An Oscar nomination has made endless hours of colouring between the lines worth it for a former Okotokian.
Holy Trinity Academy alumna Chantal Beaulne was hired to colour and shade the characters and scenes in the animated short film, Animal Behaviour, which was nominated for an Oscar this year. The film was directed by David Fine and Alison Snowden, who are executive producers of the adult animated television series Bob and Margaret.
Animal Behaviour will be among more than a dozen films showcased at the Okotoks Film Festival’s annual Oscar Nominated Short Films, which will play on the big screen at Okotoks Cinemas Feb. 16 and 17.
“I filled in the colours, did the shading, did the background - it was very monotonous work,” said Beaulne. “I got to colour in every little bit of the lips and eyeballs. When I’m watching the film all I can think is, I remember working on that, that took forever and it’s only on the screen for two seconds.”
Beaulne was hired as an intern in 2016 to help ink and colour Animal Behaviour after completing a four-year animation program at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, where she now lives.
“This was all done digitally,” she said. “There were digital paint brushes that they designed and I used.”
The 14-minute comedy tells the story of animals attending court-ordered therapy.
“They all have various issues related to things you would stereotypically associate with animals,” she said. “There’s a leech with dependency issues, a cat with obsessive compulsive disorder because she cleans herself obsessively, a praying mantis - with too many kids - killing off her romantic love life… and a gorilla with anger management issues.”
Animal Behaviour was Beaulne’s first job in animation, under the tutorship of Fine and Snowden.
“They were excellent directors,” she said. “It was nice to get to know them and work under them.”
The Oscar nod is Fine and Snowden’s first after their Academy Award winning Bob’s Birthday won Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994, spawning the adult animated television series Bob and Margaret.
Beaulne discovered a love for film while taking a new media class at HTA. She graduated in 2011.
“That was very instrumental to ending up where I am now,” she said.
Her favourite movies growing up were often done in puppetry, such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Caroline.
While at Emily Carr, Beaulne created the short film, Mongoose, which won best art direction in the Okotoks Film Festival in its inaugural year.
Katie Fournell, Okotoks Film Festival director, said the festival will feature the five Oscar-nominated films in short animation and short action, ranging from five to 25 minutes each, in addition to some honourable mentions.
“These are the best films of the year,” she said. “They played at Cannes and were the favourite at Cannes. It’s tricky to get your films into an Oscar qualifier and you have to win at that festival to be considered for an Oscar.”
About 25 per cent of films nominated for the Oscars are short films, Fournell said.
“These films are not mainstream,” she said. “Most only exist at film festivals. This is an opportunity to see them when maybe they weren’t able to play at a film festival around us.”
Fournell said she’s excited to give local residents the opportunity to watch these films before the winners are televised at the 2019 Oscar ceremonies in Los Angeles on Feb. 24 at 6 p.m.
Those who attend the Okotoks Oscar Nominated Shorts can predict which short they think will win an Oscar in each of the two categories for an opportunity for two tickets to the Okotoks Film Festival in June. Those who guess correctly will be entered into a draw that will take place on Feb. 25.
Tickets to watch the Oscar Nominated Shorts cost $10 per screening or $15 for both, and are available for purchase at okotoksfilmfestival.ca.
The screenings take place Feb. 16 with the animated shorts at 10 a.m. and live action at 4 p.m. The films will play again on the big screen Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. for the animated shorts and 9 p.m. for the live action.
Parental discretion is advised for both showings.
