Here He Comes, He's All Dressed In Black

OK, here we go again with a special mid-week edition of deranged ramblings. After a considerable delay, Craig finally returned from France, I sent him my questions and here is the (badly edited and somewhat stilted) Whatnot interview in full:

Craig, let me start by saying that Whatnot is a great piece of work, but you've previously been pretty successful with live action too; What prompted you to move into animation?
Thank you! It started as a throwaway experiment - I made a sort of flick book on post it notes of the Dreamer falling from the sky and left it for several weeks whilst working on other things. Eventually I couldn't resist going back and scanning it in, assembling it in the edit suite as an animation. As I did this, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to try to animate more about how the Dreamer ended up in the sky (and subsequently falling from it) and so began a sort of 'automatic animation' process whereby the most important thing was to feel my way through and animate the next and most striking images that came to mind, only later striving to create a semblance of order within the images. Obviously the kind of story I was telling (albeit subconsciously) would not have worked in any other media.

Technically, this is far more advanced than The Spoon Of Retribution (Craig's 2007 animation). Is that a result of better technology or did your learnings on the earlier film directly impact on the making of this one?
The latter - I made many mistakes whilst rushing The Spoon Of Retribution through to completion and knew I had to be far more patient on this one. What I didn't realise was that patience does not come naturally to me, and the whole process became a real tortured grind - animating through the unholy hours of the night, hunched over a scanner with dried glue on my hands and trimmed paper scattered about the room, swearing and listening to Bernard Herrmann.

You've assembled quite a regular repertory company for your live action works, while many of your musical endevours are more of the solitary, bedroom studio variety. Was the animation a one-man show or did you have a team of Disneyesque slaves drawing endless whales and writhing tongues?
It was absolutely a one man show. It was far too unsociable to get anyone else involved and the vision (though I dislike this word in this context) had to be allowed to leap from my mind onto the paper. In short, I may be a control freak.

It looks as if the whole film was converted to a negative image. What prompted that, and how far into the production did you make the decision?
The idea was to create a sense of hazy uncertainty and I felt that by inverting the colours I'd put the viewer in a strange position where they are looking at something unconventional and dark which would automatically throw them a little. I decided to invert as I was animating the first sequence, although there were two versions of the film (one inverted, one regular) right up until completion just in case I changed my mind. When the decision was final, I destroyed the regular version. Choice can be a cruel mistress, and by eliminating choice I sometimes find things easier.

Some of the character designs recall The Beatles' Yellow Submarine cartoon, while the sparse landscapes and wavering, skeletal trees evoke the haunted locales of The Moomins (the terrfying stop-motion classic rather than the pastel anime abomination). Did you have any specific influences in mind when you made the film?
I agree about The Moomins, the stop motion series is so beautiful and eerie. I had more traditional art in mind when I was creating the aesthetics of the film, artists like Hieronymus Bosch, Max Ernst, Gustav Dore, Aubrey Beardsley. I recently watched the fantastic French animation 'Le Planet Sauvage' and noticed that my film shares some sensibilities with it, although I’d never seen it when I made Whatnot.

In a wider sense, which animators and artists do you admire, and are there any you particularly aim to emulate?
I hopefully emulate no one on purpose, but the greats to me are people like Franz Kafka, David Cronenberg, Adam Curtis, Werner Herzog, David Lynch, Francis Bacon, Powell & Pressburger, Max Fleischer, Jean Cocteau. I particularly love Victorian art and design. Anything with lots of curlicues.

Obviously, a linear plot is hardly a requirement to appear on the Doubtless Wonder site, but is there a preferred reading for Whatnot?
Not at all. My intention was to make something which expresses both my hatred for and the general detrimental nature of bureaucracy and its stifling effects on creativity, but I accept that due to the ‘automatic drawing’ manner in which I made the images this is not so clear cut. I prefer people to tell me what they see in it. That’s not a lazy way out or an excuse for wilfully perverse pretentiousness - it gives me great pleasure to hear people’s own readings. After all, there’s little point in creating things and keeping them to yourself.

Having said all that, some of the characters like the sleeping king and the sacrificial diver seem like they should have quite elaborate back stories. Do you have any ideas in that direction, or is there any one else in the film who you think has more to offer?
Not as such, but I’ve noticed that the Lightbulb and the Dunce Duck at the end are quite popular! I’d like one day to show more of this world but with perhaps with more of a Public Information Film bent to it. I had it in the back of my mind when I was making this film that it was going to be a sort of surrealist anti-establishment propaganda film, which in a way it is, but it’s not so obvious. So perhaps I’ll make one.

Being a silent piece, the music has to carry a lot of weight and convey a lot of the plot, which it does brilliantly. You're an accomplished musician yourself (the driving force behind every incarnation of Lovecraft, a solo artist and sometime member of Zombina And The Skeletones) - What made you hand over the musical responsibilities to Jon Hering?
Jon is a real musical innovator and craftsman and I wanted someone who could offer their own perspective. If I had done the score myself the film would all be very one sided whereas Jon came up with things I would never in a million years have thought of. Also, he’s a very good friend of mine so it wasn’t like I was handing the project over to a stranger - there was plenty of room for talking and collaboration. The same is true of the music’s producer, Barny Riley. The three of us have known each other for some time and have worked together on lots of different things, so it’s more like play than work.

Tell us a little about Jon's background - Is he another Pondlife regular or is he a recent discovery?
I was in Zombina And The Skeletones with Jon for a few years, he plays in my own band Lovecraft and also in a fantastic avant garde renaissance band called a.P.A.t.T. for whom I’ve done visuals, so we’ve known each other through these various avenues and of course as friends. He’s a talented actor too and has appeared in a few things I’ve made. It’s the same with most people I know - they all end up getting roped into something I’m doing eventually!

So how did the collaboration actually work? Did Jon write to the finished film or did you animate to the music?
Because the animation took so long to complete, I’d give Jon versions of the film to compose to at home. As the film got nearer to being completed he’d play me his ideas and we’d discuss them, then I’d give him another updated version of the film to write to. This meant that the visuals and the music were in sync with one another throughout their creation for the most part! Eventually we went into Barny’s studio and recorded the sound bit by bit, which was quite gruelling at times but ultimately very rewarding and fun.

You always seem to have half a dozen projects at various stages of development; What's next, and will there be more animation in the near future?
If I’m not spinning plates, I’m not happy! I’m currently finishing a film I shot last year called ‘The Gauntlet’ about a man who murders his gay lover and goes home to his wife as if nothing really happened. Then there’s a horror film I’m writing with a friend called ‘Bill Is Dead’ which explores the notion that seeing a ghost changes one forever and is in part a homage to ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You’, Jonathan Miller’s excellent short film from the sixties. I’m also in the process of reviving my beloved pop band Lovecraft and shooting an untitled post apocalyptic art film, so plenty of plates but no animation in the near future!

Thanks for that Craig, I'm sure we've taken up enought of your precious time already, but do you have any advice for budding filmmakers?
Here's my film making manifesto:
The Alchemist Film-maker's Manifesto:
1. To ignore even a fleeting abstraction is sinful.
2. Characterisation before plot progression.
3. No long shot is too long, no close up too close.
4. A measured openness to chance is admirable.
5. Improvisation is grand when the obvious is avoided.
6. Illusions nourish the mind's eye - effects starve it.
7. Film more than you need.
8. Natural light is a cruel mistress, beautiful and beguiling but fickle.
9. Fear no refusal, refusal can be a catalyst for progress.
10. Know your location as surely as you know yourself.