What made you decide to
become a filmmaker?
Alix: My name is Alix Lambert, I am a
director and producer. I co-created Crime: Marcus McGhee with Sam Chou.
I have been directing for 20 years. My background is in the fine arts where I
made installation and conceptual work that often involved video. I've always
been a visual thinker/storyteller.
Sam: My name is Sam Chou. I am a
filmmaker, Director of Animation and co-director of Crime: The Animated Series. I've been animating by hand for over 15 years, working on Feature films,
TV and commercials and eventually started directing. It was a natural
evolution to start creating my own stories, and telling them through the medium
of animation
Tell
us about your film (include title of film and category your film will play in
Sundance). What inspired you to make it?
Alix: I published a book titled CRIME. The
book is a collection of interviews in and around the intersection of crime and
the arts. What do real life criminals think about the way they are depicted on
film? What do film directors want to know about criminals when they depict them
in their movies? I interviewed bank robbers, victims, law enforcement,
directors, writers, actors and many other people. I went on to develop stage
plays using verbatim texts from further interviews about crime in specific
geographic regions. How does crime differ from city to city? How is it the
same? One of these plays, Crime, USA: Hartford, was commissioned by Real Art
Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. One of the people I interviewed for the play was
Marcus McGhee, the subject of our short film, Crime: Marcus McGhee. Sam Chou
had purchased my book and actually contacted me while I was in Hartford
working. We talked about our mutual interest in using some of the audio I had
from these many interviews and turning them into animated shorts. That is how
we ultimately came to make the series together.
Sam: Yes, the book was a great source of
inspiration. Throughout my career, I've
always wanted to tell stories that are grounded in reality and a bit darker
than typical animated films. So after reading Alix's book, CRIME, I was
blown away, I couldn't get those images out of my mind. I was like "YES!
These are the stories I need to tell!!"
CRIME: Marcus McGhee is playing in
documentary short program 1.
What
do you love about your film?
Alix: I love Marcus! He is a wonderful
storyteller. Pardon the pun, but he is so animated when he tells a story. I
think in four minutes he is able to use humor to illuminate a very real problem
in Hartford. I also love the animation style of this particular episode.
Sam: I agree, Marcus is a great
story teller and I love his enthusiasm when he tells it. It really helped
inspire the quirky animation design and technique.
How
long did it take you to make your film?
Alix: Once Sam and I had
the idea, the problem always is finding a way to finance a film. We made a
trailer and used that to talk about what we wanted to do. I had a meeting
with Emma Reeves from MOCA tv about the possibility of working together. She
liked the animated crime series idea and MOCA tv committed to producing the
first six episodes. I loved working with them and went on to create a second
series, Ambiance Man, with them.
Sam: All
in all, we created 6 episodes of CRIME: The Animated Series in just over 3
months.
What
was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you
overcome it?
Alix: Filmmaking is full of challenges,
both practical and creative. For this film, we had to make some decisions in
order to stay within a small budget (limited color palette, less expensive
animation choices) and we also had a very tight production schedule once the
project was green lit. Additionally, Sam lives in Toronto and I live in NYC, so
there were a number of virtual meetings. While, it's great that that is
possible now, it would have been preferable if we had been in the same city. We
didn't meet in person until the night the series screened at MOCA.
Sam: I agree. On the production side, the
challenge was creating 6 different completely different visual styles but using
the same color palette. Then producing the animation within the schedule and
budget was another challenge.
Tell
us about your experience getting into Sundance.
Alix: We applied and we got in! Thrilled to be
included.
Sam: When
we submitted CRIME, we actually submitted the entire series, 6 episodes
back-to-back. It was a 20 minute film that thematically worked really
well. When the Sundance programmers got back to us, they explained that
they loved the CRIME series but a 20 minute film is much harder to program than
a 5 Min one. They kindly asked for just 1 episode, Marcus McGhee's episode. We had no issues with that, we were thrilled to be accepted!!
If
you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?
Alix: I always make mistakes and learn so much on any
film that I make, but I never want to go back and make the same film over, I
would rather take what I learned and do things differently the next time
around.
Sam: Yes, we made many mistakes
during production. If I had to go back, I'd make better mistakes.
What’s
next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people
see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?
Alix: The six episodes can be viewed on MOCAtv. We do
not have distribution and are currently discussing possibilities in that
regard. We hope to make more episodes and continue the series.
Sam: We'd love to continue the series.
There are so many CRIME stories to tell!
Can
you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films
made?
Alix: Kill your babies.
Sam: Just
do it. Keep doing it. Don't stop. And when you are done, do it again but
better.
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