Jan 15, 2016

Interview Richard Williams on his Oscar and BAFTA-nominated short film "Prologue"

In a career marked by varied achievements and honors, early 2016 may be counted among Richard Williams' brightest moments. His short film "Prologue," which took over 12 years to make, was nominated for both an Academy Award and a BAFTA (the UK equivalent of the Oscars) in seven days.

To put this in some perspective, the last time Williams won an Oscar for a short film was 43 years ago, when the Academy honored his 30-minute adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But that was nothing compared to the BAFTA for Best Short Film, which he last won more than half a century ago for "Little Island," an ingenious wander into philosophical territory.

Part of the reason it took so long to get nominated is that Williams has not always produced short films. For decades, he ran Richard Williams Animation, one of the most prestigious commercial houses in animation history, and then directed features, including the animation of the modern classic "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

Another reason for the slow pace of film production is that Williams has a difficult employer. I work for a terribly demanding boss," he said. I'm just starting to be able to combine my drafting skills with my animation knowledge. It's a constant battle for me."

"Prologue" is the first part of a feature film roughly based on Aristophanes' anti-war play Lysistrata. This 2,400-year-old play was also the basis for Spike Lee's politically charged "Kai Lark," but Williams' interest has always been more carnal in this timeless story.

He became aware of the play as a teenager when he found a copy of it lying around his house. It was illustrated by Norman Lindsay, and the Australian artist's comic depictions of voluptuous women shocked the teenage Williams. Says Williams, "Lindsay would have made a great animator." There is humor in everything he draws. He drew very attractive women, but they were funny."

Throughout his career, Williams occasionally enjoyed the idea of animating stories." God, will I ever be good enough to do this: ...... I'm not good enough to do this." It wasn't until after 'Roger Rabbit' that I finally got around to thinking about it."[13 [But completing a 90-minute film seems to take precedence over creating exactly what he envisioned. After a career spent working in the style of everyone but himself and designing projects that could survive the studio's production pipeline, Williams has finally, purely for his own enjoyment and the one and only that any crew under him could ever hope to reach He is trying to create something with a standard that is unmatched. As a result, he says, "Prologue" is "the only film in my career so far that I've been able to succeed in every aspect of what I was trying to do, and I'm really happy with it."

To ensure that everything is exactly as he intended, Williams photographs the drawings himself on camera. Digital technology enters only during the compositing process, which removes dust and fingerprints from his drawings, sharpening and grading the images. The rest of the process is as technically primitive as it was when Winsor McCay created "Gertie the Dinosaur" 100 years ago. He said, "We're going back to 1900 and just drawing on one sheet of paper. There are no cells, there are no cameras, it's as if there are no cameras. If you can't draw on one piece of paper, it doesn't go in. "

The self-imposed mandate to make each frame on a single sheet of paper means that all of the film's rather complex technical elements emanate from the tip of Williams' pencil. For example, the lack of a traditional background means that he cannot pan the background. To represent space, he adds grass to the shot, draws a few birds, or pans along an object the character is holding, like a spear. This is like a radio," he says. 'It's not all there, so you have to let your imagination run wild.' [This is Williams's trademark, and has been used to breathtaking effect in early projects such as the visionary but unfinished "The Thief and the Cobbler. Says he, "We should control the media."

So when I ask him what the secret to staying sharp as a draughtsman after nine years is, he says life drawing. 'It's the hardest thing to do,' he said. When you leave the job for six months and come back to it, you realize you're a bum. That's why people don't go back. I did it in art school. I'm not doing it anymore,' he said. And you get stuck in comics.'"

Williams has a studio at Aardman Animations, another well-known British animation company, where the sequel to "Prologue," the next sequence of his "Lysistrata" film adaptation, is more than half complete. The new film will finally feature the Lindsay-inspired women who were the driving force behind the project decades ago.

He has to contend only with his own exacting standards, and those of his family, and works with complete freedom and joy. About 10 years ago, when he began animating "Prologue," he asked his youngest son, then 10, what he thought of the drawings. My son replied, "A good painter keeps his face consistent."

"He was right," Williams admitted. 'Critically speaking, they've changed a bit.'