By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Robert Morgan has become a familiar name to fans of stop-motion, particularly its scary and surreal showcases. Since the late 1990s, he has turned out a series of unique and uniquely disturbing shorts using the dimensional animation process, and has made his feature debut with an equally discomfiting film titled STOPMOTION, which Morgan discusses below.
STOPMOTION, which Morgan scripted with Robin King and is now available on VOD from IFC Films, tells the story of Ella (Aisling Franciosi), who toils for her mother Suzanne (Stella Gonet), a famed practitioner of puppet animation sidelined by arthritis. After Suzanne is hospitalized, Ella is anxious to escape from her mother’s shadow and embarks on her own film, with help and guidance from a young neighbor (Caoilinn Springall). This project begins heading down strange and frightening avenues, and so does Ella’s mental state, as her stop-motion figures invade her psyche. Both the story proper and the films within the film (animated by Morgan) have truly unsettling impact in this study of the shadowy side of the creative impulse. (You can read more of this interview in RUE MORGUE #217, now on sale.)
How did you adapt your own experiences into the STOPMOTION screenplay?
Well, I always say sort of as a joke, when I present the film, that some of the things in this story have happened to me, and some of them haven’t [laughs], and I’ll let you decide which is which. But the original jumping-off point for STOPMOTION was the sensation I had when I was making one of my short films, BOBBY YEAH. As I was working on it, I had the feeling that it was taking on a life of its own; that as I was animating the puppets, I was like, well, I didn’t think they were going to do that. It went off in directions I didn’t fully expect.
What led Robin King to become your co-writer?
Robin’s just a really good old friend of mine. We went to school together, and he’s got experience in stop-motion animation as well. He also comes from an acting background and a filmmaking background, so he found the concept interesting. I’d written a couple of treatments on my own that weren’t really working, and I asked him to look at them because he’s a writer as well, just to give me feedback. And his responses were so good, I just said, “Do you want to write the script with me?” I’ve known him for most of my life, but we’d never written together before, and it worked very well. Bringing Robin on board massively improved the story, I believe, and really made it coalesce.
Did you pursue any key themes from your short films in the narrative of STOPMOTION?
No, not consciously. Maybe just the fact that the visceral appearance of the puppets is similar, but in the feature it’s much more overt and made very literal–that they’re made of meat and viscera and things like that, whereas in the short films, you don’t quite know what they are. But in general, Robin and I just sort of followed the logic of the story. It’s slightly different from the shorts in the fact that it is about a human rather than a puppet, so it’s a bit more grounded in reality. In general, when I make my shorts, I don’t consciously try to create a kind of through-line and use themes repeatedly. I just do what I’m interested in, really.
I would assume that for this film, you had more money but less time than when you made your shorts. Is that correct?
Pretty much. I mean, there are two phases to the animation shooting. The first was all the scenes where there’s stop-motion and live action co-existing in the same frame. So when animated characters are interacting, walking towards a live-action character, or for example the puppet walking up onto the bed–all of that, because it had to be composited exactly, was done while we were shooting the live action. For example, we had a replica of the bedroom built, so we had two versions of it: one that was just part of the set, and an exact replica that was raised off the ground with a trap door so the animator could come in, and then those two shots were lined up exactly and composited afterwards. I was shooting the live-action stuff, and we had an animation team doing their thing at the same time. It all had to be very carefully coordinated to make sure everything matched, so it could be joined together later.
Once all that was done and we finished the shoot, the second phase was me on my own, creating all of the film-within-the-film scenes. So Ella’s film, and Ella’s mother’s film with the cyclops puppets, the stuff you see on the laptop screens–all that was done afterward by me, and I could shoot while we were editing at the same time, and I could shoot the animation based on what we were putting together. And, you know, editing and filming two stop-motion movies at the same time while editing was quite a challenge. And you’re right, it was more money but less time. Exactly that.
The film emphasizes what a solitary craft stop-motion can be, so how was it working with a much larger crew on this film?
I loved it! There are two sides to the filmmaking process: One is the very solitary stop-motion work, which is usually just me in a room on my own for weeks. And then the other side is the live-action stuff, where it’s a much more collaborative process. I like both of them, actually, and the joy of making STOPMOTION was getting to work with amazing people, and cuing them into the wavelength of the film and then giving them a lot of freedom. I do like being surprised by what other people bring to a project. So with Aisling, for example, we talked about the character of Ella beforehand, but most of the time I just let her do it, because what she was bringing was so much more interesting than me just dictating to her. And then we’d just adjust it.
So I love that situation of setting up this kind of playground and seeing what other people contribute to it, and then being able to respond to that. It might be because when I make my stop-motion films, I have to literally do everything. I’m lighting it, I’m animating it, I’m acting it, I edit it. So it’s really nice to have other people come in and bring something else that I wouldn’t–choosing the right people and then having them surprise you with their ideas. Like Léo Hinstin, the cinematographer, using his cinematographic mind to come up with things that were better than what I would have thought of, because he’s only thinking about his craft, while I had to think about everything else.
How difficult was it to find a child actress who could handle the role of Ella’s young muse?
That was Caoilinn Springall, and she was discovered by George Clooney for his film THE MIDNIGHT SKY. She doesn’t speak in it–her character is mute, I think she says one line of dialogue in it–and she had a very, very special presence in that film, but this is a very dialogue-led film. We saw a lot of girls, because that was always going to be tricky; it’s a very pivotal role and we didn’t want that stage-schooly kind of performance. I wanted someone who was playful, and for the character not to be too much of the creepy little girl. She had to be cocky and funny and charismatic and energetic and full of creativity. She’s sort of an amoral, creative spirit, really.
I spoke to Caoilinn on Zoom, we did some tests where she read some lines, and there was something about her where I thought she was cute, but could also go a little bit cold at the same time. She she’s very controlled in her performance, and when she came to the set, she was an absolute pro. She knew all her lines, she understood blocking, she corrected me on continuity. I asked her to do something a little bit different for one of the takes, and she said, “Well, I can do it, but you know, the continuity is not going to be the same, so just make sure you’re going to be OK with that in the editing room.” I mean, she was literally saying stuff like that. She’s a total pro, and she and Aisling together were just great, a really good double act.
Do you have any projects currently in the works, stop-motion or otherwise?
I recently finished a little music video which is a stop-motion thing, and I’m developing a new feature that has practical effects in it, but it’s not stop-motion. It’s a bit early to say too much about it, though.
