Wholphin

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Directed and Animated by Michael Langan

Biography:

Michael Langan grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, where he began his
artistic career as a professional stage actor. He returned to his New
England birthplace in 2003 to attend the animation program at Rhode
Island School of Design, completing “Doxology” as his thesis film.
“Doxology” has since won twelve awards and screened at over fifty film
festivals worldwide. Michael is currently the director of video and
animation at Upper Playground in San Francisco, where he has directed
over 400 short promotional films and documentaries. He continues to
produce experimental animations independently.

An Interview with Michael Langan

Interview by Sung-Joo Kim,
Head Programmer for Seoul International Animation Festival

Sung-Joo Kim: What would you like to tell to audiences through
“Doxology?”

Michael Langan: Learn to adapt to and find contentment in your
surroundings.

SJK: What was your motivation for making the film?

ML: I set out to create a film, having no idea what the end product
would be. The only rule I gave myself was to trust my intuition
completely. I began by creating tons of animated “sketches,” very
quickly-executed ideas, which accumulated into a bank of loosely-
associated short films. I rushed the entire process, not allowing
myself to censor or judge each idea before it had been executed.
Eventually the pieces began to speak to one another, and I started
drawing lines between them and shaping them into a film. The
overarching theme that developed is an account and commentary on the
relationship between Heaven and Earth, incidentally connected by
tennis balls (which I like to think of as prayers.)

SJK: Could you explain your proprietary techniques used to make this
film?

ML: I used a combination of stop-motion and pixilation in “Doxology,”
with a little altered live action thrown in for good measure. There is
one scene featuring 3D-animated snow, but nearly everything else in
the film is photographed from life. I developed a number of original
techniques for the film. The recurring image of the earth from space
is in fact a time-lapse panorama of the sky from below, which I
flipped upside-down and warped to simulate the curvature of the earth.
The climactic scene at the conclusion of the film involves a
combination of visual techniques which alter the original footage into
a new interpretation of space and time. First, I shot image sequences
out of plane windows with a digital still camera every time I flew in
a commercial jet over the course of a year. Then I stabilized these
shaky sequences on a focal point, like a church steeple, so it appears
as if the viewer is rotating around this central point. Next I
simulated a narrow depth of field by blurring the background and
foreground, thereby miniaturizing the subject to call attention to the
relativity of scale. Finally, I duplicated the footage several times
and wove these sequences into themselves, creating an animated
Shepard’s Scale in which time and distance appear to pass, but are in
fact perpetually rooted to the same moment and place.

SJK: What was the most difficult point in the production of “Doxology?”

ML: The most difficult scene to animate in “Doxology” was the bathroom
sequence, in which I appear to be brushing and flossing my teeth,
combing my hair, cleaning my ears, lathering, and shaving all at the
same time. This scene was shot using pixilation–that’s stop motion
animation with actual people and places–one frame at a time, for two
hours. Like some other effects that appear in “Doxology,” I had to
first take out all drifting motion before I could connect the
elements. Compare it to trying to assemble a puzzle on a boat in rough
seas; you need everything still before you can put it together. After
stabilizing each arm and the corresponding section of my face, I
carefully pieced together every action so that they could all take
place at once without interfering with one another. The last step was
to re-introduce the motion I removed in order to assemble the puzzle.
Shifting the head with the combing motion and including sideways bumps
from tooth brushing and shaving makes the illusion seem more natural.
The finished composite involved hundreds of layers and over three
months of editing to reach completion.

SJK: Any notable memories?

ML: Perhaps my favorite part of filmmaking is designing the sound and
music for a film. “Doxology” involved extensive original recording,
for which I enlisted the help of a choir, two organists, a box of corn
starch, and a mariachi band. The song which plays over the climax of
the film is called “The Doxology,” which is an English hymn sung at
the close of many church services. To achieve the full sound of an
enormous church congregation, I had to multiply the sound of a single
choir many times over. This required animating a sing-along video of
sorts, from which the choir and organist could take their cues and
sync up when joined by editing. I recorded the Higher Keys of Brown
University in a large dance hall, asking them to sing the song ten
times, changing their voices and positions after each take to add as
much variety as possible to the recording. They sang like
grandparents, children, opera singers, bored teenagers, and hopelessly
tone-deaf churchgoers. On a separate day in another hall I recorded
the organist playing the hymn with no choir. I then layered all of
these sounds on top of each other, creating the illusion that the
audience is listening to a single, gigantic congregation being led by
an organist.

A little trivia: The music playing during the credits sequence is an
old German klezmer tune, “My Hat, It Has Three Corners,” which is the
theme to Jan Svankmajer’s film “Etcetera.” I adapted the song for a
Mexican mariachi band and recorded it as an homage to one of my
favorite filmmakers.

SJK: What is your purpose in creating animations? For commercial
success or indie animation or what?

ML: My ultimate goal is simply to continue exercising my artistic
license to the fullest extent possible. That said, I’m definitely not
limited to independent filmmaking. So far I’ve been very content
creating bizarre, commercial short films for a clothing label in San
Francisco called Upper Playground. You can see these shorts at
youtube.com/walrustv.

SJK: Do you have any advice for Korean animators and young filmmakers?

ML: It’s impressive to see polished work from young filmmakers. But
it’s fantastic to see good looking work that is original, or at least
takes the status quo one step further. “Finding your voice” doesn’t
necessarily mean discovering what you’re good at and repeating it ad
nauseum, it means discovering what original material you have to
contribute to the world and continuing to search for new ideas within
yourself. This takes trusting your intuition and staying one step
ahead of your sanity.

SJK: Have there been any changes in your life since winning at Ottawa
in 2007?

ML: I feel very strongly that I am becoming a member of the
international animation community now, and am excited to see friends
from festivals past at other events around the world.

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