Seth Green, Matt Senreich on Robot Chicken
An Interview With Co-Creators of Popular Cartoon Network Show
Sep 30, 2008
Robot Chicken co-creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich were stunned to find themselves giving the keynote address at the Ottawa Television Animation Conference on Wednesday, September 17th. They don't really consider themselves animators, just people who turned playing with toys into a successful show.
However, Green and Senreich are genuinely thrilled with stop-motion, perking up visibly whenever a technically-oriented question was asked. These guys are film geeks who love what they do.
This interview took place just after their keynote address, in the lobby of the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. The more technically-minded questions were from Nelvana character animator Barry Sanders, who sat in.
Matt: “I apologize that I keep rubbing my hands; I’m cold today.”
Welcome to Canada.
Matt: (laughs) “I know. I’m from the Northeast, I should be used to this!”
Seth: “I’m so excited that it’s cold. I brought a bunch of layers to wrap myself up in; I even have gloves.”
You didn’t bring skis?
Seth: (laughs) “Naw, I’m not a ski guy.”
Matt: “He just likes shoveling snow.”
Seth: “I like shoveling, I like sledding. The two go hand-in-hand: you shovel yourself a track for your sled.”
In your keynote speech, you talked about how hard it was to destroy a 1979 Batmobile toy–
Matt: “Heartbreaking.”
Seth: “Oh yeah.”
What other toys did it kill you to destroy?
Matt: “Everything.”
Seth: “We bought a bunch of vintage GI Joes, and ripped them up to put armature wire in them. But that’s to be expected; I destroyed a ton of GI Joes growing up in the name of . . . creative science.”
You wanted to be a doctor, didn’t you?
Seth: “(laughs) No, no, I liked what I called ‘kit bashing.’ I was really into taking a bunch of different elements and putting them together to make my own designs. GI Joes had a center screw in the back so you could pull the whole thing apart really easily and then reform it however you saw fit. That’s what I got into at a really early age.”
Matt: “With all the vintage toys that we get, in order to tie them down, we have to drill holes in their feet, glue them to the stage –“
Seth: “By the time you’re done with them, they just get destroyed. But the cool thing is that you get to see it come to life!
Matt: "Yes!"
Seth: "I think that’s more valuable because you get this permanent moment with that character living, as opposed to staring at something frozen in a package.”
Given all the pop-culture references in Robot Chicken, do you wonder how long a shelf life you have with many of the jokes on the show?
Seth: “We work really hard at making the more long-form jokes on the show relevant and funny, whether or not you know the underlying property. We hope that adds to the longevity of the program.”
Matt: “I would say that 80% of our show is stuff that my mom, and (Seth’s) niece, can understand in some capacity.”
Seth: “Even though it’s woefully inappropriate for her age group.” (everyone laughs)
Matt: "- but with the other 20%, we want to do things that are just for the fans. We like the joke that maybe 4 people are gonna get –“
Seth: “It’s a 2-second joke!”
Matt: “Yeah, to get that one guy at Comic-Con who will say, ‘That one thing you did!’ that makes us laugh. For the most part, people will relate to stuff like ‘The Emperor’s Phone Call’. Whether you know Star Wars or you don’t, you get the context of what’s going on in that moment.”
Seth: “We really try to emphasize the mundane in the extraordinary. We take things that are fantastic and relate them to basic human machinations; that’s where the comedy comes from. Everyone has to put their pants on, whether you’re the president or Skeletor.”
Matt: “Who’s gonna save Earth when a giant meteor is –“
Seth: “Superman’s vacuuming!” (everyone laughs)
You’ve been getting into more long-form projects: you’ve got the Christmas Special, you have the second Star Wars special –
Matt: “We’ve got a 2nd Christmas Special coming. Not this year, but the next year.”
How much footage do you film per day?
Seth: We have 15 sound stages operating simultaneously. Depending on the complexity of the shot, each animator averages about 6-20 seconds of footage per day.
Matt: We get 11 minutes in six days.
So what are you shooting on? SLR’s? Digital video?
Seth: "It’s digital . . . those new Nikons? (checks with Matt for confirmation). At first, we used the D-1’s . . ."
Matt: "But we just converted."
Seth: "But we got a lot of cinema lenses, and that’s even better. We can compose shots a lot better now."
So you’re not doing this stuff in post-production, you’re actually moving cameras around –
Seth: "Yeah, we really moved things up for the Star Wars special. Like we did this one shot across the hood of a car, when it’s running over a kid, we actually bounced the camera. It’s all in-camera."
Matt: "We just did a big fight sequence where the camera is moving throughout–"
Seth: "It’s like cinema! That’s been the biggest change in the 4th season: we’ve been more daring with the cinematography."
So what’s next?
Matt: "We’re working on the 4th season right now, we’ve got the 2nd Star Wars special in post-production."
Seth: "Coming out November 16th."
Matt: "So we’re working on the fourth season, and we have a long way to go!" (laughs)
Seth: "We just finished writing."
Matt: "So we’re in production until probably March of next year."
What’s been the best moment, worst moment, most bizarre moment working on Robot Chicken so far?
Seth: "There’s too many to count: I directed Don Knotts, and then got to direct George Lucas! At (Skywalker) Sound! The whole thing is surreal . . . to go to Comic-Con and sit on the dais, in the room where I watched people talk about Watchmen! We got nominated for an Emmy! It’s ridiculous! Imagine that you put on a play for your aunt and uncle and it got nominated for a Tony; that’s what this feels like."
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