The Old Man and the Sea,
The Hub of Masters
Hamed Zeraatpisheh
UCA Farnham 2008
‘Animating a boat in rotation with a character on a moving sea, and to be able to
animate that frame by frame by memory, I mean, it’s just... I don’t know what to say.
It’s Petrov'
(Bernard Lajoie, from Animation World Magazine issue 4.12)
‘I have produced simpler films that have turned into nightmares. This one was the
most difficult film we have ever undertaken and it was the one that went the most
smoothly. I never had so much respect for one individual as I have for Alexander
Petrov. He had the pressure of the whole film on his shoulders. At the worst moments,
he never lost his nice manners. We ended up as the best friends, which is rare in this
business.’
(Pascal Blais, from Animation World Magazine issue 4.12)
Introduction
Petrov’s The Old man and the sea is an interesting option for analysis for a number of
reasons: Fist of all it is based on a Nobel Prize winning work of modern literature by
Earnest Hemingway and is an Academy Award winner for the best short animated
film. Not to forget, of course, that this film is the first Large Format animated film
ever made in the history.
Besides it is interesting to study Petrov’s unique animation technique and style, a kind
of animation that, due to its complexities, is only mastered by a handful of animators
around the world; also it is good to see how a work of literature can be transformed
into an emotionally charged, visually intriguing work of animation.
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Petrov hand paints his films, frame by frame and his painting style is stylised and
personal. Hence his films look like classic paintings that have come to life and
motion! This is why Petrov’s animation is unique and different from any other style1.
The Old Man and the Sea
The story is set in the Gulf Stream off the cost of Havana and is about a four day
struggle of an old man (Santiago) against a giant Marlin. Petrov has simplified the
details of the original story and wherever appropriate has visually incorporated the
descriptions within the scenes. He has also moved the order of events and added extra
scenes to strengthen the dramatic effects of the story. In other words Petrov has
absorbed the story, personalised it and presented his reading. It is fascinating to see
how through Petrov’s personal interpretations Hemingway’s story has been
transformed into an animated short film, retaining its original feeling and strengths (as
it is always a challenge to render a written story to a visual one without losing the
descriptive qualities).
What is also interesting throughout the film is the cleverly defined fine line between
dream and reality. There are scenes in which Santiago (the old man) is day dreaming,
recollecting past memories etc. These scenes have been mixed with real world scenes
in, adding a surreal effect on the whole film. Sometimes through Santiago’s thoughts
and dreams the film takes its spectators beyond the limits of time, place, gravity and
logic. The result is a beautiful and poetic film, reminiscent of shaman and Sufism.
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Petrov’s Painting style is referred described by many as Romantic Realism.
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The old man’s world view (which is Petrov’s as well) helps create such poetic
atmosphere in the film. The old man is close to nature and talks to the beasts, fish,
birds, etc; when the old man sees the bird flying over his boat he knows that the bird
is going to catch a fish. He is in constant dialogue with the world he lives in; he
observes the majesty that lies in nature…. (He calls the fish ‘his true brother’ and
joins him in his dreams). The overall feeling of the film therefore is poetic and
inspired by the beauty of nature (the sea, starry dawn etc). Excellent use of dialogues,
music and sound effects has also added extra qualities to the piece and helped it a
great deal.
Another point is the interesting use of fore-shadowing in the film. For example when
the marlin first comes around the bait, the way the fishing rode bends gives an
impression that there must be a big fish pulling the bait. Also just before the sharks
attack the wind starts changing and dark clouds appear in the horizon giving hints
about what is about to happen and the old man is feeling that something is going to go
wrong soon.
Petrov working on The Old Man and the Sea
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The film is 20 minutes long and is animated in seven main scenes:
1 when the old man is sleeping and dreaming and the boy wakes him up
2 before dawn when the boy is helping Santiago into his boat
3 when the sun rises and the fish takes the bait...
4 the next day when Santiago is in sleep and the birds fly over his boat.
5 the night when he talks about beasts, the sun, the fish (then he falls sleep and
dreams on)
6 the next day, the pull wakes him up and dream fades to reality. He catches the
fish, sharks attack …
7 the next day, people are watching the remaining of the fish by the boat, the boy
runs to Santiago’s shack and talks to him.
Each of these scenes are made up of hundreds of meticulously hand painted morphing
frames, painstakingly prepared and shot over 2 and a half years of intense work
(Petrov worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week for this film!).
The number of painted frames per second varies in different scenes of the film. In
some scenes it seems that he has painted 2-3 frames in a second whereas in the scenes
where there is a lot of action involved, there are many more frames hand painted. But
the number of photographs (29000 takes for the whole film) suggests that there have
been approximately 24 images taken for each second of the film (20 minutes x 60
seconds x 24 frames = 28800 approx. = 29000 takes). This again uncovers another
quality of Petrov’s work, the point being that because the images are hand painted and
rich even when they are not moving the scene is fascinating and viewer’s eyes are
inclined to follow the brush strokes and enjoy the scene.
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Yet the key to better understanding Petrov’s animation is in studying his technique
and medium. Petrov uses slow drying oil paint to animate on sheets of glass that are
placed on a source of light. His tools are his fingers, paint brushes and rubber scraper.
He paints a frame, shoots it, makes changes to the slow drying paint and shoots the
next frame and so on. Each sheet of glass is used to animate a different layer of a
frame and there is a certain space between each glass sheet. There are two reasons for
this: 1- the oil paint is wet and therefore the sheets must not be placed on top of each
other and 2- the space between the sheets allows Petrov to have some form of depth of
field in his frames.
This is the method and the process Petrov had used for many years before he decided
to create a short film based on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The main
technical difference of this film with Petrov’s earlier films is that The Old Man and
the Sea was created for large format screen (IMAX) making it the first animated film
ever made in this format.
The reason for this was not Petrov’s conscious decision. In fact IMAX was
completely unknown to him before The Old Man and the Sea. The reason for using
IMAX was because of a condition that the co-funders of the project enforced on him.
The summary of the story is that when Blais Productions agreed to produce Petrov’s
film, Lajoie the vice president of the company, started searching for production
money and eventually could get IMAGICA, a Japanese corporation to pay for a
proportion of the project. The Japanese co-producers, though, enforced one condition
in order to secure their financing a portion of the film: it must be done in IMAX. This
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changed everything because neither Petrov, nor Blais Productions had any experience
in IMAX. For the problem with large format screen is that slightest mistakes would be
amplified on the large screen. Both Petrov and Pascal Blais (the founder of the
company), therefore, took a big risk to use this format on their very first attempt!
In order to create the film in large format screen Petrov, who had always used 35mm
film had to switch to 70mm film and he also had to paint each frame larger than he
normally did. So from painting an area of an A4 size, he had to paint an area of A2
size, which was 4 times larger than he normally did.
To overcome these technical complications Lajoie had to build a completely new
animation stand from scratch that could both suit Petrov’s needs for the project and
also be appropriate for large format screen. So he started by studying Petrov’s
animation style and considering the difficulties and requirements of the project spent
6 months of hard work to create an animation stand that was accurate enough for
IMAX and could give Petrov enough freedom to work on different layers of glass at
the same time (He made the sheets of glass like drawers so they could be roll in/out).
The World Animation Magazine (2000) further elaborates the technical issues that
Petrov and the production team had to assess and consider:
To ease the transformation from 35mm to 70mm, the production team used a video
assist so that Petrov was able to see the evolution of the process, therefore easing
some of the pressure. “Any registration problem or any problem with the smoothness
of the camera movement,” says Lajoie, “can be seen on the screen quite easily. The
duration of the shots have to be longer, because there is so much information to grab
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from the image. “However, Petrov was accustomed to such technology and would still
calculate all the scenes in his head.”
Petrov’s camera assistant was also cautious of the new technology. Blais claims,
“Serguei would double check every axis [there are up to seven]. All the calculations
of these curves of acceleration and deceleration...he would note them down, recalculate them and correct them. The computer wasn’t accurate enough for IMAX. It
was accurate enough for 35mm, but when it came down to IMAX sometimes it would
square off a digit or two. He would change these figures. He was more precise than
the actual computer. Sergei’s level of accuracy is unbelievable. His log book is an art
work that you could frame and hang in a museum. He took note of every single detail.
His nightmare was to have Petrov re-shoot a scene because of one of his mistakes.”
There were a lot of pressures involved with the making of this film. Not only was it a
new technology for virtually everyone involved, but it was a much more expensive
format. “It’s a lot of risk. It’s a lot a pressure. You spend an awful lot of money before
seeing a frame of it. You need reliable people. You need reliable technology,” claims
Lajoie. After spending one moth animating 500 feet of film, the exposed stock was
then sent to Japan for processing. Petrov was forced to nervously wait the results. “
You can imagine the pressure on [Petrov] not knowing if he was going to lose one
month of his life or not, working six days a week, twelve hours a day” (Animation
World Magazine, 2000)
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Conclusion
The Animated Old man and the Sea proves to be an epic no less significant than the
old man’s four day battle against the giant marlin, nor Earnest Hemingway’s world
class novella upon which the film is actually based; The Old man and the sea
therefore is a classic tale of dedication and determination of great masters.
As seen from the study, Petrov’s painterly and visually rich animation style requires
an unimaginable degree of skill, wit, imagination and dedication. A comprehensive
understanding of classic animation is, of course, essential, but certainly not enough
for production of such a work. One should also be a painter with photographic
memory to be able to deliver a work with such specifications and quality.
Implementing this form of animation is evidently a fascinating idea, however,
considering the diversity of skills and technical complexities involved in production
of such work, care must be taken and other options not ruled out for important
forthcoming projects.
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Bibliography
-THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: behind the scenes feature (2004) [DVD] Quebec:
Pascal Blais
-The Old Man and the Sea: Hands Above The Rest? (2000) [online]. [Accessed on
28/02/2008]. Available from World Wide Web:
<http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.12/4.12pages/robinsonoldman3.php3>
-Wiedemann, A. (ed). (2007) Animation now! Cologne: TASCHEN
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