often style is the decider and should be acknowledged from the outset if it is going to add to production time. Personally I try to keep any camera move in sympathy with the overall feel of the film and make sure it is motivated. I also like to emulate the way live action films are shot where possible.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gerald Thompson on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How did you come to work as the director of photography and as the motion control artist on <i>Lost & Found</i>? Can you give us a basic overview of what your involvement with the project looked like on a day-to-day basis?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> Andrew had seen my work on <i>Mary and Max</i> and I liked the concept for his short film. More importantly, I lived near the studio and was able to devote myself to it part time over the 12 months or so it took to complete. Because of the small crew only an average of one or two shots a week was possible, so I would drop in when available and setup the next shot. I was doing pretty much everything from lighting to motion control and even a bit of rigging.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gerald Thompson on the set of<i> Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What was your workflow like on <i>Lost & Found</i> in relation to your collaborations with the film’s directors (<a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">Andrew Goldsmith</a> and <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">Bradley Slabe</a>) and animator (Samuel Lewis) and the kind of result you were responsible to produce (i.e. Were you working closely with the directors to make storyboarded shots a reality or were you starting from a more ground-zero approach?)?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> <i>Lost & Found </i>was storyboarded from the start in detail. Andrew has a background in directing visual effects projects as well as hands on post production. Bradley as the writer was less technical, and more concerned with the feel and emotions. Together they made a good team. Sometimes new ideas or problems would come up, and we would always discuss options for each new shot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith (left) and Bradley Slabe (right) plan out the shoot for <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradley Slabe on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you walk us through your approach to planning and producing, from start to finish, the shot seen in the trailer starting at 3:09 in the actual film where (and I’m going to speak in vague terms so as to refrain from spoiling anything) Knotjira runs along, unraveling, with the camera facing him? It’s a relatively long shot and one that’s returned to three times in the film, and it looks like a particularly complex one to produce, as it has an almost “handheld” feel to it (which is quite hard to achieve in stop motion). </b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> Yes, that was the most ambitious shot in the film and one I could easily have spent more time on. As it was, it took several days to light and prepare, plus all the thinking that went prior to that. I think for animator <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-samuel-lewis-animator.html">Sam Lewis</a> it was also maybe his biggest challenge. I had to modify my crane arm rig to allow the camera to navigate quite a narrow path and added a roll motion as well as vertical and side to side movement to emulate the handheld feel. Initially I also used a motion sensor to record a base for the movement in real time, then edited and added this to the basic tracking movement. We did several move tests with the puppet at 10 frame increments to rough out the shot and further refine it. Amazingly once it was set, Sam managed to make it work, animating over a couple of days. The motion sensor was also utilised in a couple of other shots to create the feel of a human operator. I mounted the sensor on a small camera and Andrew operated it. Normally it’s quite hard to program a human feel into motion control, so this experimental system was quite valuable, and being able to code it myself so it could be integrated with Mantis was kind of fun…<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in the shot referenced in the above question from <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis fist-bumps with Knotjira on the set of Lost & Found after finishing the above shot. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: <i>Lost & Found</i> is by no means your first foray into stop motion. One of your most prestigious past projects was the 2009 feature length stop motion film <i>Mary & Max</i>, on which you were the DoP and the motion control artist. On your website you denote it as being your “favorite gig as Director of Photography and Motion Control Supervisor.” Can you give us a broad overview of the work you did on <i>Mary & Max</i> that you are the most proud of? Why, above all of the other projects you’ve worked on, is <i>Mary & Max</i> your favorite?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> While I had worked on animated television commercials prior, the challenge was to create a coherent work that would stand up in a much longer format. The nice thing about it was that while Adam Elliot had a very definite vision, he also invited ideas and input from all the artists involved, so I felt I was allowed to do much more than be a technician. In a sense it was a kind of scary responsibility, but one which turned out to be a memorable and rewarding experience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis animates in Dragonframe on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: As well as having worked extensively in stop motion, you have also worked on the miniature sets for several big budget live action feature films, namely <i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i>, <i>The Two Towers</i>, and Peter Jackson’s <i>King Kong</i>.<br />Looking back at your motion control work on the miniature units on <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> franchise – made at the tail end of the ‘90s and the beginning of the 2000s – your work as well as that of the rest of the tremendously talented artists to work on the practical effects side of those films really marked a new benchmark in practical effects (in combination with the CG work done on those films) as well as the general end of one epoch in the special effects industry (and the film industry as whole) and the beginning of another: one dominated by CGI (which, of course, preyed upon the work available to artists who work in practical effects, in many cases replacing the special effects motion control work you do with the digital equivalent). In fact, I think that the argument could be made that <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> franchise along with a handful of other special effects-driven blockbusters released during that time progressed the industry as a whole towards utilizing CGI special effects more often than practical effects, eventually dramatically decreasing the supply of practical effects work.<br />What are your thoughts on what <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> meant to the special effects industry as a whole, now looking at it as the special effects landscape has now panned out? Moreover, what do you think blockbuster special effects-heavy films could learn from looking at the practical effects work done on <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>?<br /><br />GT:</b> Working on the blockbuster films certainly taught me a lot about shooting miniatures and the use of motion control. In that sense it was good background. But CGI techniques have developed a long way even since then, so practical miniatures are less necessary. At the time of <i>LoTR</i> and <i>King Kong</i>, Peter Jackson was determined to make organic things look as real as possible. In addition to miniatures he used a lot of in-camera live action techniques, often requiring motion control. But it does now feel like stop motion is the last bastion for the handmade look. Even then the work of studios like Laika seems to be moving away further by integrating CGI extras and 3D printing combined with post massaging of replacement edges, to the point that any distinction from pure 3D is less clear. Wes Anderson would be the standout example who still embraces the subtleties of physical props and puppets.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis animating on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis hydrates while on the set of<i> Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What personality traits, skills, resources, and/or connections does it take to become successful at your job(s) – “director of photography” and “motion control artist” in the stop motion industry? What advice would you give to aspiring motion control artists and DoPs of stop motion productions looking to break into the industry?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> For anything connected with animation you need patience, but also to appreciate its special characteristics. Puppets can be difficult to light and photograph, and sometimes require extra effort to reveal their character. In particular they often don’t have nice skin textures that can soak up and interact with light the way humans do. In most films, motion control is a separate department, but still needs to work sympathetically with drama, in the way that grips do on live action set. In my case I happen to have the skills for both disciplines, mainly because I happen to like messing with motors and mechanics, as well as having a background in cinematography.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Knotjira double looks down at a Knotjira puppet in the midst of being animated. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira being animated on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you?</b><br />
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<b>GT:</b> Hard question. I hope that stop motion and miniature photography continues to find applications, even as technology advances. Meantime I will continue with Mantis R&D and making even better hardware...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gerald Thompson (left), Andrew Goldsmith (middle), and Bradley Slabe (right) on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Gerald’s work and you can learn more about Mantis, his motion control software, by visiting his <a href="http://www.bfg-motion.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/user3123793">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://au.linkedin.com/in/gerald-thompson-6a522511">LinkedIn</a>, and his two IMDb pages, the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2756662/">first</a> of which includes his work on <i>Mary & Max</i> and the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0860168/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr914">second</a> of which includes his work on the first two <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> films as well as Peter Jackson’s <i>King Kong</i>.<br />
<br />You can watch <i>Lost & Found</i> in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/304803343">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith/lostandfoundtrailer">here</a>. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lostandfoundshort/">Instagram</a> profile, as well its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/weknittogether/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.lostandfound.film/">website</a>. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/256204562">here</a>.</div>
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This article is the fifth and last in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read the first article in the series – an interview with Bradley Slabe, the writer of <i>Lost & Found</i> as well as one half of the film’s director duo – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Andrew Goldsmith, the second half of the film’s director duo as well as the co-editor of the film and VFX creative director – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>. You can read the third article in the series – an interview with Samuel Lewis, the sole animator of the film as well as the film’s character designer and sculptor – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-samuel-lewis-animator.html">here</a>. You can read the fourth article in the series – an interview with Lucy J. Hayes, the film’s producer – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-lucy-j-hayes-producer-of.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<!--EndFragment--></div>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-32852372585893864862018-06-17T22:34:00.000-04:002018-06-23T07:14:54.354-04:00Interview with Zélie Durand, Director and Animator of Stop Motion Short Film, "Sahara Palace," Incredible True Story of Loss, Dreams Unfulfilled, and Middle Eastern Cinema<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ghostlike apparition in a scene realized from Hedy Ben Khalifat's "Sahara Palace" script in Zélie Durand's <i>Sahara Palace</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“The only things my grandfather left behind were dozens of 35mm film reels in my grandmother’s basement, which ironically took up a lot of space compared to the fact that nobody seemed to talk about him, and that he was noticeably absent of every family album,” Zélie Durand, a French director and illustrator, tells Stop Motion Geek about the very personal tragedy that inspired her most recent film, <i>Sahara Palace</i> – a transcendent, nine-minute long stop motion short film that realizes and further explores the greater themes of an unproduced film script entitled “Sahara Palace,” as well as the life and legacy of the script’s screenwriter: filmmaker Hedy Ben Khalifat, Durand’s grandfather, a man she never met.<br />
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“I was not allowed to touch the reels,” Durand continues. “When I started to ask questions three years ago, my uncle gave me a suitcase he inherited from Hedy, telling me he had no idea what was inside. Right after that, I spent a week alone reading the three versions of <i>Sahara Palace</i> contained in the suitcase, among his old passport and a death certificate.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of Durand's model of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Durand, the first person in her family to read the scripts, remarks that they gave her “the illusion” that she shared a complicity with her grandfather, for by that time she was already pursuing a career in filmmaking by attending he Cinéma d’Animation at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as well as being a collaborator with <a href="http://www.chevreaux-suprematistes.com/">Les Chevreaux Suprématistes</a> on the production of several popular science films. Durand also admits that, understandably, “at that moment he was very present in my mind and I had many questions left unanswered so I was thirsty for more information.”<br />
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In the instant she started to read the <i>Sahara Palace</i> scripts, Durand began to uncover not only the story living therein, but also the heart, imagination, and soul of her grandfather, which, as Durand recalls, proved a search that demanded an immense amount of dedication and scrutiny. “I looked for him in every line, every handwritten note in the bottom pages. I had to draw conclusions from a script that was very cryptic itself, with mysterious characters and dialogues,” says Durand. “I knew that I was making up my grandfather from all of this, it was mostly my own imagination; and I liked that idea. I knew that even if later in my research I was brought to discover true events of his life that would make him appear more human to me, I had to preserve the feeling of an impossible encounter, and that had to remain the heart of my movie.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ghostlike birds haunt Durand's model of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Zélie Durand's website.</td></tr>
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<i>Sahara Palace</i> begins with a physical presentation of one of Khalifat’s “Sahara Palace” scripts before suddenly displacing us – the audience – in a world entirely juxtaposed to the pristine pages of a script: that of “Sahara Palace” – a real-life luxury hotel in Nefta, Tunisia which acts as the centerpiece of Khalifat’s script, as well as that from which both Khalifat and Durand derived the names of their films.<br />
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Yet Durand’s vision of the hotel is utterly… <i>other</i> than that envisioned by Khalifat in the ‘60s, in whose day the hotel was a thriving luxury getaway for the greatest stars of Franco-Tunisian cinema such as Brigitte Bardot, Jean Paul Belmondo, and Louis de Funès. In sharp contrast with that idyllic appearance, the hotel as conceived by Durand reflects the state of the hotel, as it stands in modern day, which closed down permanently in 2008 after lack of upkeep and use – as a once-lavish destination, now nearly as barren in the wilderness, a wilderness which was once its appeal, as it offered its tenants such an enviable escape from stardom. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A behind-the-scenes photo of Durand's model of her Sahara Palace hotel. Photo courtesy of Zélie Durand.</td></tr>
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Despite being modeled on the state of the hotel it now more closely resembles, ironically Durand neither visited nor saw any documentation of the real hotel until <i>after</i> she had built her own model – the model seen in the film – which she based on her “first impressions from the script.”<br />
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“While I was reading it, I imagined a majestic building lost in the middle of the desert, filled with red velvet armchairs, intimate yet mysterious,” says Durand. “I made a clear parallel in my head between this place and the way I imagined my grandfather.”<br />
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This, perhaps more than anything else, is emblematic of the film’s theme of a paradoxical “impossible encounter” – impossible in the sense that the film does invoke, defying all possibility, a kind of conversation – as the film itself is very clearly two halves of a conversation between Durand and her grandfather, with Khalifat’s contribution operating as Durand’s inspiration for <i>Sahara Palace</i> and Durand’s contribution being the life she breathed into the film, very clearly painting the two sides of the conversation: One side – Khalifat’s – is symbolized in images, singular moments from Khalifat’s “Sahara Palace” scripts, realized by Durand. The other side of the conversation – Durand’s – is symbolized by Durand’s narration and images documenting her study of her grandfather.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yswwDZE8Mqk/WycP5s14CDI/AAAAAAAAFHA/c81At9RpzpswKg-Kv2IJOMWYfcmOT2-dwCLcBGAs/s1600/Sahara%2BPalace%2B3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="979" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yswwDZE8Mqk/WycP5s14CDI/AAAAAAAAFHA/c81At9RpzpswKg-Kv2IJOMWYfcmOT2-dwCLcBGAs/s640/Sahara%2BPalace%2B3.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apparitions acting out a scene from Khalifat's script wander the wilderness on the edge of Durand's vision of the Sahara Palace. Source: Zélie Durand's website.</td></tr>
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Yet, even within this symbolism, Durand subtly draws attention to the paradox of the idea of an “impossible encounter,” for, although Durand does realize scenes from her grandfather’s script, she acknowledges that they are, in all probability, not <i>exactly</i> how her grandfather envisioned them, for she represents the characters as mere apparitions haunting the hotel in the disheveled state in which it now stands – ghosts to haunt the hotel’s “stunning view on the oasis, the empty swimming pool and endless corridors filled with sand” described by Durand. And yet, despite Khalifat’s “contribution” to the conversation portrayed as not <i>entirely</i> tangible, it is, nevertheless, there – “the feeling Hedy was somehow around me, like a ghost,” says Durand.<br />
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Only at the end of the film are the two halves of the film’s psyche merged, in a scene profoundly moving and gorgeously realized: It’s an instant where Durand herself filmed in live-action – representing her “side” to the conversation – holds miniature model of a mausoleum made for her grandfather – representing Khalifat’s contribution to the conversation – placing it atop a sand dune in a wilderness not unlike that which is slowly swallowing the <i>real</i> Sahara Palace. She leaves the miniature to the discretion of the wilderness, allowing the same fate to take it as took the hotel of her grandfather’s fascination and fancy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q0y5YecJc3g/WycP5r0RkwI/AAAAAAAAFHE/6eXArg2C6q0-gtLiWohCyZnBmiw9a2zuACLcBGAs/s1600/Sahara%2BPalace%2B4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="579" height="406" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q0y5YecJc3g/WycP5r0RkwI/AAAAAAAAFHE/6eXArg2C6q0-gtLiWohCyZnBmiw9a2zuACLcBGAs/s640/Sahara%2BPalace%2B4.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zélie Durand walks away after having placed her miniature model of a mausoleum on a sand dune. Source: Zélie Durand's website.</td></tr>
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“After a year and a half working on the movie, I flew to Nefta, in the South of Tunisia to discover the real hotel,” says Durand. “Getting there was an adventure in itself, the Sahara Palace being out of business since 2008 and no longer open to the public (it is under strict surveillance). So when I finally managed to gather the authorization to get inside, it really felt like I had achieved something beyond the movie itself. It brought closure to the whole experience. Of course the remainings of the hotel made it clearer in my mind that I was pursuing something that didn’t exist anymore, but at the same time it anchored my work in reality. Also, the place was very impressive, with its stunning view on the oasis, the empty swimming pool and endless corridors filled with sand… For a long time I had the feeling Hedy was somehow around me, like a ghost, but at that moment it was all gone. I think I really buried him that day,” Durand confides.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GeI12KSxEpQ/WycP1lEyUQI/AAAAAAAAFGs/-wrS76q-yGw3oag7c8RC6cI3XXOd-KEUwCLcBGAs/s1600/image1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GeI12KSxEpQ/WycP1lEyUQI/AAAAAAAAFGs/-wrS76q-yGw3oag7c8RC6cI3XXOd-KEUwCLcBGAs/s640/image1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zélie Durand animating on the set of her model of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Zélie Durand.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Durand discusses her passion for filmmaking, how it flourished from an early age, and how her discovery of her grandfather’s filmmaking aspirations have recolored her perspective on her own work and passion. She also tells us about her journey to discover as much as she could about her grandfather and how it informed the way in which <i>Sahara Palace</i> came to be realized. She also gives us an in-depth look at how she went about composing the film’s unique visual aesthetic, and how she worked with the film’s composer, Nevil Bernard, and the film’s sound engineer, Guillaume L’Hostis, to develop the film’s soundtrack and specific “sound.” You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Zélie! Thank you for doing this interview! It’s a pleasure! To start, has filmmaking been a lifelong passion for you, or did you only come to it later in life? How has your path in life led you to become an illustrator, co-producer of music videos, and filmmaker – specifically in the medium of animation?</b><br />
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<b>Zélie Durand:</b> At an early age, 6 or 7 years old, I asked to join a casting agency to act in movies, as a child. I have no idea why I came up with that. Thanks to my parents I did join an agency, and though I’ve never had big roles I went on a few film sets from age 7 to 14. I enjoyed it every single time, and I think I was most fascinated with the intense working atmosphere. At that time I would write in school papers that I wanted to become a filmmaker later in life. Meanwhile, drawing and writing were the activities I enjoyed the most. I was struggling to find the best way to express the images I had in my mind. I never thought too much about it but I guess that animation naturally became the meeting point of those passions when I started studying in art school after graduation.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhI7y3Pl54o/WycP2Olw4rI/AAAAAAAAFG0/inQveSNUD3sMECBJgSoWt-K4sdZzvM5PACLcBGAs/s1600/image4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhI7y3Pl54o/WycP2Olw4rI/AAAAAAAAFG0/inQveSNUD3sMECBJgSoWt-K4sdZzvM5PACLcBGAs/s640/image4.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zélie Durand animates on the set of her model of the Sahara Palace hotel. Photo courtesy of Zélie Durand.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How did discovering your grandfather Hedy Ben Khalifat’s script, <i>Sahara Palace</i>, help you to understand him, a man who you never had the chance to meet? How did your journey to understanding who your grandfather was proceed from that moment (finding his script) afterward?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> The only things my grandfather left behind were dozens of 35mm film reels in my grandmother’s basement, which ironically took up a lot of space compared to the fact that nobody seemed to talk about him, and that he was noticeably absent of every family album. I was not allowed to touch the reels. When I started to ask questions three years ago, my uncle gave me a suitcase he inherited from Hedy, telling me he had no idea what was inside. Right after that, I spent a week alone reading the three versions of <i>Sahara Palace</i> contained in the suitcase, among his old passport and a death certificate. I was the first person of my family to read the scripts, and that gave me the illusion that I shared a complicity with Hedy. Of course at that moment he was very present in my mind and I had many questions left unanswered so I was thirsty for more information. I looked for him in every line, every handwritten note in the bottom pages. I had to draw conclusions from a script that was very cryptic itself, with mysterious characters and dialogues. I knew that I was making up my grandfather from all of this, it was mostly my own imagination; and I liked that idea. I knew that even if later in my research I was brought to discover true events of his life that would make him appear more human to me, I had to preserve the feeling of an impossible encounter, and that had to remain the heart of my movie.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ElWH9_k9Ug/WycTmqUBfrI/AAAAAAAAFH0/ZJVv2Cg8dHEuDodPh9T56T6_Kz6oPrmiACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.53.23%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ElWH9_k9Ug/WycTmqUBfrI/AAAAAAAAFH0/ZJVv2Cg8dHEuDodPh9T56T6_Kz6oPrmiACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.53.23%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of a room in Zélie Durand's vision of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How did your discovery of your grandfather’s script develop into making a short film about your grandfather and his unrealized script? Can you tell us how you proceeded in developing the film – from conception to finished film – across the two years it took you to make?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> The first step for me was to gather as much information as I could. After reading the script I managed to meet the woman he was living with at the time he wrote it. She provided most of what I know now, from the day he left my grandmother to be with her, to the day he died. They stayed together for ten years, so we were both very moved to meet each other. She showed me pictures of him, and we talked a lot about <i>Sahara Palace</i> and how he struggled with his disease when he tried to produce it. It was in many ways the project of his life. He told a friend before he died that if he couldn’t make it he would like a young filmmaker to take over the work. Everything seemed to fall into place: me finding the script, the emerging idea of making a movie about him, the unfinished work… Unfortunately she had a stroke a few weeks after our first meeting, taking with her what seemed to be the last remaining living part of my grandfather. I met other friends of Hedy in Tunisia shortly after this, they all gave me perspective on his life and personality. From the script and what they told me I started to see images in my mind, and I then began to shoot animation without a storyboard, only following my instincts. I had a vague idea of the structure of the movie but I wasn’t sure how long it was going to be. I only knew that I wanted to talk about my grandfather through the script and the place Sahara Palace because they all seemed to have the same destiny.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TALfgCWSl9s/WycTlkcsCDI/AAAAAAAAFHw/zHG_izfZ0dEh7ed5qyj-zvoRK61lnsyBgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.53.09%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TALfgCWSl9s/WycTlkcsCDI/AAAAAAAAFHw/zHG_izfZ0dEh7ed5qyj-zvoRK61lnsyBgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.53.09%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of Zélie Durand's vision of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As you recount in the film, “The real Sahara Palace didn’t withstand time, nor sand either. It’s different from what I expected.” Can you describe what walking through the real “Grand Hotel Sahara Palace” was like for you? How did you then go about reconstructing it in miniature for your film, <i>Sahara Palace</i> – was your replica an exact miniature of the real hotel or were you attempting to capture the “essence” of it?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> As a matter of fact, I built my version of the Sahara Palace before visiting the real place. My replica is solely based on my first impressions from the script. While I was reading it, I imagined a majestic building lost in the middle of the desert, filled with red velvet armchairs, intimate yet mysterious. I made a clear parallel in my head between this place and the way I imagined my grandfather. After a year and a half working on the movie, I flew to Nefta, in the South of Tunisia to discover the real hotel. Getting there was an adventure in itself, the Sahara Palace being out of business since 2008 and no longer open to the public (it is under strict surveillance). So when I finally managed to gather the authorization to get inside, it really felt like I had achieved something beyond the movie itself. It brought closure to the whole experience. Of course the remainings of the hotel made it clearer in my mind that I was pursuing something that didn’t exist anymore, but at the same time it anchored my work in reality. Also, the place was very impressive, with its stunning view on the oasis, the empty swimming pool and endless corridors filled with sand… For a long time I had the feeling Hedy was somehow around me, like a ghost, but at that moment it was all gone. I think I really buried him that day.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g5AqURdUHso/WycTks72W-I/AAAAAAAAFHk/2dWMz7xL-HIkZFnFi3UccMWatvylkxXnQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.56%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g5AqURdUHso/WycTks72W-I/AAAAAAAAFHk/2dWMz7xL-HIkZFnFi3UccMWatvylkxXnQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.56%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Khalifat's script as seen in <i>Sahara Palace</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In the animated scenes in <i>Sahara Palace</i> – where you realize sections of your grandfather’s script as well as scenes of your own conceptualization – the visual aesthetic mirrors that of the classic cinema of your grandfather’s day, most noticeably through your use of filmic granulation and highly dramatic and stylized lighting. From a creative standpoint, how did the idea for filming and color grading your scenes in this way develop? From a technical standpoint, how did you go about creating this aesthetic and what were your cinematic references and inspirations for it?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> I do have a personal taste for dramatic lighting, I always seem to start creating by <i>feeling</i> an atmosphere and finding ways to transcript it into images. To me, all this work of research and digging in the past is strongly associated with atmospheres, whether it’s the basement of my grandmother, the houses of the people I met, or the descriptions of the hotel in the script. And this is how I designed the aesthetic of the movie: I had a very clear idea of what it had to look like, but in a more emotional than rational way.<br />
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I made almost everything by myself, I was helped for the construction of the sets, and had a few advices for the lighting, but I mostly spent all the filming process alone. I remember spending days searching for the right angle and the right light, shooting it and starting over if I didn’t feel satisfied with the result. I still think now that some scenes could have looked better, but you have to know when to stop. I had a lot of pressure because I was working on something that mattered to him, and was probably going to matter to my family afterwards.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGnKdVGthGU/WycTkU2Bx2I/AAAAAAAAFHc/3yCVQ4MTIgY8XTqEQQoPQqS-f8Ef8afwgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.31%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGnKdVGthGU/WycTkU2Bx2I/AAAAAAAAFHc/3yCVQ4MTIgY8XTqEQQoPQqS-f8Ef8afwgCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.31%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A close-up shot of the sand-swept interior of Zélie Durand's vision of the Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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I watched a lot of metacinema movies at the time, like <i>8½</i> by Fellini, and movies about hotels, like <i>Last year in Marienbad</i> by Alain Resnais. I had the chance to ask what was Hedy’s favourite movie of all time, which is <i>Peter Ibbetson </i>by Henry Hathaway, a dreamy movie with beautiful scenes. I think it all influenced me…<br />
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<b>A.H.: The sound design and musical composition for Sahara Palace are quite beautiful, moving, and excellently engineered. How did you and your associates on the film go about designing the sound design and musical composition for this film? How involved were you in this process?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> I knew I wanted a musical composition with a strong theme, like the movies of my grandfather’s days. I was thinking about François de Roubaix and also the soundtrack of <i>the 400 blows</i>. I wanted the music to sound mysterious and bewitching, and I trusted the composer (Nevil Bernard) to start from that idea to develop his own ideas. I was very satisfied with the result, we made a few changes to fit the narration but it was mostly done on the first try. I then worked with the sound engineer (Guillaume L’Hostis) to lay the foundations of the sound design which he balanced later by himself… They were both very involved in my project, so it was a great working atmosphere. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iXiSbAfVQag/WycTlMNSLDI/AAAAAAAAFHo/tz7HW1jiiDEz0x22yArn1-0pbveqF6V-QCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.59%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iXiSbAfVQag/WycTlMNSLDI/AAAAAAAAFHo/tz7HW1jiiDEz0x22yArn1-0pbveqF6V-QCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.59%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sand-swept chair in the desolate Sahara Palace hotel. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: You mention <a href="https://www.zeliedurand.com/sahara-palace">on your website</a> that, “My film revives stop motion passages in his script, and draws a parallel with my own discoveries about my grandfather. The heart of this project is an invented transmission, an impossible dialogue.” How did you select the sections of the script to portray in your film that you did (e.g., the man smoking a cigarette, the man playing cards by himself)? Were they the most analogous to your grandfather and what he meant to this story?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> I selected the sections that I felt echoed my own research. “The man smoking a cigarette” is one of the most mysterious characters in the script. He seems to know that he is acting in a movie, he never interacts with the other characters, and nobody knows who he is. He appears and disappears several times during the plot, like a ghost. I immediately thought that he stood for my grandfather (who by the way was a heavy smoker). His former girlfriend confirmed that idea by saying that he probably would have played the part… The man playing cards is another mystery of the script, he appears two times, always playing “with an invisible partner”. I identified myself with this second character, trying to interact with someone who isn’t there. It also made me think about my grandfather when he left my grandmother, keeping his card set hidden, leaving the “game”… There are many possible interpretations of this character.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DDUUk3rEsHo/WycTkXP6UeI/AAAAAAAAFHg/sAeWVOseY8wjUKvxf22uy9bm-kc6H4TgQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.53%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DDUUk3rEsHo/WycTkXP6UeI/AAAAAAAAFHg/sAeWVOseY8wjUKvxf22uy9bm-kc6H4TgQCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B9.52.53%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ghostlike man smokes a cigarette in <i>Sahara Palace</i>, realizing a scene from Khalifat's script. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: How has your discovery of your grandfather’s interests and ambitions of his being a filmmaker changed your perspective on your own work as a filmmaker? Moreover, what did it mean to you personally to actualize some of your grandfather’s script, which he never had the chance to realize?</b><br />
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<b>ZD:</b> As a young aspiring filmmaker, discovering my grandfather’s cinematic past has definitely inspired me to fully engage in this field of work. When he was young, Hedy was caught in the midst of a very mythical chapter of French cinema, and befriended some of the great filmmakers I truly admire. I look up to him because he was genuinely passionate about cinema. Choosing to adapt his script after his tragic death felt like fulfilling a dream of his, as well as establishing a link between him and I through something we both have in common even though we've never crossed paths, which is making movies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oY2Xk4EUKYU/WycVXqNyEZI/AAAAAAAAFIQ/1YVn3zEpePUt-53tuEQviaTXnLB_fQTFwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B10.11.18%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oY2Xk4EUKYU/WycVXqNyEZI/AAAAAAAAFIQ/1YVn3zEpePUt-53tuEQviaTXnLB_fQTFwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-06-17%2Bat%2B10.11.18%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sahara Palace</i> title card. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Durand’s work by visiting her <a href="https://www.zeliedurand.com/sahara-palace">website</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/user14969231">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<i>Sahara Palace</i> is not yet available to watch online in full. However, you can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/185660997">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay up-to-date with Stop Motion Geek’s upcoming interviews by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-59551482583204077412018-06-10T23:03:00.000-04:002018-12-07T10:30:56.040-05:00Interview with Lucy J. Hayes, Producer of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/304803343?color=9b9b9b&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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Ever since her childhood, Lucy J. Hayes – the producer of <i>Lost & Found</i>, an extraordinarily beautiful short film that make for a profound mediation on the impermanence and imperfection of life and beauty – she’s wanted to play some part in the creative industry, in some way, shape, or form. For Hayes, that dream went unquestioned. However, the challenge turned out to be figuring out quite <i>where</i> she belonged in the creative industry.<br />
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“I dabbled in acting and directing, however, I was terrible!” Hayes tells Stop Motion Geek. It wasn’t until she began to put on plays with her friends in her adolescence and early adulthood that the answer to her search dawned upon her: All that Hayes found came innately to her – everything from her ardor for creative work to her love for working with creatives to bring an idea, the kernel of a story, to fruition – she found in the title of “producer.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ApOIFlhsLUY/Wx3X6o-Ts5I/AAAAAAAAFBo/EN61GAmBt-oZ-anfSeFPg8dAta18Pb4TwCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_Film-Still_01_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ApOIFlhsLUY/Wx3X6o-Ts5I/AAAAAAAAFBo/EN61GAmBt-oZ-anfSeFPg8dAta18Pb4TwCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_Film-Still_01_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Although being a term often thrown around colloquially, the actual responsibilities helmed by producers in film are often commonly misunderstood. The answer is rather straightforward, although somewhat complex: Producers are the individuals to whom ideas and scripts are pitched and the people under whose leadership the development of a project commences, as well as being the leaders in charge of amassing the creative team to work on a given project, and the people under whose vision the many individual moving parts involved in a project coalesce.<br />
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The defining moment for Hayes’ aspirations and actualization of becoming a producer came to her at age twenty-two, when she was working in New York for a Theatre and Film Producer. “This was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and really galvanised the notion that producing was the direction I wanted to take,” says Hayes. “You get to be involved with the creation of the idea from its very inception, and then follow it through to the very end… and also, I love being the boss (haha)!”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGJ92fiDSek/Wx3X8IZ6oFI/AAAAAAAAFBs/vy_J3i6QkYwzA8ZKRodbFO7iOsGbbV4uwCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_Film-Still_02_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGJ92fiDSek/Wx3X8IZ6oFI/AAAAAAAAFBs/vy_J3i6QkYwzA8ZKRodbFO7iOsGbbV4uwCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_Film-Still_02_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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From that moment on, Hayes has been pursuing a career as a producer – and pursuing one with quite a considerable amount of success and prestige – with no looking back, and has since then graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts Film & Television post graduate producing program, and has worked as a producer on dozens of music videos, short films, TVCs, branded content, and documentaries. She has also co-founded both the production company Stanley & Morph and Wabi Sabi Studios, the latter of which she founded along with Bradley Slabe and Andrew Goldsmith – the co-directors of <i>Lost & Found</i> – to produce <i>Lost & Found</i> alongside Screen Australia.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D1EODRbYiBA/Wx3X8Dop_FI/AAAAAAAAFBw/d8_O6_fFPYk0IDOsFQpJAs5NFw7DDXPDgCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_Film-Still_03_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D1EODRbYiBA/Wx3X8Dop_FI/AAAAAAAAFBw/d8_O6_fFPYk0IDOsFQpJAs5NFw7DDXPDgCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_Film-Still_03_DOP-Gerald-Thompson.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Its a curious truth that, often times, the simplest and most “childlike” things can tell such profound truths, doing so with a profound poignancy – a notion <i>Lost & Found</i> proves over and over again. In its essence, the beautifully handcrafted seven-and-a-half minute film tells a love story of sorts between two knitted creatures designed in the style of the Japanese art of Amigurumi – a clumsy dinosaur called Knotjira and a nimble fox called Knitsune – and of how Knotjira becomes unraveled, sacrificing his life to save his lover, something which proves a metaphor that rings incredibly true for the nature of sacrificial love in a world impermanent and imperfect.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<i>Lost & Found</i> premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany this February, and will next be screened at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, which will be happening from the 6th to the 17th of June. You can learn more about the Sydney Film Festival by going <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">here</a>.<br />
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This is the fourth of Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. The first – our interview with co-director Bradley Slabe – can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>. The second – an interview with co-director Andrew Goldsmith – can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>. The third – an interview with <i>Lost & Found</i>’s sole animator – can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-samuel-lewis-animator.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The poster for <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Hayes discusses her journey into the filmmaking and animation industries, and in the process bestows some precious wisdom about the industry as a whole – in Hollywood as well as Australia – and knowledge more specific to being a producer, such as the best approach to building a great producer-director relationship. She also gives us a look at her responsibilities on <i>Lost & Found</i>, on which she worked from start to finish, and how she worked with the film’s directors to bring the project to fruition. She also tells us about her time spent and the lessens she learned in Hollywood, where she worked with the producer Dan Lin at Lin Pictures on projects such as the Lego franchise, including <i>Lego Batman</i>, <i>Lego Ninjago</i>, and <i>The Lego Movie 2</i>, as well as Stephen King’s <i>IT</i>, Disney’s <i>Aladdin</i>, Netflix’s <i>Deathnote</i>, and television shows such as <i>Frequency</i> and <i>Lethal Weapon</i> for Fox and ABC. Furthermore, Hayes gives us an in-depth look at the challenges of producing films – whether short pieces or feature length work – on a low budget. She also gives us her advice on how to best approach to making short films. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Lucy! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’d love to begin by asking you how you came to become involved in this business. Was it always your dream to work in the filmmaking industry, or did the prospects of becoming a producer grow on you gradually over time? Could you tell us a little bit about how your life transpired to get you from your earliest aspirations to where you are now – the producer of dozens of music videos, TVCs, branded content, short films, and corporate videos across many mediums, as well as the co-owner of video agency Stanley & Morph and the animation studio Wabi Sabi Studios?</b><br />
<b><br />Lucy J. Hayes:</b> Hi A.H., thanks so much for having us featured on the blog!<br />
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From a very young age I had always wanted to be involved in some form of a creative industry. I am very inspired by the films I loved as a kid, films like: <i>Home Alone</i>, <i>My Girl</i>, <i>Jurassic Park</i>, and <i>Beauty & The Beast</i>. I dabbled in acting and directing, however, I was terrible! I always enjoyed creating plays with my friends, and I think this is when the idea of perhaps pursuing producing came to me. I did an internship in New York when I was 22, where I worked for a Theatre and Film Producer. This was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and really galvanised the notion that producing was the direction I wanted to take. You get to be involved with the creation of the idea from its very inception, and then follow it through to the very end… and also, I love being the boss (haha)!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (right) and Knitsune (left) on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i> in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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When I got back from New York I decided to apply to the Victorian College of the Arts Film & Television Post Graduate producing program, and got in. After completing the course at VCA I taught drama at a high school, and volunteered as a producer on short films and music videos. This eventually led to me working full time as a freelance producer of ads and videos in Melbourne. It was then that I met some really talented, emerging creatives, and have continued to collaborate with them to this day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy J. Hayes holds the Knitsune (left) and Knotjira (right) puppets. Photo courtesy of Lucy J. Hayes.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a little bit about how Stanley & Morph came about as well as Wabi Sabi Studios? How have you seen the two production companies – as well as yourself as a producer – grow over the years?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> I met my husband, John, at the VCA. He was in the writer/director course. After finishing, we were both freelancing for an array of different production companies around Melbourne. Towards the end of 2014, we received our first job together – him as director, myself as producer, and from there we formed our company Stanley & Morph. We have been operating for a few years now and have managed to build a loyal customer base, creating all manner of digital communication for various platforms. Wabi Sabi Studios was started as an animation studio purely for the production of the film <i>Lost & Found</i>. I co-own Wabi Sabi Studios with directors Andrew Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith (left), Lucy J. Hayes (middle), and Bradley Slabe (right). Photo courtesy of Lucy J. Hayes.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In 2016, you received a Screen Australia Creative Talent Suite placement and went to work at Lin Pictures in Hollywood, where, for a year, you worked with the producer Dan Lin and had the opportunity to work across the development and production of <i>Lego Batman</i>, <i>Lego Ninjago</i>, <i>The Lego Movie 2</i>, Stephen King’s <i>IT</i>, Disney’s <i>Aladdin</i>, Netflix’s <i>Deathnote</i>, as well as the television shows <i>Frequency</i> and <i>Lethal Weapon</i> for Fox and ABC. From your perspective, how does the filmmaking atmosphere differ in Hollywood when compared with that of Australia? Can you tell us some of what did you learn as a producer while working in Hollywood and how learning such lessons has changed your approach to your job?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> Working at Lin Pictures was an amazing experience. Dan Lin is currently one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, and I was there during a really exciting time where many of the films now being released were being developed and produced.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lead animator Samuel Lewis fashions textured eyelids for Knotjira. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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The process of making films in Australia and Hollywood is very different. In Australia, the majority of our content is funded by Government agencies, so it’s a much smaller industry but also very competitive and the wheels turn a little slower.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Various stages of the Knitjira puppet in the making. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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In contrast, Hollywood is a city built almost exclusively for movie making – you can feel it in the atmosphere and it can be a really energetic, kinetic and exciting place. Projects can go from script to screen in the matter of a few short months. At times, I also felt it to be a fairly lonely place – what I love about making films is collaborating with writers, directors, editors, casting agents and really feeling part of the creative process and development of the film. Because Hollywood is built around the studio system, I found that I was more removed from the key creatives, the directors and writers than I would be as an independent producer in Australia.<br />
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<b>A.H.: How did <i>Lost & Found</i> come about and move into development with Wabi Sabi Studios? Why did this story excite you and what did your involvement with the project look like across development and production?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> Andrew approached me with the script in August 2015. I immediately fell in love with the story and with these two gorgeous little, knitted characters. I had been producing animation for a few years, and had worked on some small stop motion projects, and was really excited to tackle something on a larger scale. I’d also worked with Sam Lewis regularly and was really excited that we had him on board as our lead animator. I was very involved creatively from the get go. Brad, Goldy and myself have always felt like a strong team, which allowed us to trust each others instincts and play to our strengths. It’s been a really wonderful and rewarding process of collaboration and creation.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prop maker Donna Yeatman models a Bonsai tree from Sculpey. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: One of the directors who you’ve worked with on many occasions is Andrew Goldsmith, who co-directed <i>Lost & Found</i>. What did your interactions with Goldsmith and with Bradley Slabe, who also co-directed as well as wrote the film, look like? What does a healthy producer-director relationship and how did you, as producer, help to foster such a relationship on <i>Lost & Found</i>?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> Brad and Goldy are both great directors, but more importantly to me, they are also just really nice, good people and our visions and tastes are strongly aligned. Sometimes being a producer can be a really lonely, solitary experience, however, I have never felt this way with Brad & Goldy, it feels like the three of us are a team, and we are equally responsible for all parts of the film. Communication is really important and an alignment of visions is essential in creating anything together. I feel like they trust me implicitly, as I do them and that’s super important in any successful producer/director relationship.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy J. Hayes (left), Andrew Goldsmith (middle), and Bradley Slabe (right) in a Facebook call concerning <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a little about what the filmmaking industry is like in Australia, especially in relation to smaller budget productions, such as short films and small budget feature length work? What are the incentives and drawbacks to producing a film – especially an animated film – in Australia?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> Smaller budget productions are always going to be difficult, no matter where in the world you are. We are really lucky in Australia to have Government screen agencies that provide funding for the majority of Australian films – all the way from development through to post production. They also fund short films and multiplatform/online works which supports emerging producers and directors and are a huge stepping stone in elevating any career in the industry. I produced a webseries in 2015 which was shot for $6000. We received multiplatform funding from Screen Australia for post production which was essential to the series being complete. We were then accepted into TriBeca NOW in 2016, which was an awesome opportunity, and myself and the other creatives have all felt much career progression come from this experience/opportunity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Production designer Rennie Watson secures all the props in the lost property box prop. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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These agencies also invest in careers and offer individual funding for Australian practitioners to undertake placements or opportunities that we would not usually be able to afford.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasFOGowDD4XXmhL_5GwMgcjRlMXwVbHMa4aeA8baFKMDoZqs7nQRZibOKV6aRzptNB8UY3F-LSVBUajeGJd4MepDEAdcjErIf1n0Ar8zmJzZj6-Kr7kaQrNUK3srvfsctvP5-RxEJ4es/s1600/13329113_135607360180346_896007323_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasFOGowDD4XXmhL_5GwMgcjRlMXwVbHMa4aeA8baFKMDoZqs7nQRZibOKV6aRzptNB8UY3F-LSVBUajeGJd4MepDEAdcjErIf1n0Ar8zmJzZj6-Kr7kaQrNUK3srvfsctvP5-RxEJ4es/s640/13329113_135607360180346_896007323_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Directors Andrew Goldsmith (left) and Bradley Slabe (right) review shooting schedules. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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We also have some great tax incentives, particularly for animation and visual effects. In fact, both <i>Peter Rabbit</i> and the LEGO films have been animated by Animal Logic who are based in Sydney. I think that as the world is becoming more global, it’s easier to open ourselves up to co-productions with other countries.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cultural advisor Kei Shiokawa illustrates a menu prop for <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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In the future, I’d like to see myself work with other countries in continuing to leverage of our tax incentives and our immense talent to create great work. I’m beginning to think of myself as a producer based in Australia, rather than an Australian producer, and I hope this thinking will lead to further opportunities to make engaging and exciting films with other countries.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you explain for us the different avenues and processes of getting an animated short film made Australia? What avenues would you suggest an aspiring director take to get their short film produced?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> I really understand the difficulties of getting a short film made! <i>Lost & Found</i> was fortunate enough to receive funding through Screen Australia’s HOT SHOTS program. It’s a really competitive funding stream and they only select 5-6 films and teams to be a part of it. This film wouldn’t exist without the support of Screen Australia as it’s a film that would of been too expensive and too complicated for us to fund on our own.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira on the set of<i> Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In terms of getting a short film made – I honestly think you just have to do it. Surround yourself with people who you get on well with, who have the same aspirations as you, and band together and help each other make films. J.K. Rowling recently said “Never wait in expectation of perfection or you’ll wait forever. Do the best you can with what you’ve got and be the one who dared rather than those who merely dream.” I love that, and think it’s a great philosophy for life as a filmmaker!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Set and prop dresser Laura Curtis paints eyelids for Knotjira. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b><br />A.H.: What’s next for you, Stanley & Morph, and Wabi Sabi Studios? What goals and dreams relating to your career do you still have yet to fulfill, and how do you plan going about them?</b><br />
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<b>LJH:</b> I’m always on the lookout for my next project. I love working with talented people, who have a strong vision and want to achieve it. I have two feature films projects in the works which I am really excited about. I’d also love to produce more children’s content, either live action or animation. I also really love documentary as a storytelling medium and I’m planning to direct a short documentary, which will be a bit of a passion project for me. I have so many dreams and goals waiting to be fulfilled – too many to list! I’m really excited about <i>Lost & Found</i> and it’s future, and I hope to continue producing film & television and collaborating with awesome people for a really long time.<br />
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<br />You can explore more of Lucy’s work by visiting her <a href="http://www.lucyjhayes.com/">website</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-j-hayes-aa181b25/">LinkedIn</a>, as well as Stanley and Morph’s <a href="http://stanleyandmorph.com/">website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stanleyandmorph/">Instagram</a>.<br /><br />You can watch<i> Lost & Found</i> in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/304803343">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith/lostandfoundtrailer">here</a>. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lostandfoundshort/">Instagram</a> profile, as well its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/weknittogether/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.lostandfound.film/">website</a>. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/256204562">here</a>.<br /><br />This article is the forth in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read the first article in the series – an interview with Bradley Slabe, the writer of the film as well as one half of the film’s director duo – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Andrew Goldsmith, the second half of the film’s director duo as well as the co-editor of the film and VFX creative director – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>. You can read the third article in the series – an interview with Samuel Lewis, the only animator to animate on the seven-and-a-half minute long film as well as the character designer and sculptor – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/06/interview-with-samuel-lewis-animator.html?m=1">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for the upcoming articles and interviews with the rest of <i>Lost & Found</i>’s brilliant team by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-9527111073647869252018-06-03T21:16:00.000-04:002018-12-07T10:32:36.517-05:00Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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“If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, <i>Lost & Found</i> – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft.<br />
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“I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “Eventually this, coupled with a healthy interest in <i>Sesame Street</i>, <i>Trapdoor</i>, <i>Pingu</i> and <i>Wallace & Gromit</i> lead to me studying animation at university and perusing a career ever since.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis animating on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Lewis’s first ever experiment with stop motion was created with a Sony Handycam borrowed from a friend to the family, which, Lewis says, “didn’t have a single frame function so you just had to press record on/off really quickly.” In reflection of that foundational time of his childhood, Lewis remarks, “I guess experimentation is at the core of my practice. I love trying out new methods, materials and techniques just to see what happens.”<br />
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Perhaps it’s this dedication to experimentation that has fueled Lewis’s fearless approach to trying new approaches to his craft, such as animating on the life-sized set – a sushi bar – featured in <i>Lost & Found</i>, on which Lewis, at times, animated for hours upon hours while sitting on a caster wheel trolley, on which he would roll onto the set to incrementally pose the puppets before then rolling back, out of view of the camera, to capture the frame.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis fist-bumps with Knotjira on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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As well as being the sole animator to work on <i>Lost & Found</i> – a seven-and-a-half-minute short film, no easy undertaking for a stop motion film – Lewis also designed the film’s characters – two lovable stuffed yarn creatures, a fox and a green dinosaur, crafted in style of the Japanese art of Amigurumi. Along with designing the characters of the fox Knitsune and the dinosaur Knotjira, Lewis also sculpted them, to, along with <i>Lost & Found</i>’s armaturist, Scott Ebdon, and crochet artist Julie Ramsden, breathe life into the film’s characters to bring to life the film’s beautifully metaphoric tale of how Knotjira is forced to unravel himself to save the love of his life.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early concept sketches of Knotjira drawn by Samuel Lewis. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early concept sketches of Knitsune drawn by Samuel Lewis. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<i>Lost & Found</i> premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany this February, and will next be screened at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, which will be happening from the 6th to the 17th of June. You can learn more about the Sydney Film Festival by going <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">here</a>.<br />
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This is the third of Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. The first – our interview with co-director Bradley Slabe – can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>. The second – an interview with co-director Andrew Goldsmith – can be read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in the midst of being animated in a test animation. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira being animated in a running cycle for a test animation. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Samuel Lewis discusses his lifelong path to becoming an animator, as well as what he’s learned from working in the animation industry in Australia, as well as in London and Florence, Italy. Lewis also gives us an in-depth look at his approach to the character design and minimalistic performances of <i>Lost & Found</i>. He also tells us about some of the challenges he faced on <i>Lost & Found</i> and how he remedied them, as well as how he keeps up his morale when shooting five seconds of film a day over the course of a fourteen month shoot. He also shares with us his advice to aspiring animators, along with resources he recommends to use in learning the craft. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Samuel! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’ve been an admirer of your work for quite some time so it’s a pleasure to feature your work (as well as your voice) on this blog! To start out, I’m going to ask a relatively broad question, so feel free to answer it in whatever way you see fit: Can you tell us a little bit about when and how you first became interested in the medium of animation – particularly stop motion? How did you get from your early experiments in the medium to where you are now – the director and animator of many award-winning stop motion short film?</b><br />
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<b>Samuel Lewis:</b> Oh hello! Thanks for having me here. If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Plasticine-Barbara-Reid/dp/0688084141">‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid</a>. I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away. Eventually this, coupled with a healthy interest in <i>Sesame Street</i>, <i>Trapdoor</i>, <i>Pingu</i> and <i>Wallace & Gromit</i> lead to me studying animation at university and perusing a career ever since. My first ever stop motion animation was created on a Sony Handycam that belonged to a family friend and it didn’t have a single frame function so you just had to press record on/off really quickly. I guess experimentation is at the core of my practice. I love trying out new methods, materials and techniques just to see what happens.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis drinking water on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira hanging by a thread on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about your early endeavors and education in the stop motion medium?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> I studied a B.A. of Animation at the Queensland College of Art in Australia and one of my first lecturers there was John Eyley who previously worked at the Hanna-Barbera studios in Sydney. He’s since retired, but I still remember his endless supply of animation anecdotes and great sense of humour.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis animating Knotjira on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-APr0RtUoRlw/WxSFIsskjvI/AAAAAAAAE4U/oqblDr0IHUYhvosfHlUf3g2UMClao7oDwCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-APr0RtUoRlw/WxSFIsskjvI/AAAAAAAAE4U/oqblDr0IHUYhvosfHlUf3g2UMClao7oDwCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3420.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Are there any resources (books, online resources, etc.) you found particularly helpful that you would still recommend to aspiring animators?</b><br />
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<b>SL: </b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284">Richard Williams book ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’</a> is my recommendation for anyone interested in animation as it’s technically dense yet easy to understand and quite entertaining to read. Other than that you just need a lot of patience, practice and collaboration with other animators because it does get lonely sometimes and it’s nice to have people around who understand what it feels like to spend eight hour of your day crafting five seconds of film.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JjWE_K-l-pc/WxSG3Tuq8UI/AAAAAAAAE6w/ORc68prxwpUF1hB92CVBrqBUlQyynmmygCLcBGAs/s1600/12716685_1262352670457854_652589024_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JjWE_K-l-pc/WxSG3Tuq8UI/AAAAAAAAE6w/ORc68prxwpUF1hB92CVBrqBUlQyynmmygCLcBGAs/s640/12716685_1262352670457854_652589024_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune being animated in a test animation. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HDZAvuzuUEc/WxSE4CfRMYI/AAAAAAAAE3U/Hoy2k-74Ra8Q9p77Jp9d5VG-MEsAPE7XACLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_0143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HDZAvuzuUEc/WxSE4CfRMYI/AAAAAAAAE3U/Hoy2k-74Ra8Q9p77Jp9d5VG-MEsAPE7XACLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_0143.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune being animated in front of a blue screen. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: I imagine you worked closely with the directors of <i>Lost & Found</i> (Bradley Slabe and Andrew Goldsmith) to design and sculpt the two main characters – Knotjira (the dinosaur) Knitsune (the fox). Can you tell us about the evolution of the character designs for <i>Lost & Found</i>’s two main characters? How did your interactions with the directors influence the character design?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> The core of the character design brief that I received from Bradley and Goldy was that the two characters needed to be created in the style of Amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. This naturally led to simplistic designs and I aimed to give both puppets strong silhouettes and large eyes to make their expressions read well on screen. I also drew a lot of inspiration from the well-rounded personalities that Bradley had created for both characters and I matched that with their body shapes. Knotjira is a bit clumsy and goofy so I made them chunkier and top heavy while Knitsune is confident and nimble so their design was sleeker.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jqg3onRWHVw/WxSHCVO_vSI/AAAAAAAAE8M/EA_OtPOL6gMenCceJk9Pk4crmkOl1gxPwCLcBGAs/s1600/12965906_597230567111824_1393787959_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jqg3onRWHVw/WxSHCVO_vSI/AAAAAAAAE8M/EA_OtPOL6gMenCceJk9Pk4crmkOl1gxPwCLcBGAs/s640/12965906_597230567111824_1393787959_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Character turnaround sheet for Knitsune. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hjZxpIxs3mY/WxSG2-dmMxI/AAAAAAAAE6s/5N2A5b5S9JU1OEeeeFkdXu-O21g5uzOGgCLcBGAs/s1600/12519634_475520822659101_309277589_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hjZxpIxs3mY/WxSG2-dmMxI/AAAAAAAAE6s/5N2A5b5S9JU1OEeeeFkdXu-O21g5uzOGgCLcBGAs/s640/12519634_475520822659101_309277589_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Character turnaround sheet for Knotjira. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: I imagine that knowing that you had to animate the puppets you designed played into the design choices you ultimately made in designing your characters. In <i>Lost & Found</i>, the character design is very minimalistic – the character of Knitsune, has no mouth and both Knitsune and Knotjira have completely black eyes. You also incorporate a material not often seen in the stop motion medium – crocheted wool (which I’m sure proved a challenge to animate). How did you manage to incorporate a minimalistic approach to the character design as well as the woolen element of Knotjira and Knitsune without losing the amount of expression you needed your characters to convey when it came to animation?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> You can get a lot of expression from a puppet with only body language and eye movement. One of John Eyley’s favourite sayings was ‘blinking is thinking’ and he encouraged all of his students to watch the silent film greats like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and study how they conveyed emotion in a scene without words. It’s a great challenge to figure out how to express sadness, fear, excitement and happiness only using head turns, blinks and arm movements. The character designs for <i>Lost & Found</i> influenced their acting quite a lot and sometimes you had to work within the physical limitations of the puppets.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S3cSZ6p94rM/WxSFEGM9hUI/AAAAAAAAE38/HukNkrp-MbEyA1zzvMwzUO1PeAyZLU7LgCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S3cSZ6p94rM/WxSFEGM9hUI/AAAAAAAAE38/HukNkrp-MbEyA1zzvMwzUO1PeAyZLU7LgCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3192.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Goldsmith animating on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vocECLANOks/WxSE2ZLToWI/AAAAAAAAE3I/mEH4PcuvH5wXOyqJyiT2C3zVJ8UN7zXRQCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_0013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vocECLANOks/WxSE2ZLToWI/AAAAAAAAE3I/mEH4PcuvH5wXOyqJyiT2C3zVJ8UN7zXRQCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_0013.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune (left) and Knotjira (right) in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: From what I read, the <i>Lost & Found</i> shoot lasted for four months, and during that entire time you were the sole animator. How many hours a day were you animating and on average how many seconds of animation were you animating a day? I imagine the work can became pretty strenuous, physically and emotionally, after a long stretch of time. As a more general question, how do you manage to keep yourself motivated when on a several month long shoot?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> I was initially scheduled to be animating for four months, but the shoot ended up stretching to fourteen due to the complexity of the lighting, rigging, motion control and special effects like water and stuffing. Each day I would cycle one hour to the studio, usually starting around 10-11am and only leave when the shot(s) for the day was animated. On a good day this was about 7pm, but I also had days that turned into nights and I would leave around 1am. Sometimes is got so late that I would sleep on the studio couch and wake up very on time for work. Luckily it was a very comfortable couch. It did get stressful at times, but you can hardly complain when everyone in our small team was doing it just as tough and making big sacrifices. On long shoots like this it gets to a point where you stop counting the days and just focus on planning for the next shot until they’re all done.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BqV6z8oJ4N0/WxSHLZaAL0I/AAAAAAAAE9U/tDHOJsFNe7YVruB1wW9BLinApwN1gI7eQCLcBGAs/s1600/13423483_1141882499207694_404552007_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BqV6z8oJ4N0/WxSHLZaAL0I/AAAAAAAAE9U/tDHOJsFNe7YVruB1wW9BLinApwN1gI7eQCLcBGAs/s640/13423483_1141882499207694_404552007_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The shooting schedule for <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ClAjSHdRtSI/WxSHPUfI16I/AAAAAAAAE90/FD28zMbPipYuJxPjgzP7i5To5YC0YVTcQCLcBGAs/s1600/13597784_264641237234552_269951205_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ClAjSHdRtSI/WxSHPUfI16I/AAAAAAAAE90/FD28zMbPipYuJxPjgzP7i5To5YC0YVTcQCLcBGAs/s640/13597784_264641237234552_269951205_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune's armature (left), the fully fabricated Knitsune (middle), and the Knitsune armature fleshed out with foam (right). Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: In her interview with the Dragonframe blog, the producer of <i>Lost & Found</i>, Lucy J. Hayes, mentioned that one of the biggest technical challenges that you and your associates faced on the film was the element of wool, wool stuffing, and crochet, which all play a major role in the film. I find it also interesting that you have worked using crocheted stop motion puppets in the past on your music video <i>Time to Go</i> for Wax Tailor. What challenges did the material of crocheted woolen puppets present and what unique benefits did this provide you with? How did you and your associates (namely Julie Ramsden, who was the character crochet artist on the film) tackle this design challenge during animation? Also, how did your approach to working with crocheted puppets differ in <i>Lost & Found</i> from your work on <i>Time to Go</i>?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> The main differences between <i>Lost & Found</i> and <i>Time to Go</i> were the scale of the puppets and the filming locations. Knitsune and Knotjira were approximately 20-25cm and animated in a studio setting with controlled lighting, while the quadropus in the Wax Tailor music video was 1m long and animated outdoors in natural light. Crochet puppets are really interesting to animate as you can get incredibly subtle movements just by pressing or squeezing on the wool in a certain way to simulate breathing and there’s a surprising amount of squash and stretch. Julie is such a talented artist and it was a pleasure to work with her on both projects in bringing the characters into existence.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/217129111?color=fccc4c&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZBoxLVhEz4/WxSE_SXiPUI/AAAAAAAAE3w/Gj6raUjSdfU7r4GbVTGlB1RFCQUOnynzQCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_Dragonframe_02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZBoxLVhEz4/WxSE_SXiPUI/AAAAAAAAE3w/Gj6raUjSdfU7r4GbVTGlB1RFCQUOnynzQCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_Dragonframe_02.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in the midst of being animated by Samuel Lewis for the climax of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y422qoEiNYI/WxSE5OgKeMI/AAAAAAAAE3g/ipV8v1uTGTEQiWZhpVeDwUovvdsGDOl7wCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_0290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y422qoEiNYI/WxSE5OgKeMI/AAAAAAAAE3g/ipV8v1uTGTEQiWZhpVeDwUovvdsGDOl7wCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_0290.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in the midst of being animated by Samuel Lewis for the climax of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One thing that was a particularly unusual element of <i>Lost & Found</i> was that you were animating on a full-scale set, on which you used the director of photography Gerald Thompson’s custom-designed motion control software and hardware. Can you tell us about your experience with working in such a large environment for a stop motion film? What benefits and challenges did you find to working on such a large scale? Is it something you would be interested in returning to?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> It was certainly a challenge to animate on a full scale set. With miniatures you can elevate everything to a comfortable table height, but that wasn’t always possibly with shots in <i>Lost & Found </i>and I had to animate at floor level on a number of occasions. To do that I sat on a little caster wheel trolley and rolled onto set to pose the puppets and back out to capture the frame. It was actually quite a lot of fun and excellent leg exercise and I’d definitely return to the style, but maybe after I’ve explored a few other ideas that I’ve had in the back of my mind for too long.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3peYvvTfkXB1vFSxgooUq0bLHQ9hrK6G9EOcinqSL9zpJtYE1j89JeoM8d-50YnW7wRwOU4HNtDQWeBE0XEhENMnl6LKUiE7AjLZAcr5m9YXDUUydiJSw58F4eWgjlunoqszgEW6AqU/s1600/13269387_1028224300607713_829551137_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3peYvvTfkXB1vFSxgooUq0bLHQ9hrK6G9EOcinqSL9zpJtYE1j89JeoM8d-50YnW7wRwOU4HNtDQWeBE0XEhENMnl6LKUiE7AjLZAcr5m9YXDUUydiJSw58F4eWgjlunoqszgEW6AqU/s640/13269387_1028224300607713_829551137_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Lewis animating on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eyjWNhjlu0E/WxSHG2b3v9I/AAAAAAAAE8w/rWzuo-8_LCMg1Un-79Bkhqhw0D5Pjvx2wCLcBGAs/s1600/13256771_1717874051787243_1064434458_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eyjWNhjlu0E/WxSHG2b3v9I/AAAAAAAAE8w/rWzuo-8_LCMg1Un-79Bkhqhw0D5Pjvx2wCLcBGAs/s640/13256771_1717874051787243_1064434458_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in the midst of being animated on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you? Do you have any other elements of the filmmaking and animation industry that you’re interested in exploring, or do you see yourself continuing to do exactly the kind of work you’re doing now?</b><br />
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<b>SL:</b> Last year I moved from Melbourne to Florence, where I was reconnecting with my Italian heritage and now I’m in freelancing in London as a director and animator. I’d love to work on a feature film in the future and collaborate with studios like Parabella, Blinkink and of course Aardman to fulfill a long-standing childhood dream. The industry in Europe is much bigger than Australia and it’s exciting to see everything that’s happening over here. I’m currently directing a music video for Swedish band Francobollo that will be released in early June and I can’t wait to share it. I just hope everyone is prepared for the weirdness we’ve created.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/256204562?color=9b9b9b&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
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You can explore more of Samuel’s work by visiting his <a href="http://www.samuellewis.com.au/">website</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/sundaysam">Vimeo</a>, as well as his charming <a href="http://www.instagram.com/sundaysam">Instagram</a>.<br /><br />You can watch <i>Lost & Found</i> in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/304803343">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith/lostandfoundtrailer">here</a>. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lostandfoundshort/">Instagram</a> profile, as well its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/weknittogether/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.lostandfound.film/">website</a>. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/256204562">here</a>.<br /><br />This article is the third in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read the first article in the series – an interview with Bradley Slabe, the writer of the film as well as one half of the film’s director duo – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Andrew Goldsmith, the second half of the film’s team of directors as well as the co-editor of the film and VFX creative director – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for the upcoming articles and interviews with the rest of <i>Lost & Found</i>’s brilliant team by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) as seen in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<br />A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-47313406332641121782018-05-27T22:53:00.001-04:002018-12-07T10:33:45.138-05:00Interview with Bradley Slabe, Co-Director of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found" (Part 1/2 of Interview with "Lost & Found" Directors)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (foreground) and Knitsune (background) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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The true essence of art – a reflection of life itself – is very much akin to the Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi”: it’s imperfect, impermanent, and, at times, profoundly...incomplete.<br />
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It is both at once a fundamental truth, and, curiously, more often than not, a thing incredibly hard to acknowledge, to make peace with. Yet perhaps our resistance is justifiable, for once we admit that the world is full of unknowns – unknowns that <i>aren’t</i> ideal, that <i>aren’t</i> perfect – we are just as soon confronted with the actualization of a deep, intrinsic, and very human fear: the fear of a future full of...unknowns that <i>aren’t</i> ideal, that <i>aren’t</i> perfect. Yet it’s the confrontal of that fear that is the most terrifying reality of all, for the moment we make peace with it we have just as soon have acknowledged that our paths in life <i>aren’t</i> in our own hands, or something we can control – a terrifying reality, yet one that’s nonetheless fundamentally true.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Yet, in art as in life, it is in this very place, this very nature – the nature of an imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete world – that true beauty is found – a beauty that transcends time, culture, identity. And yet, perhaps it transcends as much as it terrifies – invoking us with an all-consuming desire to disavow it as untruth in exchange for a simpler worldview in hopes that the world will conform to our will – purely because it rings so brightly of truth. It’s a beauty <i>in</i> and <i>of</i> the flawed, the fleeting, the asymmetric. In other words, the beauty lies in the world in which we already live, it lies our art. It’s always been there. We merely have to have the eyes to see it.<br />
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In their recent stop motion short film, <i>Lost & Found</i>, Australian filmmakers Bradley Slabe and Andrew Goldsmith have perfectly captured this aesthetic, painting a metaphor with the film’s subject matter that’s beautifully resonate with and, according to co-director Bradley Slabe, inspired by wabi-sabi: That of a crocheted doll traversing a real-world landscape at real-life scale where, in comparison to him, objects are <i>enormous</i> – causing the film’s milieu to become a tremendous distance for him – all in attempts to save his lover from a terrible fate. Though in the process, he is forced to become unraveled, fully knowing that by saving the sole object of his existence, he will have undergone a fundamental change unto a point where he can no longer live life with his lover in the same way, the thing he might have before defined as “ultimate bliss”.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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“We expanded the story universe and relocated the setting to a sushi bar to align with the aesthetic of <i>Wabi Sabi</i>, a Japanese philosophy that celebrates the impermanence, imperfection and incompleteness of the world,” says Bradley Slabe, co-director of <i>Lost & Found</i>, thus drawing allusions to the film’s themes in the very landscape and fundamental design of the film.<br />
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The film’s metaphor proving a profound meditation on the reality of life itself, <i>Lost & Found</i> does much to pluck at the heartstrings as well as to inspire awe with the beauty of its every facet – that of its story, animation, cinematography, editing, sound design, as well as its character and set design and fabrication.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Having only just premiered in February of this year at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, <i>Lost & Found</i> can next be seen at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, which will be going on from the 6th to the 17th of June, which you can learn more about by going <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">here</a>.<br />
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The first part of a two-part interview article with the co-directors of <i>Lost & Found</i>, this article will feature Stop Motion Geek’s interview with Bradley Slabe, who also wrote <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read the second part of this article – our interview with <i>Lost & Found</i> co-director Andrew Goldsmith, who also co-edited the film – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Slabe discusses when and how he first became enthralled with filmmaking (in particular stop motion), and where that path in life has since led him, although as he admits to Stop Motion Geek, “It still feels as though that I’m only just getting my foot in the door now.” Slabe also gives us an in-depth look at the making-of process behind <i>Lost & Found</i>, his collaboration with Andrew Goldsmith, as well as with the rest of <i>Lost & Found</i>’s incredibly talented team. He also explains to us his philosophy when it comes to writing films for children as well as films for adults, and how the two differ. An exciting time in Slabe’s career, he also tells us about his perspective on where <i>Lost & Found</i> and his work on several other projects including the animated children’s series <i>Kitty is Not a Cat</i> might lead him. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Bradley! Thank you so much for doing this interview! So that our readership can get to know you a little, can you tell us about when and how you first became inspired to work as a filmmaker and screenwriter, particularly in the animation industry? From that point in your life, how have you gotten to where you are now – a professional screenwriter and the co-director of your own short films, most recently <i>Lost & Found</i>?</b><br />
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<b>Bradley Slabe:</b> Hi, thanks for reaching out! I’ve always been a fan of animation and as a kid, I planned to be a cartoonist. My brother’s love of film was a big influence on me too and eventually I decided to study filmmaking when I made my first stop motion in high school. I directed a few short animations but it wasn’t until a tutor liked my ideas and suggested I specialise in screenwriting that I decided to follow that path. For a while, I was stuck in that cycle of not being able to get any entry level writing experience because I had no prior experience, which was incredibly disheartening. But denial can be a strength in this industry so I just remained persistent. I worked in story development at an animation studio for a few years, writing coverage reports, learning the ropes and hustling (read: hassling) until a company in Melbourne trusted me with a few scripts on a cartoon they were making, which recently started airing actually. It still feels as though that I’m only just getting my foot in the door now.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradley Slabe on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As well as being the co-director, you wrote <i>Lost & Found</i>. Can you tell us about how the idea for the film originated and about the development process? How many drafts did you go through and how different do they look from the final draft and the finished film itself?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> I’ve had the idea of a self-sacrificial doll that unravels for a while. I enjoy conceiving stories that evoke immediate conflict. It wasn’t until my Masters in 2014 when I got to dust it off and develop it properly. I’d admired the work of my co-director, Andrew Goldsmith (Goldy) for years and had been waiting for an opportunity to work on something with him. I pitched him three ideas and this was the story we both wanted to make. I wrote a couple of drafts set in an alleyway but after budget cuts, we had to pivot. We expanded the story universe and relocated the setting to a sushi bar to align with the aesthetic of <i>Wabi Sabi</i>, a Japanese philosophy that celebrates the impermanence, imperfection and incompleteness of the world. I transposed the script to work in the new environment and I wrote two other love stories happening in the restaurant (about two sushi pieces falling in love and two entangled bonsai trees letting go). The three stories together worked as visual Haiku on the bitter-sweetness of love. We then adapted that into a picture storybook, which later served as a proof of concept to secure funding. This is where the story universe really evolved and Goldy was crucial in this development stage. I was also able to workshop ideas with my tutors, colleagues and close friends, which created a healthy collaborative environment to strengthen the story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith (left) and Bradley Slabe (right). Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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I went through three or four versions of the script. Certain beats of the story continued to develop while boarding based on production variables and how Goldy and I wanted to treat the script, but that said, the finished film is very similar to the final draft.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early concept sketches of the character of Knotjira. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early concept sketches of the character of Knitsune. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What challenges and benefits did you find to working in the short film medium verses longer form films and television, and how did you keep the narrative – as well as the scale (as, in stop motion in particular, budgets can become an issue when it comes to the size of narratives, especially in short films) – from becoming too large for the runtime of your film and the size of your budget?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> The biggest challenge for me as a writer was achieving a cathartic emotional punch in only a few pages. To introduce a world and develop characters over three acts in under seven minutes (with no dialogue) was a great writing exercise and sharpened my tools as a storyteller. The limited budget and expensive format of stop motion was sufficient motivation to keep the narrative short!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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To avoid the budget becoming an issue, Goldy and I spent a great deal reducing the scale and runtime in the animatic stage. Reviewing the film before it was made was the most cost effective way to ensure the story was clear, emotional (<i>and affordable</i>). Often we needed to be brutal but luckily Goldy is an excellent editor with a good eye for which elements are expendable, and our producer, Lucy Hayes, knows how to stretch a budget. For everything in between, we relied on the generosity of our crew.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradley Slabe and the character of Knotjira. Photo courtesy of Bradley Slabe.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Could you shed some light on the process of getting <i>Lost & Found</i> produced and funded? Was it just you and a spec script at the start, or were your producer and co-director already attached?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> Goldy was attached from before I’d penned the first draft. Once we had a polished script and a picture storybook, we approached our producer, Lucy (who Goldy had worked with previously). With their collective commercial experience in combination with the package of materials we’d put together, we were able to acquire funding from Screen Australia, who were our sole financial support. Our little team grew from there and one month after being greenlit, we were deep into storyboarding.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy J. Hayes (left), Andrew Goldsmith (middle), and Bradley Slabe (right). Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: I’d love it if you could talk a little about your collaboration process on <i>Lost & Found</i>. Firstly, how did you collaborate with your co-director, Andrew Goldsmith? In one sense, I’m wondering how you communicated to him the film that you had in mind, and secondly I’m wondering how you two divided the separation of labor to make the film?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> It wasn’t so much about communicating the film I had in mind to Goldy as it was finding the film we both wanted to tell (and that involved a lot of listening). We have very similar story instincts, which helped. I tend to be more dramatic and sappily romantic in my sensibilities and Goldy is more subtle and minimalist. However, any creative clash seemed to find a happy medium, and became more potent than the sum of our parts. It was a great creative partnership. And we were both equally involved in every decision, not excluding which dye of green wool the Dinosaur’s spikes should be. On set, we shared many conversations to ensure we were on the same page before communicating our intention to the crew. That way, every direction was weighted with more conviction. We both used our previous experience as our strengths on set. If there was a story problem, it was my responsibility to find a solution. If it was technical direction or VFX, Goldy steered.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune (left) and Knotjira (right) standing near a clapboard for <i>Lost & Found</i>. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: As a follow-up to the previous question, how did you, your co-director, and your producer (Lucy J. Hayes) assemble your crew, which is relatively large? Secondly, how did you and your co-director track the progress of your film? Can you give us a few examples of a problem that your team and faced, and how you and your co-director worked to find an answer for it with your team?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> This was my directorial debut so I was fortunate I could tap into Lucy’s and Goldy’s pool of talent that they’d built over the years. The animation industry in Melbourne is a tight-knit community and everyone knows everyone. We were just very lucky with timing that they were all available and excited to be involved. Particularly, our lead animator Samuel Lewis, who dropped everything to devote two years of his career bringing this project to life.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animator Samuel Lewis animating on the set of<i> Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Every time Sam completed a shot, we slid it into the animatic and reviewed the film in context as it progressed (to avoid any nasty surprises at the end). But Goldy and I were on set every day of production to track the film’s progress and ensure we were available to the crew to offer further direction as needed or resolve any problems that arose. These ranged from budget strains, lighting inconsistencies, sets expanding/moving overnight, motion control rig failures, limited mobility of the puppets etc. Communication with the crew and understanding each other’s limitations were the essential ingredients to finding solutions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animator Samuel Lewis animating on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One thing that I’m particularly interested by is your apparent passion to create films for children, as I noticed on your résumé that you received at the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School a “Certificate in Writing for Children’s Television,” and that you also worked at a daycare for a year. Do you have a desire to make films particularly for children, and, if so, why?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> I suppose there’s a part of me that’s always enjoyed working with kids. Even now, I currently teach screenwriting and animation to kids at AFTRS, where I studied. Plus, I’m a nanny on the side. I don’t think I intentionally write for young audiences though. I just write stories that I think I’ll have fun making or watching. It does get me cool-uncle points with the nieces and nephew though. I’m still exploring my writing palette but I need to be able to see myself in the audience I write for, otherwise it’s less likely I’m writing from a place of truth. That means that not all my work is suitable for kids.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune (left) and Knotjira (right) on the set of<i> Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you? What goals and dreams do you have left to accomplish and how are you going to move forward to fulfill them from this point forward?</b><br />
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<b>BS:</b> I wrote on a show (<i>Kitty is Not a Cat</i>) that’s recently begun airing on national television here in Australia and on the Disney Channel overseas, so I’d love an opportunity to write more episodes on that series. I suppose with the series and the short, I’m not sure where that momentum will lead me. I do know that I want to continue writing stories for screen and at the moment, I’m currently developing several projects including a feature animation set in edo period Japan and a series adaptation of the short film.<br />
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You can explore more of Bradley Slabe’s work by visiting his <a href="http://www.bradleyslabe.com/">website</a> as well as his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-slabe-81ab7730/">LinkedIn</a>.<br /><br />You can watch <i>Lost & Found</i> in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/304803343">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith/lostandfoundtrailer">here</a>. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lostandfoundshort/">Instagram</a> profile, as well its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/weknittogether/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.lostandfound.film/">website</a>. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/256204562">here</a>.<br /><br />You can read the second part of this article – our interview with Andrew Goldsmith, the film’s co-director – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-andrew-goldsmith-co.html">here</a>.<br />
This article is the first in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can stay tuned for the upcoming articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lost & Found</i> poster. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-19001306227214981012018-05-27T22:53:00.000-04:002018-12-07T10:35:16.141-05:00Interview with Andrew Goldsmith, Co-Director of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found" (Part 2/2 of Interview with "Lost & Found" Directors)<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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The true essence of art – a reflection of life itself – is very much akin to the Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi”: it’s imperfect, impermanent, and, at times, profoundly...incomplete.<br />
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It is both at once a fundamental truth, and, curiously, more often than not, a thing incredibly hard to acknowledge, to make peace with. Yet perhaps our resistance is justifiable, for once we admit that the world is full of unknowns – unknowns that <i>aren’t</i> ideal, that <i>aren’t</i> perfect – we are just as soon confronted with the actualization of a deep, intrinsic, and very human fear: the fear of a future full of...unknowns that <i>aren’t</i> ideal, that <i>aren’t</i> perfect. Yet it’s the confrontal of that fear that is the most terrifying reality of all, for the moment we make peace with it we have just as soon have acknowledged that our paths in life <i>aren’t</i> in our own hands, or something we can control – a terrifying reality, yet one that’s nonetheless fundamentally true.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (foreground) and Knitsune (background) in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Yet, in art as in life, it is in this very place, this very nature – the nature of an imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete world – that true beauty is found – a beauty that transcends time, culture, identity. And yet, perhaps it transcends as much as it terrifies – invoking us with an all-consuming desire to disavow it as untruth in exchange for a simpler worldview in hopes that the world will conform to our will – purely because it rings so brightly of truth. It’s a beauty <i>in</i> and <i>of</i> the flawed, the fleeting, the asymmetric. In other words, the beauty lies in the world in which we already live, it lies our art. It’s always been there. We merely have to have the eyes to see it.<br />
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In their recent stop motion short film, <i>Lost & Found</i>, Australian filmmakers Bradley Slabe and Andrew Goldsmith have perfectly captured this aesthetic, painting a metaphor with the film’s subject matter that’s beautifully resonate with and, according to co-director Bradley Slabe, inspired by wabi-sabi: That of a crocheted doll traversing a real-world landscape at real-life scale where, in comparison to him, objects are <i>enormous</i> – causing the film’s milieu to become a tremendous distance for him – all in attempts to save his lover from a terrible fate. Though in the process, he is forced to become unraveled, fully knowing that by saving the sole object of his existence, he will have undergone a fundamental change unto a point where he can no longer live life with his lover in the same way, the thing he might have before defined as “ultimate bliss”.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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“We expanded the story universe and relocated the setting to a sushi bar to align with the aesthetic of <i>Wabi Sabi</i>, a Japanese philosophy that celebrates the impermanence, imperfection and incompleteness of the world,” says Bradley Slabe, co-director of <i>Lost & Found</i>, thus drawing allusions to the film’s themes in the very landscape and fundamental design of the film.<br />
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The film’s metaphor proving a profound meditation on the reality of life itself, <i>Lost & Found</i> does much to pluck at the heartstrings as well as to inspire awe with the beauty of its every facet – that of its story, animation, cinematography, editing, sound design, as well as its character and set design and fabrication.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitsune in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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Having only just premiered in February of this year at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, <i>Lost & Found</i> can next be seen at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, which will be going on from the 6th to the 17th of June, which you can learn more about by going <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">here</a>.<br />
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The second part of a two-part interview article with the co-directors of <i>Lost & Found</i>, this article will feature Stop Motion Geek’s interview with Andrew Goldsmith, who also co-edited the film. You can read the first part of this article – our interview with <i>Lost & Found</i> co-director Bradley Slabe, who also wrote the film – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira in <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Goldsmith discusses how his fascination with stop motion and filmmaking has flourished since his first attempts at experimenting with stop motion and various other animation and filmmaking-effect techniques in high school, and where his passion for filmmaking has now led him. He also tells us about his creative partnership with Bradley Slabe, how the two directors worked to make their differences in experience in filmmaking an asset on <i>Lost & Found</i>, and how the two worked together to give direction to the film’s incredibly talented team. He also tells us about his philosophy when it comes to fostering a positive producer-director relationship on a film. Having made films in live actions as well as many styles of animation, Goldsmith also gives us insight into the differences between directing stop motion and practically every other medium. He also gives us an in-depth look at how he and editor John Gavin edited <i>Lost & Found</i>. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Andrew! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’d like to start off by asking you how you first became aware that filmmaking </b>–<b> and specifically filmmaking in the visual effects and animation industry, which you’ve done a fair amount of work in </b>–<b> was, number one, a career which you could have as a “job,” and, secondly, that it was an industry that you wanted to have a part in? Can you give us a brief overview of how you got from the original sparking of your interest in the medium to where you are now </b>–<b> the polymathic creative (as you are a director, VFX supervisor, visual compositor, motion graphics artist, and an editor) behind many commercials, short films, and music videos?</b><br />
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<b>Andrew Goldsmith: </b>It’s my pleasure, A.H., thanks for your interest. It started in high school with the strange and chaotic movies I would make with my friends. Eventually we started experimenting with camera effects and animation techniques like stop motion which got me really excited. I obviously loved watching films as a kid too and was interested in everything from Stanley Kubrick to Jan Svankmajer. When leaving high school I knew I wanted to work in film so I studied Film & Television at university where I learnt about visual effects and further explored mixing different techniques for filmmaking. After studying, I freelanced as a VFX artist, animator and director for many years. Many of my first directing jobs did not have the budgets or resources available to have big teams, so I did a lot of the work myself, sometimes everything from cinematography to the colour grade. Eventually the amount of jobs, income and fulfilling work that came from projects I directed myself increased, as well as the size of the teams I got to work with. Now I almost exclusively direct my own work and get to work with teams made up of a lot of talented people.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith applies a heat gun to acetate sheets for water testing. Source: Instagram.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What has your working relationship been like with Lucy J. Hayes, who has been the producer on many of your projects including <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/lost-and-found/%5C"><i>Lost & Found</i></a>, <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/dulux/">Dulux Duramax</a>, <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/boy-and-bear-limit-of-love/">Boy & Bear – Limit of Love</a>, <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/slurpee-towel/">Slurpee – New Aussie Fave Flavours</a>, <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/uniqlo-suit-your-mood/">Uniqlo – Suit Your Mood</a>, and <a href="http://goldy.xyz/#/kmart-aus-16/">Kmart – Life's Short & Imagine Nation</a>? From your experience, what does a positive director-producer relationship add to a project and look like, and how does one on either end </b>–<b> producer or director </b>–<b> work to craft one?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> Lucy and I first worked together on a really fun little commercial job that actually never saw the light of day. It involved some visual effects trickery and large scale puppets. Immediately I found Lucy easy to work with, we got along straight away and she was enthusiastic and understanding about the particular challenges and techniques that I chose to use in my work.<br />
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For me, a positive director-producer relationship is like any relationship really; If you have respect for each other and communicate well then things are going to be great. Lucy and I have always found it easy to speak openly about what we want to achieve in a particular job, what is and isn’t possible, and what really matters to us. It’s also essential that your passion and a vision for the work is aligned.<br />
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As far as crafting a good producer-director relationship I’d say to look for someone with whom you share that passion for making what you think is cool stuff and practice good communication skills with each other!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy J. Hayes (left), Andrew Goldsmith (middle), and Bradley Slabe (right). Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: One of the things that makes your career such an interesting one to study is the amazing array of mediums that you’ve worked in (as a director and also serving several other different specialties) </b>–<b> live action, stop motion, CG, and mixed medium work. I would love it if you could shed some light on the difference between the performances in stop motion (animation) versus those in live action (in working with actors). Can you describe the differences and similarities between giving an animator direction versus giving an actor direction? I know that it can be hard to sometimes make generalizations about such things, so can you give us an example of your directorial process with a specific actor that you’ve worked with and then contrast it with how you gave direction to <i>Lost & Found</i>’s animator Samuel Lewis (who you’ve done extensive work with on other projects, as well)?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> That’s a tough question, because as you mentioned: every project is different. For live action, what may work for one actor or situation may not work in another. But the biggest difference I’ve found with stop motion vs basically every other format is that you have way less opportunities to do multiple takes or passes or work to finesse a particular shot.<br />
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In live action you can do as many takes as your schedule on the day allows, it often only takes about the same time to film as the actual screen time. I’ll often approach a shot with a few ideas of different options of how the performance can go.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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In animation this is quite different, but even with traditional 2D or CG you can refine and rework performances without throwing everything away, or work with key poses and then fill in the gaps rather than animate straight ahead.<br />
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Stop motion however is often more like a live performance in some ways. You discuss and plan and practice as much as you can and then often you only get 1 shot to get it right. In most stop motion projects I’ve worked on, including <i>Lost & Found</i>, there’s often not enough time or money for a second takes, so you need to be ready and have a super clear vision before you start shooting the first frame. Also as stop motion has to be shot “straight ahead” you need to work out all the timing and overlapping action and blocking in relation to the camera before you roll.<br />
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All this means I’ve found I have much more in depth discussions and work out a clear vision for a stop motion animator to work from than I might an actor, as with the actor we can try things on the day or find the right path by shooting multiple takes, with stop motion that is not possible (feasible).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animator Samuel Lewis on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us about how you approached directing <i>Lost & Found</i> </b>–<b> which you co-directed alongside Bradley Slabe </b>–<b> specifically in relation to your partnership with Bradley? How did the two of you meld your creative sensibilities together to </b>–<b> first of all </b>–<b> create a coherent vision for the film (especially considering that he wrote the film), and, secondly, how did you two develop a working relationship and split the workload of the film?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> Bradley and I don’t always share the same taste and have had vastly different experiences in filmmaking so our approaches and instincts can often be very different. There is a decent amount of overlap, however, enough to make our differences work to our advantage and become a powerful element of our partnership. Coming from different perspectives meant sometimes we debated about decisions until we came to an agreement. This meant that you had to be sure about your ideas when you brought them to the table because sometimes you’d have to convince another director that it was the way to go.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith (left) and Bradley Slabe (right). Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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While we reinvented many story ideas along the way and the film evolved at every stage, as it naturally does, the core of the idea and story between these two characters was there in the first draft from Bradley. And being the writer on set meant he was the custodian of that core story. He would always make sure that what we did with the film sang true to that original idea.<br />
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This partly informed how we split the load in co-directing the film. While we collaborated as a partnership in almost every element, Brad’s experience naturally meant his focus was more focussed on story while I covered a lot of the technique and execution. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradley Slabe (left) and Andrew Goldsmith (right). Photo courtesy of Bradley Slabe.</td></tr>
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Ultimately I feel co-directing can be a super powerful filmmaking approach, helping keep one's perspectives in check, make sure your approaches are justified and to allow you to have someone to not only bounce ideas around with, but fall back on when you need support.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Goldsmith on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: From looking at your work, I can see that you often work with the same people across many of your projects, specifically Lucy J. Hayes as a producer, Samuel Lewis as a stop motion animator, and Gerald Thompson as a motion controller. What did having a “built in team,” as it were, give you on <i>Lost & Found</i>? How did having established working relationships with them affect your decision making, especially when it came to taking risks and really pushing the medium to its limits that you’re working in (stop motion in the case of <i>Lost & Found</i>)? Lastly, how did having such a familiar team affect your relationships with your associates on <i>Lost & Found</i> who you were working with for the first time?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> Finding people that you get along with, are on the same page with creatively, <i>and</i> that are talented and dedicated is a rare thing! That’s why when you do you find them, you tend to work with them over and over again. Almost everyone on the team was someone I’ve worked and/or collaborated with before, including in art department, post production and music. Also, many of the team themselves had worked together, which made for a warmer and friendlier work environment where everyone felt comfortable and wanted to help everyone else out across departments.<br />
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A big benefit of this is we got momentum quickly. Instead of taking time to learn how to work with each other and find the best process, a lot of things quickly clicked into place, as we’ve done it before together and we know what works. Having a short hand with crew, and understanding their strengths and how they liked to work also made things much easier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradley Slabe (right), Andrew Goldsmith (middle), and Gerald Thompson (left) on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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It was an incredibly ambitious film where all crew had to push themselves far further than they usually would on a normal project, making strong working relationships with people you can trust essential. If you’re all going to work so hard together on something you believe in, you also have to believe in each other.<br />
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Basically everyone who joined the team at least knew someone else who was already on the project, so there was always a way in, which I think helps. For my co-director Brad, most these people were new to him, as was working with a big team, but he wasn’t directing them on his own so he didn’t have to come in cold, because we already had our working relationship.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1WKXir8bugs/WwtbBl3DieI/AAAAAAAAEys/f-aGdk4ma7g58KOmcn-bIkLEWpPT0n8AgCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1WKXir8bugs/WwtbBl3DieI/AAAAAAAAEys/f-aGdk4ma7g58KOmcn-bIkLEWpPT0n8AgCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3735.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotjira (dinosaur doll) on the set of <i>Lost & Found</i>. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: On <i>Lost & Found</i>, as well as being the co-director, you also were the co-editor along with John Gavin. When you and John Gavin sat down to edit <i>Lost & Found</i>, how much “shape” did the film already take in your mind and how did you and John Gavin work to shape it into the film that we now see, both in relation to the visuals as well as the sound design and musical composition?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> John was a very late addition to the team but he made a huge impact. As with most animation, and particularly stop motion, the first edit happens well before you start shooting. After Bradley and I refined the story beats and all the storyboards were set, we edited the first animatic. We then started the shoot using our animatic as a guide and then started plugging finished shots in as soon as they were done. While shooting we would continue to refine the edit, I worked closely with Bradley and we would change up sequences, removing and adding new shots to make things work better with the new footage that had come in. Once the entire shoot was done we made a refined cut and most of the film you see today was there. But we felt it could be stronger, we knew there was more that could be done but we couldn’t quite crack the code. That’s when John came on board. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A shot of Knitsune taken with Dragonframe. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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John came with an outside perspective, he had never read the script or seen the animatic or knew what our intentions were. He just watched the cut as it was and saw the story on the screen and worked on how it could be a stronger film. At the time we were still working on sound design and film score and we weren’t exactly happy with where we were yet, so John turned it all off and ignored it and focussed on the pictures. John helped us out of our bubble and brought a great new perspective to the edit and the changes he made and then we continued to make together improved the final film by a huge amount. He surprised us with how clearly he could see what the story was trying to do and how it could do it better. It was a great reminder of how not only collaboration, but how allowing fresh new perspectives into the team can benefit films greatly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cs9VNmwbp30/WwtbAY5i6CI/AAAAAAAAEyo/TMnupUa4lvw2cJcXtU68z8u-L4Fq4Tu0wCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cs9VNmwbp30/WwtbAY5i6CI/AAAAAAAAEyo/TMnupUa4lvw2cJcXtU68z8u-L4Fq4Tu0wCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_BTS-Still_IMG_3423.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lost & Found</i> set. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you? What dreams do you have yet to fulfill and how are you working towards accomplishing them?</b><br />
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<b>AG:</b> I’m looking forward to continuing to create more work using all the techniques that interest and inspire me. I think there’s so much more that can be explored within the world of animation and particularly in stop motion, it’s a magical medium that always inspires and fascinates me. I’ve been doing a lot of advertising work lately, which I find is a great way to find a budget to explore complex ideas with fast turnarounds and, honing my craft and working with and learning from awesome people.<br />
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Eventually long form projects that incorporate my love of effects and animation is something I strive for. On the way there, I’m happy to continue to tell whatever size or shape stories I get the opportunity to, using as inventive an approach as I can find.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/256204562?color=9b9b9b&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
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You can explore more of Andrew Goldsmith’s work by visiting his <a href="http://goldy.xyz/">website</a> as well as his <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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You can watch <i>Lost & Found</i> in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/304803343">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/andrewgoldsmith/lostandfoundtrailer">here</a>. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lostandfoundshort/">Instagram</a> profile, as well its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/weknittogether/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.lostandfound.film/">website</a>. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/256204562">here</a>.</div>
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You can read the first part of this article – our interview with Bradley Slabe, the film’s co-director – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/05/interview-with-bradley-slabe-co.html">here</a>.</div>
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This article is the second in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind<i> Lost & Found</i>. You can stay tuned for the upcoming articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eNXUouY2VTM/Wwtacez1qoI/AAAAAAAAEwo/QG0fkotv2tEKyEP4fMTXsmb-YmY1neaugCLcBGAs/s1600/LAF_Poster_03c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1131" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eNXUouY2VTM/Wwtacez1qoI/AAAAAAAAEwo/QG0fkotv2tEKyEP4fMTXsmb-YmY1neaugCLcBGAs/s640/LAF_Poster_03c.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lost & Found</i> poster. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-77862774107841180112018-05-20T23:41:00.001-04:002018-06-23T07:25:04.159-04:00Interview with Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Directors of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam walks to his car in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Across the Baltimore-based director-duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter’s Oscar® nominated short film <i>Negative Space</i>’s 5 minute runtime, rooted in the profoundly emotional soil of the film’s <i>essence</i>, an extraordinary spectrum of deep themes are explored – death, grief, what one’s childhood means once one has “grown up” – yet perhaps none are as front-and-center than that which binds all of the film’s themes together: that of the relationship between father and son. <br />
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<i>Negative Space</i>, a film inspired by <a href="https://wordsfortheyear.com/2018/03/04/negative-space-by-ron-koertge-repost-academy-award-nominated-short/">a 150-word poem of the same by Ron Koertge</a>, is, at its heart, the story of Sam, a young man, as he internally processes his relationship with his father throughout his life as well as the grief and emotion that come with the loss of his father as he travels to his recently-passed father’s funeral.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam looks upon a toy taxicab in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Undoubtedly the primary visual motif as well as the crux of the film – both visually as well as thematically – is the practice and veritable <i>art</i> of packing a suitcase. The film begins, appropriately, with Sam as an adult packing in present day, sitting alone in the midst of his living room as snow falls outside, frosting the corners of the room’s windows and dulling nearly all sound of the world outside – a brilliant and subtle way of introducing the film’s theme of “negative space,” the <i>absence</i> of something that is both physical and, as the film progresses, an emotional absence or repression. It’s in <i>this</i> moment – in the midst of packing – that Sam looks up towards the camera and, breaking the fourth wall, begins to narrate to <i>us</i>, the audience, the words of Ron Koertge’s poem, which are, in that moment, <i>Sam’s</i> words, <i>Sam’s</i> story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Surreal packing scene from <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“My dad taught me to pack,” Sam begins, at which the film then launches into the first of its beautiful and memorizing surrealist sequences: That of stupendously animated clothes seemingly moving of their own accord to pack themselves into a suitcase while Sam narrates their actions – the way which his father taught him how to pack a suitcase, a most efficient and space-conserving method (Lay out everything. Put back half. Roll things that roll. Wrinkle-prone things on top of cotton things. Then pants, waist-to-hem. Nooks and crannies for socks…etc.).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A suitcase packed according to the way Sam's father taught Sam in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Yet, the longer Sam talks, the more we, the audience, come to understand that Sam’s act of packing with his father and for his father (so that his father can take a suitcase during his work-related travels) is more than simply an act. It’s a symbol for the bond which they share with each other, words impossible to articulate (as is, more often than not, true for parents and their children) cannot articulate the full meaning and weight without losing some element of its purest essence and truth. Or perhaps it is, quite simply, an impossible task – period – regardless of one’s proficiency in expressing oneself. Moreover, the film’s symbol of packing is not only what father and son bonded <i>over</i>, but a conduit – <i>the</i> conduit – through which they knew, understood, and expressed their affection for each other. That <i>thing</i>, whatever it may be (perhaps it’s “shooting hoops” or “talking about Chevrolets,” as suggested by Sam in the film) not only represents but is the relationship so many fathers have with their sons – quite a profound observation made by the film.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the surreal flashback sequences in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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“It was kind of one of those perfect stories that is very minimal but tells a lot,” says <i>Negative Space</i> co-director Max Porter in <a href="https://vimeo.com/238590794">this</a> behind the scenes video as he discusses what exactly it was that compelled him about the film’s source material. “Ron Koertge captured something that is very true about father and son. There’s a connection through something else, it’s not just person to person, there is something in between to filter the connection.”<br />
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Thus, it perhaps should come as no surprise that, with packing being the thing <i>through which</i> Sam and his father bonded in Sam’s childhood as well as representing – moreover, <i>being</i> – their relationship in its very essence, that Sam should grieve his father’s loss <i>through</i> packing a suitcase as he prepares to travel to his father’s funeral, as he remembers better times of packing suitcases with and for his father, and that Sam should grieve the loss of his father as he finds himself thinking in terms of “packing” in which his father trained in him – a mentality geared towards conservation of energy and the minimization of “negative space”.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Sam lies down in a packed suitcase in one of the surreal flashback sequences in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Grief is often epitomized through metaphor as an “ocean” – painting the image of something that is beyond one’s control and that is far, far bigger than one, so much so that it sounds as if it could simply swallow one whole. So it’s no coincidence that a young Sam, in one of the film’s surreal flashback sequences as present day Sam is remembering his childhood with his father, is swept away by a torrential wave of <i>unpacked</i> clothes and is plunged into an underwater-world-of-sorts where animate clothes are the inhabitants of an “ocean,” through which Sam swims, fully immersed – with pants as kelp, socks as fish, belts as eels, and underwear acting as jellyfish.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Sam swims through an ocean of animate clothes in <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Perhaps the film’s final note is also its most sobering – a chilling and emotional reminder of this whole business of how, quite often, father and son only relate their affection for one another over something through which they bond, such as, in the case of <i>Negative Space</i>, packing luggage. And it’s done brilliantly through a biting use of dramatic irony. In the final scene of the film, Sam, in solitary, finally reaches his father’s open casket in the funeral home which he has spent the entire film traveling to. At this moment we, the audience, except…well, what exactly? Some sort of resolution, of course. Perhaps because we’ve seen Sam seemingly suppress his grief up until this point – this very last scene – we’ll now see him confront his grief, face-on, and crack. Up until this point we, the audience, have watched Sam pack his father’s suitcases to take to his travel-related job. Thus, in a way, one might make the argument that the art of packing for Sam, all through his childhood, were small preparations for Sam to learn to let go of his father and to make peace with his absence. So perhaps this is the moment he’ll learn to <i>relinquish</i> his grief for his father’s passing. But, instead of any one of the variations of a scene where Sam lets go of his father, once and for all, we are confronted with the last line of the film uttered by Sam, accompanied by an image of Sam’s deceased father in his casket: “The funeral was terrible—him laid out in that big carton and me crying and thinking, <i>Look at all that wasted space</i>.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam looks upon his father in the final scene of <i>Negative Space</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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At that moment, we realize that the practice, the art, of packing a suitcase – the conduit through which Sam bonded with his father in his childhood, a mirror which Sam held up to examine his grief for his father’s passing – has proved, in the end, his downfall in the very respect of processing the grief of his father’s death: It – that <i>thing</i> through which father and son bonded – proves a wall, a barrier keeping Sam from fully processing his grief for his father’s passing. What was once their connection, the thing through which they bonded – luggage – is the thing that ultimately causes Sam to be <i>unable</i> to understand his own grief, to process his father’s death.<br />
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Perhaps the line is all the more biting for its potential meaning in relation to the symbol of of packing – the thing <i>through which</i> Sam and his father bonded – proving it to also be the end-all-be-all of what Sam’s bond with his father meant, as it <i>was</i> his bond with his father…Perhaps.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Sam (right) and his father (left) bond over packing luggage. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Since its festival debut in 2017,<i> Negative Space</i> has gone on to screen at more than 160 festivals all over the world and has won some 75 honors and awards, such as the Grand Prix and Grand Prix for Short Film at the International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao ZINEBI, Spain (’17), Anima Mundi, Brazil (’17), Association française du cinéma d’animation (‘17), Krok Animation Festival, Ukraine (’17), Taichung Int. Animation Festival, Taiwan (’17), Thessaloniki Animation Festival, Greece (’17), ReAnimania – International Animation Film & Comics Art Festival of Yerevan, Armenia (‘17), Monstra, Portugal (‘18), Multivision Festival, Russia (’17), Xiamen International Animation Festival, China (‘17), Indie Júnior Allianz Festival, Portugal (‘18), Tokyo Anime Award Festival, Japan (‘18), Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, US (‘18), International Film Festival of Uruguay, Uruguay (’18), and the Stopmotion Our Fest, Argentina (‘18).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Porter (left) and Ru Kuwahata (right). Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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In our interview, Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter discuss their approach to collaborating with each other as a director-duo under their name as a studio of “Tiny Inventions”. They also give us an in-depth look at how they approached adapting Ron Koertge’s poem into a short film, and how they worked with their extraordinarily talented team to bring the project to fruition, both in relation to the technical aspects of making the film to their personal relationships with the members of their creative team (whose perspectives you can read about by <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/search?q=negative+space">visiting Stop Motion Geek’s series of interviews with the film’s lead animator, cinematographer, composer, and producer</a>). They also discuss their decision to find a French producer (who, if you would tangentially like to learn more about, you can read <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-edwina-liard-co-producer.html">Stop Motion Geek’s previous interview with the film’s producer, Edwina Liard</a>) and to ultimately make the film in France. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Can you tell us a little about how Tiny Inventions came to be and how your creative partnership on <i>Negative Space</i> operated in the separation of labor?</b><br />
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<b>Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter: </b>We have been working together for over a decade and the way we split work naturally fell into place over time. Our writing process is a dialog of sorts; Max would come up with an idea, then Ru does drawings based on that, then Max builds on the sequence with new drawings. In the end, it’s difficult to know who was responsible for what.<br />
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With “Negative Space,” we had a great team assembled by Ikki Films in France.<br />
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Ru guides the design, set/prop making and character animation. Max takes lead with the cinematography, early sound work, editorial pacing, post-production and the animation of objects/effects.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ru Kuwahata (co-director) building props for the inside of the car prop. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: You said in your “production notes” that, on <i>Negative Space</i>, you were “using handmade stop-motion animation to bring visual metaphor and subtext to the original words.” How did you go about translating the poem to a visual, stop motion film?</b><br />
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<b>RW/MP:</b> Ron’s poem is only 150 words, and because it was so minimal, we felt that there was enough space to bring something to story with animation. Still, it was a difficult balancing act to honor the simplicity of the text and bring something to it.<br />
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For example: there’s one sentence in the text “By the time I was twelve, if he [dad] was busy I’d pack for him. Mom tried but didn’t have the knack.” Though it wasn’t said outright, we wanted to imply that there was friction between the mother and father. Originally, we showed more of the mother at this moment, but felt quickly that the narrative was expanding too much and losing its spine. We ended up framing mother below the eyes to indicate her presence while keeping the story focused on the relationship between the father and son.<br />
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When adapting a poem, we needed to figure out the narrative structure for cinematic purposes. We experimented with a few versions but this structure was the first to came up with and the one we stayed with. In order to communicate this in 5min film, we decided to distinguish the two parts with different color schemes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nadine Buss (cinematographer) and Max Porter (co-director) are doing the final lighting check before shooting. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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The present scenes are in winter. The idea of snow covering up the sound and lifeless feeling suits the feeling of going to a funeral. In contrast, the past took place in the summer and, using orange as a foundation, the tone was warm and nostalgic. Even the transition and animation are adapting more magical realism as our memories fade and merge into one other, often emphasizing our emotions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SvBmbrSkySw/WwI10kHIg1I/AAAAAAAAEqk/fwPKUMRcI3Uq4eWjQGecKPhgG-JqifwcwCEwYBhgL/s1600/19_Max_checking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SvBmbrSkySw/WwI10kHIg1I/AAAAAAAAEqk/fwPKUMRcI3Uq4eWjQGecKPhgG-JqifwcwCEwYBhgL/s640/19_Max_checking.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Porter (left, co-director) checking the final light of a scene. Nadine Buss (second to right, cinematographer) and Philippe Baranzini (right, production assistant) seem happy with it. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: With your team on <i>Negative Space</i>, what approach to collaboration did you and Max Porter find worked best to develop solid creative partnerships to best convey your vision for the final end product to your team? Was there a point where you just had to give up a certain amount of your control and to allow the rest of your team to bring their own ideas to the table?</b><br />
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<b>RW/MP:</b> It was important that the film feel personal and we were nervous that we wouldn’t be able to maintain that intimacy while working with other people. We doubled down on pre-production by preparing visual reference material and creating written explanations for all of our directorial decision, but at some point we realized that letting go a bit and encouraging our team to bring their own ideas and experiences to the film would only make the project better. The majority of the production happened at CICLIC Animation (Vendome, France) and IKKI Inc (Orbigny, France) where the team members lived with us during the week. This structure allowed us to become very close with the people we worked with and we ended up spending a lot time discussing our relationships to our families. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luggage props made at various different scales. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What kind of challenges and limitations – whether creative, budgetary, or practical – did you encounter or enforce upon yourselves while making <i>Negative Space</i> and how did you overcome and work within these constraints?</b><br />
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<b>RW:</b> Physically, the hardest part was that we worked in 5 locations throughout the production (including the pre-production phase in USA). Stop motion film production is demanding enough already and to add all the packing and moving was quite draining. But when we look back, it was such a nice experience to be able to live in many parts of France! It was also fitting that we were making a film about packing and we had become expert packers in the process.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ru Kuwahata (co-director) fixing a broken puppet for the rotation scene. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>MP:</b> From a technical standpoint – we were adamant that our characters have these large, bulbous heads and tiny feet. You don’t see those proportions often in stop motion because you’re asking the little puppet to defy the law of gravity. To deal with this, we had to use support rigs for every single character in every single shot. That became a post-production headache because we had to remove multiple overlapping rigs and shadows.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the largest sets, the pan of the suburb is being lit. The team is using gels and gaffer tape to control small lighting details. From left is Walid Païenda (production assistant), Simon Gesrel (cinematographer), Jean-Louis Padis (co-producer), and Max Porter (co-director). Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Can you tell us a little bit about your decision to produce <i>Negative Space</i> in France? What impact did France have on the final film?</b><br />
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<b>RW/MP:</b> At the core, this sort of goes back to the perception of animation and short films in the United States and Europe, and the way that the art forms developed in the respective regions. In the US, short animated films tend to be something you do when you’re a student as an exercise to learn the craft, or a professional labor-of-love designed to lead to something else. Shorts don’t really have their own intrinsic commercial value and, consequently, there’s not much of a support system in place for them. France tends to look at shorts as their own art form, recognizes them as important to their national cinema history (La Jetée, Red Balloon), and has built a strong grant system to support them financially. There are also great distribution models for shorts like the broadcast channel, Arté.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Porter (co-director) making tiny traffic cones for the highway scene. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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After spending years working nights and weekends to self-fund our projects in the US, we wanted to try a different route. In the past, we would work as just two people on our shorts over two or three year periods, and we were at a point in our lives where we wanted to learn new methods by working with other artists and get the projects done quicker.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0KgkifDIhyphenhyphenXdt3eRh9RKfkHWrnvr3r2c0wKn4PQNX3kKB2hnsAtaEkFLFrTz6YGdDabU5s3tH_VuI5C4Lt6GBaaxrqq0tTRacgpmGih_l_pwoC-DDJnZBe8NNGubupF0VRG1L0KqUuI/s1600/08_puppets.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0KgkifDIhyphenhyphenXdt3eRh9RKfkHWrnvr3r2c0wKn4PQNX3kKB2hnsAtaEkFLFrTz6YGdDabU5s3tH_VuI5C4Lt6GBaaxrqq0tTRacgpmGih_l_pwoC-DDJnZBe8NNGubupF0VRG1L0KqUuI/s640/08_puppets.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All the background puppets for the funeral scene. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Could you dig into some of the “nuts and bolts” details of the technical process behind the film, specifically in reference to the scale you were working on, the design process, your animation set-up, and the kinds of materials that were used to create the puppets and their armatures?</b><br />
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<b>RW/MP:</b> Some of the props were made at three or four different sizes and the largest props were real world scale. It was a fun challenge to create something large enough to wear that still had the feel of a hand-crafted miniature. In order to control the scale differences, we dyed or painted all the fabric by hand and meticulously created identical patterns. We only purchased white cotton & linen as our raw material; this way we could control the exact color and texture for every scene.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfJZp8QSug4/WwI1s09mG7I/AAAAAAAAEqw/i5Xo1mSD4QYZP1hNjetouPO2iGYgOnqsgCEwYBhgL/s1600/05_mouths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfJZp8QSug4/WwI1s09mG7I/AAAAAAAAEqw/i5Xo1mSD4QYZP1hNjetouPO2iGYgOnqsgCEwYBhgL/s640/05_mouths.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There area bout thirty-five 3D printed mouth shapes. ©Victoria Tanto. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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The armature for the main puppet was a combination of small ball & sockets components and wire limbs. His head was originally sculpted out of a paper clay variant and then a resin cast was made to ensure it was durable throughout the production. All background characters had wire armatures and used the same plug-in arms and legs that were made out off foam latex.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DBiF67LYqyM/WwI1upshz1I/AAAAAAAAEqw/8nQ4y96eRFIlTLGlkttWG7l-rNNLD_u_wCEwYBhgL/s1600/09_puppet_armature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="918" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DBiF67LYqyM/WwI1upshz1I/AAAAAAAAEqw/8nQ4y96eRFIlTLGlkttWG7l-rNNLD_u_wCEwYBhgL/s640/09_puppet_armature.jpg" width="488" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of the adult Sam puppet. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r-oUZ-elcb4/WwI1vHA53MI/AAAAAAAAEqg/vX2F2i-dBZ0rwGJCpw2M5gwOBA9YZL1OwCEwYBhgL/s1600/10_arms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r-oUZ-elcb4/WwI1vHA53MI/AAAAAAAAEqg/vX2F2i-dBZ0rwGJCpw2M5gwOBA9YZL1OwCEwYBhgL/s640/10_arms.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arms for the puppets cast with foam latex. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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All animation was shot in Dragonframe with Canon 5D Mark III cameras using manual Zeiss or Nikon lens. As for lighting, we used Arri for our principle light source and Dedolights for detailing. We tried to get as much as possible in-camera and used different types of fabrics to get atmospheric effects. Dragonframe’s ARC system was used to drive a Ditogear Omnislider for camera movements.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bw0p2o_Kk8U/WwI1vPp-0vI/AAAAAAAAEqg/bGgImpInrgQq1FrgJTOG_kr7JItRMAIhQCEwYBhgL/s1600/07_Ru_snow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bw0p2o_Kk8U/WwI1vPp-0vI/AAAAAAAAEqg/bGgImpInrgQq1FrgJTOG_kr7JItRMAIhQCEwYBhgL/s640/07_Ru_snow.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ru Kuwahata (co-director) is dressing the set with snow powder before the lights are set up. Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What’s next for you and Tiny Inventions? </b><br />
<b>RW/MP:</b> We are currently developing our first feature animation film. We had just returned from the 1st session of Torino Script Lab where we will develop our feature idea in the next 9 months with 1 week residency every 3 months.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5WY8fNMhuDM/WwI11VU3fdI/AAAAAAAAEqI/FKG99Lt8KRsN2k_mXB7soiq_xu0HRko6wCEwYBhgL/s1600/23_Ru_Max02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="700" height="598" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5WY8fNMhuDM/WwI11VU3fdI/AAAAAAAAEqI/FKG99Lt8KRsN2k_mXB7soiq_xu0HRko6wCEwYBhgL/s640/23_Ru_Max02.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ru Kuwahata (left) and Max Porter (right). Photo courtesy of Ru Kuwahata.</td></tr>
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You can explore more of Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter’s work as Tiny Inventions by visiting their <a href="http://www.tinyinventions.com/main/">website</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/tinyinventions">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tinyinventions/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tinyinventions">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/tinyinventions">Twitter</a>.<br />
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You can now rent <i>Negative Space</i> in full online by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/negativespacevo">here</a>. You can watch the trailer for the film by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/tinyinventions/negativespacetrailer">here</a>, and you can visit the webpage for the film by going <a href="http://www.tinyinventions.com/main/negative-space/">here</a>.<br />
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You can watch the film’s “making of” video by going here. You can also watch a three-part series of interviews in which Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter interview Ron Koertge by clicking on the corresponding links for the corresponding parts of the interview: <a href="https://vimeo.com/255821716">part one</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/255822355">part two</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/255823110">part three</a>.<br />
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This article is the fifth and last in a series of interviews coordinated by Stop Motion Geek with the creative team behind <i>Negative Space</i>. You can read the first article in the series – an interview with Bram Meindersma, the composer and sound designer of the film – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/03/interview-with-bram-meindersma-composer.html">here</a>. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Sylvain Derosne, the lead animator on the film – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-sylvain-derosne-lead.html">here</a>. You can read the third article in the series – an interview with Nadine Buss, the cinematographer of the film – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-nadine-buss.html">here</a>. You can read the fourth article – an interview with the producer of the film, Edwina Liard – by going <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/2018/04/interview-with-edwina-liard-co-producer.html">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for the upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Negative Space</i> poster.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4499519357498915058.post-8086609998996194762018-05-14T22:24:00.000-04:002018-10-29T14:06:29.750-04:00Interview with Filmmaker Hans Weise – Part of the Team Behind National Geographic's "A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A frame from <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings </i>featuring the shipbuilder hero, Harald. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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More often than not, manmade beauty, art in general, and stories themselves make very little <i>practical</i> sense. For art, like beauty, is subjective. More often than not, if we are truly honest with ourselves, our art, our stories will not stand the test of time. Thus, art, stories, and beauty do not provide one to leave very much of a legacy – at least an infallible one – through using it as a means. Often, manmade beauty, stories, and those daring choices we make in putting pen to paper, brush to canvas, camera to subject, more often than not can <i>only</i> be justified for the sake of beauty, the sake of telling a story, the <i>sake</i> of art, whatever “the sake” of something actually means.<br />
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It seems paradoxical, though perhaps it is not: Perhaps, innately, we as humans <i>need</i> stories, <i>need</i> art, <i>need</i> beauty. Not for any utility they propose, but simply so that they can be, quite simply, exactly what they are – flexible mediums of expression that, in their <i>lack</i> of practical utility, like a clear glass window, purely perform as a lens through which we can analyze and examine ourselves and the world around us. And yet, at times, by looking at the world through art, as through a glass window, one can often glimpse the glint of ones own reflection – translucent, but still <i>there</i> – a faint memory of ourselves that remind us of the <i>limits</i> art: A persistent reminder that stories, manmade beauty, and art don’t originate from their own accord, but from ourselves, providing an invitation to further explore that reflection, which is, more often than not, a most elusive thing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A frame from <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i> in which a Viking longboat sets sail. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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So perhaps it’s not such a curious thing that, in the wake of human history, humans have left behind them a traces of scattered trail of beauty and art – most of which has since then been forgotten. And yet, at times some such art <i>is</i> preserved, if unwittingly, and is, by later generations, rediscovered, and proves for us – as with art from our own age – a new kind of lens, both like and unlike that which the art in question <i>meant</i> to those who created it, and the key which it provided them in their own time. Such artifacts provide for us, the curators of history, a lens through which to look and examine not only <i>them</i> – our long-lost ancestors, tenants of this big blue-and-green planet – but to examine ourselves, and the human condition as it has shored up today. It’s a lens through which to see that we as humans haven’t changed, or, more precisely, that our desire – our insatiable need – for stories, for art, for beauty, for <i>meaning</i>, are, in and of themselves, part of what makes us human.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final frame from <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i>, in which Noridic god Odin sits upon his throne. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Award winning filmmaker, photographer, and multimedia journalist Hans Weise, in his most recent stop motion film, <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i> – a short commissioned by National Geographic (for which Weise also established the magazine’s video presence) in conjunction with the titular magazine’s March, 2017 cover story – explores and itself proves a prime example of such themes concerning art and the stories we tell ourselves: The ninth century art of designing, engineering the incredible longships crafted by Nordic Vikings.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The creative team behind <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings </i>(Hans Weise fourth from the right). Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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Practical tools at their heart, Viking longships prove such a wonderful example of the very human need for beauty, as is explained and epitomized in <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>: Not just <i>any</i> trees were selected by the Vikings to build the components of longboats – the keel, planking, ribs – but only very specific, beautiful trees which proved to create a sleek and beautiful look of the longships as well as certain utility – “perfectly” beautiful trees the eyes of their beholders, Norse shipbuilders. After building the frame of longships – their most utilitarian component – the shipbuilders would then decorate the longships, painting intricate patterns on them, patterns one might consider quite beautiful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A frame from <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i>, in which a shipbuilder paints a Viking longship. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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One might argue that the longships were decorated in such a “beautiful” way for a utilitarian reason – to ward off defenders against Nordic attacks. Yet the very mode through which such a means was achieved – frightening paintings – is <i>itself</i> a mode of storytelling, proving merely another testimony to the basic human instinct to tell stories. In the case of the Vikings this can be seen through the fearsome image which the Vikings themselves projected with their longboats – “stories” which they told those who might defy them about who they, the attackers, <i>were</i> – as well as their interpretation by the defenders, who interpreted such stories and told themselves the narrative which their attackers told – that they, the defenders, were on the losing side. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Harald, the hero of <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i> as he appears in the film. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Part of the reason<i> A Fearsome Fleet</i> is so thematically resonate with the themes of art and the basic human need for stories and art lies not only in its subject matter – the intricacy and beauty Norse shipbuilders injected into their creations – but also in the way in which the film itself is told – as a narrative. The opening shot is of a character who proves as the film’s narrator (or storyteller), and who is later revealed as the Nordic god Odin. Odin then proceeds to tell a story about the Nordic tradition of crafting the aforementioned longboats, though in doing so he give not only insight into the craft of shipbuilding but he also tells the story of a Nordic shipbuilder, Harald, whose fate is inseparably intertwined with his art and the stories which <i>it</i> tells others. In finish, the film ends with passing of the shipbuilder from life to Valhalla – a kind of paradise in Nordic mythology – where the shipbuilder enters Odin’s court, at which we hear Odin’s voice narrate, “Now I’ve invited Harald to my home, for I live in the Realm of Asgard. My name is Odin, Father of the Nordic gods. Now, I will hear Harald’s story from his own lips, here in the halls of Valhalla,” allowing for the film to come full-circle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A grown Harald meets with Nordic god Odin in Valhalla in <i>A Fearsome Fleet: Secrets of the Vikings</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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A truly extraordinary globetrotter and polymath, along with having directed four stop motion short films for National Geographic (two of which were nominated for Emmys), Hans Weise’s accomplishments include being the pioneer of National Geographic magazine’s first video production team across all of its digital video presence, having produced many documentaries such as the National Geographic television series <i>NatGeo’s Most Amazing Photos</i>. Moreover, he has been a producer, editor, and science reporter at Discovery Communications, the supervising producer of short form video at the Travel Channel. He’s also done an impressive amount of traveling the world to places all across North and South America, Antarctica, Africa, New Zealand, the Galápagos Islands, and Europe.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from <i>A Fearsome Fleet </i>in the midst of being shot. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise. </td></tr>
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In our interview, Hans Weise discusses how he left high school at age 17 to pursue a career in photography, his work with Jane Goodall for Animal Planet, the expectations he faced as a multimedia manager for National Geographic, and the lasting impression that traveling to Antarctica left on him when he traveled to the continent as a part of a project to film the huts of explorers Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott. He also gives us an in-depth look at how he went about directing <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i> and his prior work in stop motion. You can read our interview below in full.<br />
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<b>A.H. Uriah: Hello, Hans! Thank you so much for doing this interview! Just taking a look at your career, it’s become clear to me that you’ve done so much that it’s hard to know where to begin: You’ve worked as a producer of documentaries, the supervisor of National Geographic’s first multimedia production team, a photographer of sites and people all around the world, and as a cinematographer...not to mention that you’re also stop motion animator and the Emmy-nominated director of several animated short films for the likes of National Geographic and the Travel Channel. Looking back at your career now (as well as your academic career at the New York University, Poynter News University, and Harvard Extension school), is it clear to you that you intended to get to where you have now gotten or did you start out with different intentions and plans, only to have certain people, events, and areas of study influence your career path?</b><br />
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<b>Hans Weise:</b> I knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to be a photographer and filmmaker, but I had no idea how I would get there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from <i>A Fearsome Fleet </i>where Harald approaches the door to Valhalla. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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I started by taking photos for my high school yearbook in Michigan and then (at 17) I left school to work as a photographer for my local newspaper. Much to my relief, my parents (and the paper’s editor) supported my decision and helped me grasp the responsibility required to quit school and go to work. I earned $5 per photo and $15 for a front page which seemed like a lot of money at the time. But I also kept studying and took the GED before applying to college.<br />
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At NYU I wanted to get out on the streets with a camera and make films as fast as I could. But instead I was accepted into their Cinema Studies program, and this was by far the best thing that happened because it allowed me to see so many films that I may not have seen otherwise. It also taught me how to appreciate all aspects of a film, and to take the time to study work from a wide variety of filmmakers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A grown Harald as he appears in <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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One of the things I’ve noticed recently (from hiring freelancers) is that many people shooting and editing these days haven’t seen much work older than, say, 20 years. I would highly recommend a history of cinema course to anyone who’s aspiring to shoot and direct. Not only are there great films to be rediscovered, but a lot of what we’re doing now with digital video was already tried with film generations ago.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of Fernando Baptista's characters from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: What is it about traveling the world and researching historic places, events, and people that made you passionate enough to dedicate your life to the endeavor? How did you – and are you continuing to – craft such a life for yourself? </b><br />
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<b>HW: </b>There is a perspective that comes from traveling that’s hard to get any other way (except perhaps by reading). People are more similar than they are different, and so many of our concerns are universal. But there is so much to see out there, and many stories to tell. <br />
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At some point, I got much more interested in documentary work. I was at Discovery at the time and had the opportunity to work with Jane Goodall on a project for Animal Planet. This rekindled my love of natural history and I realized that I wanted to use whatever talent I had to make a positive impact on the world through film. <br />
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Whenever I had a chance to travel for a project, I took it because I wanted to see as much of the world as I could. And the more I could learn about a place beforehand, the better my projects would be.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adult Harald from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: At National Geographic, you had the unique task of establishing the magazine’s first multimedia production team (which included the task of supervising every aspect of its digital video presence and hiring and managing a staff of producers) in the dawn of the Digital Age. What experiences, skill-sets, and personality traits prepared you to manage such an important task? You being a student of history, what has your work at National Geographic – a magazine spotlighting the past, founded on a more classical approach to journalism and field research than much of modern digital journalism – taught you about the importance of history’s relevance in the Digital Age and of the future of journalism in a truly digital age?</b><br />
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<b>HW:</b> As a multimedia manager, the more you know about each of the roles working beneath you, the better. A lot of the jobs out there now are multihyphenates: producer-shooter, producer-shooter-editor, “preditor,” and so on. Having a broad skill set is a big help, particularly since the hardware and software we use is evolving so quickly. Also, having a deep curiosity for your subject matter is essential because often (particularly at a place like NatGeo) you are taking a very complicated subject and trying to distill it down into a three-minute film that may or may not accompany a 4,000-word essay and a set of world-class photographs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from<i> A Fearsome Fleet</i> demonstrating the construction of a Viking longship. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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Developing a good sense of story will help, too.<br />
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When I started, the great pleasure of working at the Geographic was in the time you could take to get the story right, and research your subject carefully before going out into the field on assignment.<br />
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But schedules are more compressed these days, so the time you have to research, shoot, and edit is far less than what it might have been even a few years ago.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZGlocCBtdM/Wvo2J27Mb3I/AAAAAAAAEmw/f3b0eU7mxqI7pWuv4YX87aZkzt61W7GhwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZGlocCBtdM/Wvo2J27Mb3I/AAAAAAAAEmw/f3b0eU7mxqI7pWuv4YX87aZkzt61W7GhwCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1122.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set for the forest scene in <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: Can you tell us, in brief, about your approach to <i>A Fearsome Fleet: The Secrets of the Vikings</i>, from original assignment to final product? Why was stop motion the right medium to tell this story, and how did you translate your research into an stop motion film and narrative?</b><br />
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<b>HW:</b> <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i> grew out of a cover story about Vikings for National Geographic magazine. One of the topics in the story was how the Vikings built their famous longships. These were a marvel of engineering but you wouldn’t necessarily know that just by looking at them so we wanted to show how they were built from start to finish. My colleague (artist and producer, Fernando Baptista) had created a pull-out poster for the magazine and had also created the art for the cover.<br />
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A live-action video would likely involve several trips to Scandinavia (and be prohibitively expensive) so we opted to create the film in-house. Animation seemed like a unique way to do it so we pulled together everything we learned from previous work to make this film so it wouldn’t simply be a how-to video. Instead, the film is told through the eyes of a boy who might very well have learned ship building from his father and gone to sea as a Viking raider as he grew older.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGAAlT_NsRo/Wvo2J2DfTcI/AAAAAAAAEm0/EVLJu05Tb04q9lMNOj8bUKr-VcY99F_GQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGAAlT_NsRo/Wvo2J2DfTcI/AAAAAAAAEm0/EVLJu05Tb04q9lMNOj8bUKr-VcY99F_GQCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1124.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hans Weise with the forest set from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
We worked with the same researcher (Amanda Hobbs) who had worked on the print story. Producer Monica Serrano worked with us during production and also created beautiful atmospheric details using After Effects during post production. The clouds? The snow? That’s Monica.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iSqMs8FKESs/Wvo82veietI/AAAAAAAAEns/WLSpb_EbKu0pNQIyEzJ8jofPSnzpy-NSwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.33.23%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iSqMs8FKESs/Wvo82veietI/AAAAAAAAEns/WLSpb_EbKu0pNQIyEzJ8jofPSnzpy-NSwCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.33.23%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<br />
With each shot – particularly where I needed to show a close-up of Viking-era technology – we sent a photo or a film clip to an expert on Viking history to check for accuracy. So even though you see a little paper log being chopped for a keel, it’s an accurate log, and a properly-shaped keel. This is one of the most satisfying things about the film as a director – even if the average viewer doesn’t know we put so much care into it. Each of Fernando’s tools and costumes are also accurate to the period.<br />
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The film is a combination of stop-motion, puppetry, papercraft, a little bit of live action, and After Effects to add atmosphere and depth to the scenes.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j8B2uh2tpDU/Wvo2QwHQVmI/AAAAAAAAEm8/V_p9adQUknYoimaBJhcrk4Q54EOvwNfigCEwYBhgL/s1600/Snapseed%25287%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j8B2uh2tpDU/Wvo2QwHQVmI/AAAAAAAAEm8/V_p9adQUknYoimaBJhcrk4Q54EOvwNfigCEwYBhgL/s640/Snapseed%25287%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puppets and sets from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
Technical: I used a Canon C100 and a Canon 5D Mark III with a 50mm lens, a 100mm macro, a 35mm, and (if memory serves) a 24-105 zoom for one or two shots.<br />
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The sound design was complicated as well, using recordings of birds that would likely be found in northern Europe (at that time). <br />
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The ocean was made from the light green produce bags you find at your local grocery store because they’re the perfect weight to mold into waves (and you can blow on them to get a little motion).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J5NBt8S20eA/Wvo82wJQPgI/AAAAAAAAEn0/GEN7vfIczfMsrcvKSSnW-w69WDczkU-2wCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.33.38%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J5NBt8S20eA/Wvo82wJQPgI/AAAAAAAAEn0/GEN7vfIczfMsrcvKSSnW-w69WDczkU-2wCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.33.38%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ocean as it appears in <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUdhuD7VEBA/Wvo2Jt-wZ0I/AAAAAAAAEmk/Hj4UL7lnMb8A9QkQhRPLHvbXwP-RLsprwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUdhuD7VEBA/Wvo2Jt-wZ0I/AAAAAAAAEmk/Hj4UL7lnMb8A9QkQhRPLHvbXwP-RLsprwCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1012.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dock set for <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i> before filming. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: <i>A Fearsome Fleet </i>isn’t your first endeavor in the stop motion medium. In fact, you have directed 4 stop motion films over the course of your career, all of them for National Geographic. How did you see your skills and approach evolve on <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i> and differ from your previous stop motion projects?</b><br />
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<b>HW:</b> The first animated film I made for National Geographic was about the Easter Island stone heads – the “moai” – and how they were moved around the island centuries ago. Many theories had been put forward and we were doing a cover story for the magazine on the most recent theory that the heads were “walked” to their final resting places using ropes.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EoPLlL5YlMs/Wvo2NFuPA2I/AAAAAAAAEm8/SdHSGKGG9zgt98ROK5cMcf5g6chhSJ-mgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EoPLlL5YlMs/Wvo2NFuPA2I/AAAAAAAAEm8/SdHSGKGG9zgt98ROK5cMcf5g6chhSJ-mgCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_5682.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hans Weise with an Easter Island moai head sculpted by Fernando Baptista. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
There was a beautiful pull-out poster in the magazine illustrating this process (again, by Fernando Baptista) but I wanted to find a way to show it in motion, so I took some Star Wars action figures and a Russian nesting doll (matryoshka) and filmed a sample on my dining room table during a holiday break. It seemed to work so I pitched it to the Creative Director who gave it the green light.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NEcd_PR5BFw/Wvo2L4pu8pI/AAAAAAAAEm0/inqaPEK3etMKmyIUyBs0U6kezjkKbuAtQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NEcd_PR5BFw/Wvo2L4pu8pI/AAAAAAAAEm0/inqaPEK3etMKmyIUyBs0U6kezjkKbuAtQCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1190.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paper characters from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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I purchased a couple boxes of wrestling action figures at Toys R Us (because they wore the least amount of clothes and needed to look authentic), and Fernando was able to paint them to look like the figures he created for the magazine.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KVI3hwxoZbU/Wvo2LrdOxjI/AAAAAAAAEmw/5tVUvIKAtL09LuyQYIMbmE3UDTmC2ZeMQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1373.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KVI3hwxoZbU/Wvo2LrdOxjI/AAAAAAAAEmw/5tVUvIKAtL09LuyQYIMbmE3UDTmC2ZeMQCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1373.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A stone mason from <i>Trajan's Column</i>. An action figure with a sculpted head and costume by Fernando Baptista. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
<i>Robot Chicken</i> was surprisingly helpful here because of their use of action figures. After many tests, 12 frames-per-second became the right frame rate to shoot in because our models weren’t fine enough to shoot 24 frames per second (the industry standard). I found that 12 fps was just right because it maintains a sense of artificiality (and also saves some time!).<br />
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After that, we used the same figures to shoot “Trajan’s Column” about an ancient Roman monument. Both of these – to our happy surprise – earned Emmy nominations for the magazine.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Go_JwWuifT4/Wvo2Ma9TJSI/AAAAAAAAEm8/9qM09h_oCb8cDqJgWVox5xx0uQ2ERToOQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Go_JwWuifT4/Wvo2Ma9TJSI/AAAAAAAAEm8/9qM09h_oCb8cDqJgWVox5xx0uQ2ERToOQCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1453.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set piece from <i>Trajan's Column</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: What challenges did you face on <i>A Fearsome Fleet </i>(whether relating to schedule, the technical feat of the medium itself, or budget) that were for you the most fretful? How did you overcome these challenges? </b><br />
<br />
<b>HW:</b> The schedule was the primary concern. We had just over a month to pull it all together because the publication date was fixed. This meant several weekends and late nights of work.<br />
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In addition, even though the sets were very sturdy, they were light and flexible and could come apart very easily if bumped, so we had to be very careful not to knock things over.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinr5a_RBfL1cXtf6Qw-ZgOmkoeJYmBm16LBC8vYNYchTyqZy09G80W-rU7PSjmZBpHeRu1F7rQtK_01hiNekJG9qX1eG2LkFWDa1nxvEShV0vf6FAud5PC-bvkQ-l6XxVtvuIt7MV6vkc/s1600/IMG_6465.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinr5a_RBfL1cXtf6Qw-ZgOmkoeJYmBm16LBC8vYNYchTyqZy09G80W-rU7PSjmZBpHeRu1F7rQtK_01hiNekJG9qX1eG2LkFWDa1nxvEShV0vf6FAud5PC-bvkQ-l6XxVtvuIt7MV6vkc/s640/IMG_6465.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of a paper character (Boudica) from <i>Under London</i>, one of Weise's stop motion short films for National Geographic. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<b>A.H.: Over the course of your career, your work has taken you to many parts of the world, including many places in Europe, India, Antarctica, South America, as well as the Galápagos Islands, and many other places (not to mention the various places in America that you’ve lived and have done studies in). Out of all the places you’ve traveled in the world, which place most unexpectedly resonated with you and stayed with you long after leaving?</b><br />
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<b>HW:</b> I had a chance to visit the huts of Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott in Antarctica that left a lasting impression. It’s the only continent on which humanity’s first evidence of habitation (the explorers’ huts) are still standing. They were recently restored to their original condition, to the point where Shackleton’s dirty socks are now hanging from a clothesline and Scott’s hut is full of period provisions in bottles, crates, and tin cans.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0JrO6ubigSI/Wvo2OUtcY3I/AAAAAAAAEmo/DR4KXDBVmWAvCPqrXpID8BCkU_WqqLNzACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0JrO6ubigSI/Wvo2OUtcY3I/AAAAAAAAEmo/DR4KXDBVmWAvCPqrXpID8BCkU_WqqLNzACEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_6534.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hans Weise and Fernando Baptista preparing a set from <i>Under London</i>. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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I conducted an interview in Scott’s hut about the restoration. While I was there (and after we’d finished), my subject left while I put away my equipment. I stood up and realized that I was alone in the hut exactly as it would have appeared in 1912 if Scott and his team had returned from the South Pole. Tragically, they died on their return journey. But the sudden sense of isolation and wonder at the sheer remoteness and vastness of the continent swept over me like an ocean swell.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PJQEFw1vTFY/Wvo2MivOO3I/AAAAAAAAEm4/cu1RHWu_L2kOYu4xsQCiXanwvBQoNLqqgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1461.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PJQEFw1vTFY/Wvo2MivOO3I/AAAAAAAAEm4/cu1RHWu_L2kOYu4xsQCiXanwvBQoNLqqgCEwYBhgL/s640/IMG_1461.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A character from <i>Trajan's Column</i>. An action figure with a sculpted head and costume by Fernando Baptista. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>A.H.: What are you working on now? Do you have any dream assignments that you have yet to embark upon?</b><br />
<br />
<b>HW:</b> At the moment I’m working on a new animated film with my NatGeo colleagues – this time about the evolution of wolves. We’re in the early stages so nothing to show yet, but we’re hoping to try some new techniques with this one as well.<br />
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As for a dream project? I’d love to direct an animated feature film.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8PmCInlpuW0/Wvo2Q1o6jeI/AAAAAAAAEm0/ehgPBA8U77U0TjKh34tattJ1DHMa0VumgCEwYBhgL/s1600/hans_weise%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8PmCInlpuW0/Wvo2Q1o6jeI/AAAAAAAAEm0/ehgPBA8U77U0TjKh34tattJ1DHMa0VumgCEwYBhgL/s640/hans_weise%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hans Weise. Photo courtesy of Hans Weise.</td></tr>
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<br />
You can explore more of Han Weise’s work – ranging from his work in stop motion, documentary filmmaking, photography, and multimedia journalism – and you can keep up to date with his eclectic travel all around the world by visiting his <a href="https://www.hansweise.com/#intro">Website</a>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/hansweise">Vimeo</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hansweise/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hansweise">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hansweise/">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/hansweise">Twitter</a>.<br />
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You can watch <i>A Fearsome Fleet: The Secrets of the Vikings </i>by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/204989140">here</a>. You can also watch Han’s Emmy-nominated stop motion short films for National Geographic (<i>Walking With Giant</i> and <i>Trajan’s Column</i>) and his stop motion short film about the history of London from the Stone Age to present day which he also made for National Geographic by visiting the corresponding links for the following the films: <a href="https://vimeo.com/86718834"><i>Walking With Giants</i></a> (a film made for the July, 2012 digital edition of National Geographic magazine to explore several of the most plausible theories about how hundreds of giant statues were transported on Easter Island several hundred years ago), <a href="https://vimeo.com/122109610"><i>Trajan’s Column</i></a> (a film made for the April, 2015 edition of National Geographic magazine to demonstrate how one of Rome’s most extraordinary monuments was built), <a href="https://vimeo.com/148912994"><i>40,000 Years of London’s History – Made Entirely of Paper</i></a>. You can watch the behind the scenes video for <i>40,000 Years of London’s History – Made Entirely of Paper</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/154617728">here</a>, as well as the behind the scenes video for <i>Trajan’s Column</i> by going <a href="https://vimeo.com/137511473">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can read the March 2017 National Geographic multimedia article tie-in to <i>A Fearsome Fleet: The Secrets of the Vikings </i>about the process of constructing Viking longboats by going <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/03/vikings-ships-realm-raiders-scandinavian/">here</a>. You can also view <i>A Fearsome Fleet: The Secrets of the Vikings</i> on National Geographic’s website by going <a href="https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/170220-ngm-viking-settlements-shipbuilder-animation">here</a>.<br />
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You can stay tuned for the upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our <a href="https://stopmotiongeek.blogspot.com/">homepage</a>, or by following us on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">@StopMotionGeek</a>, or by visiting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/">https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/</a>. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stop.motion.geek.blog/">@stop.motion.geek.blog</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MRMDZa4sXXk/Wvo83Wim8fI/AAAAAAAAEoA/EBV9lqo4b-gWowTIS1T1DSgMofuYSS3YACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.35.05%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MRMDZa4sXXk/Wvo83Wim8fI/AAAAAAAAEoA/EBV9lqo4b-gWowTIS1T1DSgMofuYSS3YACLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-14%2Bat%2B9.35.05%2BPM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from <i>A Fearsome Fleet</i> in which Harald reaches Valhalla. Source: Vimeo.</td></tr>
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A.H. Uriahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14844103922089403295noreply@blogger.com0