Emmy win leaves paper trail
By Robert Goldrich
Director Jamie Caliri said in a matter-of-fact manner that he hasn’t won a bid in years. Yet in the process his spotwork has won two Annie Awards for excellence in animation from ASIFA-Hollywood, and last month his title sequence for the Steven Spielberg-produced Showtime series United States of Tara earned the primetime Emmy for main title design.
The latter–for which Caliri served as director/designer via DUCK, the Los Angeles studio that also handles him for commercials–is a 2D stop motion paper cutout tour de force which opens on a colorful sequence of backgrounds constructed to resemble the paperboard landscape of a pop-up book. The scenes shift from a domestic world of oven mits and suburbia to a pack of beer-guzzling motorcyclists riding free, to a thong-wearing teenager in a cluttered room–all reflecting the many different personas of series protagonist Tara, a single mother who has multiple personality disorder.
The stop motion paper trail also extends to the alluded to Annie wins, which were for United Airlines “Dragon” in 2007 and “Heart” in ’09. Both spots came out of Minneapolis ad agency Barrie D’Rozario Murphy. “Heart” additionally garnered a 2009 AICP Show honor for agency art direction (art director James Zucco).
In “Heart,” a woman leaves her spouse behind in order to take a business trip. She also literally leaves her heart behind, handing it to her man before she departs. We later see her successfully make a business presentation in a far off place yet clearly something is missing–her heart and love back at home. Her longing is reflected in a chance encounter with a bird that she sees in a courtyard and tries to feed. But the bird flies through a void in her spirit–the space where her heart was–and soars away. When we finally see the couple reunite, she is then whole again.
Caliri noted that these projects came to him. “I didn’t competitively bid for them–either someone fell through and they came to me or I was sought out. The truth is that I’m not very good at bidding. I’m not into making presentations–doing elaborate artwork, doing Photoshop renderings to get the job.
“To me,” he continued, “that’s not the kind of art I do. And if I did, it wouldn’t properly represent the art I would do on the actual job. It almost seems that the artwork or presentation often gets the job because it’s the flashiest dress rather than being what’s right for the project. For me, there’s no connection between the ultimate success of a spot and how you bid things.”
The director feels grateful, though, that some clients have entrusted him with ambitious work without requiring what he considers to be the meaningless exercise of a dog-and-pony show, bells-and-whistles presentation.
While his most recent endeavors entail a significant share of 2D stop motion paper cutout work, Caliri is also well known for other forms of animation as well as his extensive live-action experience, the latter spanning music videos (including a Grammy Award-nominated clip, “Early to Bed,” for the band Morphine) and commercials (such as his combo live-action/animation “High Wire” promoting Los Angeles public radio station KCRW).
The catalyst which generated the stop motion paper route for Caliri came in the form of his beautiful, imaginative title sequence for the feature film Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, released in late 2004. “Suddenly I was the paper cutout guy,” said Caliri.
Now with Emmy recognition for his paper prowess, Caliri’s reputation in that discipline has become all the more prominent. Yet he hopes to branch back out into other forms of stop motion as well as live-action opportunities.
Caliri’s penchant for varied forms of stop motion is reflected not only in his body of work over the years but also in stop motion software he and his brother developed via their company Dragon Stop Motion, named after the aforementioned United Airlines’ “Dragon” spot featuring a dragon that emerges out of a young boy’s mind as he imagines his father, who’s gone off on a business trip, bravely fighting a dragon in medieval time.
“I love experimenting in stop motion, finding new dimensions to software, controlling a miniature world, creating and lighting shots,” related Caliri.
Caliri joined DUCK in ’05, shortly after the success of his Lemony Snicket title sequence. This is his second tour of duty at DUCK. He first came aboard the production company back when it was Duck Soup Produckions, working out of its division The Front where he helmed the Morphine video, as well as other clips and commercials.
The Morphine clip in turn caught the eye of MJZ which added Caliri to its directorial roster in ’97. He made several other stops along the way before reuniting with his DUCK colleagues.
“I came back because they’re really good people at DUCK,” said Caliri. “I trust them, they support their directors and the art form. They’re more interested in the art than ploughing through to the next director.”
Caliri added that DUCK is well positioned to support him in live action, animation, stop motion, pretty much any discipline.
“Ultimately it doesn’t matter to me if it’s live action, animation or a combination of disciplines. All I’m looking for is an excuse to tell a story on film.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More