Channel Frederator Blog

What is Hell really like, and how do the demons there act when they aren’t busy torturing poor unfortunate souls? Jason Pichonsky delves deep into the very pits of H-E double hockey sticks to give us a glimpse in his short, The Labours of Lerajie.

1. How did you come up with the idea for this film?
It started as a simple walk test for the demon, Leraje (I call him Larry). He walked a few steps and then turned to react to something. I tried a penguin, but settled for the more expressive dog. My wife made me add the bouncing ball. I liked what I had so i decided to flesh it out a bit more an viola!

2. Who are some of your influences?
In the animation world, I love the old Warner Brothers stuff, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. Nelvana animation from the seventies, when they were doing television specials for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and “Rock and Rule”. And the late sixties Spider-man tv cartoon: the music as much as the animation style.

3. How long did it take you to make this, and what type of process went into creating the short?
It was pretty organic. I animated the characters in a CGI program called Poser. The models came from Sixus1Media. I rendered them a few different ways and combined that to give it a 2d look.

The master shot was done over a weekend, with no real end product in mind. I liked what I had and added the reaction shots and the closing. The backgrounds were done in photoshop, heavily infuenced by Ralph Bakshi’s Spider-man backgrounds and then the whole thing was composited in After Effects.

I’ve even go a stereoscopic version. You know, 3-d.

4. What do you imagine hell to be like? (and man, do I hope that the demons down there are as much of a pushover as this one!)
Hell is a place with no cartoons.

5. What are you working on currently?
I’m putting some credits on a live action film I’ve made called “8 1/2 Short Films about Zombies” and filling out submissions to film festivals.
You can watch the trailer here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/1312699-e20
or
http://alteye.blogspot.com/2007/07/8-12-shorts-trailer.html

And one of the shorts ended up here:

http://films.thelot.com/films/20832

I also am working up the nerve to animate a 24 minute episode from a 50’s scifi radio show using the audio as a guide track. The amount work on that project is staggering to contemplate.

Wow! You are one busy guy Jason! Good luck with all that and thanks a million for finding time between all that to submit Labors of Lerajie to us! Stay in touch!
-Jeaux Janovsky, Ringleader of the CH.Fred Raw Circus
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