Scribble Artist Interview with David B. Levy!
Scribble Town (ST): And now introducing David B. Levy! David is Manager of Animation at Disney Publishing Worldwide. Over his career, David has directed animated TV series and pilots for Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Scholastic, Disney, Sesame Workshop, National Geographic, and the Fox Broadcasting Company. As a writer, David has been engaged by major companies such as Garan, Inc., Kidville, and Classic Media to create animated projects based on existing properties and by Disney, which optioned one of his original creations.
Hello David B. Levy!
ST: Wow! You really have a whirlwind of experience in the animation world! Where are you and what are you up to these days? Is there a particular animation or book you are working on?
DL: I’m a 4th generation New Yorker, but my job (I started working for Disney a year ago) recently relocated me and our whole team to California. So, these days, I’m heading an animation team at Disney that makes interactive animated apps for hand held devices. After having worked for 18 years in New York animation, it’s been great to mix things up by diving into the larger industry pool in L.A. My last five years in NYC had me running my own successful virtual animation studio where I was the CEO, the HR department, the rep, director, and producer, etc. On top of that, I was teaching part time at NYU, SVA, and Parsons and heading up ASIFA-East (the NY Chapter of ASIFA). So, it’s been a nice relief to put my eggs in one basket for a change to focus my energies in a single direction within the Walt Disney Company
ST: From the East Coast to the West I can only imagine how has your art practice has changed over time. What kind of animation did you start out doing and where has that taken you?
Grandpa Looked Like William Powell by David B. Levy
DL: I used to have a very limited view of animation, without even knowing that I did. I felt as though animation was it’s own category of media, but now I see it as another story telling device in the larger “film” umbrella. As a sideline experience in my career, I’ve been making short independent animated films since 1998, but only really figured out my filmmaker voice in 2010 when I started making a series of animated documentary shorts with subjects that were personal in nature. Two of these films, “Grandpa Looked Like William Powell,” and “Turning a Corner,” both debuted at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, an honor I never imagined I’d have. My early films were attempts to please my mentors, be them my dad or my SVA instructors or my employers. It wasn’t until I made films for “me,” that a break through happened.
ST: What do you hope to communicate with your art? Are there any other artistic mediums you work with? What kind of stories do you usually tell?
DL: With my animated documentaries, I’m enjoying having a platform to share personal stories that are about everyday life. In this area, filmmakers often choose a story about someone’s brush with history or with a specific historical event. But, I like exploring ordinary moments in time because there is so much richness in every person’s life. I feel that I’m making films that use animation and real audio to tell the story. I don’t feel that “animation” is the point of film itself. That’s a big difference in thinking for me.
ST: Is there a particular animation technique you like to create with? Does the story follow the technique or vice versa?
DL: I’ve come to prefer a more “instant” method of animation so that my hand is creating final art from the first contact of the stylus to the cintiq. As much as animators are known for painstaking work done over a long period of time, it’s also true that many of us are lazy. My lazy side doesn’t want to spend time inking or coloring animation art, so I aim for a simpler graphic approach that doesn’t take too long and that isn’t over planned. By working so fast it allows me to spend more time being creative and allowing happy accidents to happen that enrich the final results.
ST: What are some of your favorite artists and/or animations and how have they inspired you?
DL: My (unofficial) mentors are Howard Beckerman, Michael Sporn, Robert Marianetti, and Linda Simensky–all of whom taught me lessons in the craft as well as the industry. My greatest hero is my dad who had his own successful career in advertising as a top art director in NYC, so I grew up knowing there was a living to be made in the commercial arts. As for specific animators that inspire me, there’s too many to mention. But, the list of live action filmmakers that inspire me is growing even more rapidly. Lately I’ve watched a lot of Igmar Bergman, for example. I think one of the best things an animator can do is to stop just ingesting other people’s animation. I think that’s a dead end and doesn’t lead to important work getting made.
ST: Well, surely you are an inspiration to many! Thank you for sharing with Scribble Town! To read more about David’s animation tips and learn about an excellent lead to animation groups in the NY area please go to http://www.scribbleshop.com/content/make-it-move-david-b-levy.
Turning a Corner by David B Levy
