Channel Frederator Blog

I don’t know how many of you have had the chance to hear about Phil Nibbelink and his new film Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss which opens in L.A. next week, but if you are at all interested in animation you’ll be as amazed as I am.

Phil followed his heart and has spent the last 5 years writing and animating an entire feature film on his own using nothing more than a Wacom tablet, Macromedia Flash and a whole lot of guts! Oh yeah and one heck of an understanding family!

First off let me say this man is my hero. I am not joking. I have been doing development for many years, had 8 pilots green-lit that I’ve directed, storyboarded, designed and timed and was almost always frustrated with the process because in the end not many people got to see the final piece.

I’ve written a number of animated feature ideas and secretly said to myself, “man I should just do it myself”…but what a daunting task! I never had the gumption or the guts or the time to try but Phil Nibbelink’s new film has made me change my tune. Over 100,000 drawings all done by him with no storyboard, no committee telling him what to do and second guessing his instincts, no celebrity voices to hide the fact that the characters are wooden.

All that alone is pretty amazing and I am sure some of you have personal films you’ve done, albeit probably not an hour long, but the last truly amazing fact is it is also being distributed and you can go see it in the theaters!

Anyway, if you live in the L.A. area go support this film, not because it’s animation but because this is one man’s dream filled with sweat, and callouses and laughter. Most of the people that read these blogs are animators, or love animation, or would love to be an animator or wish they could fulfill their dream.

If this film does well it will open nation-wide opening the doors for other film-makers to do the same and allowing Phil to make more films. I urge you to support this film and this man.

Romeo and Juliet:Sealed with A Kiss opens in L.A. on Oct. 27th

Anyway, here’s Phil’s interview, I hope you enjoy it!

-Mike Milo

I.) Who are you and where are you from?

I was raised in the Seattle area. And I was always the class artist. In junior high I bought a super 8 movie camera with money I got from cartoons I sold. I started animating everything from flip books to Barbie dolls. I actually entered the Barbie doll film in the Kodak teenage film festival. I didn’t win but the judges wrote to me asking for copies! After high school I went to Rome Italy to study cinematography. And then I went to Western Washington State University for film and art. I was then accepted into the Cal Arts Disney animation program.

II.) What have you worked on?

I started out at Disney in 1978 and became an animator on The Fox and the Hound. I went on to work on The Black Cauldron, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I joined Steven Spielberg to direct Fievel Goes West We’re Back and the animation on Casper. In 1996 I started Phil Nibbelink Productions. I animated in my basement 2 direct to video features, Puss in Boots, and Lief Erikson: the Boy Who Discovered America. In 2000 I decided to make my next movie in 35mm.

III.) Tell us about your film Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss?

Romeo and Juliet has always been my favorite play. The movie follows the Shakespearean tale of two star crossed lovers from warring families who disobey their parents and fall in love. But I changed it into a happy ending because you can’t get a G rating with a double suicide!

IV.) You animated this film entirely yourself, which is an incredible feat and probably a world record. Can you describe your process and how you decided to go it alone?

As a one man band I calculated that to finish the movie before my bank account ran out I’d have to draw each frame in less than 2 minutes. So I chose to set the story in an underwater world because aquadynamics has forced sea life to be very streamlined. This cut down on the line mileage and simplified the whole animation process.

V.) You must have the most understanding family in the world and I have read that they helped you along the way, can you talk a bit about that and what they did to help you?

My wife is my Producer. She’s produced my 3 films and 4 children. I used my children as voices in Romeo & Juliet. Chanelle, my second youngest, did the giggles for Kissy the Kissing Fish when she was 3 years old. She was so cute that I steadily created a larger and large role for Kissy as Chanelle grew and became a better actress. Everyday when the kids came home from school, they would cram into my little studio and I would test screen the days work and we would run a focus group afterwards to check story points and gags.

VI.) Why do you do what you do? Passion? Talent? Making people laugh?

I have no choice. I’m addicted to creativity. I’ve tried to quit. But I’m just not strong enough. I left the big studio environment because I hate meetings. I just want to make movies. Not talk, talk, talk.

VII.) Where do you see the business in 10 years? Yourself?

I have no idea where the business will be in 10 minutes let alone 10 years. But as for me…I dream of just breaking even so I can go on and make another movie. I have enough movies in my head for 100 life times.

VIII.)What are your influences?

Nature….and my children.

IX.) What kinds of tools do you use? Special Pencils? Paper? Computer? Brushes? Desk?

I animated using a Wacom Graphics tablet and drawing the characters directly into Flash. The backgrounds are done with Painter and the crowd scenes are created in Moho. I rendered the finished Flash files to an Upgrade Technologies film recorder at 2048 x 1234. The sound was cut on Sony’s Vegas Audio.

X.) Any vents on the industry as a whole? Any praises?

I could write a book about all the things wrong with Hollywood. But instead, go see Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss and see how one man is trying to escape Hollywood and still follow his dreams.

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