Filmmaker Jon Izen on Black and White
March Entertainment Micro-Shorts at Toronto Short Film Festival
Jun 25, 2009
One of the big hits (at least with kids) at the Worldwide Short Film Festival was Black and White from Jon Izen. Featuring two talking tiles called Steven and David, this series of minute-long micro-shorts is gloriously random with a side order of bizarre and – most importantly – very, very funny.
In this exclusive interview, Izen chatted with Suite 101 about how a bad review inspired Black and White's insanity, and why it's really all about nothing.
S101: Where did Black and White come from?
Jon: “I was at work – I work for March Entertainment. I have a lot of creative freedom there, and I’m always trying to get more! (laughs) I started doing quick, quick shorts: complete nonsense. I did the first handful by myself, with the idea to show my boss to put on our portal, www.ilaugh.com.
“The stories leaked out of my brain, so it’s not a laborious type of situation. Total nonsense, and that’s where it started.”
What inspired the concept?
“To be honest, it was inspired by my previous show, Yam Roll, getting lambasted by a top critic. This individual had never actually even seen it; he was reacting to a friend’s comment. So I thought: “If I’m being criticized by someone who hasn’t even seen my work, I’m going to do something that’s based on nothing.”
Who was this critic, and what did he say?
“He was reacting to an email sent by a friend, I’m not even going to get into it!
“So I thought, “If we’ve created a funny, well-animated cartoon – which Yam Roll was – and it was unique, and it’s being criticized by someone who hasn’t even seen it, then let’s see if I can get this individual to criticize my latest stuff, but I’m going to base it on nothing.” Nothing to do with what this guy studies: classical animation, expressive faces, hand gestures, make sure it has all the elements classical animation should have. Black and white: no colour, draw very little hands, no faces, black and white square, nothing to discuss.
“In terms of content, the first episode I did was completely ludicrous. Steven and David’s reaction didn’t make sense, they were howling.
"It was: “Hey, David.” Hey, Steven.” – I’m not going to do the voices – “I’m so into classic cars.” (starts speaking in Steven’s voice) “Oh man, that’s craaaazy!” And then they go off.
“It’s the most common thing an Average Joe could say. They react insanely, and that’s where it started. I was being a ding-a-ling, I was trying to put things together that didn’t make much sense.”
Dada.
“(laughs) A little bit. But now that there are 100, I realized maybe half of them are actually intelligent, they’re clever in some ways. And I’m an animator, so they have timing and pacing, past the superficial visuals. It’s a big mish-mash of real, not-real, good animation, bad animation, ideas that aren’t supposed to work well. But after doing 25 – and we got a deal to do another 75 – they’ve had such a good reaction.
“I love coming to these festivals and showing them to children, who have no expectations, as opposed to industry people, who have very rigid perspectives and absolute expectations of what something should be.”
How so?
“When people become adults, you read and you learn and you limit how you experience the world due to your studies. So, if you’re studying only cartoons – which is another conversation – you impose those thoughts and conventions onto everything.
“Whereas I’m coming at it as someone who’s trying to enjoy himself: purely, as a person. My skills lie in artwork and animation, my stuff is very crude in terms of design. I’m trained: I’ve gone through Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba, I’ve gone through classical animation at the Vancouver Film School. So I have all the training, I just choose to enjoy myself.
“When you’re playing with kids, who want to enjoy themselves and they’re not worried about anything else, it’s killer. I’m doing this stuff to enjoy myself and I get great reaction from kids; the reactions from industry folks – those with rigid expectation – can be mildly different.”
What have some of those reactions been?
“The strange thing with Black and White is that it’s done very, very well. So far I haven’t had – my expectation – of critical review by industry people, but people who have expectation think that it should make more sense. It’s too random, it’s too quick, there’s nothing to hold onto.”
Do you think they’re looking for a deeper meaning, and they’re frustrated when they don’t find it?
“Maybe, or more of a story or . . . these things are only made to have a laugh. Just to enjoy myself, and I’m so lucky that, through my work I’ve been able to come and represent here, so any criticism I get I’m used to the gamut, believe me. And I love it, because when people get really annoyed with me, or my work. Because people are expending their energy to discuss me; but I’m just enjoying myself.”
Who do you look to for inspiration?
“This is a cliché answer, but simple daily life. People sitting on the bus, listening to a bad TV show, politics, the ludicrous things that go on, how kind people can be, how horrible this world is, everything under the sun. David and Steven speak nonsense, it’s less than nonsense, sometimes it’s more, but it’s all things that fill my brain and come back out. So, it’s specifically nothing . . . or everything!”
(In Part #2, Jon Izen talks about animating for kids, and why David and Steven could be the next Kevin Costner)
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