A QUESTION AND ANSWER WITH TALE OF DESPEREAUX DIRECTORS SAM FELL AND ROB STEVENHAGEN

In 1990, SAM FELL gained a first-class degree in fine art from The University of Nottingham.  At the end of the course, he won a place on the Channel Four/MOMI  animator-in-residence scheme, which was set up to enable young talent to develop and produce new animation.
The scheme resulted in Fell directing a short film for Channel Four Television called The Big Cheese, which was produced at 3 Peach Animation in London and completed in 1992.  During this period, Fell also worked as a freelance animator and director on commercials, pop promos and short films for 3 Peach, Aardman Animations, Redwing, FilmFair and the BBC.  Around this time, Fell developed a working relationship with Peter Lord at Aardman Animations, which resulted in him working as the key animator on Wat's Pig, Lord's 1996 Academy Award-nominated short film.
In 1996, Fell signed on as a commercials director at Aardman.  He continued making short films (Pop and Chump) while directing commercials and developing Rabbits!, a combination CGI-and-claymation television series for children.  He also directed three episodes of the Aardman television series Rex the Runt for the BBC.  These experiences gave him the taste for both long-form work and new technology.
During 2001, he went on to develop several feature film ideas, one of which was Flushed Away.  When DreamWorks/Aardman decided to develop the idea into a movie, Fell took on the challenge to direct Aardman's first CGI-animated feature film, produced at DreamWorks Animation studio in Los Angeles from 2002 to 2006.   In 2007, Flushed Away was nominated for a BAFTA in the Animated Feature category and also for a  Children's BAFTA for Best Feature Film.

Born in Voorburg, Holland, ROB STEVENHAGEN studied drawing before working as a supervising animator and animation director for Disney, Amblimation, DreamWorks and other major studios. 
In 1995, Stevenhagen co-founded and was company director of the animation company Stardust Pictures Ltd. in London.  The company handled outsourced feature sequences for major motion picture studios.  Stevenhagen moved to Berlin in 2000 to develop his own projects.  In 2002, he returned to London and since then has worked on feature films and commercials.
Stevenhagen's feature film credits include the Academy Award-winning film Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, as a senior storyboard artist for Aardman Animations; Lion Queen, as an animation consultant for Jim Henson's Creature Shop; Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, as an animator for DreamWorks; The Road to El Dorado, as a sequence director and storyboard artist for DreamWorks; the BAFTA-nominated 1001 Nights; The Rugrats Movie; Space Jam; Balto; An American Tail: Fievel Goes West; and the Academy Award^®-winning Who Framed Roger Rabbit as an animator.  Stevenhagen also worked as an additional character designer on the Oscar-nominated stop-frame animated short The Periwig-Maker.

Q: What inspired you to make an animated movie like The Tale of Despereaux?
Rob: I got to read the script about two and half years ago. After reading the book, I thought this story would be so nice to make into a movie. There are many great, beautiful, animated films and great comedies. I thought it would be nice to tell something that resembles classic storytelling. Also, the fact that it has lyrical feel to it, because of the book, and, the way Gary wrote the script, the way he manages to weave the stories together. I thought it would be a great challenge to undertake, and that it would make a great film. 
Sam: It was just different. It was unusual. There are so many animated films being made more and more each year, and you want to find something that is worth working on for two years. You want something that is going to have an impact in the end.

Q: The Tale of Despereaux is beautiful simply because it rediscovers the values and humanity of underdogs.
Sam: The characters are very substantial characters, and I think the animators were excited about them. The characters weren't some goofy rats just doing some gags.

Q: This movie seems to contain characters that are mostly underdogs, which everyone can identify with in some way, which character is your favorite?
Sam: I probably like Roscuro most. His story is the most dramatic and amazing. His journey is amazing. I love him because he is a charming, old-ship rat. I like his mixture of scruffiness and charm. Back to what you were saying about the characters, you are right, in this movie there are many underdogs. I haven't really thought about that. There is an underdog for every person.
Rob: Miggery Sow is another favorite of mine, and I really feel for her. She is totally unusual, because she is not pretty but yet she is likable and believable.
Sam: Yes, Migg gets you to invest in her story and to spend time listening to her. She gets screen time, whereas, usually she would just be in the background (laughs).
Rob: Going back to the book, there seems to be this theme of "longing" in the characters. They all long for something, and ultimately these characters are tied together by Despereaux as they meet throughout the story. There is a bit of a sophisticated undercurrent throughout the whole thing.
Sam: It's quite a thing to do to set so many stories in motion, and to find a way to have them come together in a sort of epic conclusion.

Q: The process of recording was different from the traditional way it's done, because there were no sound booths for the actors. Why was this?
Sam: The actors did interact and they worked together. It was like the usual experience. If anything, it probably created better performances. However, you are limited in the amount of "takes" you can choose.
Rob: It wasn't always an easy thing, but I do think it created more natural performances. Normally when you record voices separately, when animating to voice, you have cleaner cuts and the actors are not stepping over each other. 

Q: What were you looking for when you started casting the actors?
Sam: I think good actors were the main thing. It's a huge cast of great actors. 
Rob: They are all talented actors. Due to the fact that the movie is a drama and a sophisticated little story, we knew, and Gary knew, we needed to have a strong cast throughout. We are also lucky because Gary knows these actors because some of them are his friends. Thus, we get some great benefits from Gary being a producer on the movie. I don't have those numbers in my address book (laughs)! I would love to work with all of them again. It was an astonishing cast.

Q: One of the most difficult processes, in a film, is getting that "chemistry" between the actors. In animation how can you create that feeling of connection between characters?
Sam: In animation, it is hard to create an illusion of spontaneity because nothing is spontaneous in animation (laughs). It is a process that takes years and years, and over those years you have to remember that this movie will play in real time in front of an audience. Hence, it should feel like it just happens, but that is really difficult. It is even difficult to get the animators to be spontaneous. For example, Dustin Hoffman would say a line, but that line could take two weeks of someone's time. It is a big trick to make it look like it is off the cuff, and not phony.
Rob: Yes, I think you have to strive for certain naturalism in the performances. We were trying to follow through with the animation by telling the animators that the emphasis has always been on trying to making it look real.
Sam: Exactly. There's also some method acting for the animators as well. It was important for them to get off their chairs, and act this stuff out by making them think about what it feels like. For example, we wanted them to think about whether there was anything in their life that resembled the situation.

Q: The animation in the film is beautiful. There is no plastic look, but rather fairy tale visual effects. Describe the process?
Sam: Framestore Animation was the perfect choice for this movie. They are a London based effects house used to making fantasies into realities, such as the Harry Potter movies and the Chronicles of Narnia movies. They worked on countless movies where they have to bring a creature to life, and have you absolutely have to believe that they existed next to a live action character. All the technology they have for fur, lighting, and even eyes. The eyes especially were much more sophisticated and realistic than the CG cartoon eyes.
Rob: It's funny thinking back on this production, because there are so many layers. The departments were obviously all leaning on each other as we progressed through making a movie like this. Everybody seemed to be able to add something to it, and they strived to make something believable and timeless. For instance, the production designer, Evgeni Tomov, and also the Art Director, Olivier Adam, did an incredible job. They created all this incredible detail in their drawings and paintings. Then, as we progressed through the story we went to Framestore Animation with our materials and built the environments. Every step has dealt with enhancing what was already there. Also, the animation has been an amazing process. It is interesting to follow the life of a shot through all these different stages, and get a final result.

Q: The first assembly of an animated feature is known as the ANIMATIC: the storyboard, dialogue, music and sound effects all together. Was this process the same for The Tale of Despereaux?
Sam: This film was a little bit more rigorous. Rob, Gary Ross, some other individuals and I sat down together to work out how the film would be shot. We did this intensely in a very short space of time. We did this in the way that a live action director would. Gary proved to be an advantage here. We just went through it and broke down the script. We worked out a vision amongst us about how the film would be shot. Once we did that, we did the ANIMATIC process
Rob: Yes, this process was quite useful because it gave us almost a system or framework of knowing what to build and what areas to shoot in the set.
Sam: Yes, I think you can say that the ANIMATIC was unusually rich and well worked out.
Rob: Yes, it was because we had a lot of 2D animators who were used to not only drawing, but also putting a performance into their drawings. That helped with establishing a sense of reality, and creating some action on the boards.
Sam: Yes, it was very well thought through before we went to the CG.

Q: While watching the film, you feel like you are a part of the character's world. You don't feel like you are looking down, but rather like you are the same size as the characters. How did you achieve this visual effect?
Rob: Yes, it was a conscious decision. You feel like you are in the character's world.
Sam: Yes, to achieve this we had little cameras in our virtual world because of the focal lengths, and the various physics of lenses. You could say that we had a mouse sized camera to make it feel like you are in the character's world. Sometimes we had a short depth of feel so a lot of things were out of focus to give a sort of soft feeling. We were concerned with this soft feeling because one of the challenges of the film was to make the film feel soft and painterly.

Q: Another important factor is the clothes, which are very detailed.   Where did you find the inspiration?
Sam: Yes, Evgeni Tomov and the Art Department were especially responsible for this.
Rob: They went through an incredible amount of research to achieve this detail. They read many books about medieval costumes and paintings. They researched the things that were actually around at that certain time.
Sam:  What was also great was the fact that this was all brand new. Hence, they don't have a formula to follow or a template that states they can have a certain amount of costumes that had to be a certain quality. There was not much rigor, and it was more like getting together a group of fantastic designers to let their imaginations go.
Rob: We had a number of discussions with individuals from the Art Department about things like the texture of Lester's costume. For example, whether it was believable enough and whether or not he could wear leather texture being so small. How could he move? A tremendous amount of detail was taken seriously by everyone. All this detail was something we had to feel our way through since we didn't have a template (laughs).

Q: Music and lighting are very important in the film. Can you tell me a little bit about these elements?
Sam: Yes, lighting is a character is the film. It is about light.
Rob: It's funny you mention music. We spent a lot of time before we ended up with a final track finding music that would really tell the emotional beat throughout the story. Bill and others did an amazing job achieving this feel.

Q: Despereaux is a gentleman. What do you think it takes to turn a man into a gentleman?
Sam: That's a tricky question (laughs). In the movie, it is like an old fashioned thing that Despereaux goes back to classical values like chivalry. I think it comes out in the story that you can be brave, tough, and fight a lot. However, unless you have a softer side with some sensitivity and chivalry with an understanding of how people feel you can't be quite the gentleman. In this sense, you are truly a man! You can run around with a sword and be a man, but you also need virtues. It's like Lancelot with the myth of the Holy Grail and King Arthur's Roundtable, and Despereaux thinks back to those days.

Q: Similar to the first question, do you still think that women still want to be the princess rescued by prince charming?
Rob: I don't know, but I think that at the end of the day what makes a good person is someone you can rely on. In that case Despereaux is trying to be that guy that you can rely on. If she wants to be saved, why not? (laughs).
Sam: I would save a princess (laughs)! I don't think it is a gender thing necessarily, but it deals more with doing the decent thing. 

Q: A lot of times when dealing with animation that features animals, you often have to observe actual animals. Did you do this for the film?
Sam : No, in some ways we benefited from Framestore Animation's experience because they have done a lot of creatures. A lot of the mechanics underneath the characters, for instance how their faces and bodies worked were informed by real animals. They had all the correct muscles of a human being fitted to a mouse shaped structure. They were very expressive in the sense that they had human characteristics, but also a true animal nature to them. I think we got a lot out of Framestore Animation that way. I didn't look at any mice in person (laughs).

Q: After two and half years from working on this film, what will you take with you from the experience of working on the Tale of Despereaux?
Sam: It's funny because it has always been an uphill climb, because it's been so different and we did things so differently than usual. Just like Despereux himself, you come away knowing that if you keep at something you will get there in the end. We got some inspiration from Despereux's courage against all odds, because that is what making an animated movie is (laughs).
Rob: Yes, we worked on so many different feature films, and it is amazing to be a part of this process where you collectively work with 300 plus people to breathe life into something like this. When you are lucky and everybody is awesome like the team we had, it is a very rich feeling to know that it's not just one person that comes up with the idea because everyone plays an important role in developing a film. It's everybody's film. In the end, it amazes me how something like this comes about.

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