Bill Plympton: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Content Creator
An Interview With Susan Johnston
From my Dad who was a banker, Donald Plympton, he was always the popular guy at parties even though he was a banker, he would tell jokes and do funny antics. When i was 10-years old and i watched him doing this and i saw how important humor was to life. I was never able to do funny antics or jokes but my characters do. That is because my dad showed me the importance of humor. I think there should be a Nobel prize for humor as it so important.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Bill Plympton.
2-time Oscar Nominee Bill Plympton was born in Portland Oregon and at an early age began drawing cartoons. Bill went to Portland State University and upon graduation moved to NYC and became an illustrator. After the huge success of the short film Your Face, began a meteoric career as an Independent Animator, with Oscar Nominations.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
I grew up in the woods in a family of 6 and began drawing everyday got the butcher paper that mom was going to through away, those are big pieces of papers, they had blood stains on them so i incorporated those blood stains into WWII battle scenes and cowboy and Indians, they were very dark and gruesome. That is one reason my cartoons are dark and violent.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I knew immediately when i saw Disney and WB cartoons on TV, those were the inspirations for my career.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your content creator career?
There has been a lot of them. One of them was I did a feature film I Married A Strange Person the year 2000. I got invited to Sundance, we screened the film and audiences loved it. Audiences were laughing and applauded and gave a standing ovation. Even so, no distributor wanted to pick it up, as it is an adult audience animation vs animation format for children. I saw the head of Lionsgate’s on the shuttle that takes you around the festival and asked him if he saw my film and he said “No, I have too many films i have to see”, I really disappointed and then a snowboard dude jumps on the bus, he has his snowboard with him, his mittens and hat and everything….he says “Bill? You are Bill Plympton, you made that film I Married A Strange Person, that film f*^! Rocked!” then he jumped off the bus and snowboarded down the hill….that is when the head of Lionsgate said, “I guess i should watch it”. They bought the film for a good chunk of money and i even got royalty checks which is very rare. I have to thank him for saving my career. This is sort of a great example of the precariousness of independent filmmaking. I was lucky enough to get that kind of situation.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Weird Al Yankovic, I did three of his music videos. He is one of the most charming people i ever met and he is not weird at all.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Well, there are so many people. One of the main ones if Preston Blair. For people who do not know who he is, he was a Disney animator, worked on the best scenes on Fantasia and Bambi. Also, he did the best animation for Tex Avery (one of my Gods) his Red Hot Riding Hood is a classic animation. He did the sexy woman doing the sexy dance. I loved his animation. Tex wrote this book called Animation; it was my bible. I bought it when I was 10, because I knew I wanted to be an animator. In it, he taught me, and I thought, this is my film school. Things in terms of mouth positions, walking cycles, timing, poses, etc. I did meet the guy, he retired to Monterey and I looked him up when I was on the West Coast for the Oscars and he showed me all of his original artwork Red Hot Riding Hood Drawings and his Fantasia artworks, it blew my mind.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
From my Dad who was a banker, Donald Plympton, he was always the popular guy at parties even though he was a banker, he would tell jokes and do funny antics. When i was 10-years old and i watched him doing this and i saw how important humor was to life. I was never able to do funny antics or jokes but my characters do. That is because my dad showed me the importance of humor. I think there should be a Nobel prize for humor as it so important.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
It is definitely a movie called Slide it is somewhat autobiographical, because it takes place in the rural mountains of Oregon in a lumber mill camp. It is about a mysterious musician who comes to a corrupt town and through his music he is able to cleanse the town of all of its corruption. It includes 7 songs but lots of humor and obviously violence and sex. It is not a kiddie film. Should be done in Fall of 2023.
Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?
My independence.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 — how to do contracts. Contracts are very boring but are very important if you want to get paid. if you want your film to be a success you really have to know how to read a contract and know how to get the changes you want. For me the joy is drawing, not the contracts but they are very important. I had an agent that looked over one my contracts and that was very helpful.
When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?
That is an important question. The actually boils down to why do i make my movies. For some reason in interviews, they don’t ask that question. i don’t make it for the critics, but i like the critics, i don’t make it for the prizes but i like the prizes, i don’t make it for the distribution but it is important to get distribution. my favorite is for the audience to like it and if i can make the audience like it , that is a success and i have done my job.
You are a person of great influence. If you could spread an idea that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can prompt. :-)
It’s the humor.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? They might see this. :-)
John Lasseter — he changed animation for everybody. He is the guy that started Pixar and Pixar because it was so successful all of a sudden it was cool to watch animation.
How can our readers further follow you online?
If you would like us to tag you on social media when we share it, please list your profiles:
Facebook Plymptoons twitter @Plymptoons Instagram @Plymptoons
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Susan Johnston is a Media Futurist, Columnist as well as Founder and Director at New Media Film Festival®. The New Media Film Festival® — honoring stories worth telling since 2009, is an Award-winning, inclusive, and boundary-pushing catalyst for storytelling and technology. Susan was knighted in Rome in 2017 for her work in Arts & Humanity.
