Rotten Tomatoes: How did you come to the project/interact with Marc Miance (credited with the original concept for “Renaissance”)?
Christian Volckman: Well, Marc was really on the technical side, he had to create a tool at Attitude Studio, it’s a big studio where there are a lot of things going on. You cannot do a film like that if you don’t have the tools to make it; that’s the really big problem with animation and motion capture and 3D and all that stuff, it just needs a lot of people to work on it — very skilled people, very talented technicians, programmers, artists, animators, a bunch of editors… and so in the beginning it was really working on trying to find a way to express, to find the right story, the right world in which you can get the most out of the black and white and the motion capture.
I’m very much into filmmaking but not too much into technicity, I don’t like it too much — I like to use it, but I’m not completely obsessed by it, like Marc can be. So it was a good team because on one side I was doing my drawings and trying to create Paris 2054, working on the look of it all, the design, and on the other side we were working together to find the right solutions. It’s difficult to resume the relationship into words, because we worked together for five years, four years. But there was not just me and Marc, there were also the scriptwriters that came along, and then the producer was very close to us in the beginning. And with those kinds of films everything is done in the storyboards pretty much, so we had to put down the storyboard of the entire film before we even started going into the CGI — crazy kind of area.
RT: So was it pretty collaborative, from the start?
CV: Yes, everybody has a specificity, you know. And some people, like the scriptwriters only wrote, of course, I directed the film so I’m completely into visuals, actors, trying to put that all together, and Marc was completely involved in trying to make that happen technically. It’s good to be not alone on those projects, because they last for so many years, four years, you know? If you were alone you probably would die, because things are crazy and out of proportion.
RT: Was it much different from your previous work, “Maaz?”
CV: Yes, what we did on “Maaz” was we shot on blue screen — the actors — and then I painted all the backgrounds and I also painted image by image certain scenes, so that it would be like a painting, or an animation painting feeling to it. But of course the shooting team was pretty big but it was normal. What was difficult was the second part of it, which was the CGI part… we worked throughout a year, and the film only lasted eight minutes. So it was the same kind of obsessions about taking real actors, or reality, and putting them into a world which is completely fantasized. So it’s the same approach as you know, of course “Polar Express,” “Final Fantasy,” or even the approach of “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly.” It’s the kind of thing where you can see that there are actors behind but they’re kind of integrated into this magical world.
On “Renaissance” there were more than 400 people working on the film, so it’s a complete other kind of relation to your own work, and the relation to other people.
RT: Was it hard to get funding to back “Renaissance”, since there has not been anything like it before?
CV: Yes, it was the most difficult part of it, it was terrible because you’re always trying to convince people that what you want to do is good, but it’s so bizarre because at the same time you’re going around saying okay, I want to do a motion capture film, black and white, futuristic, very dark, for grownups, and it’s going to cost $14 million Euros, please help us. And people are just looking at you like, where do you come from, what do you want, it’s interesting but we’re not going to put any money into it… so it was very hard, for three years we were going up and down, at some point we had the money and at some point we didn’t, it was really changing all the time so it was a little bit frustrating.
But at one point there was a great producer called Jacob Hertz, he’s a Canadian producer who creates links between Europe and America. We had to do with Marc a little three minute trailer that showed what it could look like onscreen, that took us six months to do, and those images are not in the film. They were just like a pre-trailer, putting people in a screening theater and saying, that’s what it looks like, here’s the script. So that’s what Jacob did, he took the project and the script to Disney, and they said okay we’re going to put $3 million into it, and that completely opened up a lot of doors in France. And after three years we suddenly felt this was going to be made, because we had a lot of doubts throughout the production.
RT: I didn’t know Disney was involved…
CV: Oh, yes, that’s why Miramax is distributing it, because Disney pre-bought the film on the script. That’s what really saved us. It made a difference because suddenly you have a name, and when you say “Disney wants to make the film” people look at you like, what? Come on, Disney doesn’t want to put money into a black and white, grownup animation film, but they did!
RT: Is $18 million the budget that you wanted?
CV: Oh no, we would have needed more.
RT: What would you have done differently?
CV: Just maybe be able to be more comfortable, not rushing it like crazy because you’re working against time. And of course, redo some scenes that I didn’t like, or… did you see the film?
RT: I did!
CV: What did you think of it?
RT: I thought it was one of the most visually striking films I’ve ever seen.
CV: Well, that’s nice, but for me, working on it for such a long time, there are some scenes that I would have wanted to bring a little further, to go a little bit deeper into some characters and create even better images. And at some point I had to make some decisions, like okay we’re going to have to stop because if we go on on this particular scene we’re not going to be able to do the next one.
Sometimes it was very frustrating because of that money problem, you have to keep up the schedule. At one point you have to stop, you cannot work your image to the level you want — sometimes, some scenes, I’m not saying that about everything. And that’s the problem with the lack of money, on that artistic level you have to rush so many things through.
RT: So you’re not completely happy with the end product?
CV: Well, yeah, you can always do better, no?
RT: Can you talk about the comparisons that have been made between “Renaissance” and “Sin City,” since they’re both animated, black and white, and for adults?
CV: Well, “Sin City” was not at all animated, it was really actors on blue screen. So, for me it has nothing to do with this film. You know, the problem is… it drives me crazy, you know why? It’s not because you make a film in color that you compare it with other films that are in color.
It’s just been so long since people have gotten a black and white film out there, that suddenly there’s “Sin City” — okay, it’s black and white, it’s happening in a city, it’s an urban kind of thing — and then of course we come out afterwards and people say, oh it looks like “Sin City” but it’s just because it’s in black and white!
Because you don’t compare films that are in color because they’re in color…I think it’s just because it’s so rare to see black and white films. In the past year, “Sin City” came out, and this year, “Renaissance”, and people say okay it looks like it but the subject, the story, the fantasy world, the way things happen, the obsessions are completely — for me it’s completely two different films.
RT: Do you have any upcoming films on your plate?
CV: No, I want to go on, but I’m really thinking about what is the next project, what it’s going to be like, and how much time do I want to spend on it.
RT: Are you dedicated to this kind of technique, to this kind of film?
CV: I’ve found it’s really great, I love going into computers and playing around but after a while it gets on my nerves. You have to find a project that you’re so passionate about that you can resist for six years, or three years or four years. That’s what makes the difference, and I’m just thinking about all this, and also meeting people is very interesting, and coming to America is very interesting too. To kind of see what’s out there and what people are doing, and comparing it to the European market. Things are getting a bit more precise but I cannot tell you exactly what I’m gonna do next.
RT: Would you rule out live action?
CV: I would love to do that.
