{"id":6054,"date":"2015-05-05T09:33:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T15:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.saic.edu\/cate\/?p=6054"},"modified":"2025-01-09T22:32:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T04:32:46","slug":"an-interview-with-daniel-sousa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/2015\/05\/05\/an-interview-with-daniel-sousa\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Daniel Sousa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Daniel Sousa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his visit to SAIC in April Daniel Sousa\u00a0sat down with graduate student Elizabeth Metcalfe for a revealing interview\u00a0about his background in painting and illustration, his\u00a0relationship\u00a0to animation and upcoming projects he is currently working on.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Metcalfe: I know you have a background as a painter and illustrator. Your films have a very painterly quality. How did you first come to animation? What relationship do you see between your films and your painting practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel Sousa: I went to Rhode Island School of Design. At the beginning, I was going into illustration. I liked illustration as a major because it allowed you the most number of electives. As a child, I was never really into animation. Of course I was familiar with Disney and Bugs Bunny, but that\u2019s about it. So I didn\u2019t have a burning desire to become an animator until I was in school. But, while I was there, through different screenings around campus, I was exposed to non-traditional animation: European work, especially Eastern European work, as well as independent American animation. I realized it wasn\u2019t just a medium for children\u2019s entertainment. Animation wasn\u2019t just cartoons, but could be used as a fine art, used to express dream or internal states in a much more specific and universal way than live action films could. So I found that fascinating. I took an Introduction to Animation Class as an elective. It was a lot of fun to experiment with different materials. This was before computers, so it was a lot of hands-on work: playing with celluloids, scratching directly into film, playing with paints and charcoal, and different cut-out techniques. So I realized that this was a medium that encompassed a lot of other mediums and you could try sculpture and use stop-motion animation or do painting and use hand-drawn animation. It incorporated literature, storytelling, theatre, and I thought it was a good size of filmmaking for me because I didn\u2019t have a lot of money to afford a film major lackey. With animations, I could do stuff on my own and I didn\u2019t need a team. I didn\u2019t realize how much work it was going to be, but that\u2019s when you realize that animation is either for you or it isn\u2019t. You have to enjoy the time that it takes and the trance that you almost get into by doing really repetitive work. It takes a very specific type of personality. At the same time, I was also taking electives in painting, especially figurative painting. What I was trying to do with the films was to make paintings come to life. So I wasn\u2019t necessarily interested in storytelling but more in just capturing moments like a painting would. I wanted my films to be living paintings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

EM: So it that how your process works now? Do you start with an image or do you have some sort of narrative concept in mind before you begin a film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: It really depends. I go back and forth a lot. I do find that images are usually more helpful for me; they are a way into the film. I can sit back and interpret the images I\u2019ve created and see if there\u2019s a story there or not. By connecting two images, I can see if there\u2019s a third image that is suggested and then start to build a story from the inside out like a puzzle, rearranging the pieces. In many ways, it\u2019s a lot more frustrating than writing a script first. I do that a lot more for my commercial and freelance work; when you work in the industry, you sort of have to do that. But the problem with that process is that all of the creative energy gets spent on writing and conceiving of the work so that when you\u2019re actually producing the film, it becomes an assembly line. I lose interest in it by that point. By assembling a film like a puzzle, the process is interesting the whole way through. There\u2019s always room for possibility and discovery, even down to the editing and sound design processes.<\/p>\n

EM: Where do you find inspiration for the films that you are creating?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: Everywhere, really. Other artists, of course. I find inspiration not so much from the external world (meaning nature) but more so from memories or certain feelings I am trying to evoke, certain states that are hard to explain through words. Movement itself inspires me. I find certain movements, like branches rustling in a tree, fascinating. I could stare at that for hours, observing the intricacies of that movement. I\u2019m inspired by the choreography of nature…not so much the look of nature but the movement of nature.<\/p>\n

EM: So you\u2019re more interested in the ephemeral?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: Yes, sure. The great thing about animation is that it doesn\u2019t have to be one thing. I don\u2019t feel like I have a specific focus, necessarily. I don\u2019t only make films about trees. If there\u2019s something I\u2019m fascinated by in my life, I\u2019ll just begin to explore that idea. Sometimes I feel like I\u2019m reinventing the wheel. If you find something interesting, you really have to begin to research it and find out what makes it tick in order to develop a new technique or language through which to explore it in film. I love that you have to keep teaching yourself. I don\u2019t start out trying to explore mythology or fairytales but it sort of ends up that way. It\u2019s almost like I tap into some sort of archetype and go with it. It\u2019s only after the film is complete that I begin to reflect on it and uncover what it is really about. Looking back at my work, I can see a definite lifeline going through my films that explores not only myths and fairytales but also dualities like the conscious mind and the physical self and the struggle between those two worlds. It\u2019s almost like I\u2019m trying to make the same film over and over again, or at least try to capture that friction better through a different skin or story.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/a>
Daniel Sousa, film still from Feral, 2012. Courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EM: Yes, I can definitely see a connection in your films in the way that they all seem to address liminality. For example, your film Feral <\/i>really explores this liminal space between being beast and being human.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: Exactly. I was trying to sort of explore that idea in Minotaur <\/i>too. It\u2019s a beastly creature, violent and terrifying, but on the inside it\u2019s just a tiny baby that doesn\u2019t know the damage he causes when he lashes out in aggression without knowing what the repercussions are. So there\u2019s always sort of this tension between the outside and the inside. But like I said, it\u2019s not something I really set out to do. It just works out that way. I guess this idea is really a universal one. We can all relate to having two sides.<\/p>\n

EM: True, but to what extent are these universal ideas made personal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: Films are always personal to me because that\u2019s the most natural viewpoint I have. I work by myself. I make films that I find interesting and then trust that they possess some sort of universality through which human beings can all feel the same way and gain something meaningful from my films. The more personal I make my films, I think the more universal they can be.<\/p>\n

EM: Your films do have a really personal, authored feeling but I\u2019m wondering if you could talk a little bit more about your collaboration with Dan Golden, the sound designer for your films.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: Absolutely. I think the sound in my films is almost more important than the visual elements because the sound sets the atmosphere that prepares you to watch the film. Dan is a school friend of mine. He is a painter too. He\u2019s a multi-talented, Renaissance man. I started working with him when I made Minotaur <\/i>in 1998. I just needed someone to design the soundtrack for it since I don\u2019t really work with music. I feel like I have a certain sense of what the music should sound like but I don\u2019t have the vocabulary to express how I would like the music in my films to sound. Because Dan is a painter, he can really understand what I am saying and translate it into sound. We\u2019ve known each other for so long that the conversations do not always have to be detailed. I can just ask him to make something sound brighter or warmer and he can find a solution for that. As far as collaboration is concerned, any collaboration between us happens after the rest of the film is done. I bring a silent film to him and then trust him to make decisions about sound that sync up to what I have already created. I am always pestering him when I\u2019m making a film to create some sort of atmospheric track or theme that I can listen to while I\u2019m working so that it can already begin to inhabit that world and he\u2019ll do that from time to time. However, these samples usually don\u2019t end up being in the films; they\u2019re temporary.<\/p>\n

The process of making a film is so damn long that you go through many life experiences while you are making just one film. That\u2019s actually one of the challenges and frustrations that I have with filmmaking, because you are a different person by the time you are done. Your world view might even be completely different at the end, but you still have to remain faithful to your initial idea or else the film falls apart. That can be difficult for me.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m working, I might be listening to classical music or death metal. The music I listen to changes depending on the day I\u2019m in and what kind of day I\u2019ve had. When I\u2019m really focusing and concentrating, I won\u2019t listen to any music at all because I feel that it interferes. I need the silence to really work. A lot of the animation process is grunt work and connecting dots.<\/p>\n

EM: How long does it take to produce one entire film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: I have to pay the bills so I teach and do a lot of freelance work, meaning that I may only have a couple of months in the year to really devote to making personal films. It can be very sporadic. Feral <\/i>took almost five years to make because of that. In a solid chunk of time, it would have probably been one year\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

EM: What are you working on right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DS: I have a nine-month old daughter so there\u2019s a lot of feeding and diaper changing going on at home. It keeps me busy. I\u2019m trying to collaborate with a friend on a new film but it\u2019s still very nebulous. I\u2019m trying to get him to write something for me and then I will produce images and illustrations to accompany the writing. The ideas are still changing and I\u2019m not sure where it\u2019s going to end up. Once we have a concrete idea that we can pitch, I can take that idea to a distributor or producer or find a grant to fund the film. Once the funding is there, I can take some time off work to really focus on developing the film. Currently, it\u2019s still research and development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his visit to SAIC in April Daniel Sousa\u00a0sat down with graduate student Elizabeth Metcalfe for a revealing interview\u00a0about his background in painting and illustration, his\u00a0relationship\u00a0to animation and upcoming projects he is currently working on. Elizabeth Metcalfe: I know you have a background as a painter and illustrator. Your films have a very painterly quality. […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from An Interview with Daniel Sousa<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":5992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[70,158,192,615],"class_list":["post-6054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20","tag-animation","tag-daniel-sousa","tag-elizabeth-metcalfe","tag-usa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9900,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054\/revisions\/9900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}