NET Playhouse; 123; Biography: Boss's Son

You You You You

You A generation of men is like a generation of leaves. The wind scatters some leaves upon the ground. While others, the burgeoning wood brings forth and the season of spring comes on. So of men, one generation ceases and another springs forth. No one you will see in this program is an actor. The story, although fiction, could happen here to these people. The program was conceived by French journalist Danielle Unabel and filmed in the factory town of Goubaix, Turquant, in northern France.

All the people you will see actually live and work there. They act in the story or react to the story in interviews just as they would in their actual lives. My name is Bruno Chamculé Pollard. I'm 22.

My father is an industrialist. Some time ago, I went out to a discotheque with my brother Edward. I met a very nice girl. Girls are easy to meet, but to find one to love, that's not so easy. Not in my class. This is a funny kind of a story. We just sit around and dream of all who's only more than we are. We just sit around and dream of all who's only more than we are. I could show the world how to smile.

I could be glad. All of the world. I could change the grey skies to blue. I could leave the old days behind. Leave all my friends. I would never mind. I could start my life all the new. If I had you. I could climb the snow-capped mountain. I could cross the burning desert.

If I had had you by my side. I could be a queen deer on chrome. There is nothing I just couldn't do. If I had you. Our family has always developed in the textile. Our family has always centered around my great grandfather's textile plant.

There were 730 descendants then. Since 1943 now there would be some 1500 descendants. I could go back almost 8 generations. And each has had its Bruno. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. Since it always turns out the same way, since it always has to end, it's already gone too far. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations.

I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. I could go back almost 8 generations. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe there's never been an example in history of a king marrying a shepherdess. I believe there's never been an example in history of a king marrying a shepherdess. It's impossible.

Every Sunday afternoon, as long as I can remember, the family has gathered at my grandfather's for chamber music. The last years of my cousins have played. The last years of my cousins have played. The last years of my cousins have played.

The last years of my cousins have played. The last years of my cousins have played. The last years of my cousins have played. The last years of my cousins have played.

The last years of my cousins have played. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Charlie is doing a tricky transition in the title sequence of our film, I, or Pitfolks, the Universal Confidence Man. Let's give you some idea what Pitfolks is like. I knew a guy used to be an experienced film designer. Well, I've got up to the point where the fish, all the fish that I could see were dead.

Earl McCain only started animating a year ago, but he was so good potentially that we all worked with him over the first stages. Now he's getting really hot. Earl is working on a children's film, Sailor in the Devil. He's doing everything, so he's getting ten years experience in one, and we get a film. When I was a young man, he was sailing on the sea. When I was a young man, he fished on the sea. When I was a young man, he fished on the sea. When I was a young man, he fished on the sea.

That's my morning round. Now if the phone doesn't start ringing, I can get to work. This is a typical situation. Instead of the other animators doing commercials to leave me free, they're doing the private projects today, and I'm starting on a commercial. The first step in making any animated film is the storyboard. A script drawn out like a comic strip. From the storyboard we make the soundtrack. We always record the soundtrack first, and then later fit the animation to it. Run Goodwin has to compose his complete musical score for a film he won't see until two months later. And then really belt the next one.

I'm always at the recording session, clutching the storyboard, making sure that the sound exactly fits the action that we're going to have to draw later on. Of course, Ron may come up with a new idea in his music, so I'm there to adjust the storyboard to fit him. This is a one minute commercial for a chain of restaurants called Peter Evans Eating House. Peter Evans, take one. Where is the free to take your way to be to heaven beating home? I am free to take your courage to be the leader of heaven beating home.

Who's the title? Who's the title? Who's the title? Who's the title? Well, if it's possible to duck it out there, I prefer not on the choir, it's just this effect. In the picture, she's bellowing down the horn, and he's bellowing back up the horn in her. So it should sound like it's all going to swing around inside the horn. What it is, if it comes in here, she's where is he taking me away in the horn?

It's terrible horn. It's funny, actually. It's going to be terrible, can you? I mean, musically, like that. You don't want to be too bad at this. This is the first job we've done for Peter Evans, and he's given us our head on it. In fact, we're blowing all our profit in the large orchestra in chorus. We're going to give him full whack. We're going to give him full whack. Near the end of the session, In comes Peter Evans himself, just to make sure we're giving him full whack. This is always a scary moment. He's gambling his shirt on us, but he can't really tell what he's getting. Where is he free to take me away? To pay to Evans eating house?

I am she free to take your way. To Peter Evans eating house. Food with star. What was that? Food with star. Food with star. Food with star. What would you be sliced? To read the heaven. To read the heavens. To read the heavens. What would you be sliced? So let it be by my full air... Well, I don't sell some section?

Yes we sell! Meanwhile, down in the vault, we keep every film we've ever made. There are more than 300 commercials in here, along with my serious work, finished and unfinished, mostly in various stages of unfinished. You know what this is? It's an old, so first animated thing I did. I animated this bird in history class when I was 12 years old. My history teacher was a bird photographer, and they didn't mind as long as I animated birds. At 16, I started painting, and I lost all interest in animation. But at 22, I took it up again and made my first complete film with a little island. It's a half-hour satire on idealists. Three little men on an island, each with his own rigid, fixed idea. This man, for example, has his own private vision of beauty.

The film got me an international reputation, and I lost my shirt on it. The next film I made was a private joke. Once upon a time, there lived a man named Squeegee Baud. Everything was in his hands. There lived a man named Squeegee Baud. Everything he did was wrong. But everybody loved him.

When he went out, dogs would lick him. Horses would wave their tears at him. And little children would fall over him. Oddly enough, love me was a financial success, and I got organized again. And then I started five new films. And last year we began making feature film titles. It took me two weeks running around the Earth. ...

In his spare time, he became the building manager. Once again, once again, once again, once again. Everything has to go on at once. Roy has now switched over to animating the Peter Evans commercial that I've laid out. He's working from my storyboard on the wall and a record of the soundtrack. And it's just like a kid drawing pictures in the corner of a schoolbook and flipping the pages to make them move. The professional animator does exactly the same thing on sheets of acetate. He draws the same figure again and again in different stages of the movement. He flips the sheets to check how each bit of movement will look. Only the moving part is drawn over and over again.

In this case, it takes four drawings for Bruno Hilda to open her mouth. Roy has been working on them for about 20 minutes and it'll last a quarter of a second on the screen. To see how the action works, we shoot these line drawings on film and run it with the soundtrack in the theater. If it all works as we want, then we go ahead and paint in the colors. Here, that's fine, that's wrong, isn't it, there's a horn, it's too cartoon. When we run the line tests, I always like to drag Omar in to get his opinion.

He hasn't been involved in any drawings so we get an objective reaction. Also since he's the business manager, he has to be fully informed so he can keep the talents of dance. Well, the audio is happy with that, I think it looks great. We've got the Nasrid in line tests, first I've just seen it on the movie Aura. Fine. Oh, this is the bread, one. Yeah. Iathe of Infect. A food. No, that's fine, that's very good. Fantastic. It is a blessing which descends as mana from the heavens. It is a gift from God, notwithstanding man's iniquity and undeserving state.

No, he's brought up very well because it's difficult enough to break into another language but to break into cartoon form and retain the original value. That's very good, you see. The way the character is acting, this is an identifiable person who knows new treatment. The typical intellectual or something like that. It's very good. It's terrific, right? It's very good. I mean, there aren't the ages, sevens and sages have sought the answer to this question, but still it has to be admitted that nobody really knows. Sometimes the only way that I can get to actually animate is to work at home.

I have a complete animation set up upstairs and Kathy, my wife, often sits there and reads while I work. Usually, she doesn't interrupt me. I'm working on a long scene for Ivor pitfolks, been doing it for six months now. Everything that pitfolks says or does comes out black. Here he's trying to play the violin, but no matter what he does, the notes keep turning into black, self. All right. Just a quiet evening at home with records on the phone graph.

The last stage of making an animated film is shooting it. It looks like some sort of weird religious ritual. You have a small room with the walls painted solid black to kill any reflections on the acetate sheets. You have just a single camera man bending reverently over the animation table. And you have the camera mounted directly overhead, staring down with a glass eye. You start with the background, black in this case. Then the acetate cells go on top of this. The background shows through the cells whether or not painting. With each action on a different level you can control them all separately. Then the camera man pushes the button and the camera shoots one frame, one twenty-fourth of the second.

And then he does the whole thing over again with the next stage of the movement. Lay the cells, push the button, shoot one frame, remove the cells and so on. For three days, working from nine to five, he performs this ritual. Result is one minute of completed animation. One second, very quick. We're all in the same place.

We're all in the same place. We're all in the same place. We're all in the same place. We're all in the same place. Comershals like Peter Evans support the serious work but everything has to go forward together. You can't make your money close the door and then go all-arty. The trick is to keep the serious work going all the time. Most times that means hanging around at night after everybody else has gone and the phone has stopped ringing. I was a painter before I became an animator. The reason I gave up painting for animation and all the rigmarole was that I knew I could make paintings move. I want to make animation grow up. It doesn't always have to be Mickey Mouse, beaded up movement and slapstick humor.

Animation ought to be able to carry serious concepts. It should be able to move slowly and with dignity and it can be beautiful and lyrical. All these things are possible for animation but we've only just begun to scratch the surface. I think that detailed realistic drawings can be animated just as easily as simple cartoons. I'm doing a test sequence of a girl fondling of flower. I'm doing each drawing as though it were a single watercolor sketch but there are 60 of them. They'll give me 10 seconds of action. If you speed up a realistic action like a cartoon or an old news reel it becomes funny. Slow it down even slightly it gains dignity. Well at least that's one direction we can go.

There are lots of others but you just don't get the time. The Hollywood will be back in full swing tomorrow. Peter Evans wants us to put restaurant addresses into his commercial. And we're bringing in two new animators. So I'll wrap up. When I was 15 years old I asked an animator I admired very much. What can I do to train myself to be a terrific animator? His answer was learn to draw. Forget about techniques. Just learn to draw. Then you can do anything you want. I think he's absolutely right. 20 years ago Walt Disney developed the basic techniques for us and is still just sitting there on a plate waiting to be used. This is NET, the public television network.

.