EMBRACING THE WEIRD : INTERVIEW WITH STOP-MOTION FILM CREATOR MEGHAN GRAHAM
It is no easy feat to complete a BFA thesis, let alone a stop-motion project, the first of its kind in nearly 10 years coming from SJSU. However, Meghan Graham accepted the challenge and was not going to play it safe. ZIFA had the honor of interviewing Meghan about her stop-motion film Roadkill Jamboree, which received nearly perfect scores among our jury because of its unique nature and brilliant cohesiveness - as it spreads a message while not being afraid to embrace the weird and strange. Roadkill Jamboree won the following awards for the summer season: Best Animated Film and Best Reggae/Ska Song.
ZIFA: What inspired you to create this unique project? Any influences?
Meghan: This film was initially inspired by the ska-punk song “The Troubador” by Streetlight Manifesto, which is about a woman who kills her cheating husband and leaves him by the roadside. I had always thought it would be funny if this song was sung by a Greek chorus of singing roadkill with the lead singer being a possum named “Flat Stanley”. However, when I began driving home on the I-5 for holidays from San Jose to San Diego I would see so much roadkill of all different sizes, which was a bit upsetting. In researching more about roadkill I learned about the different ways it happens and how animals end up on the road. These experiences are what morphed a Greek-chorus-style band into the Roadkill Jamboree we know today. A lot of people my age have been exposed to so many PSAs that really try to tug at the heartstrings. However, in the age of the internet absurdism and dark humor, these are what sell, and people like me, really enjoy. Roadkill Jamboree is supposed to be informative while still being fun to watch and we hope that translates to how the audience sees it.
ZIFA: Where did you create it? And how long did it take?
Meghan: Roadkill Jamboree was created as part of the BFA Animation Thesis Program at San Jose State University. The idea of the film was developed over the summer of 2022 and then production lasted between August 2022 through May 2023. Most of the stop-motion was done in a small closet in one of the classrooms. While the 2D was done mostly remotely though we would meet in person a couple of times a week to review things.
ZIFA: Tell us about your team! The animations, performances, music, and production as a whole were brilliant.
Meghan: Our team consisted of a core group of 7 BFA students who were responsible for the leadership of the production. Under us, we had around 40 volunteers mostly consisting of underclassmen at SJSU. Largely in 2D animation and background illustrations. For stop-motion, our team was much smaller. Our stop-motion animation team consisted of only 4 people. One of whom was only responsible for camera handling and not the actual animation. Lastly, the initial demo of our song was composed by Kevin Josh, Adan Leal and Alfredo Savoy. Later the ska-punk band Suburban Legends took that demo and created the amazing song you hear in the film. Though an early version of the original demo can be heard in the credits, sung by Afredo Savoy!
We also had faculty help advise on the project though they did not touch any of the actual film themselves. They gave great insights into the storyboarding and animation aspects of the film.
This project was really a big group effort and a labor of love. Everyone on the team who contributed both big and small did an absolutely amazing job!
ZIFA: What was the biggest challenge you faced during production and/or post-production?
Meghan: In being the first stop-motion character animated film to come out of SJSU in around 10 years, there wasn’t a lot of groundwork for us to go off of. Other projects in our year had a backlog of previous 2D and 3D films they could pull the pipeline and organization from. We had to largely figure that out on our own. Stop-motion also isn’t cheap so we had to push for funding much earlier than other projects to cover material costs for our films. We were all starving college students who went to a publicly funded school so none of us were made of money. We had to get really creative in finding a cheap workaround, especially for our puppets. For example, half of our snake puppet is made out of the nice animatable Jeton socket armatures found in stuffed dolls but because our puppet is so long we couldn't afford the whole length of sockets for her. So the back half of her is a modified skeleton cobra from the discount Halloween section of the grocery store near campus.
ZIFA: What was the most memorable moment during the creation of this project?
Meghan: I think there were two, one bad and one good. The original intro to Roadkill Jamboree was 45 seconds long and involved all the characters. It involved Stanley doing a pseudo-stand-up comedy routine while introducing each member. However we soon realized that this scene would take days as we stayed up to 3 a.m. only completing about ⅔ of it; we started at 9 a.m. the previous day. However when we came back the next day the camera had moved slightly. And we couldn’t really hide it because of the lack of cuts in between the scenes. After we finished animating the sequence we tried composting it before eventually deciding to scrap it and reshoot the shorter intro you see in the film today. Sometimes it’s important to kill scenes, and I think the movie is better off because of it. As for a good memory, when we premiered at the showcase it premiered to a theater of over 500 people packed with all of our family members, classmates, friends, and faculty. As the credits rolled on Roadkill Jamboree everyone in the audience started clapping along to the end credits. To me, that moment was just so special to hear people clapping along to the beat of the film, and you could sense they enjoyed watching it which is super emotionally and creatively gratifying.
ZIFA: Any lessons learned or things you would have done differently?
Meghan: I think the biggest lesson I learned is especially in a group project it is important to know how much work people are capable of doing. Not everyone can or will pull the same amount of weight and that’s okay. It’s good to identify early who you can rely on for the work and who just doesn’t have the capacity to, and plan accordingly. It’s also okay to speak out about struggles. Filmmaking is hard and every project will have problems. At first, no one from the other projects in my year wanted to talk about the individual struggles they were having on their projects, but once we all started sharing stories I think we all realized that none of us were alone and that this all is just kind of the process of making a 5-minute film in less than a year. So be open about your struggles! There is strength in shared experience!
ZIFA: Any advice for aspiring filmmakers?
Meghan: It is okay to try and make the film you want to make. When I started at SJSU a lot of the films I saw went like this “girl doesn’t believe in herself, something magical happens, now she believes in herself” and I had always thought that I would be working on one of those films. But I really wanted to do something different than the program and I knew that if I wasn’t going to direct a stop-motion project then no one was. I never considered myself a filmmaker, I was perfectly happy to work on someone else’s “safe” project. But then “Roadkill Jamboree” happened and it has really resonated with people. People like the weird and the silly and it doesn’t always have to be a super deep thing. It can be fun while still having a point. I think as a college student it’s really easy to just try to make a passable thing that is watched by professors and then maybe put up on YouTube. But when you really swing for the fences the unthinkable can happen. For example, Suburban Legends is one of my favorite bands of all time. I thought there was absolutely no shot that we would get them to even email us back; we were a bunch of students with very little budget and we wanted them to help us make a whole song. But when we sent them the pitch they liked it and wanted to work on our project! Which is insane. Nor did I think that once our film ended we would become sponsored by the Open Space Authority of Santa Clara Valley, but I was able to get the finished film in front of the people who worked there and now our film will be in high schools and driving schools in the county. Don’t play it safe; if you think you are a qualified leader and you have a good team, then try something that speaks to you, not just what you think your school wants to see.
ZIFA: Any upcoming projects?
Meghan: As of right now the crew is focused on having Roadkill Jamboree tour film festivals and just spread the word about roadkill. Many of us graduated and are working in the animation industry now so we want to settle into our careers before pursuing another film. However, some of us may be working together on a few smaller projects here and there in the future.
ZIFA: How can we find you and follow your work?
The best place to follow me is through my Instagram @meghan_graham_crackers which is where you can see some behind-the-scenes stuff for roadkill as well as my own work. Similarly, if you would like to keep up with the film please follow @roadkill.jamboree on Instagram. We have a lot of exciting announcements coming in the future that you won’t want to miss! As for the core team, they are also most active on Instagram.
Angeline Macedo (Animation Lead and Story Co-Lead) : @lemonfooldraws
Devon Ferguson (Animator): @dmcaferg
Benicio Roybal (Story Co-Lead): @benicioart
Megan Cheung (Producer and Visdev Co-Lead): @meguname
Katharine Taddei (Visdev Co-Lead): @illustratorkat
Hallie Trzcinski (Story Artist and Animator): @its_me_hals
You should give them all a follow they are awesome!
Interview by: Alicia Oberle Farmer