by Paul O’Flanagan
AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL O’FLANAGAN
Boulder Media is probably best known for its production work on shows like Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends and El Tigre, perhaps the two best animated Flash series on TV. 
This Dublin-based team has also produced a number of independent shorts, none better than Carte de Visite, which was directed by Paul O’Flanagan. As with their series work, the Boulder team has managed to push the software in directions never known possible. More importantly, they make the viewer forget about software and technology altogether, and focus on gorgeous artwork, fluid movement and subtle, touching performances. Helping on that front was David O’Sullivan, who oversaw the art direction and a crack team of animators, including Robert Etchingham, Peter Slattery, Sue Pendred, Roger Grogan, Rob Byrne, Robert Cullen, Ed Smith and Chris Lynch.
The project was created with funding from the Irish Film Board. I’d like to thank them and Boulder Media for the assistance in pulling this interview and online screening together.
AARON SIMPSON: What is a carte de visite?
PAUL O’FLANAGAN: A carte de visite, translated as ‘visiting card’, is a memento one could buy back in the mid-nineteenth century after visiting a stage show, circus or other performance. It was a little memory of your visit that people would collect in albums.
AARON: What challenges did you face in producing a film without dialogue?
PAUL: Trying to introduce characters and their place and purpose to an audience is tricky when you’re not using dialogue. You find yourself relying on props and costumes as exposition.
AARON: What was the timeline of the film’s production?
PAUL: The production lasted 6 months from signing of contract to delivery.
AARON: Was the character animation created entirely inside the computer, or did they originate on paper?
PAUL: All the animation was done straight into the computer but all the designs, from backgrounds to character designs started with pencil and paper.
AARON: What methods can a production team take to get the “traditional” feel evident in Carte de Visite?
PAUL: In producing this short, we went to great lengths to hide the digital nature of this film. To achieve this, we had to employ an array of computer programs. The backgrounds were made using Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. These additional programs were used to create the textures within the character animation along with Adobe Illustrator for the pencil-like lines of the characters.
AARON: How did you construct such a faithful and timely circus environment?
PAUL: I did a great deal of research while writing it. I’d never really had a huge interest in the old circus sideshow until I went to an exhibition a few years ago in Dublin about the various sideshow personalities and celebrities of the time. 
The exhibition inspired me in a weird way. I left the circus a bit disappointed. It all felt very superficial and I had hoped it would go a bit deeper into the characters lives and their feelings towards this environment they’d found themselves in. So, I decided to write a story myself.
AARON: Did you attend any of the screenings of the film?
PAUL: Yeah, it had its first showing at the Galway Film Festival in Ireland, so I was there for that. I also saw it at the LIAF (London International Animation Festival) which was only a small hop across the water.
AARON: How do you compare directing Carte de Visite to the experience of working on a TV series like Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends?
PAUL: By the time we’d get to an episode of Foster’s, most of the direction is done through the storyboards from Cartoon Network in California. We’d do a wee bit of troubleshooting when needed for composition, continuity or occasionally re-boarding some camera angles. It was a great experience and if it weren’t for working on that show we would have had to take on a steep learning curve for Carte de Visite. It was my first effort writing a story but my years on Foster’s helped me in realising what type of shots would work and which set-ups wouldn’t.
AARON: How did you first learn to animate?
PAUL: In college, doing exercises and learning the principles. I think I really started to get better when I left college, though. I was thrown into a work environment and I spent hours combing through Disney DVDs frame by frame.
AARON: Was there a milestone in your career that helped you make the leap from animator to director?
PAUL: I don’t think I’ve made any big leaps. It’s been baby steps all the way. First animator, then animation director, then directing Carte de Visite. I made some mistakes and learned a lot of lessons with Carte de Visite and wanted to make another short to flex my muscles. That’s when I made Beauty Now. I’ve learned a few more lessons from that short and I’m looking forward to making another film where I can further myself as a shorts director. So I suppose it’s all just a series of small progressions.
AARON: Explain how your team received funding from the Irish Film Board.
PAUL: When we applied for a short film grant, we sent in two submissions. The application for each film was made up of concept art, a screenplay and a few written pieces explaining why and how we wanted to make the film. But perhaps the most important elements in our application were the budget and the producer attached to the production. If the Film board wasn’t happy with these, I doubt our application would have gone much further. Next, we got a phone call saying that one of our applications had been short-listed and we needed to go for an interview to talk about the project in more depth. We went, and they seemed happy and confident with us. We got the grant and then got to work!
