Travis Knight Reveals Why Wildwood Took 16 Years to Make

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

Speaker 1: One thing stop motion demands of the artists who can commit to it is time. And time is essentially, you know, it's evidence of effort. And effort is evidence of devotion. And devotion is evidence of care.

Speaker 2: So tell me, Travis, from your perspective, what makes stop motion animation so special?

Speaker 1: Well, I think I've thought about this a lot over the years because it's something I've devoted my entire life to. And I've always loved stop motion since I was a kid. I think there is something primal about it. But the more and more I think about what makes it unique and special is that really what you are seeing when you see a stop motion film is you're seeing the hands of the artist who created it, who gave it life. One thing stop motion demands of the artist who commit to it is time. And time is essentially, you know, it's evidence of effort. And effort is evidence of devotion, and devotion is evidence of care. So what you're seeing are thousands and thousands and thousands of these accumulated acts of devotion and care on the big screen when you see a stop motion film. And I think that's one of the things that gives its humanity.

Speaker 2: Excellent. I kind of agree with you on that. I can't imagine spending that much time doing something so minute.

Speaker 1: It's kind of mad when you think about it.

Speaker 2: Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Exactly. What was it about the story of Wildwood that stood out to you, that said to you, this needs to be a stop motion animation film?

Speaker 1: It's a it's a big sweeping epic, you know, the kind of which that I loved when I was a kid that I've always loved in my entire life. You know, something that felt like it was breathing the same air as Tolkien or bomb or C.S. Lewis. It was that kind of story, this great classic fantasy and fairy fairy tale. But because the book was written by Colin Malloy, who is a brilliant artist, Colin has his own idiosyncratic point of view and his own unique voice. And so it had a very unique kind of Portland-y flavor, which as a Portlander I could appreciate. So I love the adventure. I love the epic sweep of it. I love the spectacle and the world building. But that in and of itself is not going to sustain you for 16 years. What will keep you going is if underneath it all, there's a beating heart that means something to you, that matters to you. And then the story that we were telling was a story that profoundly resonates with me personally. Things I've gone through in my life, dealing with things like love and loss and grief and empathy. And that was the beating heart of the movie. And that was what kept me going for the entire 16-year process.

Speaker 2: So besides the 16 years that it took to get to this point, what were some of the other challenges that you felt you went through or your team went through while making this?

Speaker 1: I mean, if you know anything about stop motion, you know that everything is a challenge. You know, none of we make movies with things that do not know they are alive. Wood, silicon, steel, fabric. I mean, left on left to their own. These materials will just sit there happily, quietly forever and do nothing. And it's an artist that has to persuade them otherwise. So every bit of life comes from somebody. And I think that's one of the things that gives this form of filmmaking its magic. But also, just in and of itself, there are some insane things that we tried to tackle in this film. We've got this big aerial dogfight that takes place in the back of this giant golden eagle. We have these crazy chase sequences that happen through city streets. We have this massive battle sequence that happens at the end of the movie, which is 12 minutes long, over 400 shots. there's hundreds of characters the kinetic camera work this conflagration of fire and smoke it's uh it's an it was insane thing to take on but i think as as hard as those things were and they were hard i think the things that are just as difficult and probably more important are these really intimate moments because we have these subtle moments of connection between a girl and her parents uh we have we see moments of a woman grieving her son and those are moments that you You can't hide. They're very subtle. They're very intimate. They're very nuanced. And the performances have to be fully alive. Otherwise, the audience doesn't see them as people. They'll see them as a puppet. And those things are just as difficult to do in stop motion. And I would argue, for the story that we were telling, actually more important.