Chris Landreth

Work: Ryan
When: 10 pm Friday April 1 2005
Where: HCC Performing Arts Theater

When: 1 pm Saturday April 2 2005
Where: HCC Black Box Theater

When: 10 pm Saturday April 2 2005
Where: HCC Performing Arts Theater

When: 2 pm Sunday April 3 2005
Where: Muvico 2 - Centro Ybor

Chris Landreth

Chris Landreth went into animation as a second career after a stint as an engineer. He received his MS degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois in 1986. For three years he worked in experimental research in Fluid Mechanics at the University of Illinois before making his leap into computer animation.

In 1994 Landreth joined Alias|Wavefront, where it was his job to define, test and abuse animation software, in-house, before it was released to the public. In addition to well-mannered software, this work resulted in the production of animated short films, including The End (1995) and Bingo (1998).

In his surreal short The End, the animator discovers he's the character in his own work while trying to think of a decent ending for it. (It will not be the first time that Landreth challenges the illusion he is trying to create.) Bingo is a five-minute computer animated adaptation of a live theatre performance called Disregard This Play by the Chicago-based theatre company The Neo-Futurists. The recorded audio performance of this absurdist play was used in Bingo, which then incorporated bizarre visual imagery and exaggerated characterization to support the telling of the story. The End and Bingo have received wide international recognition and numerous awards, including an Academy Award nomination for The End in 1996 for Best Animated Short Film and a 1999 Genie Award for Bingo.

In his current film, Ryan, Landreth turns his attentions to a biography of animator Ryan Larkin, while at the same time challenging our notions of documentary and animation. Landreth is arguably one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today in computer graphics. He gives us interpretive visuals that go beyond "photo-realism" into a pioneer realm where the visual appearance reflects the characters' evolving "pain, insanity, fear, mercy, shame and creativity." A realm that he calls "psycho-realism."

Technical notes by Chris Landreth

Ryan was conceived, developed and animated in the world of 3D computer generated imagery (CGI). Although the characters and sets have detailed realism, everything in the film has been modelled with CGI tools- there is no live-action footage. All characters in Ryan were animated by hand (there was no 'motion capture' used in the film). A number of software tools were used to create interesting 'effects,' such as smoke, fog, distortions, clothing and dynamic hair on the characters.

The production of Ryan relied heavily on Alias's Maya animation software (V 4.0) for modelling, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering of the 3D world in the film. In addition, we used Discreet Combustion V2.1 for all compositing and 2D effects, Adobe Photoshop V7.0 for painting and texturing, and Adobe Premiere for creative development and editing.

Ryan Larkin A Brief Biography

Ryan Larkin was born in Montreal in 1943. As a teenager he studied at the Art School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Arthur Lismer, and clearly showed sharp talent for character and figure drawing. In the early 1960s, he was hired by the National Film Board of Canada, and was immediately recognized by NFB's Norman McLaren as one of the brightest new artists in that organization. Norman personally took Ryan on as a protégé and gave him the resources to create two animated short films: Cityscape (1963) and Syrinx (1964). The latter film won worldwide recognition and propelled Ryan to even more ambitious projects.

Ryan's next film, Walking (1969), gave him not only recognition but celebrity. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. He was given write-ups in Time Magazine and called the "Frank Zappa or George Harrison of Animation" by the Montreal Gazette. Ryan's next film, Street Musique (1972), further cemented his star status at the NFB. At this point Ryan began his downward career spiral. He was to make no more films at the NFB, and resigned in 1978. By this time he was a cocaine addict and heavy drinker, and was unable to hold down any work in animation or any other profession. During a period of over a decade, which he describes as a "haze," Ryan lost all his artwork, all his sculptures, all his animation materials, all his money. For a year he lived homeless on the streets of Montreal, only recently finding a home in the Old and begs for spare change from passersby in front of Schwartz's Restaurant on Montreal's Boulevard St. Laurent. Although he has given up cocaine, he is still an alcoholic. He is in poor health and is addled by depression and confusion. And yet he is still lucid, still artistically brilliant and acutely self-aware. He has discovered humility and redemption far beyond what most of us have ever conceived. And at the age of 58, he knows that his story is not yet finished.