Sep 10, 2019

Interview John Morena on why he made one film a week for a year

In 2016, John Morena realized something: he was approaching 40 years of age, and despite a successful career as a commercial animator, he was frustrated. After years of attempts to develop his own films, nothing materialized. His artistic ambitions remained unrealized.

This “yes moment,” as he calls it, led Morena to revive an old idea: every week for a year, he produced a very short animated film, exploring unusual animation and VFX techniques that he could use in the work he was commissioned to do. Morena uploaded them to Instagram. Morena wrote a manifesto outlining his principles and stayed at home in New York to work on the production.

A year later, “Area 52” (as the project came to be called) was completed. Not only did this challenge give him a new sense of fulfillment, but Morena found the film itself interesting. The film was screened in Annecy, Hiroshima, Ottawa, Anima Mundi, and elsewhere. Morena may be the only filmmaker to have six films in competition at the Annecy International Film Festival at the same time.

On the festival circuit, these films caught the eye of prominent distributor Autour de Minuit, which released 25 of them ("Area 52 ‘A-Sides’) on Youtube this week. It's an impressive collection that uses all manner of techniques, including cut-outs, pixilation, and digital illustration. Nuggets of intense social commentary alternate with experiments in abstract movement. As a rule, there is little dialogue.

Cartoon Brew spoke with Morena about his creative process, the relative merits of Instagram and Youtube, and why he lost so many clients along the way.

Cartoon Brew: How long did it take you to create each piece and how did you juggle that with commercial work? On average, three or four days. I put my personal work first in order to balance it with the work I was being asked to do. Instead of scheduling my film production based on my commercial work, I did the exact opposite: I adjusted my regular work hours for the film. Easier said than done. I had to say “no” to many jobs and lost several clients. I had to drastically change my attitude toward work.

Sound, which you generally designed, is central to these pieces. Did you work on the sound and the video at the same time? It varied. Some pieces, such as “String of Sound” and “Face Value,” required pre-cut audio tracks. And films like “Home: Also, Home: A Portrait of New York” were animated fragments without sound, put together in editing, and the sound design was done at the end.

Some of your works were abandoned halfway through. How did you decide that the work was not worth completing? When it felt forced. Most of the time, the solution was to go in a completely radical direction from the original concept. But sometimes it didn't work, and we had to throw it out altogether and think of something else.

Did you ever feel that formality limited your creativity? No, quite the opposite. These limitations are what make the magic happen, and 60 seconds can be a great asset to a film if used wisely. I was able to convey what I wanted to say succinctly and clearly, making it seem like a news headline rather than an entire article. I always encourage other filmmakers, especially young filmmakers, to set limits for themselves and keep it as simple as possible.

A similar project, for example Greg McCloud's “365,” was a year of animating one second a day

Morena: But I tried not to be influenced by other works. I read a lot of books. I also watched many archival interviews with artists I admired. It also helped a lot to get out as much as possible and observe the world with a heightened sense of awareness.

I tried to cannibalize as much as possible and use it as conceptual inspiration. I want to make films that express my worldview. So I concentrate on narrowing down what I want to say as clearly and concisely as possible and use the physical act of filmmaking as a playground. I let mistakes and surprises happen, and in many cases it was for the best.

You said that the series is essentially about the theme that we are all animals and act accordingly. Did that theme arise during the project or did you set out with that in mind--

Morena: Morena: I definitely had that in mind. Some pieces are purely experimental and do not include layers of commentary, but most do.

Was there anything that surprised you about the way the films were received on Instagram? Yes, I have. One of the really great side effects has been realizing that our commitment to the goal is contagious to others. I've gotten countless messages and emails from complete strangers.

How did you choose which films to submit to the festival and which to present as part of the “Autour de Minuit” collection? We chose the ones we thought were the strongest and ended up with a list of 29 films. We combined three of them into one film called “Home”: three of them into one film called “Home: A Portrait of New York” and the other two into one film called “Slur. Interestingly, the individual films that made up these two feature films did not do so well on their own. But when the two films were combined, they suddenly premiered in Annecy. It's crazy how changing the resonance of something can change its success.

Anyway, by combining these films into a longer piece, the list was narrowed down to 26 films. I submitted those 26 films to every film festival I could find that did not charge an entry fee. As it turns out, all of the best animation festivals in the world allow free submissions.

As for Autour de Minuit, they contacted me shortly after the Annecy selection for 2018 was announced and asked to see the six films I had entered in competition. After seeing those six films, they wanted to see all 52. In the end, I showed them the 26 films I had entered in the festival and they said they wanted to distribute all of them. They are really nice people to work with, so all in all I am happy. (Editor's note: Autour de Minuit only released 25 films as a package because they were unable to secure distribution music rights for one short film.)

Outside of Instagram, what do films get from such a traditional exhibition route -

Morena: The three main platforms for Area 52 are really different from each other. On Instagram, there was a certain novelty. Filmmakers typically post long snippets of their work, which can be viewed in their entirety via a link in their profile. Aside from “Area 52,” there was a comedy show with puppets called “Blark and Son,” which also posted episodes short enough to be viewed in their entirety on their Instagram feed. At the time, as far as I know, there were no others.

Screening at festivals is a different world. I didn't have such a wide reach on Instagram, so at the festival I could get more people to see the film and everyone could see it at once. I could witness the audience's reactions. Screening a film in a large competition has a prestigious atmosphere and the audience is very excited. You get to actually meet the people who saw your film and the other filmmakers you screened with; you get to have a Q&A session and use your words as an extension of your film in front of the audience; you get to meet the filmmakers and the audience you screened with. All the stuff you can't get anywhere else.

Honestly, I avoid Youtube. The comments section quickly becomes a cesspool. It's where the selfie mentality takes over. What I like about Youtube is that I can monetize my work and offer it to my viewers for free. I want my work to be available for free. So until Vimeo decides to offer monetization features for filmmakers without making the audience pay, it has to be Youtube. We'll see what happens.

This series was originally designed as a place to try out techniques that could be used in other projects.4]

Morena: Morena: I didn't have time to hone a specific technique, so I'm using it as is. If a new film requires a technique that I have already used, I would definitely try it again. But I don't want to force it. I'd rather improvise, experiment, and come up with something new.

What will you make next? I am working on a new project called The King of Spades. It is another collection of animated shorts with poison. When you have your fortune read with regular playing cards, the king of spades is the strongest card. So the overarching theme of this project is the mechanisms of power and control in modern society.

I would like to be able to combine all the short films into one long piece, roughly 45 minutes long, so that the audience can view it as a feature film. Then the audience can see it as a feature film. Alternatively, they could watch only one individual short film and not necessarily need the context of the other short films to do so.

You can view all the shorts in the “Area 52 ‘A-Sides’” collection on Youtube. For more information on how Morena created each piece, see his blog.

Some of the answers in this interview have been edited for length.