Monday, January 22nd

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3
Max Hattler
Animator, “Collision” (2005)

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 10/25/2006
Via phone from Volda, Norway


Animation Show: Talk about where you grew up and how you decided to be an animator.

Max Hattler: I grew up in Germany and moved to London to study Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College. Coming across the animation specialization option on my degree course suddenly brought together my different interests. That’s how it started; it was more of an accident, really.

AS: I can see from the movie clips on your web site you’re trying a lot of different things. Does one or another style make you happier at this point?

MH: I think technique and style come last and depend very much on the project. What interests me in animation is not so much style or technique, but the potential to amalgamate different artforms into a highly condensed way of storytelling. What holds my works together (if anything) is their abstract narrativity and strong reliance on sound-image relationships.

Striper v01 - Max Hattler

AS: I see what you mean – even Striper is telling a story, despite that there’s no dramatic arc per se, if you take it just as a documentary about signs painted on the road. And your Theme for Yellow Kudra music video is telling a story too, even if it’s obscure. There’s a definite emotional arc there – gentleman does interpretive dance, and is covered with grass. There’s something going on…

Yellow Kudra - Max Hattler

MH: Yes, and I’m not too worried if everyone gets “the point”. I don’t want to shove absolute truths down people’s throats. As in any kind of art, it’s with the viewer as well. Collision, for example, – someone saw it as a film about RGB, the three video channels red, green and blue, and enjoyed it for its aesthetic quality. That’s fine by me.

AS: That’s what I think is the most interesting thing about Collision, that it can be interpreted in a radical number of ways. You could see it as being just a nice abstract short with no political overtones at all, or it could be a direct response to Mohamed Atta. It’s a litmus test for who’s viewing, and their level of anxiety, and what’s on their mind.

MH: Precisely. And it’s also about cross-cultural literacy. The color green and the Islamic patterns make so much more sense to a Muslim audience than to a Western one, for example.

AS: For an American audience, particularly, the sound cues must really help identify what culture the shapes and colors represent. But even the sound effects could resolve either way. The piece doesn’t end with the sound of mass destruction, it ends with the sound of fireworks, which can either be destructive or celebratory. To a viewer with the right mindset, the end could almost be considered a joyous melding of all of this. All of the colors smash together into this manic color wheel of harmony. It’s in some ways very positive.

Collision - Max Hattler

MH: I agree, it can be interpreted either way: carnage or carnival, it is open-ended. I don’t have the answers, I’m only asking questions.

AS: Was this your thesis project as a student at the Royal College of Art?

MH: Usually you make one graduation film. I decided to make a few shorter projects because I wanted to experiment more, and felt slightly stressed by the idea of having to make this one shiny masterpiece. So I ended up making a mock commercial called Snap, a music video for my father Hellmut Hattler entitled Nachtmaschine, and finally Collision. This last project had been brewing with me for a long time. It came out at the very end when I was almost bursting over with stress. In a way it’s the culmination of what I was doing, but it happened very quickly. Collision only took six weeks to complete.

AS: When did you realize you were ready to tackle it?

MH: Having finished Snap and Nachtmaschine I felt free to experiment, even to fail if need be. The way I usually work is to make things up as I go along. I don’t want to be a slave to my own storyboards. And by letting it go, you open the gate for things to develop. So the way Collision came together was really organic. I’d work on images, and then I’d put some sound to it which might trigger other images. You give yourself cues both from sound and image, and hope it all comes together in the end!

Nachtmaschine - Max Hattler

AS: At least half the animators I’ve talked to say they work the same way. They just barrel on through, and the ending announces itself to them, and they respect that, and say “Okay, I’ll stop.” I guess in traditional narrative-based material, you must storyboard to aim for that definite goal.

MH: And also, obviously, if you work commercially. If so-and-so says “You have to make this, fix that, and we want to see it,” of course I’ll try and do that, but if it’s just me making a film then I try and steer clear of those constraints.

AS: The obvious visual touchstone of the piece is a kaleidoscope. Did you set out specifically to achieve that look?

MH: Well, it just works with the concept of Islamic patterns and American quilts. I felt there was a good overlap. Originally I didn’t plan to make the designs totally centered all the time. When putting elements into After Effects, I literally stumbled across the kaleidoscope filter. I was just playing around with it and suddenly saw this strange American/British flag coming at me.

AS: In terms of borrowed American iconography, there’s stars and stripes, but were there any specifically Muslim symbols that you appropriated?

MH: A specifically Muslim symbol would be the crescents. Otherwise, everything pretty much overlaps. If you look at Arab flags you’ll find that they too have stripes of color, and some of them have five-pointed stars on them (appropriated from the American flag!). Then you have the colors – Old Glory’s red, white and blue, and the pan-Arab red, white, green and black. The American quilt and Islamic patterns, again, overlap.

AS: What are you working on now?

MH: At the moment, I’m teaching at Volda University College, Norway’s only animation school. I also occasionally teach at the London College of Communication and at Goldsmiths College. Otherwise I’m an independent filmmaker. I freelance as an animator and compositor but I’m trying to stay clear of too much industry. I recently finished the Theme for Yellow Kudra music video for Economy Wolf and I’m looking to direct more music videos without having to compromise too much.

AS: That’s certainly a medium where you can get away with a lot. And you don’t have to specialize. You can be an animator and still do live action. I mean, Jonas Odell is an animator but he still directed that great live action video for the Infadels, “Love Like Semtex”.

MH: But it’s difficult to make money with videos. Especially if you want to be creative. Then again, it does work for a few people like Jonas. Off the back of Goldfrapp’s low-budget “Strict Machine” promo he made a commercial for BMW for half a million pounds. (laughs) So if you can get there, you’ve got it made.

AS: Exactly – you do the thing for fun for yourself, and then the ad agencies come along and pay you to rip off your own work for their campaign. If you can manage that, it’s win-win! So you’d say yes to that sort of action if someone came knocking?

MH: No, I mean, well… yes!

AS: Where are you now and where are you headed?

MH: I’m in Volda, Norway, which has about 5,000 inhabitants, 3,000 of which are students. Interesting policies of keeping the regions alive – they put universities in villages. (laughs) It’s a beautiful place and everyone is very friendly, but at this time of year it gets exceedingly dark. I’m here for one more month and I think by the end of it I’ll be quite ready to go back to London to breathe some dirty city air and concentrate working on Butter and Spin.

AS: Yes, you mention a couple of works in progress on your Website – are they animation or live action?

MH: They’re both experimental animation. I’m not sure at this stage when Spin will be ready but Butter is scheduled to premiere in June 2007.

AS: Is there anything that no one’s asked you yet about Collision that you’d wished they’d asked? Any secrets or little hidden inner life that the short has…

MH: Well, there’s the spinning biohazard sign. It’s kind of a joke. But no one picks up on it. It’s made up of three Islamic crescents…

AS: (laughs) Oh, I see it right now. I’ve got the short running on my TV. You can’t see it when you still-frame it, it’s only in motion.

MH: It’s really fast. At the time, I almost got worried that I was pushing it too far, because I was really trying to steer clear of a very strong statement. But it sort of slipped in and stayed there.

Sunday, January 21st

**We’ve just updated with a bunch of new cities and venues on the schedule page and the film maker pages are updating with clips and additional info. More to come!**

The week one marathon is over. We had a fantastic turn out in Santa Barbara. Thank you all for braving the cold and coming out to the show. Seattle and Boston both had freezing cold temps as well but the tour found a warm response in both cities. Don braved nasty travel for two nights up in Seattle. He’s posted a full report over at bitterfilms. For SB, Rebecca and I arrived to UCSB with Mike for an impromptu television appearance with Mr. Mike Judge on mtvU’s show Stand In. The program shows various film makers, actors, entrepreneurs dropping in on a college class and teaching for the day. Mike jumped into a media and society class up at UCSB to talk about his experiences in the wonderful world of film and media over the last few years. We worked out of the hotel for a few more hours before heading out to the Arlington for the first night of programming. The road crews (there are two) out in the wild right now include our projectionists and house emcee’s (you’ll be hearing more about these guys as we continue) and we’ll have more photos to share soon. Lots of notes throughout the program and since we’re showing in bad ass digital projection we can change the lineup and preshow city to city. Our Boston guys are traveling to New Jersey for shows this weekend so I haven’t gotten a full wrap up in Boston and Portland is just now underway so more news there to come but so far audience responses in to the home office have been really nice.

So with week one under our belt we focus in on what’s up next week for the tour…

New York – Bill Plympton and PES will be on hand for Q & A’s after the shows on our big NYC nights! PES will be dropping by for the Thursday program with Bill doing double duty Thursday and Friday nights. ASIFA New York will also be coming out to share the latest news on events for the next few weeks for all of you to enjoy.

SF Bay Area – Max Hattler is flying in from London to present a wicked array of live visuals for our Bay Area venues. In SF and SJ please arrive early for preshows featuring student work from San Francisco and San Jose State University students. In San Jose we’re especially thrilled to have David Chai of “Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot” join us! After the show we insist you stay to witness Max rock the house. Rebecca and I will both be up for all of these dates so feel free to find us in the lobby and say hello. I’ll give you a taste of Max’s visual mash ups here.

Starting with this next round of shows we’ve got some wicked prizes for those brave enough to come out and celebrate with us in costume. Doesn’t have to be a great costume (the best one(s) receive a prize) primarily as a note to that one guy that thinks the fancy t-shirt that looks like a tuxedo is a costume… naaaah. It’s gonna be fun!

A huge thank you to everyone that’s helped out on the Underground front. Both with street team aid but lots of folks also sending in pics from the different shows.

* Underground request ** Looking for pictures from our events across the country. Take your camera or camera phone/ipod/pda/trio/blkberry/mp3… whatever weird techno device you have and help us capture the Animation Show 3 on tour. These could include pics of local press clipings, promotion, marquee, crowd out front (or lack there of) and anything else that captures the event. Load these onto slide.com or flickr.com and send us the link! If we use them on our site I’ll send you a very special thank you from the Animation Show!

More soon!

Saturday, January 13th

                                Angels and Idiots© plymptoon studios 2007          

If the Animation Show 3 is heading to your city next week make sure you check the times and come out early!  We’re working overtime on some fun preshow materials and info to share and what leads into the Animation Show will be totally different depending on where you live. Yep, all that garbage movie theaters make you sit through in the “20” before you even get to trailers is out the door with our program. Instead look for a trailer for Bill Plympton’s new feature Angels and Idiots which is in production now, a lot of information on huge animation events (great festivals like Ottawa, Platform and Siggraph) trailers for fun animation DVD’s and much much more. We finished our theater trivia which you’ll all be pretty familiar with that format but at some screenings we’ll be giving away prizes for those that are up to date on their Animation Show know-how. Here are some can’t miss highlights for the new tour over the next week.

Santa Barbara – Mike Judge will be on-hand for the only show (on the only night) planned for SB. This is our second west coast kick off and Mike will be there for a stellar Q & A and to fill everyone in on his latest film plans as well as what’s in store for King of the Hill and all things Beavis and Butt-Head.

Seattle – Don Hertzfeldt will be on-hand both nights for the premiere of the Animation Show in Seattle. This is our grand kick off in the North West and will be two rockem sockem nights of animated goodness. Don can fill everyone in on his new epic animated short Everything Will be OK and talk about the incredible new collection of work on his “bitter films: volume one” DVD which is currently available for sale on his site.

Boston – The films have been selected and we’re working with 4 incredible animation universities in Boston to bring you a huge preshow event. Check back with our schedule page for film maker names and the break down of what will be shown when but we’ve loaded our preshow countdown with over a dozen mind blowing students films from Harvard VES, RISD, Mass Art, and SMFA Boston. If you plan on coming out to the Somerville Theater to catch the Animation Show arrive early and bring your own popcorn cause you’re not going to want to leave your seat before the show starts. For the second day of screenings (January 18th) animation legend Bill Plympton will be on hand for both screenings to screen his new Guide Dog, news about his new feature, and that damn Weird Al video that’s all over the internet.

Portland – Where can I connect with the animation world in my home town you ask? Our Portland show has the answer. Arrive early to meet the good folks from ASIFA, the world’s largest animation organization, which has an incredible chapter in Portland. Also check in with the Platform festival which debuts this summer. The US has been in dire need of its own colossal animation film festival and Platform looks to really hit it out of the park. Animator appearances here are still TBD but expect big give-aways and prizes for those of you savvy enough to answer a question or two about this show and its motley group of collaborators.

A little further out…

I have to talk about Chicago! We’re working with the DvA gallery for an Animation Show art show to open February 9th. There will be new work to view and purchase from artists Run Wrake, Jennifer Drummond, Jeremy Solterbeck, Don Hertzfeldt, Bill Plympton and Mike Judge. Everything from production stills to sculptures, merch and more. You really can’t miss this event… everything leads into our Chicago premiere with Animators Bill Plympton and Don Hertzfeldt in attendance.

We’ll update each week with more highlights to come but feel free to check back in to our schedule page and your specific city as updates are going on all the time. And thank you all for the kind words and encouragement that’s been coming over the website and via e-mail. We’re thrilled to finally get this show on the road!

Tuesday, January 2nd

Happy New year to everyone! As we’d mentioned before we’ll be rolling out a few interviews here at animationshow.com over the next few weeks focusing on some of the artists that have worked here behind the scenes since the last tour. Each year we work with a handful of different cover artists trying to find the right look and feel to carry a new tour and this time out we’re thrilled to have incredible new cover art by painter and illustrator Ryan Heshka. What follows is a great little interview Taylor Jessen conducted with Ryan a few weeks back. For more info and some incredible art prints visit Ryan’s site here. Ryan has a huge show coming to the DVA gallery in March. For more details on this show visit the DVA here. Enjoy!

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3
Ryan Heshka
Designer, Year 3 poster

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 11/27/2006
Via phone from Vancouver, B.C.


Animation Show: Are you a solo artist, or are there other artists working with you / for you?

Ryan Heshka: I’m a studio of one. I work at home.

AS: Who’s your most regular magazine client? I see they’re coming back to you often.

RH: The Wall Street Journal’s pretty regular. Smart Money’s probably the most regular magazine I do work for. Every two months I illustrate one of their columns.

AS: Are you making a living pretty exclusively doing illustration, or do you have another gig?

RH: Nope, just illustration and then whatever else I do for art shows and things like that.

AS: How long have you had your studio as a going concern?

RH: Five years now.

AS: What’s your scholastic background?

RH: Actually I studied interior design at University of Manitoba in Canada, and kind of came into illustration by a roundabout way. I did work in animation for a few years, too, when I moved here to Vancouver. I did character clean-up. I was more of a grunt, actually. (laughs) Nothing too exciting. I did a little bit of storyboarding and design work, and I also did layout. I was doing a little bit of everything, I guess.

AS: What were some of the shows?

RH: The studio I worked for was subcontracted by DreamWorks, so we worked on Prince of Egypt, Sinbad, Spirit. We did some Fox stuff, like Anastasia. That was the bulk of it. And then a few odds and ends. They would send the work up to Canada from the U.S. The studios were Bardell and Studio B. Bardel was the DreamWorks stuff, and then Studio B was another gig entirely.

AS: I’m guessing from your childhood drawing of Batman and Robin dated February 1973 that you’re personally of a late sixties vintage. So I’m guessing you weren’t in this world when the pulps were on newsstands, but I can see some of that influence.

RH: I would have wanted to find more of that stuff when I was young, but it just wasn’t available. But I did see it in a lot of books, I guess, art books and illustration books that I liked to check out at the library when I was a kid. That’s where that influence came from. I may have just been attracted to that era. I don’t know why. I can’t really put my finger on why I’ve always liked that stuff. (laughs) Yeah, I was definitely not born when that was around. I remember in the seventies there seemed to be a bit of a revival of that sort of thing, where old comics and old pulps and cartoons were a lot more of a hot commodity than they are now.

AS: I’ve heard that sort of nostalgia reared it head for the first time in the early seventies, yes. I remember a lot of that folded into the psychedelic style held over from the late sixties that wormed its way into animated segments in Electric Company and Sesame Street.

RH: Yeah.

AS: There’s this glossy sheen to so much of what you paint, where everything has highly reflective highlights. In your “Mr. Frank Weiner” painting Mr. Weiner and his haircut and his glasses all seem to be made of glazed wood.

RH: Yeah. Everything looks shellacked. (laughs)

AS: Did you grow up painting on wood or other media?

RH: No – I didn’t really paint at all. It was pretty much strictly felt markers and pencil crayons. Especially felt markers when I was younger. And drawing on the back of paper that my dad would bring home from the office.

AS: Did discovering guache help open you up to new techniques?

RH: You mean in terms of what I do now? Yeah, I guess gouache was the first thing I started painting with, because I wanted something that would give me a nice opaque, solid look to it as opposed to watercolor, but that was still easy to manipulate. I didn’t want to start off with oils, or something that was expensive and messy and hard to use. I’ve moved into acrylics since then, and hopefully oils will be the next step. I’d love to try those.

AS: Were there a lot of monster movie influences? Were you a big sci-fi fan?

RH: Yeah. I used to love to watch a lot of the Ray Harryhausen movies, and Godzilla. I mean, when I grew up, obviously there wasn’t any videotape or anything like that, so you couldn’t rent movies, but I would wait for the day when something would be on Sunday afternoon, King Kong or something, and then it was a big deal. Now it’s not such a big deal just to find stuff. You can get it off Amazon and have it delivered to your house in a week or less.

AS: Now it’s a breeze to find almost anything you want, whereas sitting at home waiting for Creature from the Black Lagoon to come on TV – as a kid you count the minutes.

RH: Exactly. You plan your weekend around it. Same with Saturday morning cartoons. You get up whenever your favorite show’s on, so if that’s five or six in the morning, that’s what it takes.

AS: There’s a lot of cut-and-pasted word clusters in your work – do you treat images the same way? Is the crab/squid thing from the Animation Show 3 poster a direct sample of a movie monster, or just an icon from your subconscious?

RH: I guess it would be a blend of different influences, the monster comics from the sixties. Definitely has a little bit of the rubber hosey cartoon style worked in there from the thirties. Such a mishmash of stuff – I try to not have anything too directly lifted from any influence. I don’t want people to say “Oh, that’s the monster from so-and-so”.

AS: I’ve been lucky enough to handle a copy of your ABC Spook Book. Tell me about the travails of making books in limited runs – at the Comic-Con it seems every artist had a limited-edition art book for sale, and I know these things are labors of love because I’ve made a few myself – but despite the expense and the trouble you’ve just got to keep making them, because they’re magical little things. They feel handmade and you want to take them home and cradle them and protect them. Do you have more of those in you?

RH: I definitely want to make more, but I guess the main reason for doing ABC Spook Book was to use it as a marketing tool, to get other deals. Because it is a financial drain. And there’s lots of things that can go wrong, and you’re doing a lot of work for just 650 copies, you know? (laughs) But I’m talking to a publisher right now, and hopefully the book will get picked up. It’ll have a second, larger run. And then I can correct some of the things I wasn’t happy with from the first run.

AS: Do you have any kids’ books in you, or other long-form or short-form narrative things?

RH: I’ve got a minicomic that I’ve started, and I’m hoping to get that picked up as well. What else do I have going on right now – I’m doing some work for Blab!

AS: Is any of your illustration work digital, or is it all analogue?

RH: It’s all hand-painted. I haven’t, unfortunately, got into the digital stuff yet.

AS: That hand-drawn element is part of your signature at this point.

RH: Yeah. I don’t really ever want to use the computer for rendering and illustrating. I would love to use it for putting books together, or doing graphic design and postcards – if I take on a graphic project and do a full package versus just the illustration for it, or something like that. A book cover.

AS: You want to use it as a publishing tool rather than a medium for creating illustrations.

RH: Yeah, pretty much.

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