Tim Allen - Interview with an Animator

BreakThru talks to animator extraordinaire Tim Allen about his life in animation, Tim Burton and his incredible work on Peter & The Wolf and Magic Piano.

Tim Allen on the set of Corpse Bride

- When did you first become interested in stop-motion animation? Were you interested in art as a child?

Yeah, I was always drawing, making models and reading comics. I think my earliest ambitions were to make comic strip cartoons along the lines of Garfield, and I copied this format with vampire and ghost characters. As a teenager I’d moved on to Batman and my dream had now progressed to drawing superheros (or maybe being one!). I opted out of conventional A-levels in favour of a 2 year Art Diploma, as we knew I was going down the road of an artistic career. At this stage, I honestly can say I hadn’t even considered you could animate for a living!  

Somewhat lost for what to do after my art course, I was looking at modelmaking degrees and accidently stumbled upon an animation degree. At this time Nightmare Before Christmas had recently come out in cinemas & the idea of working on something like that just blew me away. Cheesy as it sounds, it was a moment of complete certainty, a true calling. I looked around & found a very good stop motion course at Glamorgan University and my very first animated steps began...

- How did you first 'break into the industry'? Was there a particular project that helped solidify your interest into a career?

It was tough getting going and those that get a break shortly after college I think are the very lucky ones. As I graduated, the industry was just starting a quiet patch which was leaving lots of established professionals on the job hunt. I contacted & tried to visit pretty much every stop motion company in the UK. In retrospect it was good experience in that it taught me who was who in the stop motion world as I literally knocked on almost everyone’s door. I did a fair bit of work experience & trainee model making where I learned quite a bit about studio practise.

I guess I did the classic of casting my net wide and after 1 and a half years I finally made a catch! I was asked to come for an animation audition for Ealing Animation in London. I think I got the job for two reasons - I would work very hard to impress and I was cheap!

One of Tim's first jobs in animation came with the BBC's
fondly remembered stop-motion education show 'El Nombre'

It was a low budget educational programme called El Nombre and so long as we told the educational part properly we had some creative freedom within the rest of the episode. For months, my animation was mostly long drawn out shots of gerbils counting money, very slowly. Fortunately the characters were charming and I had some very interesting and challenging sequences to work on for the action parts of the story. I was one of only two animators on the show so had my fair share of variety and tricky animation. A junior animator wouldn’t normally get the difficult stuff, but they only had two of us to delegate to! After 8 months the series finished & I was looking for work again, but this time I had some half decent shots under my belt & could pretend I was a professional!

- How did your involvement with Tim Burton begin? Were you a fan of his work before you were recruited for Corpse Bride?

I’ve always had a huge appreciation for Nightmare Before Christmas as it was the project that inspired me into this business. I loved Tim’s visual style and to work on a giant set from a Nightmare or Corpse Bride movie felt like the ultimate career moment at that time. Back then the only place that made feature films was Aardman. They already had a full time animation crew in place, which left most other animators around the UK (myself included) working on children’s TV series. This meant that when Corpse Bride came along it was a big deal – a chance to work on a big Hollywood size Tim Burton movie! I’d now been animating children’s series for 6 years and this movie felt like the opportunity of a lifetime!

However my showreel was rejected, as was my second attempt and only 6 months later did my third showreel (I kept working on it and updating it) earn me an audition. I had to do a nerve-racking 3 day test, but this time around, I made the right impression. It didn’t end there of course as you need to continue earning the directors trust for him to delegate what sequences you get to animate.

- Can you describe what an average day is like for an animator? Do you specialise in one particular area of it or is there a lot of variety?

On a film you often get typecast and could spend most of your time with a handful of characters. On Corpse Bride I was mostly cast as Barkis the sinister psychopath for 6 months. On Magic Piano I developed how to animate the Flying Machine & spent a good 6 months pushing it to the limits! On children’s series & commercials you can get a lot of variety quickly which is great for learning your craft.

An average day? It always depends on the project and the company you’re working for. Each studio has slightly different working practices so I could answer differently for each production. Here’s a generalisation:

Tim worked extensively on bringing the villainous
Barkis Bittern to life in Corpse Bride

As an animator my role tends to function like that of an actor in a live action film and I must be cast for the role. This is all based on what the director needs and I will work to his/her instructions to try and find the best way to approach the shot. From here I’ll plan the shot out with the camera crew to ensure I’ll be keeping the puppet in focus and making good use of the lighting. Next the model/puppet makers and riggers will help me with any details so that I can create the shot as close to the director’s needs as possible.

A quick note about time keeping: There’s normally pressure to get things done as quickly as possible (for understandable financial reasons!). In fact the key to making beautiful stop motion fast is all in the preparation time. It’s like struggling through an obstacle course when you’d be better off removing the obstacles and just sprinting to the finish line. You’ve got to take responsible decisions to get the balance right.

Once I start animating, you’re kind of on your own – for many many hours until the work is complete. You have to embrace & love the creative freedom to ‘perform’ your shot as a live action actor would. You have specific instructions that you need to get right but at the end of the day you’ll be relying heavily on your instincts. In truth you’re normally under pressure to get it done as quickly as possible!

- Could you tell us a little about your involvement with BreakThru Films? How was it working with Suzie on Peter and the Wolf?

I came onboard Peter & the Wolf about 2 months into the shoot and it was quite an exciting time in those early stages. I was the first animator to come over from outside Poland for the project. Suzie was great and had such a clear vision of how every detail should be. The challenge for me was being able to give her the detailed performance she needed in the limited time we had.

Initially Suzie was hoping I could do lots of work establishing the wolf, but the puppet wasn’t quite ready and I started working with Peter. She liked my close up acting work and basically I think most of my time was spent doing close-ups of Peter face. It was tricky as only the eyeballs could move and Suzie needed very specific emotional reactions from a completely static face! The shot that stands out in my memory is where Peter sees Duck, his childhood pet and closest companion, eaten alive right in front of him. Suzie asked for Peter to display utter shock, then overwhelming horror, followed by a shiver creeping up his spine, climaxing into trembling realisation. All this when the only facial movement I can get is moving the head and eyeballs!

- And what are your thoughts on The Flying Machine?

Oh quite simply it’s the most challenging project I’ve ever worked on! It wasn’t just because I was animation supervisor this time round, though certainly that in itself was an interesting new challenge. It wasn’t just that it was my first time shooting in 3D or that every action had to naturally sync with Chopin’s music. No the film had so many unbelievably ambitious but potentially beautiful sequences. To try and coordinate shots with thousands of flowers blowing in the wind, or epic long shots or the entire junk yard coming to life was complexity on a grand scale - and I didn’t even animate those pieces myself!

Most of my time in the studio was taken up trying to get a 2 metre high flying machine puppet to soar through the sky convincingly. It was a fascinating yet intimidating character/machine/force of nature (we called it all these and more!). We had a lot of practical hurdles to overcome (I sense I’m making a gross understatement here!) and it was really tough getting such a big complicated model to do what I wanted. I sometimes get more satisfaction seeing the shots before post production than after, the only reason being that you can see all the rigs moving that control it. Then you get a very real sense of what a technical accomplishment it was.

But the real beauty of the film was that Director Martin Clapp had worked so hard to make these sequences flow to the music and tell some beautiful moments. Each shot was utterly complex, but you knew it was justified and would be worth it. I’m very very proud of all we did on Magic Piano and feel lucky to have been so heavily involved with it.

- You've most recently completed work on Burton's Frankenweenie, can you tell us a little about the animation approach in this new film?

The cloth will come off Tim's work on
Frankenweenie when it's released this October

Well I can’t give too much about the film away yet, but again I’m really excited to be a part of this gem of a movie. It may initially look similar visually to Corpse Bride, but the animation is much more dynamic and lively. It really tested your timing as an animator. I did a lot of work with central characters Victor and his pet dog Sparky. This meant animating a four legged character who had to behave like a loveable but realistic dog. I looked at live action videos of real dogs regularly to try and get Sparky’s running and mannerisms accurate.

- Do you think there's a bright future for stop-motion animation, and if so, what can explain it's continued appeal?

It looks like we’re starting a golden age of stop motion now. There’s going to be a lot of films coming out of America, as well as several European ones on the cards soon. After a dry spell for children’s series, there’s suddenly many happening in the UK simultaneously. Aardman continue to keep as busy as ever too. We could be looking at 6-10 years rife with stop motion productions.

As for the appeal, I guess it’s the age old tangible quality, that you feel you can touch it and you can see it’s not perfect. I think people find a model set and a puppet very immersive. You can literally walk on that set and more easily imagine being in that world. We all had toys or dolls we had a close attachment to as children & perhaps puppets tap into this primal bond with our imagination.

It’s been such a blast working with so many different talented people and I feel so Iucky I found an art form I love and can earn a living from. I even went to Ray Harryhausen’s house recently to discuss stop motion techniques with him – I mean how cool is that?! It is not an easy career and won’t suit most people but there can be a lot of highlights. I’m trying to settle down more but there’s a lot of stuff tempting me right now. I believe even BreakThru Films aren’t done with stop motion...!

Tim’s website: www.TimAllenAnimation.co.uk

Follow Tim’s adventures in the world of stop motion on Twitter: @TimAnimation

Happy Birthday Peter! - 86 years of Prokofiev's classic

Peter and the Wolf is 86 years old this week - BreakThru take a look at the creation of Prokofiev's family masterpiece - and its less than enthusiastic early reception!

Sergei Prokofiev

On May 2^nd 1936, which has its 86^th anniversary this week, there was a disappointing opening at the Moscow Philharmonic. Sergei Prokofiev had recently enjoyed his 45^th birthday, and had earlier that year settled permanently in a city which had only two decades before been wracked by revolution. Already the acclaimed composer of great operas such as The Fiery Angel (1919-27) and The Love for Three Oranges (1919), he had won acclaim for his revolutionary technical and artistic achievements, as well as notoriety for his dissonant and controversial musical experiments. The composer was given leave to travel from Russia to America, to Germany and to Paris, and when he returned it was as one of the world’s most celebrated artists.

The Moscow Children's Theatre, now the Nataliya Sats Theatre
named after the formidable woman who comissioned Peter and the Wolf

Settling back into life in Moscow, Prokofiev was glad to take a small commission from the Children’s Theatre. He was no doubt convinced to take up the modest project by the strong and determined Nataliya Sats, who ruled the theatre with a strong business sense and absolute artistic determination. Sats was immensely well-respected, and when she asked Prokofiev to produce a work which could fulfil the pedagogical role of introducing children to certain aspects of music and of the orchestra, he was happy to oblige.

The work he produced was a piece which gradually introduced the audience to elements of the orchestra, giving space and identity to each instrument in such a manner as to illuminate their individual characters as well as their purpose within the wider orchestral framework. The work was to incorporate a spoken-word element which told the story of Pioneer Peter who ‘sets wrong to right by defying an elder’ (Simon Morrison, The People’s Artist). This was a simple morality tale with obvious political implications in post-Revolutionary Russia. The 1920’s and 30’s were filled with this kind of children’s literature, which taught a questioning attitude to authority, which demonstrated youth and energy triumphing over ignorance and age. The original text was drafted by poet Nina Sakonskaya, who had considerable experience writing stories in verse for young readers.

An autographed score from its 1938 US premiere

Prokofiev rejected Sakonskaya’s draft, feeling that the story was too rhymed, the rhythm of the words claiming a dominance over the music which was entirely inappropriate to his project. While acknowledging the importance of words in his tale, Prokofiev insisted upon their proper and properly delicate balancing against the music. Too much rhyme and rhythm and their jangling would drown out everything else. Prokofiev, choosing instead to draft the text himself, insisted ‘Words must know their place.’ They found their place in his own version, drafted rapidly under the title How Pioneer Peter Caught the Wolf. The plot borrows from folklore, from propaganda, and even from Disney, reflecting the concerns of animal-based morality shorts such as The Wise Little Hen.

Donald Duck greets The Wise Little Hen (1934), one of
Prokofiev's more surprising inspirations

It took less than a week for Prokofiev to create the piano score, it took a further 10 days for him to complete the orchestration. Peter’s theme came first, the anchor for the adventure, and one which is flexible enough to bend into a march, a pastorale and a waltz as the narrative dictates. The other themes came next, inspired by the key sounds and techniques of the individual instruments. Prokofiev’s lightness of touch, his sympathy for the whimsical imaginations of children and his skill in pictorialism all combine to make for an enchanting tale that belies its roots in didacticism. The enduring and global success of what would come to be known as Peter and the Wolf demonstrates the power of its simple story to move beyond a simple delineation of a pioneer’s responsibilities and virtues into something which resonates with the fundamental thrills, fears and triumphs of childhood.

There was little triumph in that first performance, however, as Prokofiev’s new work was greeted with profound indifference by the stiff adult audience at the Philharmonic. His work seemed minor and unchallenging, the audience had little interest in being educated about the mechanics of the orchestra, or the trials of boyhood. It wasn’t until Prokofiev presented the work at a mixed audience of old and young at the Children’s Theatre that it’s incredible journey to international renown began.

The wolf  in BreakThru's own version of
Prokofiev's classic

Though adult audiences were eventually to warm considerably to the work, giving it an almost unique status among classical music as a piece beloved by audiences of all ages, it is among children that its true magic remains its most potent. When BreakThru present Suzie Templeton’s version with a live accompaniment, the loudest laughs still come from the children, the humour of that final oboe quack from the depths of the wolf’s stomach never fails to bring the house down. Prokofiev’s achievement is a truly universal one, it translates into any language, it rings true with any audience, and shows so sign of falling from its place in the hearts of young and old alike.

- Stewart Pringle