ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.6 - SEPTEMBER 1999
The Story Behind Fats & Moe
(continued from page 1)Only Two Recurring Main Characters
AP: I was asked why I didn't have a third character. Most series have three characters now; the hero, his girl friend and the comic guy. Or the hero, his best friend and the comic guy, which can be replaced by a funny animal. Groups can be categorized as well: the funny, lazy guy, the serious guy, the girl -- usually a rebel or a leader but in any case an active girl -- the brain, the father figure
I think too many characters lead to several problems. First, you have to introduce them and later, you have to give them something to do. They live as parasites on the story and transform many scenes into talking tunnels. You also have less story time to spend with each of them. So they will stick to clichés, and they will not evolve too much during the film.
One should always ask oneself the basic question: Whose story is this? And to whom do I need to tell it?
Three guys was too much, and one wasn't enough. This was not a Lone Ranger movie. It was a comic duo. Two guys stuck together in trouble. It's common in movies, but you don't see that a lot in animation, except in a detective series like Sam and Max.
The Race Issue
AP: One more detail. Fats is black, and Moe is white. In the beginning I wanted two black heroes because there were almost only black jazz musicians at that time. The whole team asked me if I was scared it wouldn't sell. In France buyers are white and think of viewers as white. Kasaii & Leuk the Hare, an all-African series for French TV channel France 2, directed & edited by Jean-Louis Bompoint and for which I wrote an episode, had already been an exception. So I started thinking about turning one of the characters into a white guy. And then which one should I choose?
But I found a much better idea: Moe was an orphan, so why couldn't he have one black parent? We discover this much later in the series, but I think it's even more subversive than having two black guys. Suppose you like him, maybe identify with him, and then you discover he's black. Surprise! Thinking about it, it's pure logic. Moe is a mystery since the beginning, the one from the other side, bearing Moses' name and his message of love.
Moe was redesigned with particular care to fit with this new development. He had to look white enough to fool viewers for a while, and later to be credible as a black man.
The Benefits of Having Artists Working Together
AP: I got to meet the character designer and storyboarder, Thomas Szabo, something producers usually deprived me from. I wrote a first synopsis of the action, and we discussed it together. Then I wrote another version with all the action and only a few guiding lines. Thomas showed me his first board before cleaning it up, and I wrote the definitive lines on the finished board. The lines got shorter and whenever useless, immediately erased. It then seemed obvious to me that this was the way to do it, whereas I was always asked to write a lot of lines for the scripts I'd sold before. That's why you see so many action series that are nothing but talk, talk, talk.
Thanks to this method the movie got much better. It won in terms of efficiency, speed, characterization, timing and suspense.
JLB: Directing an animation film is for me a rare pleasure. I want to get the best from every artist for the project. My job is to create a good combination between graphics, color, cinematography, and rythmn and sound (music, effects, voice). I am a bee who flies to every flower, taking sugar from them and making the best honey I can out of it.
Also, I think that a good animation film director must have some distance from his partners to be a good "judge" and always be able to predict the future before it happens. As I assume that all of the artists (drawing artists, writers, actors, sound engineers, etc...) know their work perfectly, I let them go free, until the point where a conflict could be on the way. When some problems happen, I try to do my best to fix it and using the best from everyone, find the solution which will be best for the film.
Concerning cinematography, I always suffer when I see a lot of camera moves used in a TV cartoon series because they want to make up for poor animation and/or story. A camera move is only good when it serves the action. I'd rather see characters entering and going off screen without any camera move. Famous French film director Jacques Tati said: "When the camera moves, it is an event."
I consider sound as important as picture. As Walt Disney said: "To have a good animation film, put 50% of the money in picture and 50% in sound." How many producers thought like that in those times? It is also why I wanted to make Fats & Moe with this philosophy.
Concerning the animation, I have known Peter Choi's Hahn-Shin Company for many years. Peter's studio is one of the best in South Korea and I had the opportunity to supervise and direct many series with Hahn-Shin people. As I know all of the artists very well, it was quite easy for me to make some special requests regarding Fats & Moe's production.
About freedom and creativity in France, hardly anybody wants to give you money to produce a pilot film without any restrictions. If they accept your project, most producers (not all of them, thank Heavens!) want to correct and/or change your design, story, music, etc. -- not because of Art, but to fix their own identity problems, like Pirandello's characters. Another current fact in France: most producers want to be involved in your creation to try to rob you of some percentage of your author rights. I even know some of them who want to co-direct for the same reasons! Also, they enjoy practicing censorship to be in tune with the dictates of TV channels. In other words, they treat us like dogs without any respect.
If you see Fats & Moe today it is because a Korean producer has agreed to produce a French film! Also, I don't want to forget Jean-Louis Rizet and Jean-Michel Spiner (Ramses/Toutenkartoon) who gave us, in Paris, the same generosity as Peter Choi did. I am very proud to say that our film is really the first Franco-Korean co-production in the world.
An Authentic Jazz Spirit: Writing and Recording The Music
JLB: I have to confess that I love to play Jazz! When I compose -- even if I can't read a note -- my main musical inspiration comes from my vibes master and friend, Lionel Hampton, and from 1930 to 1960 French film music. I am also very inspired by composers like Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Jaubert and Strawinsky. I have played and composed with Jean-Michel Bernard for 22 years and our partnership is the best; we hold complementary opinions. We also have the same cultural and musical references which help us to create comic effects and funny quotations in the compositions we make together. Fats & Moe's compositions and recordings were completely effortless. Jean-Michel Bernard and I played all the instruments, except the saxophone which was played by the talented Pierre Mimran.
To coordinate the music and picture, I prepared all of the exposure sheets myself, with the beat of every musical piece and many rythmn indications for the animators. Good animation direction comes from the sound indications, not from the text.
The Artists of Fats & Moe
(1997 - 7' - ß-Sp - Stereo Dolby®)
Screenplay: Annabelle Perrichon
Storyboard and Character Design: Thomas Szabo
Art Direction: Guillaume Ivernel & Hélène Giraud
Music: Jean-Louis Bompoint & Jean-Michel Bernard
Animation: Hahn-Shin Company
Post-Production: Ramses
Color & Compositing: Toutenkartoon under the direction of Jean-Michel Spiner
Voice Direction: Françoise Blanchard & Allan Wengen
Sound Engineer: Gaby Pastel
Production Coordination: Jung Mi-Kyeong & Fred Mauxion
Assistants To The Director: Yves Charles Fercoq, Philippe Hervieux, John Bigorgne
Directed and Edited by Jean-Louis Bompoint
Jean-Louis Bompoint is a director, editor, jazz composer, and director of photography. He is currently preparing a live video clip for the Rythmes Digitales.
Annabelle Perrichon is a screenwriter, who just finished polishing a horror thriller that started shooting in August, 1999.
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