Flow Director Gints Zilbalodis Interview: Cat-Focused Environment Film

For Gints Zilbalodis, it began with a cat.

Zilbalodis was nonetheless in highschool, in Latvia, and dreaming of a profession in animation, when he created a brief movie impressed by his pet feline. It was a easy story, a couple of cat who overcomes his worry of water. “Many, a few years later,” says Zilbalodis, “I made a decision to revisit this premise and make a function movie.”

The consequence, Movement, is a great distance from that hand-drawn quick. The film, Zilbalodis’ second full-length animated function following his much-praised 2019 debut Away, imagines a post-apocalyptic world devoid of people the place solely animals stay. Our feline hero, a thin gray cat with huge saucer eyes and a twitchy suspicion of any and all different species, barely manages to flee a pack of hungry canine earlier than being caught up in a cataclysmic flood. Discovering refuge on a battered sailboat, it reluctantly groups up with a geographically numerous pack of critters, together with an easy-going capybara, a covetous lemur, a dim-witted Golden Retriever and an aloof secretary chook on a free-floating journey.

Like Away, Movement is shot totally with out dialogue and combines close to photo-realistic 3D environments and character design with a extra summary, painterly model that makes the CGI really feel handcrafted.

Movement premiered in Cannes, the place it was rapidly snatched up for North America by Sideshow and Janus Movies. It went on to win large on the Annecy animation pageant, taking 4 trophies, together with the viewers prize for finest function. After smashing field workplace information again dwelling, Movement obtained the nod to be Latvia’s official entry for the 2025 Oscar race in the perfect worldwide function class.

Alongside the best way, Zilbalodis and his animated cat have been profitable over audiences and critics. “Movement is a pleasure to expertise but additionally a deeply affecting story,” raved The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief movie critic David Rooney in his Cannes assessment. “The work of a singular expertise who deserves to be ranked among the many world’s nice animation artists.”

Zilbalodis spoke to The Hollywood Reporter forward of Movement‘s U.Okay. premiere on the London Movie Competition on making a film with open-source software program, utilizing 3D expertise to convey emotion and the unequalled joys of watching web cat movies.

The place did the concept for Movement come from initially?

The concept began a very long time in the past after I was nonetheless in highschool. I made a brief movie a couple of cat who learns how to not be afraid of water. It was a a lot easier story. It was hand-drawn, and it was simply the cat. There was a chook, nevertheless it was actually concerning the cat and the worry of water.

Many, a few years later, I made a decision to revisit this premise and make a function movie. However this time, I actually needed to give attention to the connection between the animals, concerning the worry of others, which I feel is extra necessary [in Flow] than the cat’s worry of water. The water is principally a method to talk these different fears. It’s type of a metaphor. At first, when the cat may be very afraid [of the other animals] the water appears very scary and aggressive. Later, because the cat and the opposite animals study to work collectively, the water turns into extra tranquil and peaceable.

I knew there could be no dialogue within the movie as a result of all of the movies I’ve finished have had no dialogue. Once I provide you with my tales, I attempt to provide you with tales the place it is sensible that there’s no dialogue. So, on this case, it’s animals behaving like animals. That wasn’t actually a limitation for me. I really feel extra snug telling tales with out dialogue as a result of then I can use the opposite instruments of cinema and go deeper, and discover extra: With the digicam, with the music, with the enhancing. So the cat was there from the start however the story stored altering, stored evolving till we made the film.

How lengthy did it take you to make the movie, from conception to complete?

The entire course of was like five-and-a-half years. That features the writing, fundraising and growth. The manufacturing itself was sooner. 5 years is fairly typical, I feel, for an animated function to undergo the event course of. However it was fairly intense. I used to be doing this full-time, just about seven days every week. All day, day-after-day. It’s a very long time.

What was the ultimate funds?

In euros? It’s about 3.5 million euros. So I feel it’s a bit extra in {dollars}, I suppose ($3.83 million).

Did you produce all of it out of Latvia?

It’s a co-production between three nations: Latvia, France and Belgium. We did just about all the pieces in Latvia besides the character animation and the sound. In Latvia, we did the pre-production, the writing, the designs, the modeling and texturing and lighting, the music and the post-production. However the precise motion of the characters and the performances have been finished by animators in France and Belgium. There’s a giant animation trade in France — there are such a lot of nice animators there. Right here in Latvia, it’s loads smaller, there are just a few indie studios however not that many truly large gamers. It may be difficult to seek out the fitting individuals, and we needed to prepare some individuals as properly, not simply prepare them the right way to animate however to work on this particular model. For me, it was fairly scary, beginning my very own studio, Dream Effectively Studio, in Latvia. I’d by no means even labored in a studio earlier than; I’d all the time labored alone. So to begin a brand new studio with out actually figuring out the right way to do it was new for me, and scary, however I feel possibly we got here up with some extra authentic approaches and skipped some steps that possibly weren’t crucial as a result of we’re used to working independently.

What was essentially the most difficult features, technically, in creating this movie?

The 2 largest technical challenges have been most likely the water, which in animation is a large problem as a result of there’s no a technique of constructing water. Each scene — if the water is flat, if it’s a stormy sea, if there are some splashes — virtually requires a special method. We now have to create programs for each single totally different kind of water. It was one of many first issues we began doing and one of many final issues we completed.

The opposite large technical problem was the lengthy takes. There are many them on this movie the place the digicam retains shifting with out actually slicing. There are two pictures, every of them virtually 5 minutes lengthy, and the digicam is shifting loads by way of the atmosphere. So whereas the atmosphere is admittedly large on display screen in addition they need to be very detailed, as a result of the digicam may be very near the bottom. We see the grass and all of the element from actually up shut. A few of these scenes obtained actually heavy and our computer systems struggled to render all that. However the environments are essential as a result of, since there’s no dialogue, we’ve got to make use of all the pieces else to inform the story. A variety of storytelling is being finished by way of the environments.

What kind of instruments did you employ to create the 3D environments?

I don’t do storyboards. I create the animation instantly. So I first make an atmosphere [in the computer] that’s not tremendous detailed, nevertheless it offers me an approximate concept of the geography, and I place the characters inside that atmosphere. Then I take this digital digicam and I discover it. It’s virtually like location scouting in a live-action film. It’s a really spontaneous and type of intuitive course of. I do know some filmmakers or artists can think about the scenes precisely of their heads and have all of the pictures found out, however I don’t think about issues like that. I must undergo that course of and check out various things. That’s why it’s essential to make it instantly in 3D, as a result of [in this film] the digicam is shifting quite a bit, very intentionally, nevertheless it’s shifting in depth. And it’s actually onerous to attract these very difficult digicam actions. However inside the 3D atmosphere, I can have an method nearer to dwell motion.

I sketch out the atmosphere and discover the pictures, and when I’ve settled on a particular digicam angle, we add extra element to the atmosphere. Then we give it to idea artists [who] add much more element. Then you definitely carry all of it again to my authentic scene and add the animation. The environments solely work from this particular digicam angle. We don’t have something past the body. We needed to be very cautious the place we spent our cash so we solely did issues that we knew could be actually seen.

Was there a particular program you used for the preliminary 3D digicam pictures?

Just about the entire movie was made within the software program referred to as Blender, which is a free, open-source software program. It’s one thing everybody can simply obtain totally free and make movies. A variety of college students and up-and-coming filmmakers are utilizing it, and it’s slowly turning into accepted within the trade as properly. For us, it was actually useful on a small funds to have this free useful resource so we might actually give attention to the inventive side and never fear an excessive amount of concerning the technical issues.

You began with the concept of a cat being afraid of water. The place did the opposite characters come from, the totally different animals?

It was type of like a casting course of for me. Whereas writing the script, I used to be taking a look at totally different animals and pondering of the totally different chemistry which may come up from placing them collectively. What kind of conflicts, what sort of comedy, might come up from these interactions? After the cat, I added the canine, the Golden Retriever, as a result of I had like two canine like that and I knew them properly. The cat within the movie is on this journey of studying, studying the right way to belief others and work collectively. However I needed to steadiness this concept with this canine character who’s on an reverse journey, who begins out being very trustful, virtually too trustful, who doesn’t assume for itself. And all through this journey, it learns the right way to be extra impartial.

I didn’t need to have this didactic message of: Working collectively is nice and being impartial is unhealthy. I needed to point out the nice and the unhealthy of each of those extremes.

The opposite animals have been additionally determined based mostly on one of many major themes of the movie, which is about desirous to discover a group that accepts you for who you’re. The lemur is admittedly obsessed about gathering objects, nevertheless it’s partly about desirous to be accepted by his group. The chook can be fairly obsessed about being accepted inside their group. The one character that doesn’t have that form of character arc, who doesn’t change a lot, is the capybara. It’s like this sensible mentor to all of the characters, all the time at peace and all the time proud of all the pieces. The explanation I selected the capybara is as a result of I’ve seen photographs of every kind of animals interacting with capybaras and being peaceable with them, even predators. I believed it could be humorous, but additionally poignant, to have this character that will get together with everybody.

How did you do the voicing? Are these people imitating animals or precise animal voices?

Our method was to make use of actual animal voices. We needed the naturalistic feeling of being immersed on this world. So we recorded a bunch of animals, and our sound designer [Gurwal Coïc-Gallas] recorded his personal cat. Gurwal’s cat is normally fairly chatty, all the time meowing. However when he pointed a microphone at it, it shut up. He needed to conceal microphones throughout his home and document it secretly.

We tried to document a capybara, however they don’t actually converse. They’re very silent. They solely make noise once you tickle them. So it was one particular person’s very enjoyable job to tickle a capybara. However the sound was actually high-pitched and sounded extra like an anxious small canine. It didn’t match the character. So we regarded round for one more animal and, after a protracted type of search, we settled on this child camel. So the capybara is definitely voiced by a child camel. All of the others are the true animals. Even the totally different breeds of canine.

Sound is clearly a giant a part of making the movie really feel lifelike. Individuals type of think about what the animals are saying, although they will’t perceive them. However I feel many of the speaking is admittedly finished by way of the visuals, by way of the physique language, by way of the digicam’s standpoint. That’s how we see how the animals view the world.

We spent loads of time ensuring we had these micro-movements within the eyes so that you simply really feel these animals are alive. It was actually tough to get proper however I feel once you have a look at their eyes, you get the sense they’re pondering, that there’s a deep feeling there. We’re simply utilizing all of the totally different instruments of cinema to convey story and emotion with out dialogue.

It’s attention-grabbing what you say concerning the eyes, as a result of there’s a actual sense of life behind them, in each character. They stand out in a method that a number of the background panorama animation, which is usually much less detailed, virtually painterly.

About that: Making a number of the backgrounds much less detailed was intentional, not due to any technical or monetary limitations. We actually didn’t need to put an excessive amount of element the place it’s not crucial. We let the backgrounds and a few components be much less detailed so we might give attention to what’s necessary and type of create a extra summary, simplified or graphic picture. I really feel we’ve seen hyper-realistic animation for therefore lengthy, it’s been finished, and I’m not likely focused on that anymore. I’m extra focused on the best way, artistically or creatively, individuals can select which particulars are necessary and which aren’t.

Concerning the eyes: That was one other nice job for the animators, who needed to spend hours watching cat movies on YouTube and actually examine them. We didn’t use any movement seize or something like that. It was all animated by hand. We weren’t making an attempt to create one thing lifelike. We’re decoding actual life. We studied our references, however we actually interpreted them and put our personal feelings into these characters.

Do you are feeling we’ve got develop into restricted in what we anticipate from animation as a result of the photo-realistic model of the massive Hollywood studios is so dominant?

I feel animation just isn’t one factor. It could possibly do very various things, very totally different types of cinematic storytelling. We used the method that was proper for this story. Perhaps a special story would possibly require a special method. However I feel for those who attempt to create one thing actually lifelike, it may not age in addition to one thing extra summary. A extra stylized look may be extra timeless, like a fable. The main focus ought to all the time be on the inventive side, on the storytelling and the emotion, moderately than the expertise. Our model just isn’t ornament, it’s actually our method of conveying emotion. And I really feel that’s what cinema is for. It’s not a tech demo. Individuals go to the cinema to really feel one thing.