Channel Frederator Blog

Animator and director Jeff Spoonhower explains the strange origin of his short film“Intelligent Life”, how he gets past creative blocks, life, the universe, and everything.

Channel Frederator: Where did you get your animation education?

Jeff Spoonhower: I studied live action film production at the University of Notre Dame, and received my MFA in computer animation from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2002.

CF: Who or what has influenced your work the most?

JS: I’ve had many excellent teachers over the years. In high school (way back!), my studio art teacher, Bill Stephens did a wonderful job of teaching me the fundamental principles of visual art and design. At Notre Dame, Ted Mandell and Jim Collins nurtured my interest in film making and film language studies. At RIT, Skip Battaglia instructed me in the ways of storytelling for animation. As far as artistic influences, I loved watching Ren and Stimpy as a kid. Filmmakers that have inspired me are Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, Martin Scorcese, Baz Luhrmann and many more - too many to name. I also love listening to jazz and orchestral music.

CF: What gave you the idea for this film?

JS: When I was in graduate school, I went to see Luciano Pavarotti in concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. During the concert, for some reason, the idea struck me about a small alien being rescued from earth. A year or so before this, I came up with the premise about a clumsy robot comedian from another planet trying to entertain an audience at a low-brow comedy club in Detroit. After the concert I fused these two ideas together and “Intelligent Life” was born!

CF: What do you do to get past creative blocks?

JS: Step away from the computer and get some fresh air, go for a walk, or listen to music.

CF: Are you working on anything new you’d like to discuss?

JS: I own and operate an independent animation studio with my brother, Paul Spoonhower (www.scratchimage.com.) We recently finished up the full cinematics production on Sony’s “Resistance: Retribution” for the PSP. We are now working with 2K Games’ Marin studio on “Bioshock 2″. We’ll be creating all of the promotional videos and trailers for the title.

CF: Have you ever completely flopped at a talent competition or show?

JS: This question has been asked many times of me - is “Intelligent Life” biographical in any way? Fortunately, no! I can say, though, that every animator or filmmaker is a performer. Maybe not in the traditional sense (screen or stage), but any time we create a work and display it in front of an audience we are placing ourselves on the screen, and we can only hope that people will accept us. So, I guess, in a way, I am the little blue alien inside the robot’s head in “IL.”

CF: DEEP! Thank you for the interview, Jeff!

You can check out Jeff’s film “Intelligent Life” right here on Channel Frederator!