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Ogden: How did you become interested in the art and life of Alberto Giacometti?

Chen: I was first exposed to Giacometti and his art relatively recently when I was taking a life-drawing night class at Stanford University after our instructor assigned us to read a book called "A Giacometti Portrait." It was an 18-day diary written by American James Lord about what it was like for him to pose for Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). What hit me like a ton of bricks was that for the first time in my life, I came across someone that saw the world in the same way that I did -- the way a fellow kindred spirit would. Also what struck me was just how pure and singularly driven Giacometti was in the pursuit of his art. His words leapt out of the page at me whenever he lamented about how much of a failure he was and yet, he saw the hope in the tiny steps of progress to continue on each day.

So once I became intoxicated by the mystique and the intrigue of this man, I started to investigate what his art was like. Lo and behold, the elongated and emaciated nature of his art immediately appealed to me. I had been interested in the abstraction of the human form in African Art for quite awhile and coincidentally, Giacometti was also heavily influenced by this illusory concept as well. But the real "eureka" moment of epiphany for me was when I read an essay that imagined Giacometti sculptures running amok through the streets of Paris, either trying to find their way home or fleeing their captor. When I read this, I had to literally drop everything I was doing at the time as I frantically scribbled on my sketchbook a single drawing that would then launch me into the 3-year long journey. (see attached drawing) This particular sketch captured the essence of what would later be a series of storyboard sketches that took 6 months to develop and flesh out. This first draft was later abandoned in favor of a more heartfelt story about Giacometti himself. In drastic contrast, this second draft took only about 2 hours to write and essentially became what "Eternal Gaze" is today.

Ogden: What do you think it is about his work that connects with people?

Chen: There is a certain purity, integrity, and originality about Giacometti's art that resonate with anyone who gazes upon them. His art is never pretentious or contrived in the way he ignored popular stylistic trends of his time. Instead, Giacometti created art for himself -- art that allowed him to make sense of the chaotic world around him and art that captured life as he saw it. The elongated and emaciated nature of his sculptures prompted many critics to label him as an existential artist which he disliked. Whether he would admit to producing his art with this sort of thematic preconception or not, it is clear that his sculptures eschewed flair and ornamentation in favor of reducing his subjects down to their elemental essence. This purity in simplicity as well as the tragic yet hopeful nature of his works is what I believe people connect so profoundly with.

Ogden: In your film, Giacometti is very stylized physically. What inspired the design of his character? (In what ways do you feel Giacometti’s work influenced the way you portrayed him physically in the film?)

Chen: The design of the Giacometti character was inspired partly by Geri from Pixar's short film "Geri's Game." Of course, I was well aware of the danger of creating a character design that was too cartoony which Geri was. I knew I wanted to tell a story that was not comedic nor light-hearted. The character design needed to support a story that would be harsh and gut-wrenching at times, and it needed to have enough appeal and believability that could ultimately earn the empathy from the audiences. So I strove for a fine balance and happy medium between Geri and realism. Perhaps as a subconscious influence from Giacometti's work, I added plenty of wrinkles and cragginess (through modeling and bump mapping) to his face and hands to more effectively place him into his grungy world where he could seamlessly co-exist with his sculptures.

Ogden: The film has been very well received and has won numerous awards. How has this affected you and your work?

Chen: Winning awards and receiving accolades never gets old. Having said that, I created "Eternal Gaze" without really thinking much about awards and such. In a way, I adopted Giacometti's modus operandi in creating this film. I wanted to satisfy my own curiosities and really just wanted to see if I could bring Giacometti and his sculptures to life believably and compellingly. It may seem strange for me to say this, but I honestly would have been fine had I locked the film in a vault immediately after its completion and had never shown it to another soul. I guess you can say that I created "Eternal Gaze" for myself, in order to make sense of the chaotic world around me. It's no wonder many of my friends accused me of channeling Giacometti's spirit by the end of the production. Ultimately, the completion of this 3-year long journey has done much to quiet the demons within and has instilled a sense of peace in me. As painful and grueling as it was, it's been an extremely satisfying and gratifying ride.

Ogden: Hazy light blooms off of most surfaces in this film, as if everything was shot through gauze. What inspired this approach?

Chen: From day one, I wanted to create a computer animated film that didn't look computery. That's one of my pet peeves. I wanted each frame of the film to look as if it could have been taken right out of the pages of an art history book. Part of achieving that believable look was to add selective blurring, depth of field, blooms, imperfections, and other photographic effects. Having an extensive background in traditional photography really helped me in translating what I saw through my viewfinder into the CG domain. Also understanding the certain idiosyncrasies of a wide-angle lens versus those of a telephoto lens is extremely important in achieving a film that obeys the laws of cinematography. Blooms along with other effects should only be there to establish a mood and to serve the storytelling process, guiding the audiences eyes to certain places on the screen at the ideal time. To help condition my cinematic eye, I watched "Citizen Kane" about once a month to study how Gregg Toland used light and shadows in glorious black and white to frame his subjects. Also, I watched "Blade Runner" religiously throughout the entire 3-year production to better understand how to effectively create an oppressive mood and to better appreciate the virtues of the "slow burn."