Joseph Wallace interviewed by Fussed Magazine:
How did you feel when you found out it was Bafta Cymru nominated?
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I was thrilled to hear about the nomination. It was a huge honour and a really encouraging accolade at this stage in my career. Ultimately we didn’t win but Falling was the only animated film in the whole 2013 selection and it was great attending the awards ceremony.
What inspired you to create The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling?
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The film is my graduation short from Newport Film School in Wales. I’d had the idea for the film about three years previously when I was travelling around Italy. I was saturated with Italian landscape and architecture and I’d also been thinking about ageing and fragility and the relationship between body and mind in old people. I was waiting for a ferry at a port when I took my sketchbook out and wrote the story. It didn’t change much after that.
What is the concept behind it?
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I think everyone has someone they care about who’s old and frail. We all worry about the wellbeing of our relatives and I wanted to explore how that frailty might manifest as anxiety for an old man. The story follows Ivor who lives alone on the top floor of a tall apartment block in a crowded city. His main passion is his flowers but when a plant pot falls from his window and smashes below he begins to think ‘what if I fell?’ As his paranoia grows he makes a series of decisions that turn his life upside down.
Describe the process of actually making the film?
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The production process was about eight months long from ideas development to final product. I worked with composer Kit Wilson and sound designer Jack Vaughan but there were only two of us on the project full time, myself and another student, Emma-Rose Dade, who worked with me. Every project I work on always starts with drawing, I use it to explore and define ideas and it’s shorthand for taking what’s in my head and communicating that to others.
The storyboard and animatic went through various iterations and, as that was settled, we built all of the sets and the puppet. Everything apart from Ivor is made from recycled cardboard, from cereal boxes to postal packaging. The shoot was about two weeks long and we used a Canon 5D, Dragonframe software and an array of film and photography lights. Kit’s music evolved with the film and we constantly sent sketches and ideas back and forth. As there is no text in the film we wanted the music to work as a dialogue and allow the audience into Ivor’s psyche.
How did you get into animation?
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When I was three years old my parents showed me the first Wallace and Gromit film. Apparently I sat transfixed and at the end I turned to them and said that’s what I wanted to do. I studied animation and also film production on the continent as well as training as a performer and theatre maker. I now work as a freelance film and theatre director.
When telling a story in a short film, what do you think is the most important thing to bear in mind?
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I always talk about making shorts, especially animation, as a kind of alchemy. Many different elements synthesize to create the final piece. For me, it’s a combination of narrative, character, visuals, music and sound. Whether I’m working in animation, live-action or live theatre I always try and consider the audience’s relationship to the work and my main concern is storytelling. With Falling I had more time to spend on details like the colour palette and how that goes towards informing the audience and telling the story.
What are you up to for the rest of 2013?
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I’m working as Puppetry Associate on Bristol Old Vic’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from the makers of War Horse, we go on tour to America in May so most of my summer will be spent in the States. After that I am moving to France to set up my own studio with a bunch of talented animators and filmmakers. I’ll be posting about the adventure on my twitter (@josephwallaceuk) and blog.
The film’s finale is as bright as this up and coming director’s future. -Dragon
Making of: