Channel Frederator Blog

A lonely little girl meets a lonlier, unintentionally creepy, Octopus under the sea. That’s the premise of Artist/Animator Julie Bergman’s prize garnering short, Sinking Margot, a cute and cuddly yet strange and eerie bed-time tale you might hear from a grizzled, old, mildly drunk, sea-faring sailor type kind of a guy. I bet he would wear a yellow raincoat and galoshes.
(But why would he.. be putting… me…. to… uh, sleep?)
Why a grizzled, old, mildly drunk, sea-faring sailor type kind of a guy in a yellow raincoat and galoshes is putting me to bed with spooky cute lullabies isn’t important. What is, is that Julie took the time to answer a few Channel Fred Qs about Sinking Margot.
Thanks again Julie!

CH.Fred:1. How did you come up with the idea for this film?
JB: In the summer of 2004, I drew a silly picture of a girl sinking in the ocean.

It was a completely random train of thought I was having, and for the life of me can’t remember why. Then I drew her landing on an octopus, which I thought was funny.

Then I drew some jellyfish staring at the awkwardness one might feel when landing themselves in such a predicament, and I thought “I really need to make this move”.

It wasn’t really well planned out. This sort of inspiration seems to happen out of the blue, which I like.
[*Ed. Note: We like it too! ]

2. Who are some of your influences?
I really enjoy children’s stories. I think my mind is a mixture of The Chronicles of Narnia, James and the Giant Peach, Dr. Seuss, and the thirteen books of Oz. There is something about going back to those imaginary places of my childhood that I always want to preserve, and reading children’s books or fantasy novels seems to help. It’s always kind of wacky and weird and adventurous, I get to be a pirate or magician for a day, and my thoughts go careening down an alley I would’ve passed on otherwise.

3. What do you do when you get stuck creatively?
I let myself take breaks. Sometimes I don’t do anything for a very long time. I haven’t painted a picture in over a year. I haven’t written a song for twice as long. It’s not a bad thing to leave creativeness be for awhile. When I deprive myself of it, it likes to eventually come back in an enormous tsunami. In the meantime I can mindlessly scribble on sheets of paper and think about cute animals.

4. So tell us the truth, have you ever eaten Octopus (Tako) at a sushi bar before? It’s a little rubbery isn’t it? I happen to like it, the texture and tentacles are funny but oh so good. Your thoughts? What do you normally get from a sushi bar?
I did eat an octopus tentacle one time. I don’t really remember the taste, because I was spending the 20 minutes of chewing it thinking about how chewy it was. I couldn’t tell you if I liked it or not. But I do like squid, which is also chewy but not as distracting. I also like salmon and tuna and avocado. And yam tempura. And and and… I live in Vancouver. Our diets rely heavily on sushi. [*Ed. Note: I’m getting hungry now. Thanks a lot Julie! ]

5. What are you working on currently?
I am working in a visual effects studio, animating some creatures for a tv show that will be called Tin Man. It’s a science-fiction take on the Wizard of Oz. On my own time, I’m doing a personal project which I won’t divulge just yet. It’s too early to say when I will have it finished. I
will say it will involve outer space and a rocket ship, and I do think those two things are superly awesome.

We have absolutely no problem waiting for FUTURE Super Awesomeness here at Channel Frederator Julie! Thanks again for submitting! KIT!!!

Channel Frederator. Yr #1 SOURCE for Cartoon News & Interviews!
Harry Houdini Reincarnated as an Octopus?!?!
<3,
-JX!

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