By Robert Goldrich

A pioneering 3-D filmmaker active in varied disciplines, James Stewart–who heads the Toronto-based Geneva Film Co.–has in recent time made his biggest splash on the short film circuit. Back in February he was at the renowned TED conference to screen his immersive 3-D short, Beatrice Coron’s Daily Battles, which he produced and directed. The animated 3-D short film brings another dimension to the work of Coron who creates intricate worlds with paper and scissors, speaking through “the language of silhouettes.”

What started out as an experimental film has taken hold in the marketplace, making the rounds at festivals and museums. Also gaining momentum with audiences is Foxed!, a 3-D, stop-motion animation short produced and co-directed by Stewart (with Nev Bezare). The short has picked up Best Animation awards at Yorkton, San Antonio and FirstGlance Philadelphia, as well as four Maverick Movie Award nominations. Foxed! has played at more than 40 festivals and a theatrical run in Los Angeles qualifies it for Oscar consideration. In Canada, Foxed! also had theatrical exposure playing prior to Storm Surfers 3D.

Foxed! introduces us to Emily, a youngster toiling inmines underneath her house. Imprisoned by foxes who have duped her entire town, Emily has to grow up quickly if she is to escape and outwit the foxes at their own game. But her daring dash for freedom is met by a stunning encounter above the ground that leaves her lost and confused. It seems her own mother doesn’t even know Emily is away as a fox has assumed the child’s identity.

The big picture goal for Geneva Film Co. is to make Foxed! into a feature film. Stewart’s filmography includes more than 30 projects in digital 3D, including cinema commercials, concerts, stop motion and CG animation. He is a director, storyteller, artist, digital innovator and multi-platform visual designer whose work ranges from mobile to giant screen, from motion graphics to stereoscopic 3-D installations.
Stewart also has a foothold in the U.S. where he and Geneva Film Co. have partnered with TateUSA to head T-3D, a division which produces stereoscopic content for agencies and brands. He is repped as a director of 3-D spots and branded content via T-3D and will exec produce for other directors on the TateUSA and T-3D roster.

SHOOT: Provide some backstory on Foxed! in terms of its origin and production.

STEWART: The project was conceived as a feature film in 3-D but I thought, given the experimentation that we were going to undertake, that we should shoot a short as a proof of concept. We used a single Canon 5D camera and limited the number of mouth kits to create the animation. Normally a character would have 75 mouth kits in order to speak English. We designed custom articulated kits so Emily the main character could have only four mouth kits–each having a certain amount of range for complete speaking movement. We used a single camera on a motion-controlled unit to shoot both views required for 3-D.

SHOOT: What drew you to the theme? There’s a universality to it–the notion of a parent not being able to see her child for who he or she is. There are also overtones of the child labor issue.

STEWART: The theme of oppression is something that we played with in developing the script. The foxes represent the darkness that the viewer struggles against. Everyone takes something different away from the film. Some people project “laugh out loud” humor on the foxes, others project incredible levels of personal darkness. In the end, the foxes are who you want them to be.

Everyone wants to be heard. Being silenced is a universal theme that permeates though our values as a society. Human rights are a tough subject to deal with on film and an even tougher subject to find an audience with. I wanted to present an accessible film that allowed the viewers to interpret oppression the way they want to. Like Neill Gaiman’s books, the darkness is in us and the art allows us to express it. Having said that, some audience just find Foxed! very funny.

SHOOT: Stop-motion animation is a painstaking process. Why did you go that route, particularly for 3-D?

STEWART: I have always loved stop motion and, after seeing Coraline in 3-D, I wanted to explore the stop-motion art form. I had worked extensively in live-action 3-D doing commercials (Lexus, Sprint, Samsung) and was increasingly asked to do CG and FX work on the 3-D side. After shooting a 3-D spot, one of the camera crew who has been DPing in stop-motion approached me about doing a 3-D stop motion film. That is where it began. I was just completing work on Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams (as the 3-D finishing guy) so this idea came along at the right time.

SHOOT: What’s the timetable for the feature? Will it also be stop-motion and 3-D?

STEWART: The feature film is at first draft. The short is doing very well at festivals. It is doing its job by finding an audience and proving that people love the Emily character, her design and the dark idea of kids battling against foxes. You can easily see how this is a feature, and game, and a cross platform story.

Kids against foxes!

The feature will take two years to produce and we are hoping to have the money in place this time next year. It will be in the beautiful art form of stop motion and of course be in 3-D. Kids love 3-D and teenagers like dark stories.

SHOOT: Update us on your other recent endeavors, particularly in the ad arena.

STEWART: On the commercial front I have had a busy year doing a theme park film for Wanda, a gesture-controlled game for Samsung and commercials in 2-D and 3-D. I am also developing another stop motion feature film that will be a European co-production.

I am increasingly being asked to advise agencies and companies on how to use technology in the most creative way. After speaking and presenting work at TED, I do a lot of consulting to our industry to ensure commercial storytelling is making the best use of technology–be it 3-D, animation, gesture control, artificial intelligence or location-based communication.

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