Channel Frederator Blog

Recent UCLA grad Giles Timms‘ film “Manifestations” is a trippy treat for the eyes and ears. Here he chats with us about his work past, present, and future.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Giles Timms: I studied animation at UCLA as an MFA grad student at the UCLA Animation Workshop within the Department of Theatre, Film and Television. I just graduated this June.

CF: Congratulations!

What has influenced your style the most?

GT: Stylistically, I really like work that is stylized, textured and painterly and so I strive to include these elements in my own art direction. I think my interest in these elements comes from my background as a painter. I also find inspiration from a lot of comic book artists and illustrators such as Ashley Wood, Mike Mignola and Rhode Montijo. One of my favorite graphic novels in terms of art direction is Mr. Punch, illustrated by Dave McKean.

For animation, I love the beautiful work of Yuriy Norshteyn, Igor Kovalyov, Koji Yamamura and Jamie Caliri.

I was also fortunate to work with Bill Barminski and Chris Louie from Walter Robot, on the Grapevine Fires music video for Death Cab for Cutie. Working with those two guys has had an impact on my working methods and style.

CF: What is your favorite part of the animation process?

GT: I’ve been extremely lucky to work with a very generous and talented composer, Ceri Frost. He gave me the music for Manifestations before I started work on the short and I found it be an amazing experience to animate to the music. So for me, having the music or a beat track to animate to keeps me honest and focused and is my favorite part of the animation process.

CF: Least favorite?

GT: Storyboarding…

CF: Aw, snap. “Manifestations” is pretty trippy - how did you develop the concept for the film?

GT: “Manifestations” actually started out as a single scene exercise/experiment I set for myself to learn After Effects. Once I had that initial scene and then Ceri’s wonderful music I started to develop the story outward from those two pieces. It really helped me to have Ceri’s music at the very beginning of the project as I was able to listen to the music and create the scenes and story in my head. The whole process though was rather experimental for me and certainly an aspect of the film is very much me trying to push myself as an animator and filmmaker. My process was also a bit unconventional in that I ended up with about 8 minutes of animation that I edited down to 4 minutes But I learned a lot.

CF: Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us about?

GT: Yes, I’m currently finishing up a music video for Ceri for his upcoming album for the song ‘Dead All Along.’

The video tells the story of a young boy Yorick who briefly journeys in the fairy kingdom, but when Yorick returns to his family he discovers that he and his family are already dead. I’m really excited about this project and I’ve had a lot of fun making it – it’s kind of my take on an Edward Gorey inspired world, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.

Thanks for the interview, Giles! Let us know when ‘Dead All Along’ is go!

You can watch “Manifestations” right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher