J Jagannath speaks to Bob Last, producer of Oscar-nominated The Illusionist.
We knew we weren’t going to win. So getting the nomination was the exciting part,” says Bob Last grinning from ear to ear. The producer of The Illusionist is talking about his film winning an Oscar nomination this year in the best animation film category (it eventually lost to Toy Story 3, although it won the prestigious New York Film Critics Award). Sitting in the plush but stuffy lobby of Taj Lands End hotel in Mumbai, Last, dressed like a golf player sans the cap, recalls the adrenaline rush when news of the nomination came in: “They tell you at five in the morning. I was in Lost Angeles, fast asleep and didn’t think we were going to win. [But] it was the best wake up call.”
The Illusionist is based on an unproduced screenplay dating back to 1956 by the well-known French director Jacques Tati. Director Sylvain Chomet’s treatment is a delightfully low tech foil to Toy Story-3’s 3-D mish mash, full of thin characters and bland dialogue. The story is simple: in the late 1950s, a down-on-his-luck magician migrates from Paris to a hamlet on a Scottish island, where he befriends a young servant girl Alice. With her encouragement, they go on a tour of the mainland, she believing he is capable of real magic, he taking menial jobs to maintain the illusion. The film is full of rich characters, finely etched details of a pop culture of a bygone age. The scene where The Britoons (a parody of The Beatles) are seen performing is amazing. Chomet’s muted soundtrack, interspersed with sparse Gallic dialogues, is so rooted and lilting that it elevates the film over other indie animation films such as My Dog Tulip and The Secret of Kells.
Barring a computer-generated vertiginous swoop of Edinburgh, the movie renders the wistful tale in soft lines, gentle water-colours and detailed backgrounds. But at a time multiplexes are swamped with 3-D flicks, didn’t Last want to follow suit? “Film is not a war between pencils and computers. The animation industry has reached a new maturity where 3-D is technically easy to do. So, it comes back to your creative decision-making. Not so long ago, making a 3-D movie was good enough, but not anymore and that means getting back to making movies first and choosing the right tools to do it.”
Last should know. He has had years of experience as managing director of Ink.digital, a Dundee-based full service animation company which has made several award-winning commercials, besides The Illusionist. In Mumbai last week for FICCI Frames 2011, the Scotsman had a proposal for the fast-growing Indian animation sector: “After The Illusionist I’m looking at making a major family CGI [that’s computer-generated imagery] feature. In Hollywood, it would cost me $100 million. My model is to keep production in Europe, use Hollywood story-telling and look at a possibility of 30-40 per cent production in India.”
Speaking of Scotland’s animation industry, Last says, “Our greatest strength is creative decision-making. From the Indian point of view, we can help companies make those early creative decisions that will allow them to access global markets and work as a bridge.” Mark Dolan, the Scottish Development Institute’s country manager for India, who accompanied Last, says that Scotland is the number one contributor to the United Kingdom in animation.
Film producer is just one of the many hats that Last has donned over his three decade-long career. He was music supervisor for 20 feature films, series producer for BBC and has even done a few art installations. But his major claim to fame was founding independent record label “Fast Product” in 1978, which has launched major cults like Human League, Gang of Four, Mekons and Fire Engines, which suggests that he is something of an indie music pioneer. Through the 1980s he managed The Human League, ABC, Scritti Politti, Heaven 17, taking them from obscurity to national consciousness.
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Asked about the changes from the good ol’ days of vinyl to the current iTunes zeitgeist, Last draws an analogy between the music and animation industries: “In the ’80s the production of music went from analog to digital and for a while, everything digital was fashionable and everything in music had to be done digitally. Then it reached a new maturity and people again went back to their guitars, drums and so on. The same is happening with animation where for a while everything was digital and people are now again using the old tools.”
The most interesting aspect of this shift in the music industry, and something that has caught Last by surprise is the importance of live performances. “In the ’80s live performance used to cost money, but now live performance is where a band makes its money. So the whole business model is now upside down.” He is unfazed by digital downloads, saying “it all comes back to good music. In 1981, when we were making a big Human League record, we got computers, imported a drum machine from California and thought that was what counted. But the reason the record was a hit is good song-writing.”
