Jump Cut
By George T. Marshall, RIIFF Executive
Director/CEO
(September
2006) I am writing this in the middle of the
10th Anniversary of the Rhode Island International Film
Festival. The crowds have been steady and over 200 filmmakers
have registered for the films screening during the week.
Advance statistics indicate a minimum of four sell-outs.
This year, counting some last minute additions, RIIFF
will have screened 303 titles.
Filmmakers have
come in from as far away as Australia and Germany. The
Lifetime Achievement Award went to legendary actress,
Cicely Tyson and RIIFF had the world premiere of her
most recent film, “Fat Rose & Squeaky.”
Local filmmaker, Michael Corrente was honored with an
annual Creative Vision Award while a retrospective of
his work took place at the local Showcase Cinema.
The opening night was rather unusual for a festival
since it featured ten shorts covering a broad range
of genres. The crowd of over 600 witnessed some amazing
narrative work and several unusual animations. This
year three of the shorts screened were animations, each
coming with attached pedigrees.
One unusual piece was a film I wrote about last month
in this column: “The Little Matchgirl.”
I’ve received a fair amount of comments about
the article and was asked questions which I could not
answer. So, for our readers, here are some of those
questions and the answers I received from the director
and producer of this powerful new work from the Walt
Disney Animation Studios.
Roger Allers is the director of “The Little Matchgirl,”
and Don Hahn, the Producer. The film was made by the
Walt Disney Animation Studios and the RIIFF screening
on Tuesday. August 8, marked its East Coast premiere:
THE INTERVIEWS:
GTM: The production on this short film began
in 2000, why does it take so long to complete an animated
film?
Roger Allers: The initial production
took about a year including storyboarding animation,
effects, and final color. For three years after completion,
Michael Eisner had us trying different endings (none
of which to my mind were satisfactory). This was done
while I was directing a film at Sony, and so was done
"long distance". At the end of three years,
I was able to restore the original ending. We then added
the credits, balanced the color and "voila!"-
a 6 minute movie finished in five years!
Don Hahn: Matchgirl was made by many
talented artists that were between projects so the tempo
of production was slow and steady.
GTM: What is it like to work with the Disney
Animation division?
Don Hahn: Well I’ve been here
30 years and it’s been different every day. When
you’re working with creative people on creative
projects, it’s the best job on the planet.
Roger Allers: Its a pleasure and a
thrill to work with so many talented people.
GTM: How is the look of an animated film determined?
From the choice of color to the over feel of the piece?
Roger Allers:. Sometimes an artist
(a development artist, an art director, or the director)
will do a piece and it will inspire everyone and it
becomes the initiating guide for the look of a picture.
Other times, there is much exploring of looks and styles
before a look develops.
GTM: What makes an animated film a Disney film?
What goes on to determine that it meets the criteria
for the Disney brand?
Roger Allers: You could ask 50 people
that question and perhaps get as many answers. For me
personally, a Disney film is one that remembers all
the age groups in the audience, neither trying to "talk
down to" some, or "pander to the lowest common
demoninator", but respecting their intelligence,
and seeking to delight and touch them.
Don Hahn: We don’t think of a
brand or a criteria when we make a film. But films with
great story, great character and heart have always been
associated with Disney since the days of Snow White.
Matchgirl is no different in its sincereity and depth
of character.
GTM: How many artists usually work on this type of short?
Roger Allers: Honestly, I don't know
what is "usual". On Match Girl, artists who
were free in between projects or on "downtime"
(pauses in production while stories get retooled) worked
on it while they could. Consequently, we had a quite
a large number of people contribute, both from our Burbank
studio and our Paris studio.
Don Hahn: Each is different. Many artists
in Los Angeles and Paris touched this film over the
4 years it was made depending upon their area of expertise
and their availability.
GTM: What does it mean to direct an animated
film? The actors are really only characters that are
created by the artists. How does one “direct”
animation?
Roger Allers: Its not really so different
from live-action if you think of it this way. Take a
recent movie- Mr and Mrs Smith- Mr John Smith was only
a character, an idea (albeit a one-dimensional one).
The director guided the writer, the actor (B. Pitt),
the stunt double, the cinematographer, the editing,
the dubbing session, etc., to make him come alive. In
animation, the character's voice is the performance
of one actor and the physical performance is created
by the other "actor with a pencil"-the animator.
Each performance is guided by the director as well as
all the other functions: camera moves, editing, etc,
that are present in live-action. We animation directors
just never get to yell "Cut!"
Don Hahn: The actors are really only
characters that are created by the artists. How does
one “direct” animation? It’s no different
than directing theatre or live action. There is a story
to be told and the director has to guide all the aspects
of character, costume, set, effects, lighting and staging
to the benefit of that story. The technique is different,
but the director’s job is still to create a compelling
story on the screen.
GTM: Computer generated imagery is becoming so ubiquitous.
What are the virtues of hand cell animation over computer
work? What was hand drawn and what was computer generated
in “The Little Match Girl?”
Roger Allers: For me, the virtue of
traditional animation is the intimacy, the directness
of the animator's gesture, his line, his touch. In The
Little Match Girl, everything but the snowflakes was
hand drawn. And even the large snowflakes at the beginning
were hand painted and the designs transferred to the
3-D planes which turned and fell.
Don Hahn: The actors are really only
characters that are created by the artists. How does
one “direct” animation? It’s no different
than directing theatre or live action. There is a story
to be told and the director has to guide all the aspects
of character, costume, set, effects, lighting and staging
to the benefit of that story. The technique is different,
but the director’s job is still to create a compelling
story on the screen.
GTM: When I tell people about “The Little
Match Girl” their first impulse is to think of
the Hans Christian Anderson story, which essentially
is a downer. While remaining true to the original, there
is something lyrical and poignant about your take on
the story. How was this determined?
Don Hahn: The story is very moving
but the essence is a story of hope. We found it especially
moving because this is a situation that really happened
a hundred years ago and is really happening today in
2006. I hope the audience will see that. I think there
is also power in telling a story like this without spoken
words. The images can and do carry all the emotion needed.
And lastly this
is a story for children. We were so happy to recently
receive the Children’s Award from the Zagreb Animation
Festival voted on by the children in the audience. We
thought they would go for something funny or wacky,
but to have them respond to the art and story of Roger’s
film was really wonderful recognition that children
are emotionally so open to stories that are real and
compelling regardless of theme.
Roger Allers: From the outset, the
intention was to make a musical piece, which, to me,
means translating proseto poetry.
GTM: The film appears to be set in Russia. Why
the choice of the location?
Roger Allers: Besides the obvious ethnic
source of Borodin's music, the setting of czarist Russia
provided the "fantasy" element of fantastic
architecture, and the social setting of the extremes
of wealth and poverty to be the foil for the girl's
plight. And nothing says "Cold" like a Russian
winter!
Don Hahn: The music by Borodin flows effortlessly
throughout the film; which provides emotional peaks
at all the right moments. How was this done? Much labor
and careful work by Roger and his editor Jessica Ambinder
Rojas to create this gentle timing.
GTM: The music by Borodin flows effortlessly
throughout the film; which provides emotional peaks
at all the right moments. How was this done?
Roger Allers: I told Mr. Borodin "Look, just make
your music follow the storyboards and it will all hang
together!" Just kidding. It’s just listening
and being sensitive to the music and letting your imagination
create scenes to its emotional content.
GTM: New England is rather lucky to have such
a large number of schools specializing in film studies;
along with young artists learning animation. Why would
a graduate from RISD or the Mass College of Art want
to work with Disney Feature Animation?
Don Hahn: Disney is a director driven studio
that supports the vision of individual film makers.
Now under the creative leadership of John Lasseter,
we have a chance to reach out in many directions creatively
and emotionally with our work and it makes Disney a
very exciting place to be these days.
Roger Allers: The perfect person to
talk to would be Kevin Lima, a graduate of RISD, who
was a brilliant story artist on Aladdin and others,
and directed "Tarzan". But I'm sure he'd tell
you, if a student from either school liked to work in
the context of a large creative group, bringing his/her
skills of visualization, that it is a thrill to create
something so large that will be seen by literally millions
of people. That's a large canvas!
GTM: Why short film over features? From “Destino,”
“Lorenzo” to “The Little Match Girl”
why create this type of work? What will ultimately happen
with these very special and unique films?
Roger Allers: The structure of a short
film allows one to experiment with techniques and telling
stories that are more suited to a short story format.
The "constraint" of a short format actually
allows a kind of freedom that feature films cannot.
What will happen with them? They may become part of
DVDs of features but I hope they will find their way
to the large screen. Of course that's the most satisfying
stage for a filmmaker.
Don Hahn: These shorts get exposure
in festivals, and certainly on DVDS and in theatrical
exhibition. It’s a chance for us to grow new talent
and try new techniques and technology that we may not
get a chance to try in a feature. It also is a way for
our talent to link in a very personal way to the animation
community at festivals such as yours.
About the Author:
George T. Marshall is the Producing Director of
the Rhode Island-based Flickers Arts Collaborative,
the creators of the annual Rhode Island International
Film Festival for which he also serves as Executive
Director. He teaches film and communications at Rhode
Island College and speech communications and documentary
film at Roger Williams University. He is a director,
writer, producer of commercials and industrials for
numerous business clients in the region and will be
presenting his current research paper “Teaching
and the Blogosphere” at the Annual Conference
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication (AEJMC) in August. He can be reached at
flicksart@aol.com
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