Interview with “Scarygirl” Creator/Production Designer, Nathan Jurevicius

Full transcript of Interview with “Scarygirl” Creator/Production Designer, Nathan Jurevicius.

0:27KT: Scarygirl is in Australian cinemas from October 26. Nathan, thank you so much and welcome to the For Your Reference Podcast.

0:34Nathan: Thanks so much. It's lovely to be here.

0:37KT: It's so nice to be able to chat today and I'm so excited to talk about the film, there's, aesthetically, there's a lot to talk about, even the themes as well, but I think even before we come to that, I kind of just want to talk about the Scarygirl IP in general. This is a decades long legacy, you know, that you've had with Scarygirl, you know, going from 2D to game animation or feature film. I would love to know, Living in the world and in the IP and in the characters, did you feel like there was more to learn about Arkie in the world?

1:11Nathan: Yeah, absolutely. There was there's always been different stories being told through the different mediums. Uh, and with this film, there was, uh, it was a new story. I hadn't actually told this, this story before, um, because we didn't really know a lot about, um, her exact. Journey from other mediums. It was always, uh, you know, it was a silent graphic novel. So there wasn't words. Uh, the game had a different kind of focus. And so this film is, is really, uh, uh, a new take on the story and it's a new take on, uh, even her aesthetically she's, she's actually quite different looking to what she was, you know, 21 years ago. So there was, there's a new, there was new stories and I think there's a lot more stories to tell of her as well.

1:59Nathan: You know, she's. You're only touching the surface of exactly where she came from and

2:05KT: we're getting an Arkie cinematic universe,

2:06Nathan: maybe, maybe, maybe, yes, yeah, no, there's, there's definitely, there's definitely kind of a multiverse style thing that going on here and. And you'll see that like each one, um, has its own take it. I always look at it as a bit of a, um, how would you put it? Uh, an open source type story where I just come in and they reinterpret the story based on a very sort of thin thread of what needs to happen. But after the thin thread is kind of. Uh, essentially tied up the, the contributor can, you know, kind of go anywhere they want on it as far as, you know, this character is now bad. This character is good. Uh, maybe we'll do this halfway through. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

2:50KT: It's interesting that you say open source because eventually I do want to talk about the themes, um, in Scarygirl and, you know, the whole machine versus nature, um, sort of. conversation. So I guess that's just a little tantalizing, um, on the way in our chat. But I think before we get to that, I think what impressed me the most was how visually delicious this film was, you know, it had such a visual language to it from the colors to the textures and the way that the film was layered. And, you know, even the different sort of Worlds that we would have inside of Scarygirl had a different sort of color aesthetic. I want to talk a little bit about, I guess, the visual language and the journey into translating that into an animated film.

3:33Nathan: Yeah, I mean, with the, with the world of Scarygirl, I do like to kind of. I suppose pocket each environment with a very specific, uh, like color palette. Uh, and especially with the film, the film is really broken up. I would say into kind of three color palettes. You have the, the, the peninsula where things are, are quite, um, I suppose non machine like. Uh, then you've got the, the forest area, which is quite a, it's like a combination between this. City and the, uh, the peninsula as far as kind of the, the atmosphere of, of being a little bit more grungy or darker. And then you've got the city atmosphere, which is a very kind of blues and purples, uh, which is quite a contrast between the peninsula. And so looking at the world, you can kind of, um, if you look at the movie on a, almost like a timeline, it, you can see the quite the strong progression of, of the colors of it being kind of sort of, sort of sunny to kind of this really kind of.

4:33Nathan: Purpley bluey environment. And what's interesting is that the sun is also being affected during the film. So as the sun gets affected, the sky is actually becoming red. And so when you look outside, you'll actually see over the course of the film, a redness to the sky, which affects the interiors of the city as well. And so you're getting this really lovely kind of, um, I suppose, ominous red tones hitting all the characters once we get to the city. And then that changes at the very end when the sun is back to its sort of. Almost good state. So it's really, it's really interesting to kind of break up the worlds. In a, in colors, uh, colors come fairly naturally and I, I love, um, uh, kind of break out all my work into kind of very specific color palettes.

5:20KT: Um, yeah, cause it's, it's so interesting. Is it a conscious thing though? Cause I imagine, you know, artists just close their eyes and then they just paint around and it just automatically creates it that way. Or is it more of a methodical, like, how was it? Being able to be like, this world is this, this world is that. Was it more methodical or was it more free flowing?

5:41Nathan: For the film, it, there was definitely a method to it. It was a, I mean, a lot of my, um, work that I do normally as a, just as an artist is more free flowing, um, but, but often there's a focal point. So with with the film, uh, I do have a very specific kind of color focal point. And so we will break up the film in that way. So, you know, with, uh, with the city, for instance, we were always looking at, um, kind of blue tones and red tones as the, as kind of like the key colors to that city. And so everything was kind of based around that, that color palette for the city, uh, for the peninsula.

6:23Nathan: We're looking at. Kind of a lot more earthy tone. So there's, you know, there's lovely browns and kind of greens that you actually don't really see much in the city at all. And so it's a real contrast. And we had to be specific because in order to show the contrast between the worlds and how the world was getting more affected, the closer you got to technology. The further away from technology, it became more natural.

6:47KT: I also love because, uh, you know, all cultures around the world, or even just in general, this sort of sedentary sort of life that we have. People crave the sun, people crave being out into nature, and that really played a really core theme. And I really appreciated that, um, in Scarygirl. I think, you know. Talking about the texture and, you know, even the mood and the tonality of Scarygirl, um, it was really underscored, if you'll pardon the pun, by the sound design, and also the score in the film. What was it like working towards the mood and the tone, and I guess even the plot throughout the film of, we visually have it, how do we, um, I guess, Add that extra sort of seasoning through the sound?

7:29Nathan: Yeah, I mean, the sound is one of my favorite aspects of the film. Uh, I mean, the sound design, the music, I mean, Ak, the, the composer, uh, was brilliant. Like he, we, we had a kind of a brief for him that we wanted to kind of bring about throughout the different, um, you know, areas of the film. Uh, and he was able to kind of interpret those areas. Through various mood boards that we've done and there's a lot of, um, nature and kind of hand built sounds that come into the, uh, the peninsula and the, uh, and the forest as well. So when you listen to it, you can kind of kind of the brief to to act was like, imagine, uh, the Scarygirl world had has its own band.

8:17Nathan: What would they, what instruments would they play? What, uh. What natural objects would you find in that environment that could be used as instruments? And so the composer really took that to heart and brought that sound and sound design into the, into the different, uh, musical, uh, beats throughout the film. Um, and then as it gets more. Machine like it becomes more synth based. There's a lot more of that kind of, uh, beautiful, I suppose, 80s retro vibe that comes into it. And then when there's a crossover between nature and the machine world, what Act did is he brought in some of the natural music sounds and then overlaid them with the, the synth.

9:00Nathan: And so you had this really lovely merging of technology and nature in the sound design.

9:05KT: It sounds like a very cohesive team. Like, I, I love the way you were able to play together and, um, really, because it really does come out, um, in Scarygirl, especially for myself as, you know, as well as audiences in general. Scarygirl is, you know, probably most targeted towards younger audiences, but there's still enough for, you know, adults to be able to watch and be able to digest in different sort of levels as well. What was it like, because you also talked about how the graphic novel was silent, so I guess, you know, even bringing motivations of characters to create an animated film and that sort of thing, what was it like balancing story, making sure that it had enough obstacles, but also making sure it could resonate on all levels, including younger audiences?

9:53Nathan: Yeah, it's a really interesting one with the story because it is definitely focused at a, at a younger audience and it's probably the first time that I've done something, uh, that's more for that kind of, you know, say 6 to 10 year old audience. Uh, so there's a lot of themes that can resonate with that, uh, that younger crowd. Um, but it was an interesting process because, you know, how much, how I suppose. Uh, you know, dark, do we make this, you know, do we kind of bring in this kind of real, um, menacing aspect or do we have to kind of like, make that more subtle where adults can kind of understand that this is actually quite a, like a, a scary moment, but it's not so much so scary that a kid will, uh, you know, freak out when I ran out of the, the room it's, it's doing that fine balance.

10:43Nathan: And I mean, the writers did a, did a good job of balancing it. And it's hard. It's very tricky. It's very tricky when you're trying to make something that's, it's an indie film. Uh, so you don't necessarily have so much of the restrictions of a studio picture, but it's also an indie film and we want an audience as well. So you've got that whole thing of like, we don't want it to be so obscure and so weird that, you know, only a small percentage will ever enjoy it.

11:10KT: Yeah. And that little Letterboxd like review.

11:13Nathan: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's so, it's so hard. So. You know, story is really, it's a, it's a difficult, uh, one, I mean, I mean, most of my concentration on the film was production design and, uh, you know, character design, uh, but of course, you know, being a very small, very tight group of, um, people making it, you know, you had to kind of do multiple roles and, and things and, um, yeah, the story was something that, uh, you know, morphed over the time of making the film as well. You know, there was sort of. Yeah. Things, you know, that happened at the end of the film, even, even the resolution of what happens to Dr. Maybe at the end wasn't like, was still being worked out because there was one option or there was another option. And did we want to think about whether Dr. Maybe has a life beyond the film?

11:59Nathan: And, you know, that was the decision that we went through was, yeah. Like a hand coming out of the grave. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So we kind of wanted to give him that, you know, no, there could be a story about Dr. Maybe later on. Let's not kind of like eradicate that character from the film. So there was a lot of thought about future, future stories being told from this. Um,

12:23KT: we kind of already touched on it, but I guess if you wanted to add some extra comments, there was the talking about environmentalism. And I was like, Oh, did we do a capitalism as well? It's like machines versus nature. And I guess that talks about like the textures and also. animations as well. Hayao Miyazaki, you know, 2D. Um, you know, the, the Oppenheimers of it all with, you know, as practical as possible. Um, is there anything in regards to, I, I guess the layering of, and even sort of parenthood as well. Is there anything in the layering of the themes that, um, you, you felt like you were able to put into there? Cause I, I personally, I think this film achieved.

13:04KT: What a lot of younger geared sort of films don't do. It was able to achieve so much.

13:10Nathan: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, as far as a story and themes go, I think the biggest thing for me and the most personal was the family aspect. The idea of like, you know, what is your family? Like, do they have to actually be, you know, blood related to be family? Uh, you know, is. Is family, you know, essentially kind of what you make of it. Is it who, who actually, you know, brings you up and loves you. Um, and also understanding expectations of being, say, a parent with a kid, you know, I mean, I, I've got 3 kids that are, you know, grown up now. They're in their 20s now, but they're, um, you know.

13:53Nathan: As a parent, you kind of want them to go a certain direction, even though you don't specifically say you must be this in your head. You're always kind of got these hopes and dreams for your children. And that plays out a lot in the film where it's kind of like, you know, what, what does it, what does a parent want for their kid? And I think that potential for, and sometimes you don't listen to your kids, what they actually want and what they actually. Uh, uh, skilled at and, um, and I think Scarygirl really brings that about where you've got, you know, this, you know, young girl who's like actually got skills, but it doesn't go, it goes against what the parent want.

14:28Nathan: And it's not a, it's not even a bad thing that what the parent wants, I mean, what the kid wants. It's just that it's not what the parent conflict. Yeah, conflict. And so, you know, I think that's a really good, um, it's a really interesting thing to think about as a parent. And, uh, and that plays out a lot in the film, you know, things where sometimes you have to take the best bits of, of a bad situation sometimes. Yeah.

14:55KT: Um, I'm going to wrap up with our final question. Um, I'm so sad. We didn't get to talk about the casting and the voice actors, Jillian Nguyen, Remy Hii, Rob Collins, Deborah Mailman, Mark Coles Smith and Sam Neill. Like we don't have time, but I just needed to do a baby shout out. Um, we finished off our reviews with a recommendation. So what would you pair with Scarygirl as a double feature?

15:19Nathan: I mean, I love, uh, James and the Giant Peach, the stop motion film, uh, with, uh, by Henry Selick, brilliant. I think those two films would work wonders as a double feature.

15:29KT: Gorgeous. Love that. Thank you so much, Nathan. I really appreciate your time.

15:34Nathan: Lovely to speak to you too. Yeah. Thank you so much.

15:37KT: No worries. Talk soon. Bye.

15:39Nathan: Bye.