"Miss Todd" Takes Animation to New Heights: An Interview with Filmmaker Kristina Yee

In October, BMFI launched its inaugural Silver Screen Inspiration Short Film Contest to encourage emerging filmmakers and celebrate cinema’s rich history. From over 280 entries, four finalist short films have been chosen: "Miss Todd," "Wrong Number," "Redemption," and "Sonus." In April, see these remarkable short films on the big screen before the features that inspired them, and learn more about the finalist filmmakers on BMFInsights.

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"Miss Todd" Takes Animation to New Heights

By Kerri Grogan, Staff Assistant

Inspiring is the best word to describe the story of "Miss Todd," a stop-motion, animated, musical short that is one of Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s inaugural Silver Screen Inspiration Short Film Contest finalist films. Director Kristina Yee's award-winning short, which uses beautiful, hand-drawn puppets and handmade sets, follows the compelling journey of a young woman who dreams of flight. The project was her graduation film from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, and was the first animated film to win a Gold Medal for Best Foreign Film at the Student Academy Awards. The short will be shown with the feature that inspired it, the beloved musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952), on the big screen this Tuesday, April 1 at 7:00 pm.

I caught up with Kristina via email to ask her a few questions about her film. Keep reading to learn about the challenges of stop-motion animation, what attracted her to the story, and what inspires her.

Director Kristina Yee earned a 2014 Annie Award nomination for her film.

"Miss Todd" is based on the experiences of a little-known historical figure, Lillian Todd, whom the New York Times identified in 1909 as the first woman to design airplanes. What drew you to her story?

I came across Miss Todd almost by accident. I was perusing articles about this particular time in aviation history because I was doing research for another project that involved flying, and kites particularly, when I came across Miss Todd. I wondered why I'd never heard of her, and the more I read, the more her story smacked of injustice. I thought it was amazing that she accomplished so much, and yet is so forgotten by the history books. The mystery of what happened to her after her plane flew also drew me to her—I wanted to believe that, as we've portrayed in the story, her disappearance wasn't a tragedy, but an adventure.

What made you decide that you wanted to tell her story as a musical?

I had been thinking of making a musical for my graduation film, but when my writer and I decided to tell Miss Todd's story, a musical seemed perfect in a lot of ways, mostly because it's very much a story about literally not having a voice. When Miss Todd sings, she's communicating all the highs and lows of her experience in a way that only music can communicate.

What would you say is your favorite part of the filmmaking process?

I'm not sure I could name a favorite part—I genuinely love every step. I suppose the best part is when you feel that all of your collaborators are really united in making the film and are each using their own gifts to bring out the best in the story. I had a fantastic team for "Miss Todd," and that made the entire process a real pleasure.

You used a stop-motion style of animation that uses paper cut-outs and built sets. What made you choose this style? Did you have any particular inspiration for the visual look of the film?

Well, there were certainly practical considerations when we chose this style. We wanted to do stop-motion because we thought there was something really wonderfully tactile in this world of inventions and machinery. The textures of the real sets really invite you to be a part of her world. We settled on paper cut-outs for two reasons: we needed to be able to do lip-sync and wanted to have facially expressive characters, and also because, in a more abstract way, there was something about the limitations of the movements of the paper puppets that seemed fitting for the time period in which the film is set. Plus, the paper in the sets looked amazing!

Miss Todd dreams of flight, but her aspirations may be forever grounded. This beautiful animated film was done with no use of green screen, and only minimal post-production retouching.

What are some of the challenges of working in this type of stop-motion style?

Well, my editor was really disappointed when I told him we couldn't do a 360 shot around Miss Todd. There are certainly logistical things you have to think about when your puppets are flat! But I think the challenge was mostly that it was a bit experimental, so we were learning as we went along. We were also trying to do things that are difficult to do in stop-motion, even in the best of circumstances, on a shoe-string budget and a tiny animation team—things like lip-syncing (lots of it!) and flying. One moment I was proudest of is that, in order to create realistic motion-blur in the take-off sequence, we had loads of friends helping us to "pull" the grass of the airfield the moment that the shutter closed, frame by frame, so that the grass would appear to be racing by for the take-off. We also had to make sure that the wheels and propeller were spinning as the shutter closed, which became the special responsibility of our amazing cinematographer, Nick Cooke.

What filmmakers have inspired you and the way you work?

As with all animators, I'm a huge Miyazaki fan. I only hope to one day be one tenth as accomplished as he is! I also love Billy Wilder. In particular, I love The Apartment, which is one of those films that is completely perfect just the way it is. I hope one day I'm able to write the kind of witty, snappy dialogue that he and his collaborators always seemed to capture. I grew up watching old musicals, which have nurtured my love of grand, sweeping moments in film. I also love the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; I think I've watched The Red Shoes more times than any other film! I love their sense of imagination and artistry.

Thank you, Kristina!

See "Miss Todd" and the classic feature that inspired it, Singin' in the Rain, this Tuesday at 7:00 pm. Join us on April 27 for our ACTION! Dedication Celebration, where we will announce the Silver Screen Inspiration Short Film Contest winners.

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Kerri Grogan is BMFI’s Staff Assistant. She studied animation at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and moonlights as a dice-rolling, video gaming geek, blogger, and comic artist.

Meet Our New Staff Assistant

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

This week, Bryn Mawr Film Institute welcomed the newest member of its staff: Kerri Grogan, our new Staff Assistant. An animator who customers at Merion Art and Repro already know and love for her sunny disposition and can-do attitude, she will be supporting BMFI’s education, outreach, programming, and public relations initiatives. You’ll also be hearing more from her here, on BMFInsights.

Tell us a little about yourself.  

I'm an animator, artist, crafter, and blogger [MotionSavvy] from North Carolina. I went to college in Maryland and several years later moved to Delaware County, Pennsylvania. I love movies—not just animated ones—and storytelling is something I'm very passionate about. Also, I tend to be a huge nerd about many a thing.

You studied animation. Do you have a favorite animator or character?  

There are a few. I really admire Tomm Moore (director, The Secret of Kells) and Glen Keane (character animator, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) for their talent and their vision. I think every hand-drawn animator has to at least mention Miyazaki as well. But my absolute favorite animator is probably Don Bluth (director, The Secret of NIMH, Anastasia, others). Not specifically because I think his movies are the absolute best thing out there—although it's true that he can singlehandedly be blamed for my life-long love of dinosaurs, and I do think The Secret of NIMH, especially, is a truly great movie—but because he's so passionate about the medium.

What is your favorite film? Why do you love it?  

Spirited Away. I think part of my love for it is personal and nostalgic, but it's also true that everything about this movie is beautiful and incredibly well paced and put together.

What is your all-time favorite cinema experience?  

When I was in college, part of my final animation coursework was to complete my own short animated film. I worked on my project for the duration of the school year, from concept to completion, and when it was finally ready—after many long and sleepless nights—my class presented all of the work as a senior show in the large campus theater. The films were really incredible...my classmates were (and still are!) extremely talented. When I saw the title of my piece on the screen, I gasped. Seriously, my jaw dropped. I covered my mouth and watched in silence, my hands shaking. I think I might've teared up a bit when I saw my name in the credits. When you create something, you can look at it a million times during the process and be analytical about it. But even when you know it has problems, and you can see all of those problems while you watch the final cut, there's nothing quite like watching something you've slaved, anguished, and angsted over on the big screen. It's really powerful.

If you see Kerri upon your next visit to BMFI, please welcome her!

Exclusive Interview with MY DOG TULIP Filmmakers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger

By Meredith Slifkin

The holidays may be over, but there’s no reason to get the winter blues when there are such great events at BMFI! On Wednesday, January 19 at 7:30pm, there will be a special screening of My Dog Tulip followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, Paul and Sandra Fierlinger. The Fierlingers will also teach a FREE Master Class at 2:00pm about animation in the digital world.

My Dog Tulip is the story of a man, his dog, and the extraordinary nature of canine-human friendship. This animated adaptation of the memoir by J.R. Ackerley has already earned widespread praise for filmmakers Paul and Sandra, who reside on the Main Line.

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger will teach a free Master Class at 2:00pm and
answer questions after the 7:30pm screening of My Dog Tulip on January 19.

Paul began working in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, where he became the state’s first independent producer of animated films. In 1968 he escaped the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, seeking solace in Holland and eventually the United States, where he continued to create animated films for television and the big screen. Paul was awarded the PEW Fellowship in the Arts in 1997 for his body of work.

Sandra is a native of Wayne, Pennsylvania, and graduated with highest honors from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has collaborated with her husband, Paul, on many projects, including short and feature films for Sesame Street and PBS.

I caught up with Paul and Sandra via email. Keep reading for their take on My Dog Tulip, animation, and their exciting new project!

My Dog Tulip features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, and the late Lynn Redgrave.

Q: What drew you both to My Dog Tulip? Has it been a “pet” project of yours for awhile, or did you come across the Ackerley material recently?

Paul: The book has been with us since it first came out in the New York Review of Books Classics series. Soon after reading it I began to make notes which I stuck between the pages with a possible theatrical film in mind. After a few weeks we got busy with other projects and the whole idea just vanished from our thoughts and conversations. When the two producers who became the actual film’s producers first called us—this happened years later—I had no recollection of ever thinking of Tulip as a movie and was immensely surprised when I discovered my notes between the yellowing pages. Mind you, the producers called us to make Tom Sawyer, not Tulip, but as we talked about all sorts of other ideas, the four of us on that conference call agreed that My Dog Tulip was a good one.

Q: The animation in My Dog Tulip has such a distinct look to it. Would you tell us about the method of hand-drawn computer animation used? Will this technique play a prominent role in the future of the animation art form?

Paul: The computer software we used is called TVPaint (made in Metz, France) and it has been our primary production tool since its inception, twenty years ago. We have been their beta-testers for about fifteen of those years now. It has gone through a slow recognition process mainly because the world wide market for such an application is incredibly miniscule, and these five Frenchies, who are still together after twenty years, had both zero marketing skills and money. TVP is now a household name in any 2-D animator’s family, and all the prominent animation schools around the world; this happened by word of mouth only. The software has grown in those twenty years, too, of course, and has finally reached the well-deserved status of the best there is for handmade (or computer assisted; take your pick) independent productions of art films. Hand-drawn films are coming back in a big way.

The Fierlingers created My Dog Tulip using hand-drawn computer animation. 

Q: Was your style of animation at all influenced by the Czech cartoonists and animation artists from the golden age of Kratky Film?

Paul: That yes, and by the way I grew up in the United States during WWII, and by the dreaded boarding school in which I had to spend my first four years in Czechoslovakia, by my father’s insistence that I drop the idea of becoming an animator, by the fact that no one had ever thought possible that one person alone could draw films, by my first and second divorces, the dogs I had owned, the despair I had fallen into that I will be forever locked within the barbed wire borders of that horrible place ruled by a tyrannical Soviet system, by my escape back to the West, by every advertising agency I had ever done work for, by my third and final marriage on a boat off Ordinary Point on the Chesapeake Bay, and by my 41 years of life on or close to the Main Line.

Q: Sandra, when did you become interested in animation? How do your skills as a painter influence your work with computer animation?

Sandra: Animation was never in my vocabulary as an artist growing up on the Main Line. Then Paul hired me as a colorist, married me, and what else am I supposed to do? The garden is so small.

Q: Are you working on any new projects?

Paul: The film we are working on now is being done in a way no one else has ever done before us, unless you count Charles Dickens, but he was not an animator. Sandra and I have embarked upon the serialization of an animated graphic novel to be released in installments on an e-magazine website, yet to be determined. This work in progress will be screened as the core of our Master Class earlier in the afternoon. We will also be discussing the explosion of hand drawn animated illustrations and tiny art films made by tiny cameras all over the pages of internet e-readers, a new publishing phenomenon which already is beginning to happen.

Exclusive image from Paul and Sandra's new project, Slocum at Sea with Himself.
Excerpts will be featured in the free Master Class taught by the Fierlingers.


Thanks, Paul and Sandra! 

If you have questions of your own for the Fierlingers, join us at BMFI's Master Class or the My Dog Tulip screening.

The Master Class is free and open to everyone, but there are only a few spaces left! To register, email VTemple@BrynMawrFilm.org or call 610-527-4008 x109.

You can purchase tickets to the My Dog Tulip screening and Q&A by clicking here or visiting the Box Office.