LOUIS CLICHY is currently animator Pixar in california.

INTERVIEW LOUIS CLICHY PIXAR by Yves D.
[  Hello Louis, how have you been? You are currently working at Pixar in california. It's such a unique experience for an animator's life. But above all, you are director and you worked for many world wide famous agencies. ]

Q.Please can you tell us a bit about your background?

I spent my childhood in Orleans and moved to Paris for university… The goal was to enter Gobelins school, but my drawing skills were so bad, that every year i was failing the test. So in the meantime, I started to study History at la Sorbonne considering I might never become animator. Finally, I get the gobelins in 2000, the same year I get the Licence in History.After my 2 years in the school, I worked as storyboarder or Director for commercials and shorts in London and Paris ( at passion pictures, mac guff, Cube…)

Q.You come from the school “les Gobelins“. In all what you learned there, what was the most important for your future work as animator and director.

Next to the great technical teaching, the school was very good for making our brain “openminded “, we were regularly watching shorts from every periods and styles, analysing movies, etc….Also, they were forcing us to draw all the time, and keeping always a sketchbook in your pocket, which I still do today.

Q.Before Pixar, you worked as director for different agencies like Passion Pictures, CUBE and Passion Paris.

Some of your works were advertisements and some others are your own short movies. Is there any differences in the process of creation? (storyboard, animation) What are theses differences?
The first difference is the freedom you can get on your own short, you are responsable at 100% of the result, which is exciting and scary at the same time. But Working for commercials can be very interesting too, because you discover new fields : you work with the graphic style of the brand, .. but Most of all, your message has to be clear, otherwise the product won’t be sold ! Commercials teach you how to react very quickly and how to be always efficient, sometimes subtile…

 Q.What are your references, your inspirations when you create a movie? What kind of animations or movies do you like ?

My mind is rather a strainer than a sponge , but I am sure that my unconscious records some stuffs i used in my movies.when you look at A quoi ca sert l’Amour, I guess you can find some Amelie poulain and Miyazaki in it. I grew up with both disney’s movies and mangas, lots of books but surprisingly just a few comics.. Today, I try to watch as many movies and shorts as I can.

Q.Your short movie “A quoi ça sert l’amour” got very famous in France and through the internet. The quality of the storyboard and the rhythm is fabulous. Can you tell us a bit of your process to achieve such a nice pacing?

My grandparents used to have a record of edith Piaf they were playing a lot. I liked A quoi ca sert l’amour, because it has a huge emotional impact.The construction of the music itself is already pretty smart and makes a fantastic base to work on. It’s basically a duet between a girl and a boy who fight on the question of love.This/These antithesis scheme brings some contrasts that were kind of funny to illustrate. All the ideas I put in come from experiences I ‘ve seen around but also my owns !Then the melody was simple and repeted again and again, each time at a halftone higher witch help keeping the tension up through the final shot.

 Q. In almost all your short movies, you only use sketchline and Black&White. Is there a meaning through this choice?

The main reason is that sketchline is very fast, no nead to be clean, no nead to colorize., ..I used for the first time with “Mange !”, a school exercise in which we had to do a short in 2 weeks maximum. Now I feel very comfortable with it.

Q.As director, what is your working style? what is the first step of your work usually?

Do you have a clear idea of what you want from the beginning or do you go with the flow?I guess I do with a little bit of both. I try to find a strong idea and then i work around it, develop it. I hardly find ideas in front of my desk, ( too scary ! ) but rather when I don’t expect them ( bus, Car, While doing my lenghts a the swimming pool ). The hardest is to remember it, So I try to write them down if I can. Even if my ideas are not still clear, I usually draw a few shots in storyboard to motivate me ….

Q.Do you have advices for directors who want to add more rhythm within their movies?

Watching a lot of different style movies. The most I can is a good way to get the tools. Don’t need to make pose or analyses it. I just let my brain getting the information it wants… then the instinct does the rest. Also, I guess the experience of the music might help too ( I play piano, and I am a fan of classical and Jazz music),

Q.How is your experience at Pixar?

My experience here is really great. The studio has a real respect for work and we have a lot of time to do our work. Most of the movies are both entertaining ans smart witch is something I really appreciate. I couldn’t work in a place where we would be asked all the time to find Gags in every shot. I like when Pixar takes the risk to do movies like Wall-e, which brings the consumption topic in a cartoon, and the next movie, UP ,where the main caracters are a old single man and a fat American-Corean boyscout.

 Q.Now at Pixar, you are working mainly with CG tools when you animate.

You are basicly a pencil lover, how do you feel with the 3D tool, which medium do you prefer?3d computer makes me nervous sometimes ! Moving curves in a graph editor reminds me the mathematiques and Physics classes I used to hate… This is still a perpetual updated medium and I guess the technic of 3d animation will be very different ( and much more appealing ) in the futur. Though 3d can give you really good things that you wouldn’t even try to do in 2d. But being Honnest, My heart goes straight to 2d !

Q.Is there anyone in the people you met who changed your vision of animation?

Pixar studio is a concentration of huge talents and one of the good thing here is you can pick up feedback and advices from anyone you want. Gaps are very flexible between departements. Tom Gately or Ronnie del Carmel are for me huge inspiration and thanks to them my drawings are improving. In animation Kristoph Vergne, or Jean-Claude Tran ,both old Disney’s 2d animators taught me a lot too.

Q.Is there a Japanese artist that you really like ?

My culture in Japan animation is very aproximative,I have still a lot to discover. I was a fan of Dragon ball when I was kid, and movies like Akira , Totoro, or Mind Game had a huge impact on my art education. Recently I really enjoyed the japanese ambiances in movie like The taste of Tea by Katsuhito Ishii or Novels from Murakami.

Q.Would you be interested to come to Japan to present your works or making conference?

With a huge pleasure ! I would be excited to discover much more there …

Thank you very much for your time Louis.

De rien Gerard !

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