{"id":18290,"date":"2015-02-25T15:37:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T23:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=18290"},"modified":"2015-03-07T21:08:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T05:08:55","slug":"interview-oscar-winner-patrick-osborne-award-winning-animated-short-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/interview-oscar-winner-patrick-osborne-award-winning-animated-short-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Oscar Winner Patrick Osborne on His Award-Winning Animated Short \u2018Feast\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feast-poster\"<\/a>I loved the speech given by director Patrick Osborne and producer Kristina Reed on Sunday night when they won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. \u201cThose are the two people at the Oscars that I\u2019d want to have lunch with,\u201d was my comment after hearing their humble and sweet words. I\u2019m a big fan of their Feast<\/em> short that was shown with the Oscar-winning Big Hero 6<\/em> in theaters and is part of the newly released DVD\/Blu-ray for the film. The six-minute film tells the story of Winston, a Boston Terrier who loves to eat. His owner, James, spoils him with all sorts of junk food leftovers that he throws on top of Winston\u2019s dog good. But that all changes when James starts dating a waitress at a local restaurant who encourages him to take up a much healthier lifestyle. Winston is miserable about the switch to fresh vegetables and the dog is initially thrilled when the couple breaks up and James returns to his unhealthy ways. But the dog eventually feels for his depressed master and finds a way to re-unite the couple. All is not lost for Winston, however, when a new member of the family makes sure that the dog gets plenty of unintended treats.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had a chance to sit down with Patrick Osborne (not for lunch, though!) shortly before the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

Danny Miller: It\u2019s amazing how much you packed into those few minutes of screen time. I love how there\u2019s this whole story of the relationship going on in the background even though Winston is front and center.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patrick Osborne:<\/strong> I\u2019m so glad that it came across that way \u2014 you never know! You make this agreement to do this cute story in the front and try to tell the human thing off to the side and you just hope that people absorb it.<\/p>\n

\"feast1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love movies that work on different levels for different age groups. Have you had a chance to watch it with audiences of young kids? Do they react differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They react very loudly to it which I find very funny. To be honest, I sort of forgot to think about them while we were making it. It wasn\u2019t until we showed it to an audience of kids at the Telluride Film Festival. All of the kids from the town come to see the kid-appropriate stuff that is there. Some of them pick up the relationship story. And believe me, if they don\u2019t understand something, they\u2019ll say so out loud! \u201cWhy is that happening?\u201d But kids seem to love the film!<\/p>\n

One of the things that\u2019s so great about it is that it\u2019s not dependent on language at all \u2014 like some of the best silent films.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, we didn\u2019t translate it. There\u2019s a little but of English in there but we didn\u2019t think it was necessary to localize it. The only thing that\u2019s translated is the title.<\/p>\n

Where did this idea come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted to tell a story through food \u2014 how important meals are in terms of rituals that people take part in. And how that all changes depending on where you are in life \u2014 when you\u2019re single food looks a certain way; when you\u2019re first dating, certain things happen at meal time; getting dumped food looks different. We knew that food was going to be at the root of the film and then we started thinking of all of the things you can layer in there.<\/p>\n

Did you have girlfriend who tried to make you eat healthier?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No \u2014 I\u2019m a runner so I already like that kind of food. I But the story is kind of based on our production designer and how his life changed when he got married!<\/p>\n

I love how you see James\u2019 weight fluctuate throughout the film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that was easy to do \u2014 you can always scale up and make someone chunkier and look more depressed! Remember those tapes of David Hasselhoff lying on the floor eating a cheeseburger? That\u2019s kind of what we were going for.<\/p>\n

\"feast2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen it a few times and I always notice new stuff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot in there, like when he\u2019s eating spaghetti in the shower which is kind of gross. Most people don\u2019t notice that until they watch it a bunch of times!<\/p>\n

I have to say how great the food looked in the film. I wanted those meatballs more than anything in the world. How challenging is it to animate food?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy. Did you know that there are all these people online who are really into cartoon food? It\u2019s like a club.<\/p>\n

Whoa, there\u2019s a fetish I’ve never heard of!<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted our food to be more appealing than the real thing. Most of the food is only seen for a few seconds at a time so we really had to get it right.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit that with the passage of time in the story, I was a little worried that the dog wouldn\u2019t make it to the very end. Thank you for not killing that dog!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Laughs.) Well, we almost did. Okay, not really \u201calmost,\u201d but we talked about it in the beginning and realized early on that it wouldn\u2019t work for something like this!<\/p>\n

Winston so adorable. Did you look at a lot of real dogs in preparation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, yeah, we had three model dogs. One of the story artists, this guy named Raymond Persi, had two of them, and then someone else on our production staff had another one. We brought the dogs in for a day to watch and videotape them. I wanted the animation to be natural and not feel like it was a guy in a dog suit!<\/p>\n

The whole film is so beautiful to look at.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m biased but I think that Disney animators are the best in the world! I wouldn\u2019t have anybody else do it.<\/p>\n

How long did it take to make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took 51 weeks from green light to our first festival screening. I had been working on Big Hero 6<\/em> until that day we got the green light. There were 28 shorts that were pitched and this is the one that was chosen to be with Big Hero 6.<\/em> So from that day on, I just worked on this film.<\/p>\n

\"oscars2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this your first Oscar nomination?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes! There\u2019s some really great stuff that is nominated \u2014 they\u2019re all very different in style and technique so it\u2019s a pretty cool field.<\/p>\n