I am Chris Sullivan, independent classical animation filmmaker. The NY Times called my first film, Consuming Spirits, 'remarkable' and my 2nd film features Boris Karloff playing a 100-foot-tall talking bison on one of the moons of Saturn. It's cal...

What are some lesser known, or outside of the mainstream animated films and animators that you would recommend to someone interested in more obscure or artistic animation films?

Why do you choose this clearly more difficult process over easier modern methods of animation?

Jeremy Clapin, Sean Buckelew, Joseph Pierce, Suzie Templeton, Mikey Please, and a crazy motion comic-animation I love is Tatsume

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yeah I am in the process is actually analogue at first, and then everything is scanned and put together in photo shop and after effects. The pencil drawings are the way that I liked to work. we did a john Henry like race, animating in photoshop and adding texture, and the scanned pencil drawings won. but the breath is on photoshop with a wacom,

Any animated features you've recently watched that you would recommend?

I don't love the Red Turtle, but I love moments in it. also animators always look at each others films and think about their own. the red turtle gave me faith to use tiny characters in landscape. it was a pleasure to see someone else do that so well. Jeremy Clappin has a feature in the works. also strange pieces that mix live action and animation like diary of a teenage girl. beware mister baker and montage of Heck..Tatsume. of older one Mindgame, waltze with Bashir

What was it like working out the deal for you to use Boris Karloff's voice for your Bison?

was not a deal, I was blindly falling deeper into it, and then I sent a long email, about what I was trying to do with the film, and how I felt it would honor him.. sometimes that is all it takes, I have had people have things like that work out with famous musicians IE, can I please use your song... answer... yes

How did you choose the planets this story is set on? As an animation filmmaker how have you chosen your style? As someone who believes the major animation style, whilst changing, has not improved over the last 15 years, how has technology impacted on animation style? Finally, how does the comic book industry affect your work?

It started from three threads. Chicago disasters, my interest in Psychiatry , and the notion of the lost traveler, things like the franklin expedition, and the Boris Karloff thread came in one day while animating and listening to an old Lights Out program. The planet I made up, because I did not want to be tied to facts about a particular planet, I wanted to have room make things up, it has elements of several moons, though I do give it an atmosphere, and a relatively earthlike gravity. I also like the idea that it is maybe 10 15 miles in diameter so you can kind of hide, but not completely. you cannot escape yourself .

on the technical side, it is I think interesting that technology has leveled the playing field a bit, anyone can do digital ink and paint, at a reasonable pace, so the look of an indy short does not have to be greatly different than a feature

Hi Chris, Very excited about the upcoming film, already donated to kickstarter. My question is: Do you consider this film (and your previous film) as existing better in context strictly with other animated features (or shorts) or do you wish or hope that it will be considered alongside other independent live action films? (and as a potential follow up: is one better than the other?)

Really relevent question, Consuming Spirits actually did much better in Live action festivals than it did in animation festivals, partially because it was a film playing in the wrong place (do this when ever you can) the critical praise for Consuming Spirits first came from live action critics, then animation came in more in 2013. Chris Robinson, Carolina Lopex, Nobuaki Doi, Jasmin Basic, Daniel Soldjek (zagreb) are programmers in the animation world who helped me a lot. But first it was Tasha Robinsin, A.O. Scott, Michael Phillips, who made people consider the film as a film, I hope for the same trajectory with The Orbit of Minor Satellites.

Thanks for the answer! And if you have time for a follow up: Do you think the same thing applies in your experience with animated shorts screening in a live action context?

Yes, my partner Laura Harrison has won award in as many Live action conexts as animation. something wonderful about animators but nice to freak out the live action folks every now and again.

and thank you!

Did you have scientific consultants or researchers to help with the Space and Astrophysical side to this story? Why Russian Cosmonauts? Why 100 Foot Bison voiced by Boris Karloff? Why psychotherapy? What the hell is going on in that scene where the lecture hall is chanting "I'm too sexy for my books"?

How does your creative process work, bringing all these things together for you? Pretty much everything about this movie seems to intentionally evoke a question, although I'm sure it all adds up somehow. Is that your intent to kind of put the viewer off balance?

Saw that your first film took 15 years to make... can you talk about that process and dedication from inception to completion and finally, it seems, success?

To be honest the short answer is, because it felt right, the longer answer is that I always have several stories floating down this flooded river in my head, and I pick them up, and find relations, because they came into my head through some common thread. for instance my father died in 1969, as did Boris Karloff, and in some way a conflated their loss. this one is going slow, but not as slow, the Bison is just a crazy idea that flew into my head. something that is too large to share its love, like in mice and men.

and yes, I did do scientific research, I was very interested in Mimus, but then realized it was the model for the death star. did not want that. one narrativ element is like the clams in the bottom of the volcanic ocean, My Buffalo breathe sulferdioxide, and uses the sulfer, and expelled the oxygen .

Fascinating how your mind works. What are your non-animation influences? Books, Non-Animated Movies, Music? It seems music plays a big part in your films, including your own?

film first The singing detective Dennis Potter Version only, and all of John Whales. John Cassavetties, also a huge influence is Joe Frank. radio artist.
renta family- emerald Isle-in the middle of know where- The Bar life. masterpieces ..books jeanette winterson, alison Butchdel, ellis peters, julian barnes, and in this film Nancy Drew.. I am really drawn to old accidentay amazing books, old science books, medical diaries, archaic manuals. a great Linotypist is called a swift. nit everyone reaches that level.

accidentally I have become friends with Lindsy Elkins, and have watched her space science ventures (mission to psyche) and love to think about things like gravitational volvanism, and Gamma blasts

Hi Mr. Sullivan. Congratuwelldone on the film! Can I ask what software do you use when animating? Thanks! :~)

hand drawn on tracing paper, then comosited in photo shop, and aftereffects, and some animating in photosjop and flash, photo shop is great for effects animation, but no so good (at least for me) with characters.

One of the most frustrating things i find with my analogue work is then scanning it into the computer and either losing the smoothness of the detail or getting a ton of artifacts. I'm scanning at 600dpi on what seems to be a decent scanner (that i've cleaned) and played around with all the config setting but i never seem to get it to work. Do you suffer from similar issues at a professional level, and is there anything you can suggest to help get around it?

I am feeling ok with is. here is a lovely trick inner glow 3 pixels, set to blask or what ever your line color is. I use a canno-scan, they are about 100 dollars and very nice. also edge define is nice, unfortunatly photo shop tinkered with it and it is not as easy anymore. scan with some detail of the paper. intead of blown out.

Thank you for this AMA, very interesting answers!

I am wondering how did you finance your first projects and how are you funding your current projects? Only through kickstarter?

thx!

my other projects where funded by art grants and my job, but the last three grants I recieved, where once in a life time Grants, so there is no returning to them, I think this is actually good. but I have to find other means.

What an interesting storyline! What was your inspiration and how did this script come to be?

see above, and then continuing on. I have always been interested in strange treatments. be it electro shock, imprinting therapy. or how trauma can sometimes release a mind. some one is badly hurt, and wakes up somehow healed of something else.the writing of the script then began to unfold, and I became interested in one room in the film being live action, that is an interesting part too.

can you trade God for Oblivion

I was just seeing if I could make that square go away but I can't oblivion then.

though this question started to see if I was functioning, it has method in it. Like many who have strayed from God, I have done so for lack of proof, and because of pain and injustice. but the question is, am I really embracing oblivion and chance. do I want god to come to the rescue at the last minute. God has not chosen to do so. but there is always a part of me that wishes for the love of God. This film has in it this struggle.

This self asked and self answered question is my favourite so far. As I read it I'm in the basement of a church contemplating my own beliefs

i am glad you realize that, it is the question that Thomas Merton, or C.S Lewis, Hildegarde von Bingiune struggle, how can I be humble yet obviously a public figure.

Hey, friend of the Sullivan family here. Your work looks really interesting! Where did you get your inspiration for the story and the animation style?

several sources, first of all like HAmlets Mother says. "it is the carnage if your brain" but the initially I have always been interested in strange treatments. be it electro shock, imprinting therapy. or how trauma can sometimes release a mind. some one is badly hurt, and wakes up somehow healed of something else I became also a fan of the Frankline Expedition, and the idea of the lost and frozen explorer, they are frozen in reaity as many of us end uo frozen metaohoricy in out dead end search for a grand life. also the three tragedies of the Iraqoi Theater fire, the eastland disaster, and the our lady of angels fire inspired me. the death of a child, how does one move past it. .the writing of the script then began to unfold from these things, and the Buffalo manifested itself in some unconscious way.

How did you decide to dedicate yourself to a career in animation as opposed to non-animated films?

somewhat accidentally, It started with a crush on Sue Bachmin, who was taking an animation class (isn't that how many things start) but then I made my first animated and when I played it in a room full of people I realized that the assembly of people taking in a piece of art is what I wanted, I did live action film, video, and performance, but animation was in many ways what people responded to the most, and granting agencies also, so it became my trade, it is lovely and very painful also. your mind is going like a bird, and your images develope as slow as trees. I love the feeling of losing yourself in a crowd that is experiencing the same thing you are, and letting your Ego quiet down and just take something in, I like being on both sides of the screen the melter, and the melted.

Thanks for taking your time in this AMA! I'm an animation student from a country where animation has no future, any advice on how to obtain a job in animation in America? I mean, obtain it while living in another country. Is it worth it to immigrate first in other thing and then apply for animation jobs? Or should I be noticed somehow? How?

The great thing about the animation world, is that it is an international world, and you can reach out wit ha film and be heard in other countries, the most lo fi kind of film you can make (equipment wise), is stop motion . with single frames on any devise. Most important , make something amazing.. also check out sites like Cartoon Brew, all the information on festivals and artists there, also I love animate projects, website from Britain.

Do you ever get into creative slumps? If so, how do you reignite the spark?

I get exhaustion slums, and I get, I would rather be playing guitar slumps, I plug on through, but sometimes I do just play . here I am playing a cohen and Low song guitar.https://vimeo.com/197636464 but I never disengage from making in a drought way, just times of exhaustion. I also don't watch T.V so I have 5 more hours than an average american per day.

In that case, where do you find your motivation and inspiration?

I believe in going to see something that amazes you, and then realize that you are in that strange army, you are just a little voice, but you are not greatly different in your aspirations as your heroes. watch Hearts of Darkness, A Filmmaker Apocalypse. nails it home, everyone is scared they are making shit, no one is sure, and we are all amazed when something turns out.

Are you mostly happy or sad? Or I ether, do you prefer to just exist?

mostly happy, but my work tends to delve into sadness and how one navigates from that. I exist moving between the two islands of happy and sad. and it is a fine swim.