mini MUFF Profile: Laura Vegys
“We aren’t just the menial labor, inking cells and wearing tight sweaters — women now make up all aspects of production.”
As soon as we saw Olivia we knew it would be the perfect mini MUFF pairing for our screening of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. What better to pair with a vampy feature than a vampy short, right?!
Olivia is a one-woman show — having been written, produced, directed, designed, animated, edited, and more by a single female filmmaker — and we couldn’t be more proud to present the World Premiere to our audience this month.
Toronto-based filmmaker Laura Vegys is an eighteen-year veteran of the television animation industry who recently completed the Computer Animation certificate at Sheridan College. Upon graduating, she was awarded the Silver Medallion in recognition of —as she puts it — “really good grades”.
Laura is also a watercolour painter and has shown her artwork at venues across the GTA, including galleries such as AWOL and C1 Art Space.
Get to know more about Laura Vegys and her film Olivia!
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND HOW YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH FILM MAKING.
Laura Vegys: I had been working in 2D television animation design departments for almost twenty years, and up until last year, I hadn’t thought of trying to put together a finished film. What preceded Olivia was deciding that I needed a career change, and after some experimentation I ended up in Sheridan’s 3D animation program. Sheridan’s format is to allow students to explore animation and learn 3D generalist skills, in addition to giving everyone the opportunity to make a film. Up until my second career retraining, I had no idea if I had any film making chops — but it seems that being around the different aspects of it for so long gave me a lot of skills learned by proxy.
TELL US ABOUT OLIVIA. WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM?
LV: Olivia was my student film. In the program, they have a list of things you need to do to satisfy the requirements — things like make one character, one main set etc. You have to write the script, storyboard it, design everything, model, rig and texture everything, and then finally animate, render and composite everything. I had seen What We Do In the Shadows awhile back — it was the inspiration. I liked the idea of bringing mundane life to vampire lore, so I decided I would do a “day in the life” kind of tableau. I liked being able to fill in the story of Olivia’s life in the environment design. The real challenge was telling an actual story that made sense in less than two minutes.
WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO EXPAND YOUR WORK INTO COMPUTER ANIMATION?
LV: I had a drunken trip with my husband to see Inside Out a couple of summers ago. I had never seen a cartoon movie so beautifully put together before — I know the alcohol helped me be more accepting, but from an art and story perspective, it was amazing. I had been avoiding cartoon movies for a long time, and Inside Out gave me a fresh perspective on the medium. I had been looking into VFX before that, and that was my turning point. I was really inspired by the experience.
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE PROS AND CONS WHEN DISCUSSING TRADITIONAL ANIMATION VS. COMPUTER ANIMATION?
LV: I’m not a purist. I love automation. Hand drawn stuff has its place and can be very beautiful, but the automation that you get as you get further into computer graphics is very exciting. People are really striving to take this technology and push it to its limits. However, there are so many personal reasons why an artist would choose one or the other to express themselves with — I think it depends on preference.
The thing that I love about 3D is the collaboration — the way people learn is mostly by demonstration — you can’t find books that keep up with the changes in technology, so you have to interact with other people and exchange information. I found that people were really closed off in 2D — there was a sort of paranoia about who knew what, but in 3D — people are always talking about how they did what they did, and they seem generally more excited about what they do. People are sharing and teaching each other, and I found that refreshing and inspiring.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE ANIMATED SHOWS AND/OR FILMS?
LV: The first season of Spongebob Squarepants is brilliant. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Futurama. Inside Out. Ugly Americans.
AS SOMEONE WHO HAS ACTED AS THE PRODUCER, WRITER, DIRECTOR, ANIMATOR, EDITOR, AND MORE OF THIS FILM, WHICH POSITION(S) DO YOU THINK YOU WILL BE INTERESTED IN EXPLORING FURTHER IN THE FUTURE?
LV: If I get another idea for a film… I think I will be very lucky. It’s so exciting to have a finished piece… And, I don’t know how working in 3D will shape my future, but I would love to make another whole film again one day. Right now, I’m in the surfacing department of a TV animation studio, and I really like the job.
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN THE CANADIAN TELEVISION ANIMATION INDUSTRY?
LV: I think women should be excited about the animation landscape in Canada. First off, technology has been the great equalizer for all of the artists — we can now produce films in our own homes, and there are respectable platforms to have them seen by the public; we don’t have to go through the same old gatekeepers to be seen or heard anymore.
I also think that women have left the ink and paint department far, far behind. We aren’t just the menial labor, inking cells and wearing tight sweaters — women now make up all aspects of production — and I personally haven’t felt any barriers due to my gender. I think that’s something to get really excited about! I have seen the sea change of animation being a fringe of the applied arts to something that is mainstream — and with that has come the waves of women working here. Every year I work, more young women are filling the jobs in the studios I work in — and they fill pretty much every role across the production spectrum.
TELL US ABOUT WHY YOU ARE A FEMINIST AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO YOUR FILM MAKING.
LV: I was recently reading Studs Terkel’s “Working,” and in this book he interviewed people from all sort of industries — including men and women ad industry people. The ad men talked about the day to day logistics of the job, and the ad women spoke about trying to make their way in the industry, and not have their gender hold them back. A lot of women’s experience was defined by not being respected, not being taken seriously, and having to dodge behavior that made them feel uncomfortable.
I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t have pursued my career interests. I didn’t realize that the career I was going into was mainly dominated by men at the time — I just picked a direction that I liked and went that way. So, I realize that the ease that I have had in doing what I want to do, came because of other women trailblazing before me. If I were to talk about work — my experience would be so different from the women who were interviewed in that book, and I feel lucky that things have changed so much.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE WOMEN WORKING IN THE FILM INDUSTRY?
LV: I watch everything Greta Gerwig is in, even if it’s bad. Deepa Mehta. Sigourney Weaver. Tilda Swinton. Tamra Davis made The Radiant Child — my favorite documentary ever.
WHAT COMPONENTS MAKE UP YOUR IDEAL SANDWICH?
LV: Ham, swiss, Miracle Whip, and an inch stack of lettuce on any bread that isn’t whole wheat.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW/NEXT?
LV: I have started to work on a new solo art show — I have been water color painting for over a decade now. It will take a long time to finish!!
RECOMMEND ONE #MUFFAPPROVED FILM FOR OUR BLOG READERS:
LV: I can’t pick just one… Clueless, Ghost World, Point Break, Ginger Snaps, and All I Wanna Do (long live the hairy bird!!).
Check out Laura’s personal artwork on her website.
#miniMUFF is our short film program to celebrate local female talent. We do so by screening a short film before our monthly features and highlighting the filmmaker on our blog. Learn more here. Read past mini MUFF profiles here.
