The director Michael Dudok de Wit, nominated for EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2016 with THE RED TURTLE, talks about inspiration and style, and about working in a big international team.
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What is THE RED TURTLE about and what was the initial motivation / idea? In a way it’s simply about nature. I don’t mean interesting forests and beautiful sunsets; that too, but I mean all nature, the grandeur of nature, the special feelings we have when we are in nature, the exquisite beauty of light and shadows, death and growth, the recognition that on a deep level nature is home. The initial idea for the story was the famous theme of a castaway on a deserted, tropical island. Can you explain how you came up with the style and look of your film and the kind of animation and mix of techniques you used? |
How was the work process from the first idea to the finished film?
We used the classic process. In chronological order: the synopsis; the script with early designs; the storyboard and animatic with some early designs; animated test scenes to establish the final style; the designs, layouts and backgrounds; all the animation; the compositing, the music and the post-production. And finally the artwork for the promotion.
And what were the main challenges along the way?
For me personally, maintaining enough energy, because I worked long hours for many years. Artistically, the main challenge was to keep the quality as high as possible.
Why did you decide to tell the story with no dialogue?
Actually, there was some dialogue in the script. Logically it was ok, but it didn’t feel right, so we worked a lot on it and eventually we took it out. This story doesn’t really need verbal language. The other languages such as the film language, the acting, the music and the sounds are eloquent enough.
What audience did you have in mind?
Regarding the age, I had an adult audience in mind with the hope that some would take their children with them, children from age 6 upwards. Regarding the type of spectator, someone who is happy to see a film that does not contain non-stop talking, and that does not have thousands of jokes.
This is your first feature-length film after several short films. What were the main differences and what did you learn from this experience?
The main difference is the size of the team. With a feature you need a whole infrastructure to be efficient and you spend a lot of time discussing with the artists and the other collaborators. One of the main things I have learned and I keep learning, I think, is to communicate better with other people, especially when we talk about elusive subjects such as intuition, taste, charisma and quality.
Who do you consider your influences – artists, animators, directors?
I am inevitably influenced by hundreds of artists, I believe all directors are. For me these stood out: comic strip artists such as Hergé, Mœbius, Zenas Winsor McCay and Taniguchi, poetic animators such as Frédéric Back and Yuriy Norshteyn, and obviously the two amazing directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. And big live-action film directors such as Terrence Malick, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean and Akira Kurosawa. On a finer level my work is deeply inspired by music and by experimental dance.
This is the first international co-production of the famous Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli. How did the collaboration work? And what do you think are the main differences between their style and animation „Made in Europe“?
We had many meetings in Tokyo during the development phase to talk about the story. The conversations were mostly with Isao Takahata, but the opinions from Toshio Suzuki and from co-producer Vincent Maraval from Wild Bunch were also very important. I enjoyed those meetings in Tokyo a lot. Next, when the animation team came together and we started with the full production in 2013, Studio Ghibli chose to remain very discreet.
The main differences? The Japanese artists at Studio Ghibli used a different method of animating with slightly less drawings per second on average, a different body language in their characters, especially when the characters talk, they clearly favoured designs of faces with big eyes and small noses more than we Europeans do, their drawing skills are better on average than our drawing skills, I think, and their imagination is strikingly original. There are more differences I’m sure, but during the last ten years I have only watched about four or five animated features from Europe, so really, I’m not in a good position to compare.
