by Eric Kohn
The new world of communication engendered by the internet has given rise to many a creative endeavor. In some cases, however, the artist's career is already in motion when the tools provided by the web come along to supplement it. Wonderland member and Australian animator Nick Hilligoss falls into the latter category. His painstakingly handmade stop motion films recall the finest traditions of puppetry and classic special effects without neglecting the relevance of storytelling. An eye for the surreal, Hilligoss' many shorts tap into a realm accessible only through the carefully assembled visions he pulls together bit by bit. He spoke to Stream about the impact of new technologies on his work and other related topics.
How has the internet influenced your career?
Most of my career developed before the internet, or at least before I had access to it. After working as a propsmaker and scenic artist, I bought a Bolex 16mm film camera and taught myself to make stop motion puppets and animate them. Information was pretty hard to come by, and I peered at photos in magazines like Cinefex, trying to read the labels on jars of latex or chemicals. I was working on my third animated half hour, Good Riddance, when the local paper mentioned a website called StopmotionAnimation.com. It was a basic site at first, but a few months later introduced a message board, and for the first time I was able to talk with others who share this peculiar interest. Now we can compare notes on suitable cameras, methods and materials for puppetmaking, or post our film tests and get feedback from other animators. I think the internet will have a lot to do with my future career.
Do you make a living from making short films? In general, how feasible is this for independent animators?
I am employed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and for about nine years, I was being paid to make animated films. After the last series finished in 2003, the budgets haven't been there, so I've had to do CGI maps and graphics for documentary films as my day job. I've kept doing stop motion just because that's what I've got to do, but I don't expect to make a living as an independent animator.
What kind of animation styles appeal to you?
I started as a fan of special effects stop motion, the work of Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen and Jim Danforth. But I've come to appreciate the eastern European puppet film tradition, from Starewitz and Trnka to Garri Bardin, Auriel Klimt and Jiri Barta, where the filmmaker can create a whole world in his own style. Western animators are now contributing to this approach, with amazing puppet films from Nick Park, Tim Burton, Suzi Templeton, Henry Selick and others setting new standards. Stop motion has advanced enormously with the use of framegrabbers, so we can see what we are doing as cel animators always have.
I'm also a Miyazaki fan, ever since I saw part of a strange film on late night television, set in a mythical Italy between the wars, as imagined by a Japanese animator. It was years later when I saw Spirited Away and realized whose work it was, and the title (Porco Rosso).
Nick Hilligoss' 'The Animator'
Your work draws from classic animation techniques. Do you think these techniques will continue to be used by many animators?
Stop motion looks like it's continuing as a minority art form, as it always has been. It used to be overshadowed by cel animation, and now CGI has taken chunks of business away from both techniques. I don't believe hand-drawn animation will completely disappear either. It may cease to be drawn on acetate cels, but it can be drawn in the computer, frame by frame, and still by hand. As the Saturday morning kiddie fodder is taken over by computer 3D and Flash, cel animation may even regain some respect as an artist's medium.
How do you feel about CGI and computer animated films?
I think CGI has developed as an amazing tool, and will continue to improve, but by its very success it has taken something away. Jaw-dropping spectacle, the How-the-Hell-Did-They-Do-That effect, just doesn't work for me anymore. They did it with computers -- you can do anything with CGI. Ho hum. To try and get it back, they just ramp up the speed, the size, the sheer numbers of creatures. CGI in pure animated films, like the best from Pixar and Dreamworks, is working better because they understand it's all about the story and the characters. And that's not a bad thing.
What projects are you currently working on?
I'm working out the details of a new short film, to start on in January. And I've also got a joint project with an animator in New York and another in Scotland, where we intend to put together a short film using characters shot on three continents -- often in the same shot. Major studios have worked with FX vendors in remote locations for a while, but we are testing what can be done with three cash-poor solo animators using consumer equipment.
What do you consider to be the best venue to show your work?
In a theatre is best. There's nothing like going to a film festival like Annecy and watching the audience react to your film. And people pay more attention in theatres. Television has certainly reached a wider audience for me, and it's paid my wages for twenty-four years, so that's good too, but I'd probably choose DVDs as my second favourite medium because they reach a specialised audience who appreciate it.
Online video is much more of a paradigm shift. I can put my film before the world, and so can any kid who's pushed a coffee cup across a table for the first time. The studios and TV networks no longer decide what can be seen. Australia has pretty slow internet connections -- by the standards of, say, South Korea or the US -- so video on the web is still slow to load, heavily compressed, and playing at a reduced framerate in a tiny window. So for me it isn't a comparable experience yet -- but its potential is enormous. It's particularly good for a niche market where you find your audience is spread thinly across the globe. Actually making back money from it, to fund the next film, is another story.