Interview: Tinker Bell (Part 2)

Posted on October 29, 2009 at 8:00 am

Part 2 — from an online press briefing with “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” director Klay Hall and producer Sean Lurie.” And don’t forget to enter the contest for the Tinker Bell DVD and wings!
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the look of this film and what inspired it?
Klay Hall: Certainly the inspiration comes from the original 1953 Peter Pan movie. The colors and the richness of the backgrounds from the original film were embraced. What was great about this time is we were able to give it a fresh look and able to incorporate CG. We were able to enhance the textures and the hues to really give it the richness we felt it deserved.
Q: What is the benefit of Blu-ray for a film such as this?
Sean Lurie: We produced the film in High Definition. Watching it on Blu-ray is, by far, the best way to see this. It’s visually stunning and we don’t want you to miss the incredible visual details.
Q: Mr. Hall, do you coordinate the performances of the voice talents with the visual artists? Or does one come first and the other have to try to match up? Do the voice talents have a good idea of what the look of the scene will be?
Klay Hall: Yes, I do coordinate all the voice talents with the visual artists; however, we do record the voices first, so the animators have an acting track to work from. If I don’t have an actor recorded at the time I am handing out a scene, we do what is called a “scratch track,” where myself or an animator will speak the words and we will record them, so we have something to work from. When I go into final record with acting talent, I bring character design, color art and sometimes a pencil test scene that will help inform the actor of what I’ll be looking for.
Q: Which is the secret to Tinker Bell’s success?
Sean Lurie: I think it’s her charm, curiosity, and that she is not perfect. These things make her relatable. And she can FLY!
Q: Can you tell me about the production of the score? How did you work with Joel McNeely? Can you tell me about the chorus and the choice of Gaelic for the lyrics, as a kind a secret fairy language?
Klay Hall: I worked very closely with Joel McNeely from early on. We talked about how we wanted to capture authenticity of the Celtic world and have it sound organic. Joel is a very accomplished musician on several instruments and he had creative ideas on how to create this new sound. As part of our production process, we were able to travel to Ireland and meet with David Downes, several musicians and singers, including some of the Celtic Women. When we first heard the Celtic choir, it was in the Abbey’s residence, a 400 year old building next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Talk about inspiring and moving. It was truly amazing, an incredible experience and we felt like we were really on to something.
Q: How long did the production for the movie overall take?
Sean Lurie: It took about two and a half years.
Q: Is it all computer generated?.
Sean Lurie: Yes. We start with “flat” designs and storyboards drawn with a stylist in the computer (they resemble pencil drawings). We then construct those characters, environments and props as models in a 3d digital environment. Even though the shots are computer generated there are many talented animators animating each shot and character.
Q: What are the differences you can see comparing the new Tinker Bell and the older one, being a co-star of Peter Pan?
Sean Lurie: The biggest difference has to be that she can talk in these movies. Even though she couldn’t talk in the Peter Pan movie she was very expressive. You always new what she was trying to communicate. We tried to keep her very expressive, and maintain her key personality traits. Translating her from 2D drawings to a fully 3 dimensional character is also a visual difference. We tried to be as accurate in her appearance as possible. It was important that people recognize and accept her as the Tink they know and love.
Q: Can you describe Tinker Bell’s new costume and how you arrived at its design?
Klay Hall: Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure is set in the Autumn. So it seemed proper to update Tinker Bell’s outfit. In the earlier films, she wears her iconic little green dress. However, it being fall and there being crispness in the air, in addition to this being an adventure movie, her dress just wouldn’t work. So myself, John Lasseter, Ellen Jin, the Art Director, and the costume designers from the parks all weighed in on an approach to a new design. We landed on her wearing leggings, a long-sleeve shirt, a shawl, a hat and high boots with her iconic pom-poms still attached. The costume also had to feel as if a fairy made it, so all the materials, textures and elements are organic and easily found in nature.
Q: What was it like working with John Lasseter?
It was awesome! Working with John was a dream come true. He is so invested in this TInker Bell films and very hands on. John is very much a collaborator and helpful at every level. He was involved practically at all levels….From the original story pitch, costume design and character design to sequence approvals, animation, music and the final sounds effects mix.
Q: To Mr. Hall: Please, would you share some memories of Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl as persons and the way they inspired you in your work?
Klay Hall: It was an honor to meet Ward Kimball, which I had the pleasure on several occasions. I spoke with him while a student at Cal Arts and then was able to correspond with him in the later years about animation and technique. He was a warm, friendly guy who had me out to his house and even invited me to his last steam-up at Grizzly Flats Railroad. Unfortunately, I never met Milt personally, but was also able to correspond with him through the mail. He was very friendly and encouraging in his advice about acting for animation and being sure to do your research before you begin to draw. I still look back and read the letters from these guys, watch the scenes they worked on and I’m truly inspired to this day.
Q: Do you anticipate any of the other Peter Pan characters making appearances in Tinkerbell films?
Klay Hall: You never know! It would be great.
Q: What are the advantages of treating the fairies’ world in CG? And what are the difficulties that implies, too?
Sean Lurie: We felt that CG was a great medium for these films because it allows us to create a truly magical world. The richness, color and depth is fantastic. We also felt that CG would help create an environment that we could easly return to in subsequent films. Our biggest challenge with CG was to create a faithful rendition of Tinker Bell. We spent a lot of time on this because we know that this is a beloved character.
Q: I love the stylized look of the opening sequence. What inspired it?
Klay Hall: I happen to love Autumn. The way the light hits the trees, the colors of fall and the crispness in the air. I wanted to capture the textures and feel of the season.
Q: What is the most important lesson children can learn from Tinkerbell?
Klay Hall: We all can learn so much from Tinker Bell and her adventures. TInk herself learns a valuable lesson in the film -friendship is one of the greatest treasures of all; she learns that it’s okay to make mistakes and to forgive.
Q: What is your favorite scene from the Tinker Bell movie?
Sean Lurie: I love the scene where Terence is helping Tink build the scepter, and over a period of time gets on her nerves. It’s a very relatable scene with lot’s of humor. The acting in this scene is very good and funny. We are also both very fond of the Trolls scene. It’s a great thing when you can take very unappealing (looking) characters and make them some of the most charming characters in the film.
Q: Both of you have two sons like me. With the emphasis on the Terence character, is part of the priority for you to make Tinker Bell more interesting to boys?
Sean Lurie: Our objective was to create a film that had a broad family appeal. We wanted to create a movie that the whole family would enjoy, including our sons.

Interview: Joe Berlinger of ‘Crude’

Posted on October 15, 2009 at 3:59 pm

Crude is the latest documentary from Joe Berlinger, whose last film was the award-winning “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.” This movie explores a large, complex, international environmental lawsuit over damage allegedly inflicted by an oil company on a community in Ecuador. He also does the television show Iconoclasts, pairing interesting high-profile people with the people who inspire them. I spoke with him by phone about this new film.

NM: How did you gain the confidence of the people you were filming? Unlike your last subjects, Metallica, you were dealing with subjects who were not familiar with media.

JB: I would not necessarily distinguish them that way — getting the trust of a media figure like Metallica or James Hetfield is no easier than getting the trust of these people. One of the amazing things about this experience was how unguarded and open people were and how easy it was to gain their trust. Metallica are not just any rock stars, they are all about male testosterone-fueled rage and not showing any weakness and to allow that to be put on screen was even more difficult.

When I made “Paradise Lost,” a film about three teenagers falsely accused of devil-worshiping murders because of the clothes they wore and the music they listened to, and it was shot in 1993, just as the 24-hour news cycle as we know it today was kicking in and it was a very different mindset. It was the last time I felt in my career that we got that kind of access, total access to the families of the defendants, three families of the victims, the judge, the prosecutor, we filmed the trial. If we made the film today, it would not have been possible. There would be 50 satellite trucks, five Hollywood agents, book deals, that kind of thing has happened in the last five or ten years, who likes to dig in and tell a story over the long haul — not what the media does — it makes my job that much more difficult.

So one of the unexpected pleasures of “Crude” was I once again felt that freedom that I could take my camera anywhere in this country. The people involved were — in a refreshing way — un-media savvy, un-tainted, un-jaded. And these are people who have been wronged for a long time. I was surprised a little bit that a white person and an outsider had such ease. But what motivated me was not the lawsuit per se but I had an epiphany as I walked around the villages and saw the level of disregard that these people have suffered at the hands of others. For the first time I viewed this injustice toward them as part of the long continuum for the last 600-700 years. As I see people eating canned tuna instead because there are no longer fish from the nearby water, getting diseases they never got before, poisoned drinking water. Their lives have been devastated, first by missionaries and then by the oil companies. What made me want to see the film was seeing it in a larger context of displacement and mistreatment of indigenous people. I didn’t want an “oh, we have to win the lawsuit,” one-sided agitprop kind of film-making. That is not consistent with my style of film-making and it is actually less persuasive than my style which is kind of warts and all.

NM: That brings me to my next question. You make a real effort to be even-handed here. The movie certainly has a point of view but you let all sides make their own case. How do you make your point, stay even-handed, preserve your credibility, and still show what you have learned?

JB: Some filmmakers in the category of human rights and expose are afraid of a contrarian point of view, but I think it creates a viewing experience that is active instead of than passive. When a film has a singular point of view — first of all, stylistically I don’t believe in narration because I am a cinema verite film-maker. I want the audience to make up their own minds about what they are seeing. I believe the emotional truth of a situation rises clearly to the top. But a lot of film-makers start a film with a thesis and bang it over your head and have all their points adhere to that thesis. I embrace a contrarian point of view because that way the audience weighs the pros and cons and comes to their own conclusion. If you treat an audience member like a member of a jury they will make up their own minds and that is much more persuasive experience than telling them what you think they should think. Only people who already agree with you will see it. Any film where you want to affect social change you have to bring other people into the fold. You have a better chance of having people walk out of the movie and take action if they have been actively engaged. There hasn’t been a screening of this film where I haven’t had 40 people come up to me afterward and ask me what they could do. If people come to their own conclusion they will want to become more involved.

NM: How do you frame the story then?

The other thing that allowed me to be even-handed, and this was to the consternation of some of the activists and certainly to the plaintiff’s lawyers, who were surprised that it was not more overtly in favor of the lawsuit, is that the film to me is not really about the lawsuit. It is an excuse to tell a larger story. The lawsuit, while I think it’s important that there is a lawsuit and it is an historic one because it is the first time indigenous people have brought a foreign company into their own courts to hold them accountable, and it was important to deflate the issue of the for-profit lawsuit right up front instead of hiding from it, but a lawsuit is an inadequate vehicle for addressing humanitarian and environmental issues. We’re in year 17 with no end in sight. Even if there is a ruling this winter, as we expect, it will be appealed for another decade. And then try to make them pay. Look at the Exxon Valdez. Everyone agreed that they were in the wrong but it took almost two decades to pay those fines and at the last minute they got a judge to reduce the amount by 80 percent.

The other larger observation of the film is that I am not smart enough to tell you whether Chevron has wrapped itself up in enough legalities, all the legal issues and claims and counter-claims. The jurisdictional issue is interesting, the initial release from the government is an interesting issue. I’m not trained in the law. To me, there’s a much larger issue here, and that is the utter immorality about what is done. The law is not about seeking the truth; it is about presenting the best argument. For me, there is no justification for what they did originally. They came into a place where there were six indigenous tribes, and yes, the government had a hand in it, and they set up a system that was designed to pollute. There is no moral justification for that, to use methods that were not permissible in our country. Unlike everyone else, after the arguments are over, they have to go back there to God knows what existence, to that poisoned environment. Another generation will suffer because the lawsuit is taking so long.

Another reason for the stylistic approach is that it is an advocacy film but it is also a portrait of advocacy. The camera pulls back a bit in a self-reflective way and looks at the advocacy movement, what each side has to do to push their agendas forward. Some people asked, “Are you sure you want to show the coaching of the witnesses?” It wasn’t about gotcha.

NM: It was about teaching them you have to speak their language.

JB: There’s an honesty in that that I think the audience feels and it helps in their engagement to weigh the issues, including to weigh the media and celebrities. It asks why in this country unless there is celebrity attention on a social or humanitarian issue it does not get any media attention? I have enormous regard for Sting and Trudie Styler for what they did for this region long before the celebrity photo-op was fashionable, they walk the walk, but the film is critiquing why we need that.

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Interview: Aron Gaudet of ‘The Way We Get By’

Posted on October 7, 2009 at 8:00 am

Near the northernmost part of the eastern seaboard of the United States, tens of thousands of American military fly in and out on their way to tours of duty or on their way home. A tiny group of people, many elderly, are there to wish every one of them well and express the gratitude of our nation for their service and our good wishes for their safety. These are the Maine Troop Greeters. At all hours of the day and night, they are there to give a warm welcome and a friendly handshake to more than 900,000 service members (and more than 172 military dogs). An award-winning film called “The Way We Get By” tells the story of the troop greeters. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense (and former U.S. Senator from Maine) William Cohen says, it “is a moving and important film that encourages us to reflect upon the common bonds of mission and service that span generations.” It is one of the most inspiring movies of the year.

The movie is playing in limited release and will be available on DVD next month. It will air on PBS on Veteran’s Day.

I spoke to director Aron Gaudet about making the film over a four-year period.

NM: How did you come to this project?

AG: One of the three subjects is my mom. She is a Maine troop greeter.

NM: What is it like to make a movie about your mother?

AG: It was really interesting because it made me look at her from a completely different perspective. It gave me much more of an appreciation for her, for what she chose to do in her retirement years. At first, she wasn’t really doing much of anything. She didn’t have any hobbies. And then when she started doing this, it completely changed her life. It gave her such a sense of purpose and made me even more proud of her once I followed her around and saw what she was doing. Her and the rest of the troop greeters kind of amazed and inspired me.

NM: Did your mother work outside the home?

AG: Yes, she worked in a nursing home as a registered nurse’s aide.

NM: So at work and at home and now with the troop greeters, she has always been a caretaker.

AG: She really did spend her life taking care of people and now she is still doing the same thing.

It started out a short film about troop greeting and became a movie about life, about the universal things everyone goes through. This is a culture that defines people by your occupation and what you do, when you retire and you are no longer known for what you were doing, we tend to push people aside when we don’t see an immediate purpose in what they are doing. So these are people who all came to being troop greeters because they wanted at the end of their lives to do something that made a contribution.

We started seeing these parallels, too, all of these people going off to war are concerned about mortality and so are the older people who are greeting them. These big life issues took shape very quickly and were very interesting to us. Things they were dealing with whether it was financial heartache or losing a spouse, those are things anyone can relate to.

The Way We Get By – Trailer from The Way We Get By on Vimeo.

I am the youngest of eight, and all the others still live in Maine. But it made me realize that even with a huge support system, everyone checking in with her, she still spends a lot of time alone. Even with a big family, you still need to find something to put yourself into and give your life purpose.

NM: There were greeters during WWII who brought food for the military to the trains that were transporting them.

AG: Yes, we kind of got away from that tradition with Vietnam, they came back to nothing or were treated poorly, and one of the things that inspired the WWII veterans in Maine was wanting to do better for these troops. One of our three subjects says in the film, “We don’t necessarily support why they were sent there but we do support the troops.” They put their politics aside.

NM: How has this affected your mother’s life?

AG: Well the movie has made them into local celebrities. But in between flights, a bunch of them will go out to lunch together or do something else and so they have become friends. And it has affected my life, too. Gita the producer and I had started dating in October of 2004 and I took her home for Christmas to meet my mom for the first time. She got a call at 2 am to meet a flight and we went with her and brought a camera. We met Bill Knight, a WWII veteran, and in the movie he tells us he has prostate cancer. That night we went was the day he was diagnosed. It was a pretty dark day for him but he was still putting other people before him and that really grabbed us. People said that producers and directors don’t always get along too well together. But our relationship grew and when we finished, I said, “We didn’t kill each other,” so I proposed and we are getting married.

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Interview: ‘No Impact Man’ Director Justin Schein

Posted on September 25, 2009 at 10:00 am

How much impact can you make through a year of no impact? Colin Beavan and his wife Michelle Conlin decided to do their best to minimize their impact on the environment and as if that was not enough of a challenge, they did it the hard way, in New York City, with Isabella, their two-year-old daughter. And exposed to withering scorn from readers of the blog documenting the effort and a New York Times article that seemed to reduced the entire project to the toilet paper question. And they did it all in front of a camera.
It was a stunt, sure, but more than that a statement about what is possible and what, in the most profound and global sense, is necessary. And more than a statement, it is a series of questions, starting with this one: what do we really need and how much does it really cost?
I spoke to director/cinematographer Justin Schein about what it was like to follow this family for a year.
NM: What steps did you and the crew take to reduce the environmental impact of the film-making?
JS: Colin made us promise that we had to do it in as sustainable way as possible, so even before we picked up the camera, we were challenged to do that, everything from not buying a new camera, to no lights, no cars. All the bicycle footage was shot from another bicycle, a newly developed skill I have. Most documentaries have a much smaller footprint than fiction film-making but there’s always another step you can make, and that’s at the heart of this project. You have to ask yourself these questions. It is pretty easy to be stuck in a habit, and making this film carried over into my home life. You can’t spend a year with these guys without asking yourself about the food you’re eating and the garbage you’re creating. We started composting, we use cloth diapers, things like that.
NM: How do you draw the line between what is meaningful and what is going too far for too little benefit?
JS: Part of the process and the arc for Colin was about letting go of the rules a little bit and seeing that yes these individual actions are important but there is a bigger picture. For Michelle it was a different arc, learning that she wasn’t happy living the way she was living.
NM: Yes, she goes from someone who describes herself as addicted to reality television to someone who at the end of the year does not want the television back in the apartment.
JS: It was very clear to me that she really appreciated the benefits of not having the TV, in terms of being a mother, their parenting was dramatically impacted by the closeness that this brought to their family. That was an unintended benefit but it will be the lasting benefit. The time they spent together, eating and cooking, getting out of the house because they didn’t have air conditioning was really important. As they question their disposable consumptive lifestyle, those questions are going to benefit Isabella.
NM: And how did Isabella feel about it?
JS: Colin speaks eloquently about how Isabella was teacher as much as benefactor. Adults are stuck in habits they learned as children. She was not as entrenched. Turning off the lights was an adventure for her. Gardening was a whole new world. And she doesn’t have a caffeine problem and now may well avoid it.
NM: You were privy to some very intimate moments as this couple had some painful conversations about whether they should have another child. How do you establish the kind of trust that allows them to be so open with not just you but your eventual audience?
JS: The work that I do is verite and creating a relationship is at the heart of that. A big part of that is empowering my subjects to ask me to turn off the camera, Once they have that power they are much more comfortable opening up their lives to us. Laura is an old-time friend of Michelle’s from high school. We came into this with a certain level of trust and that started us off.
My wife Eden is the producer of the film, She had met Colin and Michell through Laura, Eden and Laura had worked together in the past. About a week before the year was going to start we had dinner with Michelle and learned about the project. As a film-maker who is interested in issues of the environment and prefer character-driven films, I liked the way it would be told through the story of a family rather than just the issues. In the wake of “An Inconvenient Truth,” we were looking for a solution-based project.
NM: One event you document is the burst of media attention the project gets following a rather snarky New York Times article.
JS: The media attention that exploded was unexpected and it was fascinating. Colin was being attacked by both the right and the left and applauded by both the right and left. The individual-based approach drew a lot of appreciation from the religious right, so we knew we had touched a nerve in a way that was interesting.
That Times article was at first very disappointing to Colin because the issues that he was trying to bring to the front were trivialized. There’s a contingent that really focuses on the stunt, as though we were trying to hide that. It was an experiment in order to bring about attention to the issue.
NM: What elements of the no-impact year have they kept in place?
JS: They don’t have air conditioning, they did not get a new dishwasher, they still eat from the farmer’s market largely. The biggest thing is that Colin has dedicated himself to educating people about this issue and started a foundation around the no-impact project. They are designing no-impact weeks for college students, to use this as a teaching tool.

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Interview: Anne Fontaine of ‘Coco Before Chanel’

Posted on September 24, 2009 at 2:48 pm

The foremost fashion designer of the last hundred years is Coco Chanel and her life story is almost as fascinating as her timeless designs. As its title indicates, this most recent film is a look at Chanel from her childhood until the moment when, with the help of some money from her lovers, opened her first business, designing hats. In this film, as Coco cuts up her lovers’ clothes to make creations for itself that were simple, elegant, wearable, and instantly classic. Amid all the flounces, corsets, and enormous hats, it was like watching the 20th century walk into the room. At the end of the film, when we get a glimpse of one of her fashion shows, every single item is as chic today as it was when she designed it.
Anne Fontaine, who co-wrote and directed, spoke to me about the endless interest in Chanel and how she selected an American actor to play a British character who spoke French.
NM: Why focus on Chanel’s youth and relationships instead of her work?
AF: She is the 20th century by herself, it is about fashion of course but deeply it is about a new way to be for a woman, very physical. She was not beautiful, she was very thin, very androgynous, she was not at all the criteria of beauty for this period, she was like a little boy. You can’t understand Chanel unless you know that she has a very different body. Because she was so different, because she was poor, it gave her freedom to move differently, physically and through society. She was creating clothes for herself that were less confining not just for the style but so she could do what she wanted to do.
NM: You cast one of my favorite actors, the American Alessandro Nivola, to play a British man who speaks fluent French. How did that happen?
AF: When I was looking for an actor to interpret Boy Capel, as you say he was a British businessman, who was the most important love of Chanel’s life. She always said he was the first and the most deep relationship she had, I tried to look in England, if there was a young man who could play the part in France. Many actors when they lose their language — it can be awful. If he does not think through the language and only thinks through the sounds he can lose all the qualities he had because it is very difficult to play a part in another language. In England, I didn’t find an actor who has the charm, the qualities that the part requires and they didn’t speak French at all. I was doing some casting in New York and someone mentioned Alessandro Nivola. I knew he had played an English part in a Kenneth Branaugh film, but that was not the reason. I made him a little exercise before the audition: “Can you read one scene of the script in French?” When I spoke with him on the phone I knew he could speak French, not fluently, but he was not afraid. I did a test with him to see how the face moved with the French and it was not only good but also very different from the other man who played the aristocrat. They were so different. The two men she was involved with showed different things and affected her differently.
Alessandro said it was very hard to be directed in French because I was always at his shoulder telling him to be careful with this word and that word. I wanted him to have an accent of course but not too much.

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