"POURING CLEAN WATER"
An Animator, his Muse and their Animated Memoirs
A veteran award-winning animator, Tony White, is seen working at his desk, during a typical day at the office. As he draws, he reflects and reminisces on his life. At the same time, he is playfully haunted by a strange, little genius - an animated Muse of Tony's own imagination. ARNIE . Tony eventually realizes that the Muse is pretty much a catalyst for everything that has occurred in his life - even the times when his presence was not known..
The film explains that the animator's life did not start well - although it was ultimately transformed by the wisdom and guidance of an old, Irish, herbalist/astrologer, Samuel H. Weir. "Mr. Weir" totally changes the way that Tony thinks about himself and the world around him. This is underlined by the analogy Mr. Weir shares with the young Tony about his life. He compares it to a bucket of muddy water. It does not help to poke around in the mud, as that merely makes it murkier. It is better to continually pour clean water in instead, causing the water in the bucket to clear of it's own accord eventually.
As a result, Tony - with the help of of his Muse, Arnie - has chosen to spend the majority of his life "Pouring Clean Water"!
This animated drama/documentary is an ultimate "buddy movie" - one like no other!
This collection of amazing stories from the animator's life journey are told in 4 sections:
i) The Childhood Years
ii) The Animation Years
iii) The American Years
iv) The Return Years
Central to the film's storyline is the relationship between the animator and his Muse. This relationship is sometimes fractious, occasionally touching, quite often hilarious and always inspirational.
i) The Childhood Years
ii) The Animation Years
iii) The American Years
iv) The Return Years
Central to the film's storyline is the relationship between the animator and his Muse. This relationship is sometimes fractious, occasionally touching, quite often hilarious and always inspirational.
The trailer below was for a crowdfunding campaign. The project's working title at the time was "The Old Man Mad About Animating". It should help clarify the unique visual simplicity under consideration for the final film...
The following concept images capture just a little of the events to be featured in the film. Many more will accompany them. Design and animation styles will vary throughout the film's timeline, reflecting perfectly the nature and context of the story being told.
Meetings with such art and animation legends as Ralph Steadman, Richard Williams, Frank Thomas, Ken Harris, Art Babbit will be featured, as will the animator's climb to the top of the Great Pyramid in Egypt - illustrating a distant connection with the great Cecile B. DeMile.
Other mystical, magical and otherworldly moments from the animator's non-animation life will also be brought to life - as will some of the terrifying childhood nightmares that preempted the animator's ultimate transformative life journey!
Concept ideas: Based on true (& true-ish) interpretations of animator Tony White's life experiences...
My mother was told that she would never have children. But, when I finally appeared, it was the hottest summer on record and she was confined to bed for months, for fear of losing me. Probably why I'm not the biggest fan of the summer or burning sun!
It all began in a cosmos, far, far away! Well no, not really. It actually began in Dagenham, Essex- a town known for it's Ford factory, for talented young soccer players, and the Dagenham Girl Pipers. Not an auspicious place for an artist/animator though!
It wasn't until later in my life that I got to know my Muse, Arnie. But I suspect he was with me, right from the beginning!
There was good news and there was bad news! The bad news was that I had constant childhood nightmares! They alternated, night by night, for years. I either woke up screaming because I saw tigers leaping out of my wardrobe and landing on my chest to eat me. Or else, I was suffocating, with thousands of insects crawling all over me! The good news is that childhood nightmares are now long gone - and the older I get the further I'm distanced from them. On the other hand, they're a great source of inspiration for an animator who is looking for new and creepy material to animate!
My own personal "Merlin" ~ Samuel H. Weir - who taught me many things but, especially, that pouring clean water is the most important thing we can to to transform our lives and our world.
Drawing skills were always hard earned during my Ralph Steadman and Quentin Crisp years at art school!
Joining the Richard Williams Studio - and being my hero, Richard Williams' apprentice and then a director/animator for him in London - became the biggest transformative experience in my creative life. This led to incredible experiences and achievements - culminating in my making my first-ever short, animated film - "HOKUSAI ~ An Animated Sketchbook".
"HOKUSAI" received a BAFTA Award from Princess Anne at the time - which enabled me to set-up my own animation studio shortly afterwards, "Animus Productions".. Little did I know of that mysterious Muse presence that haunted my life at the time!
And then came my greatest creative achievements ever - daughters Sarah and Anna! I think they saw Arnie before I did!
Richard Williams, was a huge influence in terms of my animation career journey - and I always valued his knowledge and guidance whenever we met. (Caricatures by Andrew Sharp.)
My journey to Egypt - including the climbing the Great Pyramid, as project research - was not without its challenges!
My experiences in climbing the Great Pyramid - then venturing into the pitch-black temple of the Goddess Sekhmet in Karnak, Egypt - were moments that had significant repercussions in my life, well after the actual "Pyramid" film I was researching and directing was complete.. This is just one of many such profound, and somewhat mystical, experiences I have had in my life!
My Muse has led me down many varied paths of mystery and imagination throughout my lifetime. An animated movie of a thousand frames always begins with a single drawing! I did this one for the opening of my "The Hermit" trailer. Even the pathway Arnie walks on is animated, frame-by-frame - with the shadow rotating around the feet to indicate the passing of time.
Seattle - and not the expected Los Angeles - was the city I ended up living, working and teaching in when I arrived in the USA. I soon learned that it was known in the film industry as the "fly over" city - in the sense that Hollywood would fly over it to contract work to the Vancouver, Canada studios, and Canadians would fly over it to seek funding for the projects in LA. In this sense the Seattle region was a stagnant location in terms of theatrical film production. But a hive of energy and excitement in terms of the emerging video game industry that was happening at the time. The image above is taken from a short film project I was commissioned to make for the Seattle International Film Festival's "Fly Film Challenge".
Arnie has never been shy in offering his opinion!
ARNIE has never been a respecter of age or reputation!
A wonderful day spent at the Aardman studio - with my friend, teacher and early boss, Richard Williams.
(The others were not invited however!)
(The others were not invited however!)
In Olympia WA - with Arnie never afraid of picking up on the local youth culture!
I've always been shy of pushing myself forward - but they do say that behind every great man is a great Muse!
So, perhaps there's hope yet!
So, perhaps there's hope yet!
Rejection of your work, your ideas and your projects - over an entire lifetime - is never easy to take! I did feel the sorrow of this a great deal but, fortunately, never sought release from that in a bottle. Pouring Clean Water was always my priority, regardless of the setbacks and disappointments my animation career brought to me.
Despite failing to get support for any of my animated movie projects in the USA, my writing and teaching career continued to flourish. This book - my latest and finest in the minds of many - attempted to encapsulate all the knowledge of my 50-year career, which overlapped with 20 years of teaching in the USA.
It was only a matter of time when I would combine the deep astrological knowledge that Samuel H. Weir taught me, with the skills in animation I'd developed over the decades. It came out in two ways - through one of the Hermit teachings I'd dreamed as a young man, and through a series of personalized astrological videos I'd animated for clients, based on the time, date and time of their birth. No two "STAR*YOU" videos were ever the same - unless I was creating ones for twins of course!
I hadn't met my Muse yet of course. But when one month I kept waking up at 4:00am with the words of mystical teachings whirring around and around in my head, I began to suspect that there was something, or someone, pulling the strings. I could never get back to sleep when this happened. So, I would get up, go into my study and write them down - after which I could go back to bed and sleep again. I was never quite sure what to do with the writings when they happened. But eventually, I recorded the teachings using a professional voice artist, with the idea of turning the teachings of "The Hermit" into a TV half-hour animated Special one day. The voice actor told me that the words has caused him to tear-up at times - so beautiful were they. So, there must be something to them - and I definitely suspect that Arnie was behind them, somewhere, somehow!.
By now I was able to enter Arnie's world of imagination - and uncover the wonders that were infinitely contained there. He was a master story-teller too, of course, and introduced me to a mystical, hero's journey saga, called "MADA and the Magic Tree". He insisted that the challenges and adventures that lay within the tree would one day make an incredible animated movie!
"This project is destined to be my life's work ~ I've just had to live my life first to make it!"
~ Tony White.
Finally, my "2023 Showreel". Showing just the tip of an iceberg in terms of my career body of work. The often amazing stories behind the making of many of them will ultimately be told in "POURING CLEAN WATER"...