Landreth coined the term “psycho-realism” to describe his use of advanced animation tools to convey the psychological makeup of his characters.

Then the last day, we showed each other our films. Ryan was the last, and he showed Walking (1969) and Street Musique (1972) and another film called Syrinx (1964). We had seen the film Walking before, but now we were really looking at it. We came to realize that this person was a flaming genius in his time. We were looking at him today — and, first of all, what a change, what an incredible contrast... and then, second of all, as Derek [Lamb] in the film says, he’s living out every artist’s worst fear. But if this is where he’s come to, there’s something that’s actually not horrible about that. There’s something very redeeming.

I was immediately inspired to try to get that story into a film. I sat on that for a few months before acting on it. Then I decided that’s what I wanted to do.

GS: You wanted to make this film to show that there was this redeeming quality to his story?

CL: That was definitely part of it. Although, there were other elements of the story that I had no idea would make it in there that eventually did. It became something a little different than what I was expecting it to be at the beginning, but I think, in the process, it became something better.

GS: What did you intend for it to be, and what did it become?

CL: I had intended for it to be pretty much about Ryan Larkin. It was to be Ryan being interviewed. You’d hear Ryan’s voice and he’d be narrating the audience through his life story. But the thing that happened was there was this snippet of conversation that you hear and see in the film where the subject of alcoholism comes up. And it’s a big subject. It’s obviously a big subject in Ryan’s world, because he acts so impassioned and angrily toward it. But it is also a big subject in my world, too, and because of that, it brought the interviewer (me) way more into the story than I would have planned beforehand.

GS: As you worked on the film, it became a way for you to explore some of your own concerns or history?

CL: It’s not necessarily me trying to explore it, as much as it is trying to tell a story that connects with an audience. I found that the way the film could connect with the audience would be to bring myself into it.

GS: Ryan is a kind of animated documentary. You integrate photography and live-action footage with animation. When people think of documentary filmmaking, in general, they assume that it’s an objective medium. But a documentarian naturally brings their own perspective to their work. What are the benefits or shortcomings of making a documentary as animation?

CL: One of the elements is that you can add a subjective point of view that you can’t do with live action. I mean, it happens with live action, but it happens in a way that is still very literal, because you’re dealing with the real subjects at hand. But some of the creativity and passion of the story comes when you can change the visuals to reflect in a metaphorical or symbolic way, how the filmmaker, or the author, sees the subject matter.

GS: What were some of the creative and technical challenges in developing and achieving the film? How did the aesthetic vision for the film evolve?

CL: When I was first getting to know Ryan, I got this impression of him that was a very metaphorical one that ultimately became what you see in the film. That started off with a lot of sketches of the appearance that you see, and I also did some self-portraits. Thus you see the interviewer, who looks like me but has all these other things happening on his face and arms and stuff. The other characters that you see in the cafeteria came more gradually later on.

We also had a lot of logistical challenges of being able to do this film with a relatively small crew, in a relatively non-studio type environment. It was at Seneca College where we were making up the pipeline for this. That certainly took a long time to do. As much time was spent on pre-production as actual production.

GS: Was there any homage to Larkin's earlier work in your film? For example, when Ryan’s 2D drawings from Street Musique are dancing in step with your 3D character?

CL: Yeah, he dances with one of the creations there. We also make an homage to another Canadian filmmaker, basically the mentor to Ryan — Norman McLaren — where Ryan’s character begins his dance and you see these Shiva-like 10 arms strobing... That’s actually a blatant rip-off — excuse me, “homage” — to a piece by Norman McLaren called Pas de Deux (1968), which came out around the same time that Ryan was really at his peak.