David Silverman is a Hollywood gold medal director, producer, and voice actor who has filmed the phenomenal animated drama "The Simpsons" and has also served as the director of "Brave the Golden City", "Monster Power Company" and "Save Donuts".
Now, on the occasion of the hit of his new film "Save donuts: Time and Space Rescue", I also conducted an email interview with the Hollywood gold medal director through producer Jiang Yanming. See how he shares his creative journey and shoots interesting stories.
David Silverman began drawing at the age of four and experimented with animation around the age of six.
As a child, he began to use a pile of paper to make hand-drawn animated hand-turned books, which were particularly popular in his childhood.
Later, he was deeply attracted and inspired by the cartoons on television, "Bugs Bunny and His Friends", "Popo Deer and the Sky Mouse", all of Warner and Disney animations were David Silverman's favorite.
He was fascinated by the exquisite painting techniques, "Since then I have been interested in animation and have never stopped. ”
David Silverman began studying art and illustration, working on his own little animated films from the age of eleven. By the time he reached high school, he had won a number of student animation awards. Eventually, he was admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in order to enroll in their animation workshop course.
During college, David Silverman made a comedy animated short called The Strange Case of Mr. Donnybrook's Boredom, which was the official starting point for his animation career.
In 1987, David Silverman began working as an animator for the early Simpsons animated series, all of which were completed by him and Wes Ace, with a total of 48 short episodes, which was the first season of the Simpsons cartoon that aired on television in 1989.
From there, he became an animation director. Soon after, in 1991, David Silverman began working as chief animation director and concurrently as a producer.
Later, David Silverman left the Simpsons team to join DreamWorks and Pixar. Around 2003, in order to direct the The Simpsons theatrical film, David Silverman returned to directing and moved back to Los Angeles. (Pixar is based in San Francisco, so he previously lived in San Francisco.)
In the summer of 2005, the entire team finally completed the first draft of the complete script, and in January 2006, it entered the production period. Everyone worked day and night to catch up with the schedule requirements for the Release on July 27, 2007. David Silverman made a very big decision at the time, using a 2:39 theatrical widescreen version of the film version, as opposed to the TV version (which at the time was a 1:33 screen ratio).
Throughout the production period, David Silverman worked with the writers all day. At one point, everyone was doing simpson dad Homer and his family's new pet pig Harry Planter. Screenwriter David Mirkin suggested that the scene had Dad Homer walking on the ceiling holding a pet pig and leaving pig footprints.
Then the screenwriter, Al Jean, said, "That's right! He can be a very powerful Spider-Man pig! Everyone laughed, and Director David began humming the classic melody of the old Spider-Man movie, with some funny new lyrics, and these were actually made into the movie and became the classic section of the film that was loved by the audience.
At the end of the film, a scene in which the dome collapses, it was originally planned that father Homer and son Bart would land safely on a motorcycle. Director David and my scene director Ricky Moore (who later became the director of Invincible Destruction King and Zootopia) had an in-depth discussion.
The two came up with an idea for the father and son to start jumping in the Grand Canyon of Springfield, in order to echo a very classic episode in the TV series. "I gave this idea to the writers, and they went a step further to sculpt the details."
David Silverman admits: "We also kept an open mind during the production phase, constantly stimulating new ideas to collide, and it was these moments that made the finished film more full and interesting." I've learned in my career to always be open to new ideas and suggestions, even if you're already in the production process. Yes, it will be harder to get into the production phase and then add new ideas to execute, but if it really makes the film better, it's all worth it! ”
Talking about the creative experience of another classic animated film, Monster Power, David Silverman revealed that he was an old friend of another director, Pete Doggett (who had filmed "The Flying House" and "The Mind Agents"), and the two met in 1992 while working in San Francisco.
In 1997, he received a phone call from Apple boss Steve Jobs himself, inviting him to join Pixar Animation. Joe heard about him from Richard Appel, a screenwriter on Simpson, who coincidentally was Jobs's cousin.
Coupled with director Peter Doggett's strong recommendation, David Silverman joined Pixar in 1998 and was appointed to direct Monster Power with Pete Doggett in the same year.
At that time, Pixar Animation had only produced a "Toy Story", and the application of CGI computer imaging technology in theatrical animation was just beginning. Before the production of "Toy Story", Pixar was mainly engaged in advertising business.
Being a director at Pixar is very different from directing "Simpson", "As a director, we are involved in screenwriting work and writing a lot more important than important. I wrote a lot of scenes, at least an outline of each scene. ”
David Silverman especially enjoys writing big-eyed mike scenes, he can easily fall into anxiety and panic, and his scenes are particularly funny to write. "In that film we started using a lot of the animation techniques that were emerging at the time. I was deeply impressed, including the application of techniques like texture materials, the new hair and clothing rendering techniques of the time. ”
The character design of Sullivan the Fur Monster is interesting because the early Pixar executives insisted that he must have tentacles! They don't want the monster to be a big guy in a monster suit. "Fortunately we finally convinced them. The fur on the fur monster was a new attempt, and Pixar had never done it before. ”
Director Peter asked Chief Visual Effects Engineer Roland if it was possible to render the body of the protagonist Hairy Monster into hair that could naturally flutter with the wind.
"Let me think about it." Roland said softly. In the next two weeks, he actually made it!
Mike the Big-Eyed Boy's design was done by accident while designing other characters. It originally looked like a ball, with only one big eye and two legs, and no arms yet. Everyone did an animation effect test with this shape, which was very interesting to watch, "but in the end we decided that our protagonist should have an arm!" ”
The design of the little girl Abu was completed quickly, and her clothes were a new challenge. It was soon discovered that tailoring a physical costume would be very helpful for dajia to animate its computer, especially the dynamics of the "real reaction" costume worn on the body.
"Abu's hair, we finally chose to let her tie two small braids, so that the dynamics of the hair are relatively stable and can simplify the production." Director David revealed the reason for this, after all, the fur movement of the fur monster has consumed a lot of energy of the whole team.
The original plan of the story is to let the monsters go out and scare people. After all, in the general sense, the monster is originally like that, and there is no additional plot design. But it soon became apparent that the main storyline needed to be further developed: from "just scary" to finding a more convincing motivation for the monsters to go out and scare people.
During that time, just in time for the crisis of "energy shortage" in California, it became the forming arc of the protagonist of the development monster. The change from "the most capable of scaring children champions" to "I don't want to scare children anymore", and the idea of "laughter is more powerful than screaming" came naturally.
Everyone felt that the whole idea was also a metaphor for the real world, echoing the competition between green renewable energy and highly polluting energy sources such as oil at that time.
As for the story of his latest masterpiece, "Saving Donuts", Director David revealed that it was co-created by three veteran writers of the Simpsons — they are Joel Cohen, John Flinck and Rob Lesbinick.
"They were good friends of mine and came to me from the very beginning of the creation and wanted me to direct the film. I tried to schedule the schedule on the Simpsons project," and they joined.
In addition, we are very fortunate to have many experienced creative talents from many studios join us. Including associate director Raymond Percy, who was also one of the directors of the Simpsons animated series, previously worked for Minions' company in Me Thief.
Yevgeny is also the art director, Peter Desef (Ice Age, Ratatouille) and Ryan Laughlin ("Mad Hominid", "Guardian League") are character designers, and former Disney and DreamWorks animation director Jason Ryan is the animation director.
Director David was also particularly excited to bring in his old friend, the talented soundtrackist Mike Giacino (Around the Flying House, Zootopia), and his youngest son to give us the soundtrack.
In his eyes, the soundtrack of the father and son really adds to the film. He is most looking forward to seeing the audience's reaction to the unprecedented character design of "Fira Meng". "I think they're cute and cute. I hope you feel the same way! I hope the audience will enjoy the journey of the film, and I hope that everyone will also enjoy our 'Exterminated Baby Group', which will appear in the second act of the film. ”
In the original story of "Save the Donuts", the protagonists are actually a pair of good brothers. Although it was also true, director David soon asked if the brother-sister relationship would be more interesting? This allows the interaction between the two protagonists to be more intimate and to collide with more different sparks.
At the same time, we will also have a female protagonist, a female supporting actor, which is very important and can add color to the film. Movies can always produce a good balance in the collision of male and female roles.
The whole process of development and creation is very interesting, everyone is looking for the reason for the contradictions and collisions between the brothers and sisters, and the key to the relationship between the two people is always tightly wound.
In one scene, everyone directly shows a group of brothers and sisters becoming "montage flashbacks", telling the audience the reasons why the brothers and sisters grew up together and the friction is constant.
Although this montage may have slowed down the progress of the story a bit, the whole team decided to add it, because it not only explained the sibling relationship, but most importantly, it was fun and entertaining. After all, humor and fun are always the winning formula, much better than boring explanations!
Ed and Sister O finally concentrate their wisdom and rescue their own islands and ethnic groups, which conveys a special message to the audience that human beings have love, unity and wisdom to change their lives against the sky.
Director David agreed with this point of view, admitting: "Only solidarity can complete seemingly impossible tasks together, and love can ultimately overcome all misunderstandings and soothe wounded hearts." ”
In addition, although everyone uses a very fantastic tool in the movie, that is, the technique of time travel. But in fact, he thought that the film also wanted to convey a very meaningful message: "It is never too late to save extinct animals!" The same goes for protecting the earth's environment! We human beings need to face severe climate and environmental challenges with enthusiasm and innovation, and protect our own homeland. ”
What are the key elements and preparations needed to make an animated film? Director David believes that it is a powerful idea, the characters and scenes are very infectious, stylized design, excellent voice team, technically stable and creative animation team.
He is very willing to have the opportunity to work with Huashi and Dianjing Animation in the future, and of course, the Canadian animation team that cooperated this time, Cicinesite in Montreal, "They escort our animation creation." I've been working as a director of the Simpsons animated series this year, directing five special series for Disney's online platform, Disney+! We're still working on. ”
Director David Silverman has seen a lot of Chinese animation works in recent years, "I like them very much! I especially like "Luo Xiao Black War", "White Snake: Origins", and "Wind Whispering Spell". I am particularly excited and happy to see the animation industry becoming more mature and popular with audiences in China. ”
He finally shared his experience and experience with the younger generation of animation creators: "Always keep your curiosity about everything. Never give up practicing painting, even though more of your creations are done on a computer now. Dare to take risks and challenges, seize every opportunity and embrace it with all your might without reservation. You never know that every opportunity has the potential to open up a new world. ”