INTERVIEW Febr. 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW - CG Computer Gazette – Febr 2004

 


1. What is Pigly?

Philippe :
Pigly is a young Pig, who hides in a gigantic supermarket. Escaped from the slaughter house, he awaits nightfall to burgle it, and eat all what he can.

Sandrine :
Rapidly, he's caught on the surveillance cameras, which in turn alert Rex, a particularly tenacious stupid robot-police dog… this start a mad chase throughout the whole supermarket…


2. How did you get the idea for Pigly?

Philippe :
We simply watch some birds in supermarkets… Sometimes, they really live there, eating food where they can, making nests that people can’t remove because it’s too high…Its very funny to see this kind of thing.

Sandrine :
Then we thought that it would be very funny if this animal was improper, bigger… so, why not a pig? An incredible machine to eat!

Philippe :
This basic idea was the beginning of our short film. Then, we pushed it to a serial concept.

3. Please tell us more about the authors? Age, background, studies, current
jobs...

Sandrine :
We are both 30 years old, and we met together when we were studying 3D computer animation in Belgium, 10 years ago. After our diploma, we worked as Animators together on 3d serials in Belgium and in France (for example “Insektors”, “Donkey kong country”, “les Girafes de Mordilo”)

Philippe :
When I left school, my student film, “the American Patrol”, was also a little success ; It won the best European student film in 1994 (young 3d creation festival) and was awards at Imagina the same year. It helped me to start working on serial projects in Belgium (at Neuroplanet).

Sandrine :
In 2001, after having changed several times companies, we decided to start our own project, “Pigly”.


Philippe :
After finishing the movie, and since this time, we work as Directors and freelance Animators for companies based in Paris, Bruxelles, and in the north of France.

4. Please talk about the making of Pigly (how much time to do it, which
software, which hardware, how much time for rendering, how many polygons,
textures, lights...)

Philippe :
It took us time to prepare the film, mostly because we were still working at this time. It was extra-time working, almost hard.
As we were using Softimage at this time, and because we had a free licence of an old version, we use this software for animation. We also used an old version of Maya, mostly for modelling and rendering.

Sandrine :
We also wanted to use low-cost softwares, like some old versions of premiere and photoshop. It was like a sort of challenge for us to finish it with few money.

Philippe :
Visually looking, our starting choice was to make very clear, simple 3D.
As we are not very fan of hyper-realistic things, we thought that the simplest it was, best it was. We didn’t count the number of polygons, but clearly it wasn’t impressing… For each image, we were looking for the simplest light and texture.

Sandrine :
We did not want to impress by the graphic quality of the 3d, but to admit the spectator to our history, and to have fun with the characters.

Philippe :
So, we started to prepare the storyboard, the modelling and a lot of things.
But unfortunately, we learnt by our producer that we would have no money to make it… It was a difficult choice, but we decided to make it anyway, by ourselves.

Sandrine :
In about 6-8 months, we ended the movie. A friend of us helped us for the textures (Emmanuel Kowandy) and another made the music (Vincent Aupaix).
The made the whole modelling, animation, rendering, fx, etc… It was a good and a hard experience.

Philippe :
Now I don’t think we’ll do it again, it was very hard to direct the film and to make at the same time… You must have a large look at your work, and when you’re really on it, it’s difficult to see the entire thing.

Sandrine :
During the production, we show a test at Canal+ (French television Channel), and they decided to coproduce it. The film is showed on this channel since 2 years now.

5. Technically speaking which were the most difficult aspects?

Philippe :
For us, it was the rendering, because we didn’t had any experience on it. We are both animators! But as we wanted it simple, there weren’t some impossible things to do.

Sandrine :
The difficulties came after finishing the movie, when we started distributing it, sending it to festivals… As we never did that before, we missed a lot of important things.

6. Which movies do you like best and why?

Sandrine :
Difficult question to answer, we like every kind of animated movie.
Of course, we like the indisputable quality of the long features like “Toy story”, “Shrek” or “Ice age”, but we also like the classics animated films, like Tex Avery, Looney tunes etc. For us, every style of animated film can be good when the story is well written.

Philippe :
…and funny!


7. Please talk about the series. Are you working on it? Are you looking for
coproducers and distributors? Will the TV series be the same of the Pigly
short you've done.

Philippe :
After finishing the short film, it was clearly evident that there was sufficient material to make a interesting serial. So, we decided to make a “bible of animation”, describing new characters, new stories, about a group of animals hiding in a supermarket. This first written bible won the “Mifa Grand Prix” at the Annecy festival the same year, so, we decided to start thinking it very seriously.

Sandrine :
After a meeting some producers, it was clear the project was too big to be made by ourselves, and if we wanted that it succeeds, it was clear that we need a good production company, who will find enough money from TVs to produce it.

Philippe :
Unfortunately, the moment wasn’t very good, at this time a lot of Animation companies were in economic trouble. After winning the Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival (maybe the bigger short film festival in the world), we were sure that there was a public for it. Then we started to meet big producers, with a new “bible”. We are actually close to an agreement with a French production company (we can’t tell more yet).

Sandrine :
Of course we are still looking for producers, coproducers or TV partners, if some Italians companies are interested…they can contact us.


8. Are you making money with Pigly or is it just a promo for the series?


Sandrine :
Unfortunately, it’s not profitable to make a short film… The first aim of “Pigly” was just to show what we were able to do, to use it in our demo.
Of course it’s also a pilot for a serial, so maybe one day we’ll be winning money with it, but it’s not the case actually.

9. How many people and equipment do you need for the series?

Philippe :
Difficult to tell, when you need to make 26 or 52 x 13 minutes of animation, you’ll need a lot of people. At least as much as for a full-length film.

10. Are you aware that since you live in France you're very lucky? Your
country and UK are the most active markets in Europe for CG and animation...
Then you have good schools, Imagina...
11. Are you happy about the French market for animation and CG?

Philippe :
The French market is very strange.
It’s true that there are a lot of good people making animated films, and a lot of good festivals, like Annecy, Imagina…
But something is missing. A really effective financing methods, like in the UK or the USA. The market is active but not really successful like in those countries…

Sandrine :
Actually, there’s a slowing down of the productions, and with the incredible number of new 3D schools (sometimes very good), there’s too much people, so, less jobs. That’s why more and more French people are leaving, mostly in the UK.


12. Disney in the USA has declared that their new films will be only 3D.
They're closing down all 2D activities. What do you think of this?

Philippe :
It’s sad and logical for a company like that. Bigger they are, more productive they have to be. They only thought “3D is getting less expensive than 2D? Ok, we’re going to do only that way!”

Sandrine :
Yes, It’s only an economical decision, and there will be certainly still 2D films, doubtless more creative… Maybe it’s a chance for European countries?...

13. Do you wish to add other infos about Pigly, yourself and your studio?
14. Do you prefer to be independent or would you like to be hired by a big
studio? Why?

Philippe :
The two things are interesting. When you’re independent, you’re more free to do what you want, but it’s more difficult. When you’re hired in a big studio, you generally can’t do what you want, but life is easier, and you don’t have to look around to find good job.

Sandrine :
Actually we like to be on our own, but we never know…

15. Did you receive many awards for Pigly and has it been aired? By which
channels and where? Do they pay... enough?

Philippe :
P
igly win some nice international prices, and we’re very happy about that. (You can see the whole palmares on the website) It was recently bought by Universal Italy, so you’ll see it on Italians TV Channel. I don’t remember exactly how much they pay, but it’s not very much!

Sandrine :
The film received an incredible reception in Italy, it won many prices …Thanks a lot anyway!

Philippe :
Yes, I think we have a common film history… Italy is our closer country artistically speaking. It’s great for us to have done so many festivals here! Thanks!

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Thanks!


Massimiliano Lisa
CG Computer Gazette - Computer Graphics & Publishing - Emotion

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