CHEATIN’ is an award-winning, surreal animated adult tale of love, jealousy, revenge, and murder. Inspired by the work of James M. Cain (“Double Indemnity”, “The Postman Always Rings Twice”), CHEATIN’ marks Academy Award nominated Bill Plympton’s seventh animated feature film.
Bill was nice enough to answer a few questions for us about making the film, which will release in theaters on April 3rd.
-Interview by Shahab Zargari and Jacob Gallegos
This is the first of your 7 features that was done in a hand-painted style. How did the coloring process work on your previous films?
On my first 2 animated features we used colored pencils (“The Tune”, “Mondo Plympton”) and on the more recent features I used painted cels, the traditional medium for animation: “I Married a Strange Person”, “Mutant Aliens”, “Hair High”. And the most recent films “Idiots and Angels”, “Cheatin'”, I used digital coloring on pencil drawings.
Cheatin’ had a Kickstarter with a goal of 75,000, and you hit 100,000. How, would you say, has that helped the process along? Was your Kickstarter experience a good one?
I love Kickstarter, it has relieved me of the odious task of pitching my film to Hollywood producers, who either don’t understand my animations or don’t care. I first used Kickstarter for a short film I did in 2010 when I resurrected the Winsor McCay forgotten classic “The Flying House”. It was a big success and really opened my eyes to the possibilities of crowdfunding. When I ran out of money to finance Cheatin’ due to the wonderful but time consuming digital water-coloring technique, I went to Kickstarter to finish the film. The campaign was managed by the wonderfully talented Adam Rackoff, and he deserves the credit for the success.
What was your intention of putting together the production blog on Vimeo? Was it more PR for the film and the Kickstarter, or did you have other goals in mind?
There were 2 reasons for the production blog. I get a lot of people asking me how I make my film, they’re curious to know how I’m able to compete with all the big studios – so it’s partly a response to help the younger artists and students understand the life of an independent animator. The other reason was of course to spread the word about Cheatin’ so when it’s released in movie theaters throughout the month of April and on Vimeo On Demand (on April 21st), people will demand in droves to see the movie.
What was your first paying gig as an animator?
My first paying job as an animator was for the “Trivial Pursuit” board game. I believe it was around 1990 and I did 3 spots for them – the money was great, it helped me finance my first feature “The Tune”. And when my folks saw the commercial on TV they finally realized I was a success.
What advice would you give aspiring animators for completing a short?
I have what’s called the Plympton Dogma and these are three rules for success in making a short animated film:
- Make your film short, 5 minutes or less.
- Make your film cheap, under $1000 per minute
- Make your film funny. If you can follow those 3 rules you’ll be as successful as Bill Plympton, or even more so and put me out of business.
Is there any artist that inspires you?
There are many artists that inspire me: Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Francisco de Goya, Winsor McCay, Charles Addams, Roland Topor, Jacques Tati, Peter de Seve, Carlos Nine, Bill Joyce, Marv Newland, R Crumb, Thomas Hart Benton, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Richard Lester, Elia Kazan, and many others.
How long did Cheatin take you? And how many animators did you have on staff?
Cheatin’ took 3 years to make, however I took a break to raise money in the middle (that money never arrived). I finished the film in 2013, and in 2014 it made the festival circuit, and now it’s finally hitting the cinemas of the US. I’m so excited. I did all the animation myself, about 40,000 drawings. Our staff at its capacity was about 10 people, most of them colorists.
What is one good reason Rise Up Daily readers should get up off their butts to go see Cheatin?
I believe the most important reason your readers should see this film is because I firmly believe there is a large part of the film going audience that needs to see something different, something unique, something they’ve never experienced before in animation. I believe they are tired of seeing the same old crap of fairy tales and singing animals. And Cheatin’ is the film that America has been waiting for. Why can’t adults see ideas and characters that explore the kind of issues that fascinate them in animation – which I think is the ultimate storytelling medium.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about my new animated feature film Cheatin’, I really appreciate you supporting independent
animation.
