David Silverman interview in Orlando Sentinel
Joe Furliss
Orlando, the theme-park capital of the universe, we get our fair share
of celebs passing through town, and every now and then the local paper
prints short interviews with them. One of these was with none other
than David Silverman, who was a producer with "The Simpsons."
Silverman's interview appeared in the March 12 Orlando Sentinel. The
Sentinel archives interviews for a short time so this might still be
there (at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/automagic/news/2000-03-
12/NWSPIXAR12031200.html), but I wouldn't be surprised if it's gone
now. Anyhoo, if you missed it, here it is. I'd have posted it
sooner, but I've been really busy lately.
A few minutes with ... David Silverman
"Simpsons" animator gets set for the digital future
by Kate Santich
"Florida" magazine
David Silverman does not look like a movie mogul. With his shaggy
hair and boyish face, he looks more like the mogul's landscaping man.
Don't let his appearance fool you -- Silverman is the point man for
Pixar's new Florida animation studio, set to open in the Fall of 2000.
He's convinced that animation, especially the computer animation seen
in Pixar's wildly successful "Toy Story" films, is about to come into
its own, and he's going to make Florida part of the action.
Pixar's parent company, Disney, already has a long-standing local
presence, of course. Their secondary animation studio, at the MGM
Studios theme park, has been steadily growing from a support operation
to a full-fledged studio capable of producing full-length features
like "Mulan." Now, Pixar hopes to repeat the same magic. "Animation
is just starting to head into this new realm," Silverman said,
enthusiastically, "What you saw in 'Toy Story' and some of the other
films like 'Stuart Little' is just the tip of the iceberg. The art is
all about expanding people's perceptions, to get them to see things in
a way that maybe they didn't think about before. With digital
animation, we're going to do stuff in a few years that we couldn't
begin to imagine today."
If it works out, it won't be the first time that Silverman found
himself at the flashpoint of a cartoon revolution. For more than ten
years, Silverman animated Fox's irreverent family comedy "The
Simpsons" [airing 8:00pm Sunday, WOFL-35], starting from the days when
the wacky cartoon family was just a series of short subjects on "The
Tracey Ullman Show." It was a rather humble beginning. "Basically,
it was me, [creator] Matt [Groening], and [director] Brad Bird in this
little room. I was just out of college and figured this gig would
last a couple of months before the network tanked, but at least I'd
have some experience to put on my resume." Like most people,
Silverman was surprised when "The Simpsons" became something of a
phenomenon as a half-hour series in 1991.
After establishing his career and becoming -- no kidding, a magazine
really gave him this title -- one of California's most eligible
bachelors, Silverman decided it was time to move on. "After a while,
you get to have done all that you are going to do with a given
project. You have to keep circulating, or your skills start to
atrophy."
He headed first to Dreamworks SKG, where he was briefly associated
with "The Road to El Dorado," but he decided that wasn't for him.
("It was creative differences. I don't really want to talk about
it.") So he signed on with Pixar, the Disney computer-oriented
subsidiary. Don't try to use the term "computer animation" around
Silverman, though. "It's people who do the animation," he insists.
"The computer is really just a tool, like a brush." The preferred
term, by the way, is "digital animation."
Ink-and-paint traditionalists may decry the loss of the human touch,
but Silverman thinks the two forms supplement each other. As proof,
he cites a growing number of movies and TV shows -- Fox's "Futurama"
and the upcoming "Titan A. E." -- that feature a blend of hand-drawing
and computer, er, digital animation.
Even his old series, "The Simpsons," has been touched by the computer
revolution. "We did one episode, where one of the kids got to play a
junior superhero in a movie, totally by computers," Silverman said.
The experiment wasn't quite a success -- the characters' movements
looked too stiff -- but the technology has advanced since then. "I
don't think there's anything stopping them from going all-digital,
except that they're in a groove now. That's hard to get, so they
don't want to mess it up."
Although more interested in talking about his future, Silverman can be
coaxed into telling some stories about his past. "No matter what
happens to me, 'The Simpsons' will probably always be one of the most
exciting things I've ever done."
Some of that excitement came from not knowing if the series would be a
hit with viewers, or even how the viewers would watch the show. The
animation staff -- now larger than just the three people from the
"Ullman" days -- wanted to insert quick visual sight gags. The
producers, on the other hand, were skeptical, figuring that hardly
anybody would notice them. "So one day, we decided to perform sort of
an experiment. We changed the color of one guy's skin from white to
black, and then back again to see if anybody would notice." They did.
With a big grin, Silverman notes, "From then on, it was a running
competition between us and the writers to see who could put more jokes
in an episode."
Even the network got in on the act. For most of the first season, Fox
executives ignored the show. That changed as the ratings climbed, and
as Silverman puts it, "The suits were falling over one another trying
to give us ideas."
"For the first two or three seasons, the network's suggestions were
actually pretty useful. I think [perennial supervillain] Sideshow Bob
was suggested by the guy in charge of scheduling. But then, they got
a run of real boneheads in there and they'd come up with lame ideas
like, 'Why not have this disco character or something in it.' It was
pretty sad; by the time I left, we were just routinely ignoring them."
Silverman remembered the lesson when it came time to sign the deal
with Pixar. A clause in his contract gives him complete authority
over the studio's creative direction. "I still talk with my friends
back at 'The Simpsons,' and they always tell me how lucky I am to be
given that sort of freedom."
Silverman realizes his good fortune. "Not many people get the chance
to really do something, to put their own mark on something, that lasts
for such a long time. But I've gotten to do it twice, first 'The
Simpsons,' and now this deal with Pixar. It's incredible. I'm such a
lucky dog, even I don't believe it."
(Reprinted without permission. If you have a problem with it, you can
go snuh yourself! :-) )
--
"Smilin'" Joe Furliss Die, Furry, Die!
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