Spotlight on... Anthony Thurman of ALT Key Productions Interview by Jeff Palmer at Flicker Pictures As filmmaking goes, I've always enjoyed the world that artists can create with animation: you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything at a fraction of the cost it would take to shoot it "for real". Besides, who didn't spend hours plopped in front of the boob tube in pajamas devouring bowls of Frosted Flakes watching Saturday morning cartoons until your mom kicked you outside to see the light of day? Get some fresh air, she'd say. Lame excuse if you ask me, but that's how it went. Now, imagine you're that same kid again, but old enough - and talented enough - to actually make those cartoons. How cool would that be? Well, I know this guy in Gary, Indiana by the name of Anthony Thurman and he's doing just that. Only instead of watching his films in your pajamas you can catch them online on your lunch break at work, or hell, while you're working for that matter. It's the holidays for crying out loud. So, without further a-doo-doo, let me introduce the animator of the hour, Anthony Thurman, aka Slider Alt and let him take it away. And, yes, there's still time to grab a bowl of Captain Crunch but make it snappy, will ya? Flicker Pictures Flicker Pictures: So Anthony, tell me about Alt Key Productions. Why did you choose that name? I'm always curious about such things. Anthony Thurman: Well, Jeff, I chose that name for two reasons. One, my initials are A.L.T. The second reason is because I majored in Computer Information Systems in college. So I decided to combine the A.L.T. in my initials and reference computers by making it ALT Key.
FP: Whoa. So you have a degree in Computer Information Systems. Was that something you sorta fell into or was that a career move? Anthony Thurman: It was a career move because at the time, computers were the "IT" thing and I had no prior computer knowledge. My brother didn't even want me touching his computer because he was afraid I might break it. And since I knew art wasn't a guaranteed thing, I decided I should get some computer skills so that I'd have something to fall back on.
FP: Funny. The "IT" thing. Okay, let's back up a bit to move forward. Were you always into drawing? Like, were you one of those nerdy kids with a sketchbook full of crazy comic drawings, always doodling in class?
FP: Maybe a quiet genius... or brooding artist? Anyway, seems the art thang was part of your deal at a young age. Were you a big fan of animated films or films in general growing up? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, I always loved watching 80s cartoons--such as "The Real Ghostbusters" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Mighty Orbots", "Pole Position"--stuff like that. I had an appreciation for animation in general though--even stuff like Bugs Bunny. I think I probably liked cartoons at that time more than I liked animated films though. FP: BTW, I must disclose something. I'm sort of a nerd myself so you're in good company. Well, maybe more of a goober, but that’s neither here nor there. Anthony Thurman: That's good to know! FP: I see from your website
(altkeyproductions.com) you have 3 animated films: "Not until you
dance", "Tomb Hackers" and "The Depression of
Detective Downs". Which one came first? Anthony Thurman: "Tomb Hackers" was the first film I did. It wasn't even supposed to be a 23 minute film at first. It was only supposed to be a short 30 second commercial for this contest. FP: So tell me about that evolution. Why do you think that happened? Anthony Thurman: It's pretty simple really. I found out that they weren't going to have the contest that year and I had already hand drawn and animated this footage. Instead of just letting it go to waste, I decided to expand the story. Plus at the time, I was accepted into this art school, but didn't have enough money to go. The advisor told me that if I didn't find a way to get the money and attend, that I was going to be throwing away my future. So after being depressed from her harsh words, I decided to just make my own cartoon and see if I could prove her wrong. FP: Did you prove her wrong?
Anthony Thurman: Well, I never saw her or talked to her again after that. But I feel like I proved her wrong. People seemed to like that film a lot. FP: I take it the art school didn't happen? Or did it? Anthony Thurman: No, it didn't happen. I never found the money to go. As a matter of fact, right after I walked out of the building in Chicago, I saw this homeless guy that asked me for some money. I was so upset that I kind of yelled at the guy and told him, "How can I give you money? I don't even have enough money to go to school!" He didn't like that much and waved me out of his face. FP: Man. That sucks.
Sorry to hear about that. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but from what you
explained above, seems like you might know something about being
depressed. Is this where Detective Rolando Downs comes in? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, pretty much. Detective Downs came from a picture in my head of a cop standing in the middle of traffic holding a gun to his head. It just seemed like such a weird thing, this guy that's supposed to be making sure everything is fine, is actually the one, holding up traffic and causing problems for others. But yeah, a lot of the stuff I write for the character comes from my own experiences. FP: Well, they say "write what you know" and it seems like you might be on to something. Before we get into Rolando Downs, can you explain the actual animating process you use for your films? What sort of software, applications, etc. Anthony Thurman: I use mainly three programs. Adobe Photoshop to do all the drawings. I use a Wacom drawing tablet to assist in that process as well. Once I have all my drawings done for a specific section of animation, then I import them into Adobe Premiere for editing and timing. Then I also use Adobe Audition to work on all the voice-overs. I like to keep things in the Adobe family, I guess you could say. FP: I saw that with "Tomb Hackers" you teamed up with another filmmaker, but with "The Depression of Detective Downs" you forged ahead on your own, pretty much doing every aspect of the process. What prompted that decision? Anthony
Thurman: Yeah, on Tomb Hackers I worked with my friend Donnie
Maclin a lot on that one. He
assisted in some writing on that film as well as did voice-overs for two
characters. For 'Downs', I
didn't have much time to work on it since it was for an online competition
and I only had one month to complete it.
The time it would have taken to schedule voice-overs would have cut
into my time, so I just decided to keep it as simple as possible. FP: This is interesting. It seems that with "Tomb Hackers" and TDODD you were under a deadline to finish the film. This obviously helps you get the movie in the can. What happens when you don't have a deadline? Anthony Thurman: When I don't have a deadline, it allows me more time to procrastinate, which isn't good. I usually always try to have some sort of goal or deadline to make though. But with 'Downs' and "Not Until You Dance", both those films had to be completed within a month's time. FP: Well we're in the same boat there. I think a lot of folks are like that. No deadline, no worries! Right? Which doesn't help when it comes to making progress. Still, having some flexibility in your schedule does help with finessing the work some. I take it you have a day job just like every other filmmaker? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, I'm a Computer Technician at a college. Fortunately, my job has its slow moments. So during those times I'll usually have my laptop with me to work on animation. FP: If you were offered a full-time job at an animation studio, would you take it? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, I'd take it in a heartbeat. First I'd ask them, "You know my name is Anthony Thurman, right?", just to make sure they hired the right person. FP: Oh, what if they
wanted to hire Slider Alt? Anthony Thurman: That would be fine, I'd wear a Slider_ALT badge for them. I'd just make sure they didn't leave out the underscore is all. FP: Hey where does that Slider nickname come from anyhow? Anthony Thurman: I used to watch the TV show "Sliders" a lot. It was one of my favorite sci-fi TV shows. FP: I can imagine your style of work showing up on "Adult Swim" or Nickelodeon. Have you ever considered moving in that direction? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, actually I have. I remember back when I was a teenager, my older brother actually wanted to get some professional materials together to submit to Nickelodeon using my dog character from "Not Until You Dance." The problem with that was that at the time, I felt like I was a bad writer because I didn't have many life experiences. About a year or two ago, I did submit my recent work to the Nick Film Fest.....unfortunately nothing happened with that though. FP: Have you considered animating someone else's script or story? I'm wondering if you would find that process inspiring or fulfilling? Anthony Thurman: I think I'm kind of selfish in that regard. Right now I'm stuck in this groove where I only want to work on my own stories since it takes so long to animate everything. When you have to stay up late sometimes and barely get sleep, it just seems like the easiest way to work. Plus since I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know what to write and what not to write so that I don't put myself in too big of a jam. FP: Do you tell people that you're an independent filmmaker, an independent animator, or just an animator? Anthony
Thurman: I usually just say independent filmmaker since I feel
like that encompasses everything. I
definitely don't tell them I'm an actor, even though I do that a lot in my
films. FP: I know! Actor: Anthony Thurman, Animation: Anthony Thurman, Director: Anthony Thurman, Filmmaker: Anthony Thurman, Producer: Anthony Thurman, Score Composer: Anthony Thurman, Sound Editor: Anthony Thurman, Writer and Conception: Anthony Thurman... That's a lot of hats to wear, my friend. Anthony Thurman: Yeah, when I look at that list, I don't know whether to be proud or feel overwhelmed. FP: But here's the rub. If you worked full-time at an animation studio you'd be making someone else's story come to life -- but you would be getting paid for it. Money changes everything, eh? Anthony
Thurman: I think you're absolutely right!
When you have to work on someone else's story and you're still
struggling, it doesn't sound as good.
But if you're working on someone else's story and can buy nice
stuff at the mall when it's over, I think that makes you feel better. FP: True dat. Okay. So you get out of work, come home and keep working on your non-paid project. I heard somewhere that you were in the middle of making another Detective Downs film. Is dat true also? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, that's true--'Detective Downs 2.' FP: Tell me about it. Are you wearing all those hats again? Anthony Thurman: Well this time I'm still doing all the writing and animating, but I got help with voice-overs in this one. The story is told in a little bit different fashion than the first one. It has speaking parts from other characters. So it's not all just Downs throughout the whole film. It's still narrated by Downs though. FP: And you're back as the voice of Rolando, right? Anthony Thurman: Yeah FP: Nice. I noticed on your website that your films are available only on iFilm.com. Why is this? Why not blast them all over YouTube? Anthony Thurman: Ohhh yeah, they're on YouTube. I'm just so lazy when it comes to updating that website. I need a personal assistant or someone to do it for me. They can be found at www.youtube.com/sliderALT. FP: The first installment of TDODD ran about 7 minutes. How long will part 2 run? Anthony
Thurman: This one will run at about 10 to 11 minutes including
opening credits. One of the
main things I'm proud of in this particular film is that it's the first
time I have real actors in it. One
actress named Shenita Moore was in 3 episodes of "Grey's
Anatomy." She played an
operating nurse. FP: Wait a second. You're a computer technician that needs help with their website?? Something ain't right about that, Anthony. Anthony Thurman: Yeah, it's kind of like the doctor who's too busy to look after his own health. FP: And the cobbler's kids with no shoes. I get it. So, Shenita Moore, eh? I don't watch "Grey's Anatomy" but that's awesome about working with talent like that. Did you have to jump through hoops because of her S.A.G. status? Anthony Thurman: Actually I just put out a casting call online and she sent me an e-mail. It wasn't as hard as you'd think. FP: Good to know. So, one of the things about animation that is so amazing is that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything on a very low budget, compared to live action or lots of CGI. Do you find that there is a lot of freedom when you write for animation? For example, you don't need a permit for a gun fight in the middle of the city. Or do you? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, that's why I love animation! Sometimes people who review my films will mention that they're suprised I animated my work because it's set in a realistic manner--usually without people flying and things like that. But what they fail to realize is that I didn't have to worry about getting costumes or clearing out a street full of people to film Detective Downs standing with a gun to his head, for example.
FP: Totally. In Tomb Hackers your characters show up in Egypt at an ancient burial ground. This is where animation is very close to writing. You can have a cast of thousands show up and all it takes is a little more time at the drawing board. With that in mind, are we going to see some new ideas with Part 2 of TDODD? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, in the first one, I didn't want to really have the character show any type of suicidal longings. I felt like I needed a starting point. In this one, you get the idea that his depression is getting worse and it's pretty clear that he has thoughts of taking his own life. Also in the first one, I never wanted to reveal why Downs might be depressed. In this new one, there are flashbacks that show exactly what has contributed to Downs being the way he is. FP: Dang! So does the story still lean toward dark comedy or are you into dramatic territory? Anthony
Thurman: This one is darker, but it makes up for those dark
moments with a lot of comedy. One
thing that I think is true about comedy is that it comes a lot from drama.
Comedians will sometimes take the worse moments of their lives and
turn them into something humorous. And
that's the sort of thing that happens in the Detective Downs films. FP: I agree. You have to throw in a bit of drama - just a touch - to make the comedy pop. I'm curious, do you have any interest in working with live actors on a traditional film production? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, one day I think it would be cool to work with live actors. It would be a lot more fun to not have to worry about creating everything from scratch too. For instance, when I was working on my film "The Disarmer", before I lost all the files, I had to figure out exactly what I wanted the layout of the hospital to be like. With live-action, I could just find a hospital and go from there. It would free up a lot of decisions, while creating new problems too, I'm sure. FP: Do you ever scout locations and take pictures for reference? Anthony
Thurman: Yeah, I do that a lot.
As a matter of fact, the very opening shot in "Detective Downs
2' is of the downtown area where I live.
If someone from my city sees the shot, they'll probably notice that
it's the same exact city hall building from here.
I also took pictures in Chicago too as reference for certain parts
of this film too. Also, I'll
go online and search for locations as well.
I usually won't be able to draw anything unless I have a point of
reference first. FP: Whatever happened with "The Disarmer"? Is this another case of not updating your website!? Anthony Thurman: Yeah, I lost all the files for "The Disarmer." I had a bad hard drive error that messed up everything. I learned since then to backup everything on a regular basis though. But some of the frustration and depression I felt from losing everything on "The Disarmer" ended up as writing material for 'Detective Downs 2.' So I guess something good came from it. FP: Man oh man! I can
see why you are the voice of Rolando Downs. If that happened to me I could
see myself standing in the middle of a street with a gun to my head. Of
course, I have no idea where to get a gun, but that's beside the point.
Please tell me that you DON'T own a gun. Anthony Thurman: No, I don't own a gun! You don't have to worry about me pulling one of those. FP: I suppose you can animate one... but that would be silly. Okay. So I want to know, and I bet others do, too... what about a feature? Ever think about animating an entire feature by yourself? Anthony Thurman: Probably the only way I'd ever animate a feature is if somehow I got a bigger budget to work with and more animators. FP: Yes. I would encourage you to get a budget for that one. Speaking of features, what are your thoughts about the animated films these days? I'm curious what you think of movies like "Wall-E" or "Bee Movie". Do you like the style of animation? Do you care about the stories? Or do you find yourself watching more live action films like "Batman" and the latest Bruce Willis flick? Anthony Thurman: I like anything Pixar does. I haven't seen "Wall-E" yet because I was so hooked on anything "The Dark Knight"-related at the time. I did see "Bee Movie" and I liked the animation, but was surprised that it wasn't as humorous as an episode of "Seinfeld." I think the reason I like the Pixar movies so much, like "The Incredibles", is because it's easy to identify with those characters and they seem real. One moment from "The Incredibles" that I really like is when the mom walks past the mirror and notices her reflection. She realizes that her hips are a lot wider now that she's aged and she has this look of sadness. To me, that just seemed so real. That's the kind of animated films I like, ones where you can sense that sort of trueness to reality. FP: Do you have a dream project? Anthony Thurman: When I would try to catch them filming "The Dark Knight" in Chicago, I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, a project like that would be my dream project!" I think my dream project would be something that I'm already a fan of and one that someone would let me have free reign to do my way. I think the level of freedom Warner Bros. gave Christopher Nolan on the Batman films was extraordinary. FP: Yeah it was and he
deserves it. I guess you just have to keep doing what you do and with any
luck you will find a way. When can people expect to see Rolando Downs back
in action "at an Internets near you"? Anthony Thurman: Hopefully he'll be back on TV again too like he was last year...but people can expect to see him again around Spring 2009. FP: Okay, man. We'll be looking for news about that. Well, Anthony, it's been a real treat catching up with you and learning more about Alt Key Productions. Just wanna wish you a great holiday season, a happy New Year and best of luck with your upcoming projects. Make sure to back-up those harddrives and if you need a deadline, let me know. Anthony Thurman: I'll make sure to do that, Jeff. It was great talking to you, too. I'm gonna finish up some small work on "Downs 2" right now and get some sleep! And with that, he laid a finger aside of his nose and up, up, up the chim... wait a second. That's someone else. Well, I have a feeling Anthony won't be getting much sleep anytime soon with all the work ahead of him, but let's hope he has some down time to enjoy the holidays -- without getting too depressed. Oh yeah, more of his work can be found at www.myspace.com/slider_alt Good luck, Slider. We're rooting for ya! Cheers, Jeff Palmer Flicker Pictures Spotlight on: Coming Soon... (in no particular order) Adam Reed on acting in Hallettsville, Bill Millios of Backlot Films ruminates on Death & Glory, More interviews will trickle in as we start the New Year, but until then... Previous interview links below: Spotlight on: Richard Culver - Cine-Verité Spotlight on: Kathy Fitzgerald of Poverti Productions Spotlight on: Rob Fitz is the God of Vampires
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