That living Plymptoon they call Bill.

65 year old, Oregon born, drawing fanatic, crude businessman and wonderful animator Bill Plympton attended the FLIP festival this weekend; and I've had the pleasurable honour of being in his presence. I would've put this with my FLIP day 2 post but I had so much to say on the man I felt it demanded it's own entry. First of all, a bit of frank honesty. Before Friday, I'd never heard of the man before and had no idea of his work. While that admission would cause a sharp intake of breath amongst certain circles, it's true that a lot of his work has flown over and around my radar. On the run up to FLIP though, his reverence grew more and more apparent until the moment I actually attended his masterclass and he proved his salt with a passion in his marker, a twinkle in his eye and the justified pride of an American animator who's been in the game since 1987. So I guess I'm trying to sum up what, in the short time I saw him, I learned from him as well as my impressions of him as a whole.

Bill sketching two guys

During his masterclass, the first thing that struck me was Bill Plympton's recurring habit to draw a sketch during his talk. At first he seemed to treat it like it was a necessity, as if he'd been commanded to do lots of drawing throughout the talk as a favour to admin or something. But soon enough who could tell he was drawing a manic amounts of sketches because he genuinely loves drawing. So much so that he doesn't think it at all weird to interrupt his own seminar to do a little doodle. It was quite remarkable. During the talk someone asked him how much he'll draw in a day and even though he couldn't be entirely sure (differing sizes and sketchy-ness of drawings and such), his roundabout, ball-park figure was around 100 drawings a day. 100 drawings a day! That's astronomical! He said he loves drawing so much, he could happily wake up at 6am and draw till 10 at night. And when he says that, I believe him. The fact that he couldn't help himself to applying boardmarker to paper not 30 seconds ago supports that. Also striking was the speed at which he'll finish a sketch. It was amazing. Of all the sketches he did, not one of them took more than 2-2.30 mins to do. Now I use the word 'sketch' in as strict a meaning as I can because they were just very basic sketches, but even still the way he was able to communicate a body shape, character, emotion and even top it off with shading is an incredibly admirable ability. I love drawing as much as the next guy, but to be able to convey what Bill manages to convey would require an entirely focused 30 minute session with just me and my pad. Meanwhile Ol' Plympton is banging out random lines on an office clipboard with a permanent marker while holding conversation and coming up trumps. It's daunting when I think about it but the man has had a great many years experience so I'm not too disheartened.

The angel from 'Idiots and Angels'

One thing he seemed to do was put his signature on the sketches of his characters that he ripped off of the clipboard. Again, it seemed like the staff at FLIP were holding his favourite pet chihuahua hostage for some signed work, but then you could see that it was all on him again. He was signing his work (I imagine) just in case. Just in case it went missing so he'd still have a claim on it, or just in case he could sell it. To me, that showed a rigid formality that (I guess at his age is inevitable and probably appropriate) becomes apparent in a lot of what he does and how he must conduct himself outside of the animation studio. Bill Plympton is an animator, yes, but he is also a business man. Throughout his talk (and this is part that made me doubt what my expectations actually were when I heard the term "masterclass") he was talking about his methods for making enough money to survive, going to his distribution methods and where to expose his work and making products that will just sell easier. Later in the day, he was sat at a desk selling his books and DVDs. One offer he had was that with a £25 purchase of a book, he would give the buyer a caricature of themselves, a nice little keepsake for the day. When I got to the desk, and asked specifically for a caricature, I was enlightened of the offer and that there were no books available. Although disheartened, he quickly picked me up by saying he'd draw me for £10. Excited, I ran to the nearest cashpoint for funds and got my face depicted a la Bill Plympton. It was partway through my frozen posing that I realised I didn't try to haggle with him at all, and he seemed to pluck the figure of £10 from thin air. That made me felt partially responsible for setting up the precedent of £10 per caricature price tag for all those to follow. If there was a chance I could've knocked off 2 or 3 quid, I'm sure it would have been appreciated. But putting my poor financial skills to one side, the man was all about selling his wares and making money. When he asked an audience member where he had seen one of his pieces before and the response was "the internet", he showed, though comically, disappointment (I imagine) at the lack of revenue from that customer. I understand. A man's got to live. I never wish to be as money motivated as him but understanding the simple business premise of keeping costs down and profits high is something that needs to be kept in mind.

Bill Plympton's caricature of me

On a more personal front, Bill Plympton was asked who his influences were...and I felt it necessary to list them as well! I think it's good that he named film makers and artists as well as animators. When I'm asked that question, I always feel required to name animators, even though I enjoy people outside the field. Some of Plympton's inspirations include Disney, Tex Avery, R Crumb, A.B. Frost, Carlos Nine, Saul Steinberg, Charles Addams, Milton Glazer, Hayao Miyazaki, Quentin Tarantino, Joanna Quinn (which I'm surprised came this far down his list, but she is younger than him so maybe not necessarily an 'influence') & Richard Leicester. The man he admires the most though is a man called Winsor McCay, a cartoonist and animator who died in 1934. He loved his surreal little world that he animated in. Plympton enjoys him so much that he remade a Winsor McCay piece called "Flying House", updating it to the 21st century. He got it funding through a scheme called Kickstarters where people around the world donate to a project and they get their name in the credits. If that isn't some form of love for a man's craft, I don't know what is.

The female lead from a piece in development by Bill

So finally, when offering advice on how to make a living being an independent film maker, the Bill Plympton way, he gave three simple rules. Make your piece short (the attention span of a viewer can wear thin and that can hurt your chances of getting picked up by television networks, festivals etc.), make your piece cheap (particularly encouraging people to avoid hiring different roles and trying to take on as many as you can) and make it funny (because everyone wants to see something funny). Once you've made your piece, you want to get it seen. Here's where you send it out to every festival under the sun. He even included the Oscars and Cannes film festival in his list. I don't know if he was aware he was in a room of at least 40-50% students but I may try submitting for those for fun...I mean, the worst they can do is say no, right? And he said some factions of media where he's made his riches is from theatrical release (which he hasn't done a lot of), television (which he has done a lot of, to tv stations all over the world apparently), DVDs (like the ones he was vending on the desk later), Merchandise (like his books and any toys, a bit early for me maybe) and commissioned work.

The nice sketch of the Dog he did for me

So I think that's all I've got to say. I think, if you've stayed with me till here, you must be able to tell that I believe Bill Plympton is quite a guy. He's a shrewd American out there to make a buck, but the amount of ability he has in his little finger makes it all permissible. I think it's a shame that he says he prefers to work alone or keep his team very small, because I think he has a lot more to offer. He wants to keep costs low and keep the animation and drawing style of his films as succinct to his own as possible, which are valid reasons I guess. Sadly, he couldn't stay for the second day of FLIP since he was travelling to Germany for another talk. It doesn't matter though, since I'll keep an eye out for him now. We've definitely not heard the last from Bill Plympton.

From left to right: Ravi Maheru, Bill Plympton & Myself