Mar 29, 2024
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CanCon at the Oscars: Patrick Doyon is no Philippe Falardeau

Philippe Falardeau is the one getting all the headline-grabbing Oscar buzz ’round these parts, but he’s not the only Montreal filmmaker up for an Academy Award this year. Patrick Doyon is also in the Oscar hunt and, in sharp contrast to the seasoned Falardeau, 32-year-old Doyon has been invited to the biggest show in the movie business with his very first professional film.

Doyon’s beautiful nine-minute, 54-second meditation on childhood memories, titled Sunday, is nominated for the best-animated-short Academy Award. It’s one of two National Film Board productions in the category, alongside Wild Life, an offbeat tale of a British fellow in Alberta in 1909 made by former Montrealers Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis.

In a recent interview at the fabled Caffe Italia in Montreal’s Little Italy, Doyon still sounded a little taken aback that his film is headed to the Oscars.

He found out about the nomination at around 8:40 the morning of Jan. 24, right as the Oscar nominations were being unveiled. He was in front of the computer with his girlfriend and their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, and it was a pretty intense moment.

“We were real happy,” said Doyon. “We were shouting, we were so happy. But my daughter didn’t understand and she started crying.”

“We knew since the beginning of December that we were on the 10-film short list [for best animated short],” Doyon added. “In fact, both films from the NFB were on the short list. I was pretty sure one of the two NFB films would be nominated. I had seen the 10 films in Los Angeles in January, and I felt our two films deserved to be on the nomination list.”

Doyon had made one film prior to Sunday, but the animated short Square Roots is not considered a fully professional film because it was made as part of Hothouse, the NFB’s apprentice program for emerging filmmakers, back in 2006. That one took three months to make.

Sunday, on the other hand, is the fruit of two years of full-time work at the NFB studios in St. Laurent. What’s cool about the film is that it doesn’t look anything like the mainstream animated flicks produced by Hollywood giants like Pixar and DreamWorks – movies where the latest software is used to make the animation look as real as possible.

Doyon actually sketched all of the original drawings on paper using regular pencils, working on a slanted luminous table. The result was 15 boxes overflowing with sheets of his sketches. Then he scanned all of them onto the computer, colourized them and began editing.

“Technically, it’s not a film that revolutionizes animation,” said Doyon, who is also in the midst of providing drawings for a kids’ book titled Le voleur de sandwich.

“But that wasn’t my goal. For my first film, I really just wanted the film to work as a story. It’s really kind of classic animation. The goal of an animated film is to get away from reality. The danger of computerized animation is to recreate reality, which is of no interest to me.”

Doyon’s film tells the story of a young boy who goes to his grandparents’ house in a small town after church on a Sunday morning. Bored with the adult world, he wanders out to the nearby train tracks to fool around. Doyon says it’s inspired by his own life growing up in the small town of Desbiens in the Lac St. Jean region.

“But it’s not an autobiographical film,” said Doyon. “My memories are exaggerated and transformed. It’s a way of making a film about boredom without it being boring for the viewers.”

Shortly after our interview, Doyon headed to California, where he’s set to spend almost two weeks. All of the filmmakers nominated in the animated-short category are invited to tour the Pixar and DreamWorks animation facilities in the San Francisco area, and then it’s off to Los Angeles, where Doyon has a jam-packed agenda.

It’s all a bit of a shock for a quiet, unassuming guy who’s more used to working on his animation or drawing magazine illustrations alone in his studio.

“I certainly wasn’t thinking of the Oscars while I was making the film, and I can’t expect that every time,” said Doyon.

Source: The National Post

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Front Page, Industry News

CanCon at the Oscars: Patrick Doyon is no Philippe Falardeau

Philippe Falardeau is the one getting all the headline-grabbing Oscar buzz ’round these parts, but he’s not the only Montreal filmmaker up for an Academy Award this year. Patrick Doyon is also in the Oscar hunt and, in sharp contrast to the seasoned Falardeau, 32-year-old Doyon has been invited to the biggest show in the movie business with his very first professional film.

Doyon’s beautiful nine-minute, 54-second meditation on childhood memories, titled Sunday, is nominated for the best-animated-short Academy Award. It’s one of two National Film Board productions in the category, alongside Wild Life, an offbeat tale of a British fellow in Alberta in 1909 made by former Montrealers Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis.

In a recent interview at the fabled Caffe Italia in Montreal’s Little Italy, Doyon still sounded a little taken aback that his film is headed to the Oscars.

He found out about the nomination at around 8:40 the morning of Jan. 24, right as the Oscar nominations were being unveiled. He was in front of the computer with his girlfriend and their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, and it was a pretty intense moment.

“We were real happy,” said Doyon. “We were shouting, we were so happy. But my daughter didn’t understand and she started crying.”

“We knew since the beginning of December that we were on the 10-film short list [for best animated short],” Doyon added. “In fact, both films from the NFB were on the short list. I was pretty sure one of the two NFB films would be nominated. I had seen the 10 films in Los Angeles in January, and I felt our two films deserved to be on the nomination list.”

Doyon had made one film prior to Sunday, but the animated short Square Roots is not considered a fully professional film because it was made as part of Hothouse, the NFB’s apprentice program for emerging filmmakers, back in 2006. That one took three months to make.

Sunday, on the other hand, is the fruit of two years of full-time work at the NFB studios in St. Laurent. What’s cool about the film is that it doesn’t look anything like the mainstream animated flicks produced by Hollywood giants like Pixar and DreamWorks – movies where the latest software is used to make the animation look as real as possible.

Doyon actually sketched all of the original drawings on paper using regular pencils, working on a slanted luminous table. The result was 15 boxes overflowing with sheets of his sketches. Then he scanned all of them onto the computer, colourized them and began editing.

“Technically, it’s not a film that revolutionizes animation,” said Doyon, who is also in the midst of providing drawings for a kids’ book titled Le voleur de sandwich.

“But that wasn’t my goal. For my first film, I really just wanted the film to work as a story. It’s really kind of classic animation. The goal of an animated film is to get away from reality. The danger of computerized animation is to recreate reality, which is of no interest to me.”

Doyon’s film tells the story of a young boy who goes to his grandparents’ house in a small town after church on a Sunday morning. Bored with the adult world, he wanders out to the nearby train tracks to fool around. Doyon says it’s inspired by his own life growing up in the small town of Desbiens in the Lac St. Jean region.

“But it’s not an autobiographical film,” said Doyon. “My memories are exaggerated and transformed. It’s a way of making a film about boredom without it being boring for the viewers.”

Shortly after our interview, Doyon headed to California, where he’s set to spend almost two weeks. All of the filmmakers nominated in the animated-short category are invited to tour the Pixar and DreamWorks animation facilities in the San Francisco area, and then it’s off to Los Angeles, where Doyon has a jam-packed agenda.

It’s all a bit of a shock for a quiet, unassuming guy who’s more used to working on his animation or drawing magazine illustrations alone in his studio.

“I certainly wasn’t thinking of the Oscars while I was making the film, and I can’t expect that every time,” said Doyon.

Source: The National Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Front Page, Industry News

CanCon at the Oscars: Patrick Doyon is no Philippe Falardeau

Philippe Falardeau is the one getting all the headline-grabbing Oscar buzz ’round these parts, but he’s not the only Montreal filmmaker up for an Academy Award this year. Patrick Doyon is also in the Oscar hunt and, in sharp contrast to the seasoned Falardeau, 32-year-old Doyon has been invited to the biggest show in the movie business with his very first professional film.

Doyon’s beautiful nine-minute, 54-second meditation on childhood memories, titled Sunday, is nominated for the best-animated-short Academy Award. It’s one of two National Film Board productions in the category, alongside Wild Life, an offbeat tale of a British fellow in Alberta in 1909 made by former Montrealers Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis.

In a recent interview at the fabled Caffe Italia in Montreal’s Little Italy, Doyon still sounded a little taken aback that his film is headed to the Oscars.

He found out about the nomination at around 8:40 the morning of Jan. 24, right as the Oscar nominations were being unveiled. He was in front of the computer with his girlfriend and their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, and it was a pretty intense moment.

“We were real happy,” said Doyon. “We were shouting, we were so happy. But my daughter didn’t understand and she started crying.”

“We knew since the beginning of December that we were on the 10-film short list [for best animated short],” Doyon added. “In fact, both films from the NFB were on the short list. I was pretty sure one of the two NFB films would be nominated. I had seen the 10 films in Los Angeles in January, and I felt our two films deserved to be on the nomination list.”

Doyon had made one film prior to Sunday, but the animated short Square Roots is not considered a fully professional film because it was made as part of Hothouse, the NFB’s apprentice program for emerging filmmakers, back in 2006. That one took three months to make.

Sunday, on the other hand, is the fruit of two years of full-time work at the NFB studios in St. Laurent. What’s cool about the film is that it doesn’t look anything like the mainstream animated flicks produced by Hollywood giants like Pixar and DreamWorks – movies where the latest software is used to make the animation look as real as possible.

Doyon actually sketched all of the original drawings on paper using regular pencils, working on a slanted luminous table. The result was 15 boxes overflowing with sheets of his sketches. Then he scanned all of them onto the computer, colourized them and began editing.

“Technically, it’s not a film that revolutionizes animation,” said Doyon, who is also in the midst of providing drawings for a kids’ book titled Le voleur de sandwich.

“But that wasn’t my goal. For my first film, I really just wanted the film to work as a story. It’s really kind of classic animation. The goal of an animated film is to get away from reality. The danger of computerized animation is to recreate reality, which is of no interest to me.”

Doyon’s film tells the story of a young boy who goes to his grandparents’ house in a small town after church on a Sunday morning. Bored with the adult world, he wanders out to the nearby train tracks to fool around. Doyon says it’s inspired by his own life growing up in the small town of Desbiens in the Lac St. Jean region.

“But it’s not an autobiographical film,” said Doyon. “My memories are exaggerated and transformed. It’s a way of making a film about boredom without it being boring for the viewers.”

Shortly after our interview, Doyon headed to California, where he’s set to spend almost two weeks. All of the filmmakers nominated in the animated-short category are invited to tour the Pixar and DreamWorks animation facilities in the San Francisco area, and then it’s off to Los Angeles, where Doyon has a jam-packed agenda.

It’s all a bit of a shock for a quiet, unassuming guy who’s more used to working on his animation or drawing magazine illustrations alone in his studio.

“I certainly wasn’t thinking of the Oscars while I was making the film, and I can’t expect that every time,” said Doyon.

Source: The National Post

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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