THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3 DVD
Matthew Walker
Animator, “Astronauts” (2005)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 12/11/2007
Via e-mail from Bristol England
Animation Show: What was the story kernel for “Astronauts”?
Matthew Walker: When I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for my graduation film I decided I wanted to do something simple, something that was primarily character based, like an interaction between two characters. I thought of the idea of two characters bickering in an isolated environment and then this became two astronauts traveling through space in a tiny spaceship. The story developed from that.
AS: What were your duties – animation, sound design, voices, background design, other?
MW: I did everything except for the voices and the sound design, plus some of the props (pot plant, lunch box, watering can etc) were built by other people for me.
AS: Talk about the artists you admire that have made you who you are.
MW: One big influence on me is Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. The artwork and humour of that and the relationship between Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes really influenced me growing up and still does. I also love Peanuts by Charles Schulz and the work of Chris Ware.
AS: What art do you have hanging in your workspace or sitting on the shelf in books that you go to for inspiration?
MW: Not a lot actually. Mostly work related scribbles and schedules or random doodles and a couple of postcards and a Spaceman Spiff drawing. I also have an eclectic mix of bits and pieces, a plastic Godzilla, a Triceratops, a wind up Thomas the Tank Engine, a telephone box money box and Connect4. Book wise I have the usual technical manuals and illustration books I like. I also have a collection of books I like to dip in to but have no relevance to my work; How Things Work - The Universal Encyclopedia of Machines, The Penguin Book of Facts and a picture book of tin robots and spaceships (sort of relevant I guess). A lot of my inspiration comes from films (anything and everything but a lot of Asian cinema in particular) and TV shows (mostly British comedy and Seinfeld) so I have a lot of DVDs.
AS: How long did the project take from start to finish?
MW: In total it was the entire 3rd year of my degree course but it was quite a slow development to start with. I spent a lot of time rewriting the script and struggling with technical problems. Most of the actual production happened in the last 3 or 4 months.
AS: Were you test-driving any new skills or technology here? Or working with anyone for the first time?
MW: It was more of a crash course then a test drive. I had done some CG character animation in my 2nd year but nothing as complex as Astronauts. I didn't really have a clue what I was doing when I started out. My CG skills were still very limited so I was just learning as I went along. It was also my first experience of casting and working with voice actors which proved to be very difficult to get right. It made me decide that I was not going to have any dialogue in my next film. I have yet to do a non-dialogue film but it has not been as harrowing since.
AS: Talk about your scholastic background and your professional background. What led you to animation?
MW: I have been interested in animation ever since I saw Jungle Book when I was little. I think that is what first gave me an understanding of what animation was. I have always enjoyed drawing and my favourite subject at school and college was art. It was Wallace and Gromit that first got me seriously interested in animation as something that I would like to do but it was not until I did a foundation course in art and design that the decision was finally made. At that point I knew I wanted to make films but I was equally interested in live action. On my foundation course I finally had the opportunity to make some animations myself and I did a lot of 2D pencil work. I really enjoyed it and I also found it easier, as I could do it on my own in a dark room and not have to talk to people. I was very shy back then. That is what made me decide to do a degree in animation. I am still interested in doing some live-action work however.
AS: What bit of Blighty do you hail from, and how did you choose Wales for University?
MW: I was born in London but I grew up in the Lake District and then Cornwall. I'm not sure why I ended up in Wales, it was just the course that appealed to me the most. It was more about developing ideas and producing filmmakers rather then specialized animators. Some of the other universities I saw, everyone’s show-reels just looked the same: a walk cycle, a bouncing ball. That was just never what I wanted to do. I now live in Bristol.
AS: Where are you now and what are you working on?
MW: I am a director with a company called Arthur Cox in Bristol. I am also represented as a commercials director with Aardman. I am about to start work on a series of viral shorts for the internet with Aardman and I am also about to start a new short film as part of a funding scheme called Digital Shorts. My new film is going to be live-action but with an animated character so it is going to be a new experience for me.
AS: What percentage of your day job is animation? What percentage of your artistic footprint is animation? Are they the same thing?
MW: A large percentage of my day job is animation. I mainly earn my living directing adverts and I am usually involved in all the storyboarding, design work, animation and editing. When I am not being paid to make adverts I am spending my time pitching on adverts that I hope to get paid to make. I would consider my films to be my main artistic footprint and that has also all been animation. I also enjoy illustrating and writing but even that has all mainly been part of producing animation.
AS: What’s the animation community like in your neighborhood? Whose projects do you work on and who works on your projects?
MW: Bristol has a really good animation community. There are a lot of small animation companies in the area and then of course there is Aardman. In Bristol every animator you meet either works for Aardman or has worked for Aardman but there is definitely a lot more to Bristol animation then Aardman. One really nice thing about Bristol is that because it is a fairly small city the animation community is quite compact, so there are a lot of familiar faces and everyone knows someone else you know. With events such as the Encounters short film festival each year you also get the opportunity to see everyone in the same room together on occasion.
AS: I’m guessing that the silence of the vacuum of space is a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, although audiences never laughed as hard in those silences as they’re doing here. Are you riffing on any other film inspirations?
MW: I think my silence was more a nod to scientific accuracy then to anything else, although scientific accuracy was willfully ignored in most other areas. 2001 is an influence though. Seventies science fiction in general certainly influenced the design and atmosphere. I wanted everything to be very low tech, not so much the seventies version of the future but an alternate version of the seventies. If I had had a bit more time to spend on developing the designs I'm sure I would have got some reel to reel tape decks in there somewhere.
AS: Talk about how you got your gig with Channel Four. Is it ongoing? What’s next?
MW: My film for Channel 4 was part of a scheme they started last year called Daytime Shorts. Basically short films suitable for a daytime audience. I have been wanting to make a new short film ever since I finished Astronauts and always enter whatever short film funding scheme comes along. I was trying to think of an idea for Daytime Shorts for ages but I just couldn't think of anything that was suitable for a daytime audience.
Then a few days before the deadline I wrote the script for John and Karen in an evening. That's the script I entered and that is the script that got made with only very minor changes, which was a far cry from the constant redrafting of Astronauts I did and the usual designs and storyboards that I usually had to enter for other schemes (the ones I didn't get). It is not an ongoing project, it was just a one off commission but I would like to do more with the characters, perhaps make some more three-minute shorts exploring their relationship further.
AS: I love how your student short is 3D but your later TV pieces are traditional. It’s the new career ladder for 2007. “Oh, sure, he started out in 3D but NOW he’s traditional. NOW he’s serious.” Did you learn one skill set first, or both at the same time?
MW: I originally learned to animate in 2D during my first year of my course and then I did some CG work in my second year. I enjoyed it, but there was still so much I didn't know that I originally was going to make Astronauts in 2D. I did want to learn CG however so I finally decided to try and do it in CG. The worst that could happen was that I would fail completely. It was a very steep learning curve, though, but I am glad I did it. After graduating I got a lot of CG work, but as much as I like CG, technically I find it a nightmare, so I did miss 2D and wanted to return to it. John and Karen gave me that opportunity and now I am not limited to either medium in terms of what people expect from me. I enjoy both mediums and do not have a preference. I think both have their strengths and weaknesses. It frustrates me when 2D animators dismiss CG animation and likewise when CG animators dismiss 2D animation. The mediums are only as good as what people do with them and there is no limit on that (aside from time, budget and RAM). At some point I would like to try stop-motion as that is one technique I have never done, and which is ironic as it is the one that got me interested in animation originally.
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