Interview: Mark Nute On Animated Short “Marvin”
Mark Nute has been a freelance animator for over 8 years, animating for a whole host of clients including working extensively with Babycow Animation on 2DTV and I’m Not an Animal, both high quality prime time British animation shows. Quite the rarity these days.
His latest short film Marvin chronicles a young boy with a hole in his head who looses his common sense when it falls out during a sneezing fit. The tale is told through verse and narrated by Steve Coogan in a deadpan style that matches both the subject and the animation style in a delightfully whimsical way. It is hard not to be caught up in the story as we follow Marvin through his misadventures trying to locate his misplaced grey matter.
Marks earlier film The I’ve Spied Book of Beards was part of the A.I.R scheme in which animators would spend three months as part of a ‘Big Brother’ style exhibition working in the Media Museum in Bradford animating their film whilst the public peered on through the glass at them. Both films are created using a 2D cut out style and plenty of quirky wit.
Skwigly managed to catch up with Mark to ask him a few questions about his career in animation and his short films.
What got you into animation? Is it something that has always been a part of your life?
I think that I was about 8 years old when I realized that it was actually someone’s job to make cartoons, then at a later date (maybe 9 or 10) when I learnt of the untold riches, wild parties and loose women it would inevitably bring, I was sold!
I honestly thought that it was just a natural career progression that by 21 I’d probably own a theme park or two. It seems I’m a bit behind schedule on that count.
You were part of Channel Fours, now sadly defunct, A.I.R (Animator in Residence) scheme. As part of the scheme you created The I’ve Spied Book of Beards. How did you find the experience from a learning point of view and having to live in a box for three months as part of the exhibition?
It was probably the weirdest 3 months in my career so far. Working in the box really took a while to get used to.
Members of the public often didn’t realize that you can hear everything they say and some of the kids who came round were convinced I was a robot, or one of those rubbish animatronic dummies they have in Christmas window displays. This afforded me ample opportunity to scare the crap out of them by suddenly spinning round on my chair gurning wildly.
The box was also strategically positioned next to an Andy Pandy exhibit which looped the show’s theme tune about a million times a day, this coupled with the constant window tapping, the long lonely nights, and a diet consisting of the canteen chocolate brownies and multiple triple espressos could have broken me but I made it through and weirdly really enjoyed the experience.
I found it valuable in learning just how complex making a short film could be, and how many people and how much paperwork is involved, and how if you eat your lunch under a table in the dark no-one bothers you!
It was sadly the end of a golden age with a really healthy budget and a guaranteed primetime broadcast slot.
As this was my debut film I think it gave me a pretty skewed impression of how life as a writer/director would be, I was brought back to earth pretty quickly when I then made a music video for the princely sum of £200.
Your new short film Marvin is a about a young boy with a hole in his head who loses a part of his brain! It is animated in a similar way to your other projects but it’s told through a poem narrated by Steve Coogan. Did the poem come first or did you have the idea for the characters and animation first?
The poem came long before I ever thought of making it into an animation.
An illustrator/painter friend of mine, Frank Pudney, had the basic idea when he was studying in Norwich in 2003. I went to his graduation show and saw the little hand made kid’s book he had put together about a boy born with a hole in his head and I was blown away by the concept and the themes he’d got into a few sentences and pencil drawings and I felt it had so much potential.
So I asked if I could develop it into a longer story and it just evolved over about 7 years to the poem it is today.
I really wanted to make it into a picture book (seemed like a lot less work) but I didn’t know anything about that so I decided to try and get it made as an animation instead.
We were about to give up (having entered numerous schemes/pitching competitions) when I learnt about the UK Film Council’s Digital Shorts scheme literally days before the deadline so I chucked together a proposal and luckily they liked it enough to commission it.
How long did it take to put Marvin together, did you get any help along the way?
It took about 7 months full time production on top of the years of part-time writing.
I had some amazing help along the way. Most notably Frank Pudney who not only came up with the idea but also did all the drawings used in the background. I consulted him on virtually every aspect of the film, listened to his ideas then ignored them before regurgitating them as my own a few days later. Somehow we’re still good friends.
Because of budget restraints and my control freak nature, I did all the character designs and animation myself with a guiding hand from my producer Tim Searle and Exec Producer Henry Normal, who between them secured Steve to do the voice and did all the boring organizing stuff that I didn’t want to.
We were also really fortunate with the help we got by way of music and sound. Through vague connections and friends of friends we managed to get Jeff Mercel of the American indie band Mercury Rev to write and perform an amazing set of tunes to score the film. Then at the end of production, just hours before the deadline, we were running around a recording studio doing manic foley work with Simon Couzens who is some kind of crazy noise wizard. That was definitely a highlight of the whole production.
You have worked with British comedies big names such as Steve Coogan in your new film Marvin and Kevin Eldon on The I’ve Spied Book of Beards; how much collaboration did they put into each project when loaning their vocal talents?
Yeah, I’ve been really lucky, I’m a huge fan of both of them.
Kevin was really involved in the ‘Beard’ film as he acted as script editor for me and a large percentage of the script is based on ideas he came up with. As far as the voice record went he was really great, trying numerous voices and accents before plumping for “something a bit like the one from ‘Who I Am and What I want’ but different.
Steve was also fantastic. He seemed to really like the script and was totally on the same wavelength as us regarding the deadpan slightly detached delivery we wanted, which he nailed first time. Luckily I didn’t need to do much ‘directing’ with Steve as I was a bit star struck and barely said a word.
Your film has been shown around a fair few festivals such as Stuttgart, Palmsprings and The World Wide Short Film Festival in Toronto and next up is Comic Con in San Diego that must be pretty exciting! How has the reaction been?
The reaction has been great especially in North America, after a slow start things are really picking up. It’s true that once your film is in a festival or two there’s definitely a momentum and since WWSF in Toronto and Palm Springs it’s been invited to numerous other great festivals.
Frank and I have been lucky enough to attend a few of the festivals and I’ll be representing the film at Comic-Con, where I’ll be giving a talk and Q+A to a theatre full of hobbits and storm troopers (or whatever is in vouge in fanboy couture this year).
You were involved in the making of I’m Not an Animal and 2DTV both prime time British animation. It’s a shame but you don’t really see much of that anymore what was that experience like working on such a rare thing?
It was a fantastic experience and I strongly believe that had Tim Searle not taken a chance on me, with no character animation on my showreel, and given me my first job on 2DTV I would have really struggled to break into the industry.
2DTV was unique in terms of production as it was topical with sketches based on the week’s news, which meant we could get a script on a Tuesday and it would be on TV at the weekend. There were plenty of late nights, countless Chinese takeaways and far too many 6-day weeks, but I look back very fondly on those days. Can’t imagine a more fun place to work.
I’m not an animal was a different err… animal entirely, taking years to complete we had the luxury of time to really put ourselves into the work (quite literally as the characters were often collages of photos of the crew) and the writing and voice work were superb. It is still the project I’m most proud to be a part off.
I couldn’t believe that less than a year out of Uni I was working on a show with so many comedy greats and such a great writer that looked so unique and innovative. It was a great time for British animation.
What is next for you? Will you be working on more of your own short films?
I’d love to make more films of course, but for the time being I’m just trying to get by working on whatever comes my way, while trying to find time to develop designs for a Kid’s TV Show with Baby Cow Animation that’s being written by Mark Warren. Probably can’t say much more than that right now.
Finally if you could remove any part of your brain like Marvin which part would it be?
Tough one, probably the part that represses all my dormant super powers.