December 19th, 2019 
Julissa Padilla 
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of fairytales? Most people may say a Disney movie but how about the film company Magic Light Pictures? This film production company creates a variety of fantasy films that are meant to teach both young and old important lessons about life all while entertaining their audience with an exciting narrative. With their unique animation style, there are sure to get the attention of their audience. Some of their most famous films have been The Gruffalo and Revolting Rhymes, which were both well received by everyone.
Their latest film is named Zog – which is about an accident prone dragon who is being trained to become the best he can be, all while trying to learn values in himself – and help a princess who ultimately wants to be a doctor. How’s that for a plot? I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to the directors of the short, Max Lang and Daniel Snaddon, on how they created such a wonderful film that teaches everyone the power of friendship.
Julissa: What inspired you guys to create Zog? Had you guys always had an interest in fantasy or fantasy elements like dragons?
Max: Zog is actually based on a picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – and we were always looking at that specific book. What I really liked about Zog is it starts innocently with these little dragons that go to school. But as you read it, you discover they’re actually being trained to go to war and it kind of takes us by surprise; it’s a really important message in the book. And then you have the character Princess Pearl who doesn’t want to be a princess at all and rather wants to be a doctor. And that really resonated with me because the book was actually published the year my daughter was born… I was really happy to have a character who does something more useful with her time. She just goes out into the world, and wants to help people… instead of just sitting around being a princess. It took five years to get made.
Julissa: Why did it take so long?
Max: Even if you have an established relationship with a production company, sometimes you just have to be patient and wait for the right moment. To be honest, when we first thought about making Zog in 2012, I don’t think we could have done it back then. There’s so many characters, there’s so many technical things that were really, really hard to do…
Daniel: I loved the book because it was so funny. The ingredients of this character – who’s most enthusiastic, but has zero talent. It immediately starts your imagination going. Even though Max and I had never worked on anything together before, as partners, we discovered that we were on the same page immediately. And the team was so on top of everything, it was really quite a joyful project.
Julissa: How did you guys encounter the book, as you both talked about your reactions when you read it. How did you first find it or discover it?
Daniel: It was easy. The producers basically sent it to me. I had the really easy road, but Max. How did you first come across the book?
Max: Since we had already done two books based on Doner Scheffler’s work, I always had my eye on that book. The thing that really stood out about it was that it was character driven and had a message. I read it one time and I fell in love with it. I actually read it to my daughter… with my imagination going wild with its cinematic possibilities. It’s very important to remember the first time you read the book. How does the story feel when you’ve experienced it for the first time? That’s something I’m always trying to be very conscious of…because you want to make sure that that translates into the film later on…
Julissa: What was your guys’ favorite part about developing Zog from a book into the film?
Daniel: When we started developing the movie, we did two weeks together where we just basically put down all our ideas as quickly as we could – and drew loads and loads of very rough boards. I was actually animating full time on another project at Triggerfish, so I have to say that process for me was really great. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had kind of coming up with a film with somebody.
Max: For me, it was really working with the Triggerfish team in South Africa. That was the most fun because they already had done a few films, people knew what the level of expectation. We just had a lot of fun at the beginning of the film. No one was intimidated by the scope of it, and …there was a lot of trust developed between the directors and the team and the studio to produce it. And I have to tell you, it’s been the most fun I’ve ever had on working on a film…Really it’s important that you have fun making it – that was my big takeaway.
Daniel: At the end of doing the show we get to spend a week together in London doing the sound effects and hearing the music …that’s always a really fun part of the thing for us. It’s also the part of the film that we have the least amount of control over. But that’s what makes it so much fun…the images that we’ve been working on for so long now have music… The collaboration such a pleasure.
Julissa: This question is more geared towards Max. I learned that you had directed or co-directed episodes of Amazing World of Gumball. I just want to know what was the biggest difference between directing a short like Zog versus a TV series like Gumball?
Max: To be honest, I only worked as an assistant director on Gumball, I didn’t actually direct any shows. I was just helping to make it better. But I can say it’s a much more intense schedule production because you’re trying to make about 20 to 40 episodes in the time we take to make one film.
So very, very different mindset… They were really trying to make the modern classics that hold up the test of time; that parents want to watch with their children. It’s almost like creating Children’s books. If you have a great picture book that you’ve read as a kid, you’re excited to read that story to your children and share that with them. And we want our films to be like that.
Julissa: This question is geared towards more Daniel. Do you prefer animating or directing animation?
Daniel: It’s an excellent, excellent question. And I would say that it very much depends on the project. It’s important to really feel that it’s the right thing… something you really can say to yourself, that’s definitely worth my time on it. It really does depend on the project.
Julissa: Which character from Zog do you guys think you’re the most like?
Daniel: I definitely think I’m the most like Zog. We pretty much have the same problem. We think we’re “something”.
Max: Yeah, I would agree with that. It’s so charming to see. Zog is someone who has a talent, but he’s so keen to be a great success and then realize halfway through that it’s actually what he’s doing is not actually not necessarily the right thing. I feel like that’s something I can relate to very much. Like “just be careful what you wish for”.
Julissa: What other films or shorts have inspired your work with this company?
Max: I would say I’m a big fan of Chuck Jones or Looney Tunes characters – and then of course anything Aardman does.
Daniel: I would totally agree with the Aardman stuff. What I really love about, especially Nick Park’s early films, is that there’s different levels of humor coming at you and it has a bit of an edge to it. You know they’re hinting at sort of stuff happening a little bit crazy and acknowledging it. And I loved that as a kid, I always used to think that was really cool. I still do.
We’ve tried to sprinkle a little bit of that. We’re also big fans of a Studio Ghibli, those films don’t feel too cynical nor too hip. They’re more optimistic…They have a warmth about them… there’s a sort of generous spirit to them. So that’s what attracts me to good animation film.
Julissa: Even watching Zog you feel the subtleties from your inspirations. What has been the most challenging aspect of creating Zog?
Daniel: We had a bit of a challenge with casting. Zog starts off as a kid and we knew we wanted real kids… finding a little boy who sounded big, and still a dragon… Trying to find someone who still had that really nice spontaneity with their performance.
Julissa: One thing that really catches me about Magic Light Pictures is it’s animation style because to me it kind of looks like CG mixed with stop motion. And I just wanted to ask you guys, how was this animation developed or what was the inspiration for the look of it?
Max: It actually goes back to The Gruffalo which was the first film we all did together. That was actually produced using a physical stop motion sets and CG character and being integrated into that. We always felt like that would be a perfect real world equivalent to the actual Sheffler illustration to have a very handcrafted feel to it…that’s where that inspiration came from. And, Triggerfish when they joined, we actually had to change the whole pipeline to CG mostly because they were just getting more ambitious.
I said before Gruffalo has a very contained, very small cast of characters… Technology advances allowed us to do things when we switched to a full CG pipeline. The computer has a tendency to straighten everything out and make things geometrically perfect…but we were still very keen to get a handcraft look into there in a digital way. e and the soul.
Daniel: Whenever we started a new production, we always do a lot of research into the kind of world that we’re trying to build. There’s these amazing communities of people who love to just build miniature stuff online. So we take a lot of time to really consider, “what if we had to do this in stop motion, and what would be the way we would do it?” And then to make sure that our digital process really sticks by those rules.
Julissa: What other projects do you guys plan on pursuing for Magic Light Pictures?
Max: We just finished a film is about to come out this Christmas. It’s called The Snail and the Whale and that has been a long time favorite. I love the book and I love the world. It’s an actually very different from Zog – Snail and the Whale is very poetic.
Julissa: What kind of advice would you give to young filmmakers or animators who aspire to be directors in animation?
Max: I think one of the things is patience. For example, as I said before, it took four or five years until we could actually start working on Zog – sometimes it just takes some time. It doesn’t mean that your ideas are not right. It’s just not the right time and place for it. Patience! You have to trust in yourself and be patient.
And the other thing I would say: communication. I think it’s a very, very important, especially when you work remotely, which it becomes more and more common, but more and more these days, it’s communicating with a team. Talking every day for two hours, via Skype. It’s really important to get the feeling of the people on the other side, we are all working on this together and we all want to do this… I think the more you can talk to your team and the more you can allow your team to get feedback and answer questions and it becomes more collaborative – and it’s ultimately more fun.
Daniel: I completely echo that and I think it’s been amazing to work with different directors and see their different directing styles and what they kind of get out of out of it. Depending on their approach. And I completely agree with Max. I would say that it’s really good to know what you want. It’s really good to know to be able to answer as many questions as you can to be prepared. But then, ultimately, it’s wonderful if you have a team that you can trust and you can really foster that trust through the process. I think the other thing I would say is anyone who’s young and has animation initiatives is: go and do it. There’s so many amazing free tools online. There’s so many free tutorials on YouTube. You’ll know by doing it, whether you’re falling in love with the medium or whether you think it’s not for you, perhaps because it just takes way too long. I would say that ‘just do it’ and then just keep doing it if you enjoy it.
A recent graduate of Woodbury University, and an Academy Gold Intern, Julissa has now entered the motion picture industry, placing an emphasis on her passions for film making and animation.
She is currently working on a screenplay, and doing interviews and writing articles for both Entertainment Scoop and Animation Scoop.
- Max Lang and Daniel Snaddon on How They Created “Zog” - December 19, 2019
- INTERVIEW: Directors Lisa LaBracio and Anna Samo on “The Opposites Game” - December 11, 2019
- INTERVIEW: Jack Quaid on Bringing Richie Rich to “Harvey Street Girls” - November 18, 2019
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