Cinema Canada (Aug 1976)

A Quiet Day by Alsenst a storyline and character development. I’m predominantly a visual animator. I'm excited by abstract design and geometric shapes; the conceptual and experimental aspects of film. “The concern here at the NFB remains with the fairly traditional NFB approach to animation. The style and overall orientation is towards films with social commentary, and which emphasize social issues. However, I do feel that animation produced at the Vancouver studio does possess definite regional flavor and character, both in its subject matter and approach. Films here tend to be lighter, more humorous, and less overtly political.” The NFB in Vancouver has funded diverse projects in the past, which have been quite successful in commercial theatres as well. Land Use, by Hugh Folds, is a theatrical short made for use by community groups, detailing the trials of a young couple who attempt to go back to the land. The Twitch by Al Sens (in collaboration with Hugh Folds and Wayne Morris) is a film about prejudice, which focuses on a king with this particular disability. It was shown in local’ commercial theatres along with Jaws. Hugh Folds and Wayne Morris also produced Citizen Harold, which received an honorable mention at the Australian Film Festival. TV Sale, by Ernie Schmidt, provided a satiric look at television, and was also shown in local commercial theatres. Due to budget constraints, production has been cut by about half. Yet, several projects are currently underway; a film about supertankers off 36/Cinema Canada ———— the northwest coast, a documentary about children’s animation, and some theatrical shorts. Worobey himself is currently working on a film about Egyptian architecture with experimental filmmaker Al Razutis. Worobey is particularly pleased with certain aspects of the NFB’s program. “One of the innovative features of the Vancouver program is the support that is available to the beginning and the independent filmmaker. If the NFB likes the rushes of a film, and the filmmaker lacks the funding or the facilities to complete it, the NFB will provide the needed funding and facilities. If the final film is thought to be good, the NFB will buy it from the filmmaker, paying up to $5,000, and consider the film to be an NFB production. If not, all rights revert back to the filmmaker. The NFB will also buy complete films and script ideas from local filmmakers.” Locally, the NFB maintains strong ties with the Vancouver School of Art. Their consultation services are made available to students, along with occasional use of NFB facilities. Some graduates of the VSA have come to work for the NFB on special projects. Worobey would like to encourage greater film and script production, and more experimental techniques of animation (i.e., computer and optical animation), but budget constraints make this difficult. He is also somewhat frustrated by what he believes to be excessive centralized control by the NFB. “Budgets must be approved by the bureaucracy and unfortunately projects from the west are pitted in com petition for funding against those from other regional offices. However, since the NFB is less subject to commercial pressures, we are still able to get a considerable amount of support for developing and refining various ideas.” Al Sens is perhaps the best known and most influential of the Vancouver animators. Sens, who runs his own independent animation studio, began making animated films in the 1950s. He has done work for the NFB, the CBC, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the Learning Corporation of America, Cinemedia, Infomedia, Public Service Commercials, and Habitat, as well as numerous independent projects. His many films include A Quiet Day, The Twitch, Puppet Dream, The See Hear Talk Dream and Act Film, The Sorcerer, Timmy, and The Bureaucracy. He has been mentioned as a major Canadian filmmaker in Ralph Stephenson’s book, The Animated Film, a part of the International Film Guide Series. As a past teacher at the Vancouver School of Art, and present instructor in UBC’s Theatre Department, Sens has also influenced the work of many Vancouver animators. Sens became interested in animation as a vehicle for the further development of the cartoons he had been drawing for magazines like The Post and Maclean’s: “I got into animation because I felt it would allow me to extend the characters and ideas I had originated, in a combination of graphics and short stories. I was selftaught; there really was no place to study animation in those days. However, my work was influenced by various European graphic artists such as Richard Williams, animators like George Dunning, Chuck Jones, and Tex Avery. “To me, animation is a _ hybrid art form. In fact, I really don’t think that there are many similarities between live-action and animation. Actually, animation itself is more like an individual actor.” While Sens asserts that he likes the freedom of working as an independent, he emphasized that if the workload becomes too heavy, there’s a good ‘“‘telephone network” of people who can help out with the technical and graphic work. “I find that my style is constantly changing. I like to experiment with different methods, particularly those techniques which help to alleviate some of the more tedious aspects of cell animation. I also enjoy caricature and the various aspects of characterization. Of course, sometimes the techniques you can use are limited by cost and by the demands of a particular client.”