{"id":30112,"date":"2018-09-14T03:53:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T10:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=30112"},"modified":"2018-09-12T16:08:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T23:08:51","slug":"animated-therapy-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/animated-therapy-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Animated therapy session"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Fine and Alison Snowden wrote, directed and animated the National Film Board of Canada animated short Animal Therapy<\/em>. (photo by John Bolton)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re baaaack! And with another funny \u2013 and thought-provoking \u2013 National Film Board of Canada animated short. Jewish community member David Fine and wife Alison Snowden, who co-created the NFB\u2019s Oscar-winning Bob\u2019s Birthday<\/em> 25 years ago, have returned to the genre with Animal Behaviour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Animal Behaviour<\/em>, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this week, will be part of the Vancouver International Film Festival\u2019s True North Shorts program, The Curtain Calls, on Oct. 1 and 8. There are further screenings scheduled for other festivals across Canada.<\/p>\n

The 14-minute short, produced by Michael Fukushima, executive producer of the NFB\u2019s animation studio, is written, directed and animated by Fine and Snowden, who are currently based in Vancouver. In addition to countless other projects, the pair also created, and contributed in many capacities to, the adult animated series Bob and Margaret<\/em>, which was based on Bob\u2019s Birthday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had worked in series and missed making a personal film and doing the animation ourselves, directly,\u201d Fine told the Independent<\/em> about what motivated Snowden and him to make another animated short. \u201cWe really thought it would be nice to get back to the type of filmmaking we started our career with and our producer, Michael, had suggested that he would be keen to see any ideas from us and we happened to have one, so we thought, why not have a go. It\u2019s very different to make a personal film like this than a series.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple humorously tackled some of the issues of being middle age in Bob\u2019s Birthday<\/em>. In Animal Behaviour<\/em>, they explore \u2013 also with much humour \u2013 some of the pros and cons of following our natural instincts versus doing what is socially acceptable. They do so using the vehicle of a weekly group therapy session led by Dr. Leonard Clement, a Labrador retriever.<\/p>\n

Lorraine, the leech, has attachment issues and experiences panic attacks; Todd, the pig, has an eating disorder and suffers from insecurity; Cheryl, the mantis, hasn\u2019t had a lasting relationship, and the fact that she has 1,000 kids is the lesser of her two main problems; Linda, the Tabby cat, has obsessive compulsive disorder and doesn\u2019t ever feel clean enough, despite constantly licking herself; and Jeffrey, the blue jay, has some serious guilt issues as a result of something he did when he was a very young bird. The members of the group seem to know one another well and there is a rhythm to their session. Then walks in Victor, the ape, with his anger issues, who believes that everyone else is an idiot and that people in therapy are navel-gazers who just need to get on with their lives.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
In Animal Therapy<\/em>, Victor aggressively takes issue with Dr. Clement\u2019s approach to therapy. (photo from NFB)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe notion of going to therapy to change seems like a tall order, so we thought it would be fun to look at therapy and have a character who comes in and questions its validity,\u201d explains Fine in an NFB interview online. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019re careful not to go for the low-hanging fruit or make fun of the process. We don\u2019t want to answer the question (\u2018Is therapy valid?\u2019), we want to pose the question and start the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a difficult script to write,\u201d says Snowden in the NFB interview. \u201cWe thought it would be easy, because it\u2019s in one room, there\u2019s one conversation, but there are so many possibilities with all the animals, and if we did it wrong it would get boring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, there were a lot of characters, but you couldn\u2019t get attached to any of them, so we honed it down. Really, it\u2019s about the ape and Dr. Clement \u2013 that\u2019s the showdown. Then they all came together. The others are in the room, they\u2019re observers, and they\u2019re there for comedy. But the key characters are those two and their drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom idea to final film was probably about five years,\u201d Fine told the Independent<\/em>, \u201cbut there was a development period, which was sporadic and took time to get to the green light. Once in production, it took about 2.5 years to make, in terms of pure working time.\u201d<\/p>\n

About working in animation, Fine said, \u201cWe like controlling every frame and effectively being both directors and actors, because we pose and make the characters act. We also love working with voice actors and then being able to edit the track in a way you can\u2019t really do in live action. It\u2019s really about all the nuance and control, which is so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creative process starts with the writing, he said, \u201cwith the idea and the script,\u201d which they \u201cwork to refine\u2026. After that, the voice record was key. We interviewed about 300 voices to cast this group. All the actors are Vancouver-based, which we are very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the credits, thanks are given to the animation programs at Capilano and Emily Carr universities, and the film is dedicated \u201cto the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff at Vancouver General Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the production, near the end, Alison was struck with a very sudden, serious health crisis and was in intensive care and recovery for five months,\u201d explained Fine. \u201cVGH saved her life, so, when we were finally able to finish the film together, it was very important to us to make that dedication to show our appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For tickets to The Curtain Calls and the full film festival schedule, visit viff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Fine and Alison Snowden wrote, directed and animated the National Film Board of Canada animated short Animal Therapy. (photo by John Bolton) They\u2019re baaaack! And with another funny \u2013 and thought-provoking \u2013 National Film Board of Canada animated short. Jewish community member David Fine and wife Alison Snowden, who co-created the NFB\u2019s Oscar-winning Bob\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[8368,8295,8367,2864,6968,5933,1900,1916],"class_list":["post-30112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-alison-snowden","tag-animation","tag-david-fine","tag-health","tag-national-film-board","tag-nfb","tag-vancouver-international-film-festival","tag-viff"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}