Channel Frederator Blog

This weeks Channel Frederator film,”The Machine”, comes to us from Bent Image Lab’s Rob Shaw. Find out why robots are both evil and radical and what Rob is working on next…

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Rob Shaw: I went to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (where I grew up) for film and animation.

CF: Who are your favorite artists?

RS: I’m drawn towards a lot of eastern European animators like Jan Lenica, Jan Svankmajer, Jiri Barta and Jiri Norstein. They have organic textural styles that I love. Adam Elliot is a current hero because of the heart he gets into his films.

CF: What gave you the idea for “The Machine”?

RS: It’s an old idea that I resurrected two years ago. I originally got the idea the first time I saw the statue of David in person. This was a time when I was working in Germany, and traveling around Europe on the weekend, so I was seeing lots of art as well as toy museums.

CF: Technology can be dangerous when misused - have we learned nothing from Frankenstein’s Monster? “The Terminator”? “Jurassic Park”?!

RS: We have learned nothing. It’s more than technology, though. It’s everything we create. Once those things become a system that runs on their own, we’re screwed. On the up side, robots are cool.

CF: Is there a particular sequence in the film you really enjoyed working on?

RS: I really liked animating the paper characters (the Farmer, the King and the Man) because I gave them a spring-loaded style of animation that was fun to do.

CF: Can you tell us a little about the film’s narrator, Andrea Schuch?

RS: She’s a good friend who worked with me in Germany. She was the Art department lead in the show “Dragon”. She’s Austrian, and I love her voice. Delicate, but sort of timeless. Like you couldn’t quite place it so it sounds foreign to almost everyone. I wanted a non-actor because I didn’t want the narration to be dramatic or theatrical.

CF: Are you working on anything new you can tell us about?

RS: Right now, I’m writing a T.V show pitch and a new film idea. The show is about and army of robots that have to kill to stay alive. One of them starts having guilt issues and the whole thing spirals out from there. The film concept is so rough right now that it’s not worth explaining. I just finished a music video that I am really exited about for Chicago’s DJ Major Taylor. The song is not finished, so I’m not sure when the video is coming out yet.

CF: What is your favorite machine? I’ve always liked my coffee maker. Although, I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on it…

RS: It changes weekly, but right now I am obsessed with the fisher price movie
cartridge viewer from the seventies.

You can watch animation forward and backward, fast or at a frame at a time. Soooooooooo rad.

CF: Whatever, you’re so rad. I mean, thanks for the interview, Rob!

Check out “The Machine” right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher