Interview with Animator
Samantha Leriche-Gionet ,
Creator of
"The Parcel"
Watch it now!
Watch "The Parcel"
When did you first become interested in doing animation?
It'll sound clichéd, but animation is the only thing I ever wanted to do as a child! At six years old, I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Disneyworld where I could visit the animation studio there; they were working on "Aladdin." I remember peeking down at the animators below and watching them flip the pages for a while, then I turned over to my aunt and said: "When I grow up, I'll do just that."
How did you get started?
I only could get into animation once I was done with high school. I went to the Cegep du Vieux Montreal (a public college) in Montreal, Canada, where I studied traditional 2D Animation for three years and where I made my first film, "Fou tu" (2005). It was a blast, I loved it. After taking a well-deserved year off school, I enrolled at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia University), where I'm still doing my Bachelor in Fine Arts with a Major in Film Animation. I directed two more films, "Lucien, Superstar" (2007) and "The Parcel" (2008), the latter being my first experiment with stop-motion. I'm finishing my BFA in 2010.
What do you like about animation?
To me, it's all about giving life to the small universes in your head. Animation is sometimes the only way to convey a story the exact way you see it, that you couldn't achieve through live action or otherwise. Everything can be controlled: the mood, the motion, the timing, the setting... your imagination's the only limit you've got. There's also this comforting feeling when you're watching animation; there's something silly and fun about it, like the nostalgia of watching Saturday morning cartoons. It can reach the child in all of us.
Who/What are your influences?
I'm heavily influenced by the minimalist designs of 1950s cartoons, mainly those by the United Productions of America (UPA). While I do enjoy the magnificent and detailed characters from, let's say, Disney or Miyazaki films, it's the flatness and simplicity of a cartoon that attracts me the most. I feel there's more thought put into character design--and consequently its movements--if you restrain yourself to basic shapes that defy laws of nature and surprise your audience.
One of my favourite artists has to be Mary Blair, who did some fantastic work and colour researches for Disney films such as "Alice In Wonderland" and "Peter Pan." Today, a lot of animated series have adopted this retro, flat look which makes computer-generated 2D animation easier, but I believe the one who really brought this style back is Genndy Tartakovsky. I spent a good deal of my teenage years watching "Dexter's Laboratory," and "Samurai Jack" has to be one of the best-looking animated series ever.
View Samantha's Portfolio
What inspired your story?
I wanted to do a tragedy, as my two previous films were comedies, and I needed to tackle something different. I had randomly doodled the main character, Stanislav (I always name my characters), during a class, and I instantly knew he'd be the star of my next film.
The setting for "
The Parcel" was loosely inspired off animated classics by Eastern European filmmakers, such as Jiří Trnka and Yuriy Norshteyn, so you can consider this film an homage to their incredible work. Oddly enough, the story came to me last, in a dream, when I was desperate for ideas for a plotline.
What techniques were used?
The puppet is made out of aluminum wire held together by epoxy putty, then I made his torso and pelvis out of Crayola Model Magic. His head, hands and feet are made out of Super Sculpey, then painted. He has magnets under his feet to make him stand off-balance. His eyes are actual doll eyes you can buy in craft stores. As for his clothing (that my mother made! Thanks mum!), it's made out of felt.
The set, which was fairly big (3'x4' wide, and approximately 3' high), was made out of MDF and masonite boards and crafted by my lovely boyfriend because I would probably have carved it out of cardboard if it weren't for him.
As for the shooting, I used a Canon PowerShot S5IS digital camera and the software that came with it for remote shooting. Unfortunately, I had no animation software that could give me live playbacks of what I was shooting, so I shot my film a bit blindfolded, without knowing if the movement was going to be good at all. Once I was done shooting, I took all my photos into an animation program called Crater CTP and set the timing right. Then I used
Adobe Premiere for the final setup.
ProTools was used to mix the sound.
How long did it take?
I had only one semester to do the whole thing, and I had three other classes to attend. The puppet itself was made in about a week. The shooting lasted roughly seventeen consecutive hours, which is incredibly short for a film that's almost four minutes long.
Were there any big challenges?
I had a lot of technical problems during the shooting, which was set to last three days. Setting up the right lighting was the first challenge: not only was it totally new for me to work with tangible light and not drawings, I also had to learn how to re-create night lighting, which is said to be the hardest type of lighting.
Setting up for the shoot took about eight hours. Then something happened: the camera wasn't screwed on tightly enough on the tripod, so it fell down and broke before I could even start animating. The university staff didn't find any other working camera until the next day, in the evening. When I finally could start shooting, I dropped my puppet's head and a part of his nose chipped off. I went back home that night filled with dread: I wasn't going to ever finish that film.
Fortunately, fixing his nose turned out to be a piece of cake, and the next day--the last day of the shoot--I shot the whole film without any other problems. I am extremely grateful that "The Parcel" looks the way it does, considering all that I went through. It showed me that just about anything is possible when you really want to do it, no matter the challenges at hand.
Watch "The Parcel"
View Samantha's Portfolio