John Nolan came to directing from the weird, wonderful and (is it just us?) slightly steam punk-y world of animatronics. Having breathed life into everything from Doctor Who to Clash of the Titans and Where the Wild things Are, John is now also signed to Streetlight Films as a director.
He put his skills to work for his Nolan’s Cheddar spec commercial, which has clocked up over a million hits on YouTube thanks to its mousey hero. Proving he’s than a one trick, errr, mouse Nolan has also created a series of shorts, viewable on his website. We catch up with John to talk animal magic and angry YouTube comments.
What did you want to be when you were a kid and why did you end up in the film industry?
I remember growing up wanting to be a primary school teacher. I really enjoyed school as a child
and I guess I didn’t want it to end. I had always watched a lot of films from a young age, being the middle child of six and having to keep ourselves entertained most of the time but it was only after I started secondary school and photography lessons that I thought about a career in film. I remember when the Jim Henson’s creature book, ‘No strings attached’ came out. It blew my mind, there were behind the scenes pictures from most of my favourite childhood films. When I was about 17 I wrote to the Jim Henson Company in Camden to ask if they had any work. Not expecting any sort of reply I received a letter in the post with the Henson headed paper. Being so young and inexperienced the company obviously had nothing to offer me but it made me determined to read every page in the book and learn how to make creatures. After school I studied at the London College of Fashion where I completed a 3-year degree course in make-up and special effects. Throughout the course we were given the opportunity to apply prosthetic make-ups, create clay sculptures and mould them and use materials like silicone and foam latex. By this point I was already building simple mechanisms at home and started to introduce animatronics to my projects, which I would always film and present as video. It was clear to me that a simple animatronic, filmed in a certain way, could look much better than it did in reality. For my final degree show I built a large silicone pigs head which became the main character for a test commercial I shot about bacon. A visiting tutor noticed the film and I was asked to work as a trainee on Harry Potter.
I see you’ve got a background in animatronics and have worked on some pretty major films – what’s the appeal of animatronics for you? How do you think it compares to modern CGI techniques etc?
I think that everyone who appreciates animatronics shares a similar interest to you or me. To have something in front of you that you can actually see and feel and smell. I have worked on quite a few films that rely heavily on CGI and have sat on green screen stages for hours watching actors scream at tennis balls, it doesn’t do it for me. I am a great fan of CGI, it is an incredible tool but I think it should be used cleverly. I have friends who have moved from Creature FX to CGI and they are totally sold on it telling me that it has no limits and you can do anything. I think that animatronics is still very strong in modern filmmaking and I would say that it’s about finding the perfect balance of practical and computer FX that makes a great film. Spike Jonze’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and Chris Cunningham’s ‘All is Full of Love’ are perfect examples of that.
Why did you decide to make the jump into directing? Is it very common for animatronics people to do that – to be honest it’s not something I’ve come across much!
I wanted to direct before I began my career in Creatures. I thought about going to film school and learning about cameras but it didn’t excite me like Creature FX did. I figured that I would start something that I really enjoyed at the time and hoped that if I worked as part of a crew then I would get to go on set and just make my own films in my spare time. It’s not really common but there have been a few animatronic designers that have moved into directing, the obvious is Chris Cunningham.
Steve Norrington who directed ‘Blade’ and ‘League of Extraordinary Gentleman’ was an animatronic genius building puppets for ‘Return to Oz’.
Love the Nolan’s Cheddar spot! How did you put it together and what was the most challenging aspect of the job?
Nolan’s Cheddar was an idea that I had in the car on the way to work. It was based on the animatronic really and how I could attach floppy arms to something that moved back and forth creating the illusion of pushing. I was working full time on a film but stayed back in the workshop to build the animatronic at night. I always knew how I was going to film the commercial so building the mouse and set was just the process that came before. I think that was the most frustrating thing for me, being really excited about shooting the idea but knowing that building the animatronic would take time and a lot of patience. For the opening shots I knew that I wanted to use a real mouse, it took months to find the right one. I wanted it to look like vermin but innocent and adorable at the same time. I found ‘Sniffles’. Once I had built the puppet to match her I made a set in my kitchen from old wooden pallets. I borrowed a few lights from friends and shot it. I used different Nikon lenses on my Sony camera to achieve a shallow depth of field and to cheat the scale of the puppet and 2nd trap, which were twice the size of the real mouse. I had to build the animatronic at this scale to fit the intricate components and motors inside. I guess the most challenging part of the idea was getting Sniffles to eat the cheese. She had to walk from left side of frame and feel comfortable enough under bright lights to turn onto the trap and eat. When she finally did it I was laughing so much that I had to stabilise the shots in post.
As much as I love the mouse, I love the quote on your website even more. “”I thought your mouse commercial was horrifying. I know it went ‘viral’ and you certainly got your 15 minutes of fame. Shame on you. I actually gasped. It made me sick.” Linda” Is that a genuine comment??? Have you had a lot of responses like that?
Nolan’s Cheddar has generated an amazing amount of interest and I have had some great comments but this is one of two that were bad. I don’t know Linda but I was laughing so much that I had to put it up on my home page. I have had some of the strangest emails about the short where I have been accused of killing or forcing a real mouse to do one push up and then reversing the video back and forth. Crazy!
The music totally makes the spot – why did you decide to make it so central to the storytelling? how did you go about choosing the different tracks?
I was originally going to write my own music for the commercial and have sound effects but when I finally found Sniffels’ and watched her run across the floor, she had so much character that I felt I needed show it to the audience through the soundtrack. I chose the Carpenter’s track because I felt it was a perfect melody and the lyrics told the story from Sniffels’ point of view. After the snap the story is told by The Doors classic ‘The End’, which I felt, was like god letting the audience know that she was close to death. My father was a British bodybuilder back in the late 80s so Eye of the Tiger by Survivor was an obvious choice when pumping iron.
What are your ambitions as a director?
Coming from an effects background I would like to try and build up a body of work that has a heavy influence of that. I guess to shoot animatronic or creature commercials and promos but ultimately I want to direct features and most especially actors. I enjoy working with people and hope to write and direct my own scripts.
To find out more about John and his work visit his website and www.streetlightfilms.com
