Writer’s Block Directors Interview

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After a year on the festival circuit the Spinkick Bros (Tom Gran and Martin Woolley) & WÖNKY Films have now released their short film “Writer’s Block” online. Set in a prison for criminally poor writers, it follows a gang of cons who get ahold of the script to their own lives and attempt to re-write it in order to order to make their escape. We spoke to co-director Tom Gran about the film…

Hi, Tom you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello, Im Tom Gran and Im one half of a writing/directing/animating duo who operate under the joint pseudonym Spin Kick Bros.

Where did the idea for Writer’s Block come from?
We usually build our projects from a genre or setting that we like and we felt like prison movies were an area we liked a lot but hadn’t really explored yet. We thought something about a character trying to escape from the film itself in some way would give us a chance to play around with the narrative structure of the film but still have a fun straight-forward story.

Can you tell us about the process of making the cartoon?
It was animated in Flash and then comped together using After Effects. Our background artist, Adam Davis, worked in Photoshop and Artrage. The bulk of animation took place over about a month, during which I was working with another animator, Todd Setter, but after that I spent a few months doing clean up, colour, adding in all the tattoos and regretting my life choices.

Are the characters in the film inspired by any people you know, or any famous celebrities?
We actually built photomontage mugshot things of each character while we were trying to design them. Gill was based mostly on Gary Oldman and Bosco was mostly Ian McShane, with chunks of Jack Nicholson and Mel Gibson thrown in.

Which character would you be from the short yourself?
If I had a choice I would choose to not be any of them because they’re all in jail. But if I had to pick, probably Bembo because his bowler hat and boots are pretty cool.

Is there anything you would change about the Short?
I always retrospectively wish the stuff we made was visually more simple but never learn my lesson. It’s very easy to get carried away.

What was the most challenging aspect of making the short?
The scene where the floor falls apart. It had to be assembled out of about 50 layers to get the perspective to work and it gave me a thousand headaches.

Do you have any more stories set in Ball Point Penitentiary in the works?
No but it could be fun. There’s quite a lot of ideas in there we left unexplored. We wrote Writers’ Block to be as self-contained as possible though, so I think if we were to develop it into something else it would have to move quite far from the original short.

Have you always want to make films and cartoons?
I think so. I’m always kind of interested in doing live action stuff too but I just love drawing too much.

Where does your overall inspiration come from?
I think most of our ideas originate from already established genres and clichés that we genuinely love despite them being so stupid. TV and movies have kind of taught people that things work in a certain way and it’s fun to dissect that and bring all the ridiculous flaws to forefront.

How did the two of you start working together?
We met while studying at UWE Bristol and since graduating a few years ago we’ve been writing and pitching as many series and short films as we can come up with.

Can you tell us about some of the other projects are you working on at the moment?
Right now we’re working with WildSeed Studios to create three pilot animatics – a sitcom about a family of implausibly rugged tough guys; an adventure series following a louche 1900s Arabian adventurer and his stiff-upper-lipped British manservant; and an exploitation-style serial about racially mismatched twin brothers shooting their way across 1970s America. Hopefully one or more of them will go on to become something more than an animatic.

What words of advice would you give for aspiring students studying animation?
Expose yourself to all the art and fiction you can, not just what’s on TV right now. And make as much stuff as possible while you can still afford to do it for free.

What was your earliest memory of animation?
That one Sesame Street cutaway where a ball bounced around some kind of giant psychedelic machine and counted to 12 or something.

What animated film do you wish you could have made?
I wouldn’t want to be involved in any of the films I like because then I probably wouldn’t like them any more. I’d like to unmake Frozen so I wouldn’t have to listen to Let It Go ever again.

In conjunction with the online release of Writer’s Block, Wonky Films have also updated the films companion iOS app. The app which is available for free via the Apple app store for both iPad, iPhone and iPod now contains the full film, a look behind the scenes with additional content including storyboards, animatics and original concept and development work for the short.

Also included is the chance to create your own unique Ball Point Penitentiary prisoner I.D a permanent record of your writing crimes, before going on to take on the word master challenge and prove your innocence against the charges of criminally poor writing. The word master challenge will truly test your knowledge of the English language in a fast paced word game, have you got what it takes to be top of the leaderboard?