CEEA Talks: CEEA WS Tutors A. Degryse & R. Temple: “I’m not controlling the result, I’m controlling the process”

Lodz, Poland, home to the third module of the CEE Animation Workshop, is an exceptional place. Amidst the beautiful Art Nouveau facades along the Piotrkowska main street, decay and abandonment are everywhere. The peeling facades, boarded-up windows, and collapsed porches look photogenic, while chimney pipes between the houses still bear witness to a rich industrial past. Rarely has decay looked so elegant.

The city’s crown jewel is the former Manufaktura textile factory, now partly transformed into a stunning hotel, large enough to host about 30 authors and producers. They work in two teams to develop their own and each other’s projects, guided by two tutors. Although producers Annemie Degryse (Belgium – Lunanime Productions, Les Productions de Milou) and Reka Temple (Hungary – Cinemon Entertainment, Hungarian Animation Producers’ Association) have impressive professional backgrounds, they are both new to their roles as group leaders. Do you know what time it is? It’s tutor time!

Welcome, rookies! You’re new in this role at the Animation Workshop, but you’re not new to the world of CEEA.

Annemie Degryse: Not at all. We’ve cooperated on the Animation Lab in Clermont-Ferrand, serving as an expert in the Forum, as well as participating in lectures and panels,…

Reka Temple: As President of the Hungarian Animation Producers Association, I’m on the Board of CEEA and well-informed about their activities.

Can you both tell me why the other one is perfectly qualified for the job?

Degryse: Reka has more than 30 years of experience in this industry. What more do you want?

Temple: We are a good match, as we both have a similar philosophy about filmmaking and the significant impact images have on the audience. We both work on the production side, but stand close to the creative side, always striving for connection and communication. Intellectually, this workshop tickles my brain, like it’s activating a new muscle. For many years, I’ve refused to be a tutor, wondering who I am to advise others. But after 30 years of experience, now I might have something to say.

Degryse: We share our experience with people who are just starting, or who shifted from live-action to animation. But discussions always go both ways.

Temple: Some of them are newcomers, and others come with a certain track record, which stimulates high-level discussions.

Should you take a strict approach?

Degryse: We’re here to make things grow, and we share a positive mindset. In this workshop, you want to make things happen.

Temple: It is like working in production; some rules simply need to be respected.

I asked because I heard script consultant Phil Parker say that he never gives compliments in a workshop. He only detects and identifies mistakes.

Degryse: When I see a lot of work completed since the last session, I tell them I am impressed. It takes little effort to say, “You have done a good job so far.” They should take it as an encouragement to do more and take the next step, because we’re not there yet.

Temple: I give many compliments. But the biggest compliment for the participants should be that we take things seriously. We’re having discussions on an equal level. You give me your idea, I give you mine, and you can use it if you want.

I collected impressions from participants, including truckloads of compliments for the tutors. Surprisingly, some said that it was harder to give feedback to colleagues than to be criticised by others.

Degryse: A film is like someone’s baby; you don’t want to say that ‘your baby is ugly’. We’re all kind people, you know. The process works both ways: by giving your honest opinion, you make yourself vulnerable, you open yourself up, and you don’t want others to think that you’re talking nonsense.

Temple: Finding the right balance for authentic comments is crucial. You want to give constructive feedback, but not push too hard, because it’s not your project. The aim of the workshop is not to be polite, but to be constructive. We do this in a language that is not our native tongue, nor is it for the participants, which makes it sometimes difficult to express oneself correctly and in a nuanced way.

How to make sure you don’t become cynical? “Been there, done that; I’ve heard this all before.”

Degryse: I get that ‘Been there, done that’ feeling when I leave for Cannes or Annecy for the umpteenth time, but not when I am engaging in a project. Every new project requires different steps and different methods.

Temple: The circumstances are always changing. Producing a film in the 90s had nothing to do with the situation today. The position of women in production has changed, and we have new insights into cultural appropriation and appreciation. Also, my outlook on life has changed. In my 20s, I was a different producer with different priorities than I am today. Everything changes: the times we live in, the person that we have become, and the people we work with. When working on a feature animation, you engage with a project for at least five years, and every scene is there for its reason, so you can never say ‘been there, done that’; it can never become a routine.

In the comments from participants, more than once, I found the word ‘life-changing’. Not only for the life span of a project, but also for who they are as people, how they cooperate with others, and how they see their career.

Degryse: We mostly deal with very personal projects, which makes our debate sessions rather therapeutic. Being together in a room, talking about your work, forces you to consider the core of what you’re doing. Often, you refuse to designate it until people around the table force you to do so.

Temple: You could call it ‘group therapy’, though not according to psychological standards. Therapy is always life-changing, digging deeper than in a normal conversation.

Is that where you, as tutors, come in? You work with qualified script consultants, so is your role more in combining the script element with the therapy element?

Degryse: Script consultants work in a one-on-one setting. But each group has at least 12 people around the table, discussing a project according to 12 distinct perspectives.

Temple: For me, being a group leader is exactly like being a producer. My role is to create circumstances for the right thing to happen. I’m not controlling the result, I’m controlling the process, giving support, solving problems, and moderating when there’s friction.

Degryse: In general, the advice from around the table is being accepted, but as a group leader, you’re expected to have the final word. We do that, in all modesty: ‘I don’t agree with you, for this or that reason, but this is only my opinion. Just like you, we are people, trying things out, but with a bit more experience.’ We also fail and make mistakes.

Temple: I’m not the one with the ultimate recipe.

Degryse: There is no such thing.

Different people ask for different approaches. Do different formats also ask for a different approach?

Degryse: Absolutely. Each format comes with a different target audience, and asks for different aesthetics, a different timing, and different ambitions.

You have to put a lot of ideas into participants’ heads. Did you also have to put things out of their heads?

Degryse: When it comes to career expectations, you have to be realistic. If you make this film to win an Oscar, okay, fine, but let’s go step by step. You make this movie for an audience and for yourself, and then we’ll see how far you can go.

Temple: You can never predict how your film’s career will unfold.

The workshop unlocks several networks for participants, but did it also unlock new networks for you?

Degryse: Such gatherings always lead to new encounters and insights. By spending a week together, you get to know people through and through.

I especially asked because CEEA initially was focused on Central and Eastern Europe. Coming from Belgium, are you now operating in a different universe?

Degryse: Very much so. I still feel a difference between the Western and Eastern markets. The production flow is not yet aligned; we’re not yet surfing the same wave. Although personally, coming from Belgium, I see many similarities. Western rates and standards apply in Belgium, but we are a small country, surrounded by strong players, such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. Even Luxembourg has more budget and more possibilities than we do. That situation is very much comparable to many CEE countries, but at the same time, it isn’t. It feels like we’re walking on two different legs.

You regularly welcome guest lecturers. Which personality, dead or alive, would you like to invite as a tutor for one day?

Temple: I hate this question. Why make me choose if there are too many to choose from?

Degryse: In Belgium, Telidja Klaï is the content manager of the public television’s children’s channel, and she has a degree in developmental psychology. It’s super interesting to hear her talking about how to approach a children’s audience through a TV series. But if I have to pick one person, then why not Michaël Dudok de Wit?

Last year’s tutor, Corinne Destombes, gave me the same name.

Temple: We were all thinking the same! I didn’t want to give you a name, but if I had to, I would have named Michaël too. This gives me goosebumps; such an inspiring personality.

I asked the same question to the participants, and their answers were not very original. 30% of them said Walt Disney, and another 30% said David Lynch.

Degryse: Really? I thought they would have said Miyazaki.

Actually, one of them did.

Temple: We’re a different generation. Of course, some might have aspirations of becoming the new Walt Disney, creating their own animated universe. Which isn’t a bad thing. When I was 18, I wanted to change the orbit of the planets. Today, I just want the tomatoes in my garden to bear fruit.

Degryse: You too?! I’ve just put mine in jars before I came here.

Interview conducted by Gert Hermans for CEE Animation.