DRAWING OSCAR PRAISE
Vancouver animator’s short lauded
Vancouver animator Robert Valley says an Academy Award win isn’t just a great pat on the back, but it would also be a nice boost to the bottom line.
Valley’s film, Pear Cider & Cigarettes, has been nominated in the animated short-film category for this year’s Oscars. The ceremony is Feb. 26 in Los Angeles.
“People are paying attention,” said Valley, a graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
How much attention? Well, Valley says he has received more offers, but is cagey about his plans. “I want to lay them all out before I decide,” said Valley, who has been working in the business for twoplus decades.
Valley’s is a 32-minute memoir of sorts. It follows the narrator ( Valley) as he chronicles his relationship with a charismatic, and completely messed-up, lifelong friend named Techno.
A contemporary story about addiction, risk and friendship, Pear Cider & Cigarettes is as equally stylish and beautiful as it’s dark and heavy.
“The story itself has the high highs and the low lows. It is just a roller-coaster of this guy’s life,” said Valley, who has worked on the Tron animated TV series.
The success of the film is a bit of payback for Valley and the rest of the people from Passion Pictures Animation, as festivals, including TIFF, SXSW and Sundance, turned it down.
“We sort of thought the film had run its course and right when I started to think about doing some different things, transitioning on to other work, all of a sudden it’s made it on the long list and now the short list and now the nomination,” said Valley. “It has definitely breathed some life into the film.
“Let’s just say it will pay the rent this month. I can’t ask for more than that.”
In the mid-2000s, Valley wasn’t even sure his and Techno’s story was one he wanted to share. It took a third party to push him toward producing the film.
“I had a buddy I told the whole story to and he thought it would make a fascinating film,” said Valley, who has worked all over the world. “His opinion was the most interesting stories are stories that are based on real-life situations. I kind of feel that way, too. It took me a few years to sit down and actually get the story out.”
The film cost about $118,000 to make. Of that budget, $85,000 went solely toward securing the music rights. Nineteen songs from the likes of Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Cypress Hill, Queens of the Stone Age and Wilco populate the film.
Valley got help on the music front from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who he met just by chance at an animation festival in France. Valley had no idea who Trujillo was, but he liked him, so he asked him if he wanted to see his five-minute teaser for the film. That teaser was cut to Black Sabbath music.
“He said, ‘ Dude, I want to help you work on this film. I’m a musician,’ ” said Valley, recounting the initial meeting.
Valley said he thought, “Oh yeah, everyone is in a band.”
Lucky for him Trujillo was in a really big band. “I said, ‘What’s the name of your band?’ He said, ‘Metallica,’ ” said Valley. “I said, ‘What?’
“He helped secure some of the music rights for us. He had Sharon Osbourne’s phone number.”
Valley and music isn’t a new thing. He has worked with the Gorillaz on projects and is currently in crunch time for a new Gorillaz video to go with a forthcoming album. It’s actually that project that will be keeping Valley in Vancouver while Hollywood hits the Dolby theatre red carpet for the 89th annual Academy Awards.
So what if he wins the animatedshort Oscar? What will he do with his own golden boy? “I’ll give it to my mom.” If you want to see Pear Cider & Cigarettes, you can buy it at robertvalley.com. Good news too if you use the code Oscars, you’ll save 50 per cent.
The story itself has the high highs and the low lows. It is just a rollercoaster of this guy’s life.