Channel Frederator Blog

CalArts student Marcos Cohen’s film “Madame Babette” is all at once retro, cute, hilarious, and dark. Check it out…

Channel Frederator: Where did you get the idea for Madame Babette?

Marcos Cohen: First off, I’d like to thank you guys for showing “Madame Babette”. It’s such a great honor to share it with you.

It took me a while to come out with the main idea for this film. I spent countless days thinking about what kind of story to make. The idea for “Madame Babette” actually started while watching a movie from one of my favorite Spanish filmmakers, Pedro Almodovar, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. There is a scene in this movie in which the main character throws a phone or answering machine out of the window. It was so hilarious the way the actress did it that it sparked in me the idea of making a short film about an old lady who throws things out of her window. Then I needed a reason, so I thought about an apartment catching fire, and later I unified the whole situation into a love story or modern fairy tale in which tragedy opens an opportunity of love for a single aged woman.

CF: What was the most difficult part of making the film?

MC: Among others, I think putting the story together was the most difficult part for me, especially because of the 90-second rule that CalArts imposes on first year films. It is very challenging to summarize every aspect of the story in such a short time. It was hard because all the scenes were important to the story, and I felt like I couldn’t cut them off. At the same time, I also wanted the story to be clear and well paced. I still think that I could have done better at it. Every aspect of making an animated film is difficult, but that’s the fun part of it. You learn a great deal from it.

CF: What has influenced your style the most?

MC: I rather not to use such a word as style since I still have so much to learn, and I really aspire to explore different things in animation. However, I found a lot of inspiration for Madame Babette in old Disney’s classics and old cartoons from Warner like those from the Merrie Melodies series.

I also look at the work of artists like Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble, Walt Peregoy, Tom Oreb and Eyvind Earle. I wanted my film to have an old classic look to it. I also established a place and a time of the day where the story was supposed to take place, so I did a lot of research and looked at tons of pictures of summer afternoons in Paris. This is very important because once you establish your environment, everything comes together design wise.

CF: What is the most important thing you’ve learned in school so far?

MC: I have learned so many things at school so far. You learn a lot from your classmates, your teachers and from the whole experience of making a film. One thing I learned while making this film was the importance of having a solid storyboard or animatic before working on anything else. I can’t stress that enough. I wasted so much time working on scenes that never made it into the final movie. I had a whole ending sequence in which Madame Babette burns everything she saved with a cigarette. I have it fully animated, and it was the scene in which I put more emphasis into the acting part of my character. However, I could not fit it into the 90 second limit, so I never colored it. I have been thinking about putting it in my blog for some time.

CF: Most worthless thing you’ve learned?

MC: I can’t thing of anything that hasn’t been worthy of learning. I am always questioning my work and sometimes I can tell where my weakness are and I work on them, but many times you don’t know and that’s when I ask friends for comments. I love to get negative criticism because it encourages me to work hard and realize where I am wrong.

CF: Your apartment is on fire and you have to save one thing - what do you pick?

MC: This is funny! Because I never thought about that when deciding over what kind of objects Madame Babette should throw out of her window…LOL! I think that I would definitely throw my computer and my external hard drives! I have lots of information saved in there that I’d be really upset to lose. I would also throw the portfolio that I submitted to CalArts. because it has so many memories that have sentimental value, and unlike Madame Babette, I’d be really careful not to kill poor little dogs. It’s truly not my thing.

Good to know! Thanks for the interview, Marcos!

You can watch “Madame Babette” Right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher