News and Articles
Nathan Stone Interview Part Two
26 February 2009
Organisation
FTI Member Nathan Stone was one of 16 finalists in Tropfest, the world’s biggest short film competition. Hear how his career has taken him from Perth to overseas and back again. This is the second of a two part article.
Animation was an elective subject in Nathan’s Film and Television diploma and his lecturer – who has since worked at Pixar – set Nathan up with work experience at a local company that used Softimage. Nathan made use of the work experience to do some visual FX for a student film. The film won a special FX award and this led to a first job in Melbourne at a fledgling studio.
Speaking about his influences, Nathan admits, “I’ll probably be pretty unpopular for this but early on Michael Bay influenced my shooting style. I’m not so keen on him now but it has to be said that I found his earlier films visually intoxicating. ‘The Rock’ had a big impact on me. The film ‘elite’ is writing me off at this point I’m sure.” Nathan cites Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott as directors who have inspired him and adds Christopher Nolan to the list as one of the next big directors particularly for his non-linear style of story telling. Nathan aims to make films he would want to watch. He tries to watch all kinds of films from all cultures, saying there’s always something that can be learned form even a “lame RomCom”. “One shot will stand out. File that away.”
Being very confident with the visual side of filmmaking, Nathan is now focusing on story and character – he has been writing a feature over the last year. He sees one of his strengths as being good at visualizing things and then realizing those exact visuals. “You could say I’m a shooter.” Nathan is also very resourceful: none of his films have budgets over $3000 AUS and most far less yet the films look to have high production values. ‘Blue’ was the cheapest at 10Euros. “You have to use what’s available to you. If you’re living somewhere that gets covered in beautiful snow during winter, use it.”
Nathan’s advice to filmmakers is to learn everything so that you don’t have to rely on others, but when you do work with people, make sure you let them know how much you appreciate their assistance. He also adds not to forget those who have done you favours along the way and to never give up. “If you’re really a film maker it’s not even something you think about.”
Nathan makes shorts because they are the most accessible form available. He also thinks video clips are good fun, “There are loads of up and coming bands that would be more than happy to let you make a clip for them. It’s a good way to build up your skills and portfolio.”
“Animation is also more accessible today”, says Nathan. “Ten years ago the only access to 3D animation was on an $80,000 Silicon Graphics machine but now anybody with a decent gaming machine can dabble in 3D and teach themselves enough to get a job. The demand for animators has increased dramatically as well.” However Nathan cautions that the fundamentals of animation are still the most important thing and just buying a good PC doesn’t guarantee a good film.
“There’s no better way to learn than by doing it. Every film I’ve made has taught me different things. Shorts are the best and cheapest format for this kind of learning.”
For Nathan, animation has always just been a day job. He has always had other plans and kept making shorts along the way towards those plans. Working for ‘the man’ does get on his nerves at times but he counters this by taking big chunks of time off to work on his own projects.
Visual Effects Supervision is Nathan’s new day job. The new role is not directly related to Nathan’s future goals but builds towards these goals. “I figure if I try for funding later on it might help to be considered a ‘VFX guy’. A film idea I have in mind is quite VFX dependent so having a VFX background and possibly my own shop would mean I can do it cost effectively and more efficiently which may grease the funding wheels – if they haven’t already blacklisted me for my Bay comment”.
Nathan predicts the challenges of working on ‘Wasted on the Young’ will be stretching the money to get all the VFX required and making sure the VFX are world class. He sees the project as a labour of love deal for everyone involved and is excited to be a part of it. “The film has a lot of potential and I’m just going to try my best to make sure the VFX enhance that potential.”
FEEDS
