Matters of Life, Death and Art

Canvas Cops and Robbers Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad

Canvas, Cops and Robbers and Grab My Hand are three of the year’s noteworthy shorts which offer powerful and deeply felt messages.

This past year, we were fortunate enough to witness an abundance of beautifully made animated shorts which addressed important and heartfelt messages. We caught up with the talented artists behind three of these shorts to find out about their sources of inspiration and techniques.

Canvas is animation veteran writer, producer and director Frank Abney III’s labor of love, which took about nine years to complete. The nine-minute short, which debuted on Netflix in December, centers on a grieving man who loses his creative spark after the loss of a dear loved one, and recovers it thanks to his inquisitive young granddaughter. “Canvas was inspired by my personal experiences dealing with tragedy and loss,” says Abney. “We lost my father when I was five, and it affected my family immensely — especially my mother. As a kid, I watched as she pushed to take care of my sister and I, and often showed some kind of artistic background. But I never got to see too much of it, and wondered if there was more to that story and she had to push her talent to the side to raise us. Through my mother, I got to spend time with my grandpa (her father) growing up, and often saw this stoic man that would engage a bit, but I always felt had things bottled up, deep down. I wanted to tell a story about overcoming grief and surviving this type of trauma with the love and support of those around you.” Abney says aside from the narrative, he wanted to feature characters that represented who he is. “We don’t see many Black characters in animation, and as a Black artist, I feel a responsibility to represent who I am in this industry,” says the helmer, who has worked as an animator on many features (including Kung Fu Panda 2, Incredibles 2, Coco, Toy Story 4, Onward and Soul) and exec produced last year’s Oscar-winning Hair Love. “Visually, my inspiration came from live-action films. I love how films like Moonlight, Selma and Pariah (to name a few) captured the narrative in such a poetic way. A lot of the references I pulled were from the real world, rather than previous animated films. I also consulted with live-action cinematographer/director Morgan Cooper, to help lend an eye to the visuals.” He says he made the short with about 80 people, from artists on the production side to musicians, editors, riggers, etc. “For the production, we used Autodesk’s Maya for the 3D animation,” he notes. “For the 2D animation in the short film, we used Toon Boom Harmony, TVPaint, Procreate and Adobe Photoshop. We were on a pretty shoestring budget compared to short films in the typical studio space.” The talented artist hopes Canvas will leave viewers with a positive spark. “I’d like audiences to take away a feeling of hope!” says Abney. “Hope that no matter what they’re going through, you can get through it, and you don’t have to do it by yourself. My community has become accustomed to moving on from its losses/traumas, and not taking the time to deal with them because of so many other things we have to worry about in the world around us. But, I don’t want that feeling to be the norm, so with Canvas, hopefully it can leave a good feeling, that we can overcome and reclaim those things that bring us joy.”

Demanding Justice and Equality

Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill’s powerful short Cops and Robbers was the result of the filmmakers’ direct reaction to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by three white residents of Brunswick, Georgia, while he was jogging in early 2020. Ware-Hill created the initial non-animated version of Cops and Robbers in response to the video released of Arbery’s murder. “This killing angered me, but it did not surprise me, because we as Black Americans have been going through this since the inception of our nation,” he says. “My hope was to not only express my frustration through an artistic platform, but also to bring awareness to these atrocities that we continue to face.” “I came across Timothy’s video poem on Instagram the following day, and I was moved and inspired by his powerful words to create an animated version of his poem, so I reached out to him with that idea,” says Manor. “I needed to express my anger and also be an ally to the cause in the best way that I knew how. My intent was that the film would spur further outrage at the ongoing police violence towards

African Americans and encourage more white allies.” The animated short took about six months to complete, from May to October of 2020. “Because our film encompasses a wide range of animation styles and techniques; 2D, 3D, stop-motion, graphics, etc., our artists used a variety of animation tools, such as Animate CC, Toon Boom and After Effects for the 2D animation, Maya and Houdini for 3D, Dragonframe for the stop-motion, Nuke and After Effects for compositing,” says Manor, a VFX production veteran whose credits include Peter Rabbit, Charlie’s Angels and Baby Driver. “We ended up with over 130 people working on the project from around the world, and our budget was zero! Everyone donated their time and talent to the cause,” says Ware-Hill. “We divided the film into around 30 segments and brought on teams of individual artists, animators, students and VFX companies to each create their own visual interpretation of the subject matter within their segment. The duo points out that animation allows artists to create imagery that on the one hand can be seen as fantastical, but on the other hand, it can drive the emotional aspect of a subject in a way that traditional filmmaking can’t. “In the case of our subject matter, because unfortunately we’ve all seen, too often, the shocking reality of video or phone camera footage of people being killed by police, we knew that with animation we can create our own imagined world and hoped we can make an emotional impact in a way that has not been seen before,” the filmmakers point out. “We wanted to bring a unique aesthetic that can be both beautiful and disturbing at the same time.” “I hope that when people watch our short, they are charged with the task of becoming true allies,” says WareHill. “I hope that they are moved to act and to call out hate and racism when they see it. It is through this ally-ship that we can move forward as a nation and one day get to a place where there are no more Black hashtags from police violence and killings.”

The Bonds That Matter

The powerful friendship between two Black men inspired writer-director-actor Camrus Johnson’s 2019 short Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad. “One day, my dad called me and told me that his best friend, my uncle, was rushed to the hospital,” Johnson recalls. “I always knew that they were close, but I never knew how close until he told me they would call each other every morning to say, ‘Gate Check.’ It was their daily special check-in to make sure they were okay before their days got started — they’d been doing it since they were teenagers. I thought that was so beautiful, especially as two grown Black men in a world that teaches us not to be too affectionate toward each other, and that somehow cementing their friendship forever would be a way to help my dad grieve and heal.” Johnson, who directed the short with Pedro Piccinini, finished the short in just two months. “We were so focused on getting it to my dad asap that we were working on it nearly every single day,” he says. “It helped that we were only focused on what would connect and be meaningful to one person. It felt like when you’re a kid and your teacher has you make a Father’s Day card out of construction paper. It was less about planning and more about making sure that your message was heard exactly how you wanted it to be by the person you look up to the most.” “Pedro Piccinini and I very quickly became partners so I’m not sure a budget was ever even brought up,” Johnson mentions. “The only thing that cost money was the music! It’s funny because, since we didn’t think of Grab My Hand as a film yet, we never even considered having music. Frazier Smith offered his talents so I said I’d listen to a sample and it completely transformed the film. That’s when I knew we made something special. Pedro used Adobe After Effects, Adobe Animate and Adobe Photoshop to produce the animation.” Of course, the short’s most important audience had to be Johnson’s father. “While visiting me, we were joking about something while I was casually connecting my laptop to the TV and I awkwardly cut him off to say, ‘Okay, umm, so, I made something for you and … we are … going to watch it now!’ I played it, and when the credits rolled he started sobbing and kept saying, ‘That was amazing.’ We cried and hugged and, man, I’ve never seen him so vulnerable before.” Regarding the importance of representation in animation, Johnson says, “If you don’t see yourself in any 2D or 3D animated stories where the possibilities are endless, it’s harder to imagine being welcomed into it and you may feel that you are limited in your own opportunities or abilities. And what a sad world we would live in if we continued to not let one of the most welcoming art forms on earth not let everyone, regardless of background, religion, sex or age, feel welcome.” Johnson says he hopes his short is a reminder that men have emotions, too. “I hope it reminds people how fragile life is. We have to surround ourselves with the most amazing souls we can find that make us feel loved and protected and supported, without forgetting to make them feel the same.” ◆

Frank Abney III Timothy Ware-Hill Arnon Manor Camrus Johnson

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The Snail and the Whale (Magic Light Pictures) Directed by Max Lang & Daniel Snaddon, produced by Martin Pope and Michael Rose. (See story on page 46.) To: Gerard (DreamWorks Animation) Selected for a Tribeca Film Festival premiere, Taylor Meacham’s directorial debut is a CG animated love letter to his father which tells a heartfelt story about how life’s greatest magic is inspiring someone else to follow their dreams … even if you haven’t achieved your own. Produced by Jeff Hermann, the short features character designs by four-time Annie-winning artist Nico Marlet. Umbrella (Stratostorm) Directed by Helena Hilario & Mario Pece, produced by Helena Hilariou. (See story on page 48.)

— Compiled by Mercedes Milligan and Samantha Shanman