Interview: Stop-Motion in Edison and Leo
Telefilm Canada, Perfect Circle Produce Canadian Stop-Motion Film
Oct 2, 2008
In Part #1 of this interview, Neil Burns talked about how he was hired as director of Edison and Leo, and the advantages of relinquishing control. In this segment, he discusses some of the problems he faced, and the need for proper preparation.
Was there a point that you felt yourself going off-track and how did you get back on?
“Every day felt like that; it was just that kind of production! (laughs) It was 5 months before I felt like I was a week ahead of the schedule. A lot was reacting: ‘things are going wrong here, find a solution’. For the longest time, it was hard for me to find a really full picture of the film. A lot of it was crossing fingers: not that it was utterly out of control, but a certain leap of faith was needed. Even when it’s going wrong, you have to believe that there’s something good here.
“Every step of the way, you’re making a new film. Once you get to the edit room, you have to throw out the film you thought you were making and think, ‘How do we make the best film based on what we’ve got?’”
What were some specific problems you faced?
“The first day of shooting, every single puppet broke because the armatures weren’t right. It was like, the first day of a live-action feature, every actor walks out on set and breaks their leg. (laughs)
How did you handle that?
“That was the 2nd hiatus they had to take: they shut down for a month and sent these armatures to a guy in Hamilton, Mike Emiglio, his stuff is amazing. He really saved us there.
“It was an unfortunate lesson because the producers had the option to go with him initially and said, ‘We can’t afford his price’ and they paid more in the end than they would’ve if they'd used him in the first place."
What other problems came up?
“There was just a big learning curve for everyone because it was the first stop-motion film done in Canada, it was new for Téléfilm. I don’t think they appreciated the amount of prep time they needed, so they weren't prepared.
“Every other problem we had came out of there. If we had really solid (storyboards) at the beginning then our set-building would’ve been more streamlined. Instead, the carpenters built 4 walls for every set because they didn’t know where the big camera would be. For anyone making a stop-motion movie, that’s the point where you wanna to take your time, because that’s the cheapest part of your production.”
What were the elements of the movie that you felt you had the biggest impact on?
“I think the film took a more adult direction than was initially planned, so I think I bear some responsibility for that. There are certain scenes that I’m really proud of: I love the scene in the cave and the birthday party scene. I think those I had the most influence on, but it’s really hard because it was such a collaborative process. I’d say the animators had just as much an effect on the scenes as I did.”
What were your inspirations when you were making Edison and Leo?
“An obvious one is Guy Madden’s films, just because the scriptwriter is a collaborator and I’m a huge fan of his work. And because I knew his work, the script made more sense to me. It’s a pretty out-there script and being familiar with the style really helped me.
“I think Edison and Leo is really informed by 30’s and 40’s monster movies and Douglas Sirk melodramas. The love story between the two main characters really has that melodrama aspect to it. And of course those mad scientist films from the 30’s. There’s one that I really liked, Dr. Cyclops, which has the same tone and ‘hubris of the scientist’ stuff that Edison and Leo has."
People I talked with felt The Nightmare Before Christmas influenced Edison and Leo, through the angular imagery and the way the camera moved. Do you agree?
“I definitely think it was an influence. A lot of those elements were there before I arrived, you see it in the set-building and the slightly Gothic tone of the script. But I don’t think I brought those . . . I love the film so I don’t object to the influence but I didn’t deliberately put it in there!” (laughs)
What’s in store for Edison and Leo?
“TVA is distributing it here; it’ll come out in Canada in the spring. At this point, they’re trying to get foreign distribution first. If they bring it out in the States, there’ll be a lot of big marketing money spent there, and they won’t have to spend it here because we’ll watch the same commercials.”
What about you?
“This was my first feature; I'd love to do another one. The producers have a couple of scripts that they’re developing: one of them is based on a Paul Quarrington book called Home Game. It’s about a baseball game between a group of sideshow freaks and Mennonite fundamentalists, and the loser leaves town.”
Will that be animated, or live-action?
“Stop-motion again.”
Who’s doing the script?
“Elan Mastai’s the writer. We’ve gotten Téléfilm money to develop it, so he’s working on the script. Let’s say we’ll be getting into production in a year.” (laughs)
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