EXCLUSIVE: Interview with “COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey” Animation Producer, Kara Vallow

We had the amazing opportunity to speak with the animation producer of the 13 part series “COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey” this past week. The first episode of this epic science documentary aired Sunday, March 9th on Fox and 10 other US networks including National Geographic Channel, FX, FXX, FXM, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and Fox Life. Presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson, COSMOS is the first documentary series to be broadcast on commercial networks.  Approximately 40% of this show is animation, so it’s a big factor in the success and feel of each episode. Kara Vallow, the animation producer, along with her team, and 6 Point Harness, worked extremely hard to create an animated world for the show to thrive in.

You may have heard of Kara from her relationship with Seth MacFarlane, she’s been his producing partner for over a decade on shows like “Family Guy”, “American Dad!” and “The Cleveland Show”.  At one time she was responsible for three half hour shows on Fox’s primetime Sunday night lineup (except for “The Simpsons”), she has created award-winning animation and has been nominated for five Emmys.  Oh and did I mention she also runs two popular blogs on teensleuth.com? To say I’m extremely impressed with her is an understatement.

Check out our interview with Kara below!

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How long did the process take from inception to TV screen?
About 18 months.

How involved in the concept and pre-production were you? (Focused on animation, not entire show)
Seth basically came to me and asked me to create the animation that would serve as the narrative portion of the series, so intimately.

Having this be targeted at the general public how did that affect your decision making / design?
The animation needed to be presented in the most engaging and vibrant way possible to compete with the rest of the episode. We had to keep people engaged when we transitioned to the “unreal” world. We needed to impress the viewer with the vast scale of the universe but also create a mode of scientific storytelling through a style that was sophisticated but uncomplicated. When it came to designing the character style, thee supervising director, Brent Woods, and I first discussed using silhouettes, but later changed our minds in order for the audience members to be able to relate more easily to the characters.

How did you decide what to make the animation look like? Were Ann and Seth involved with that?
Seth told me that he wanted the style of animation to be something that felt “adult” and sophisticated as opposed to what we produce on a weekly basis for Family Guy and American Dad. Seth gave me complete freedom to create this universe, which was an enormous gift. Ann gave me the courage to follow through with it.

I watched many, many films to gain some inspiration. The Secret of the Kells was one of them – it is lushly beautiful without relying on 3-D bells and whistles. It’s deliberately flat, elements are stylized and the movement primitive. They invoke pictures in a medieval manuscript. Another was a short film called Invention of Love by an animator named Andrey Shuskov. It is so simple, no words, just music and blue and gray and black silhouettes moving acres floating cities and country sides, yet the resulting narrative is heartbreaking. Another inspiration was a film called “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”, an animated feature film from 1926 by a German animator name Lottie Reiniger. It’s all done is silhouettes, like Indonesian shadow puppets and is insanely beautiful. I was looking for ways in which animators have used non traditional, non literal modes to convey story and deep feeling.

Did Seth and Ann give you creative freedom with the characters and the emotion or did they have specific ideas and direction?
Ann is so intimately engaged with the characters and their stories that we had the luxury of getting very specific and intimate points of reference. Her insights were essential to understanding the characters.

I was truly enthralled – and emotional – with the Giodarno Bruno segment in the first episode, can you tell me about the process behind it?
First of all, THANK YOU. My animation team (Allie Crane, Brent Woods, Lucas Gray and Andrew Brandou), had become intimately acquainted with Bruno, beyond his role as the first modern European thinker to disseminate the idea that the Sun is just one star among many. We needed get to the point where we felt his struggle and his pain. Before we delved into bringing Bruno’s story to life, I reread a lot of Carl’s words. I was struck by his poetry, his language heavy with lyricism and affection, he is like an evangelist. I wanted to bring this feeling to the Bruno set pieces. I have two passages hanging in my office: “Over the dying embers of the campfire, on a moonless night, we watched the stars”, and “this cosmos, in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky”. One of my directors, Andrew Brandou, created the beautiful vistas that Bruno lives so seamlessly in, and that seem to have existed since ancient times.

What challenges did you face?
The biggest challenges were 1) developing an animation style that was worthy of Cosmos 2) shouldering the responsibility of ensuring viewers understand what were often complicated modern theories of science – via imaginary journeys across time and space using animation. The narrative needed to be advanced and the narratives were going to include profound scientific concepts and demonstrating of experiments that needed to be presented with clarity. 3) Devising a narrative, beautifully and economically told in a style that would be arresting yet transition seamlessly from the live action settings. We couldn’t have those transitions be jarring to the viewer, so we chose to portray the landscapes as “real”, using layering of photographic elements and physical textures, shading and lighting that helped create an illusion of depth and drama and perspective.

What episode is your favorite?
My favorite episode will always be episode 1.

Three words to describe Cosmos?
all there is

 

You can catch “COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey” every Sunday at 9pm on FOX.

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If you’re interested in checking out a Q&A that was held after the industry show premiere a couple weeks ago, at the Griffith observatory, you can watch it below. The panel included:  Cosmos: host Neil deGrasse Tyson, writer/executive producer/director Ann Druyan, executive producer Seth MacFarlane, executive producer Mitchell Cannold, executive producer/director Brannon Braga, and co-executive producer Jason Clark.

Author: Heather Duval

Heather Duval is a co-owner of Fanspired and entered the world of pop culture at an early age by studying film in high school, attending IMTA in NYC and working with New England Models Group. With a Bachelor’s degree from Keene State College, Heather studied Marketing and Business Economics, filling every possible elective with film studies, social media and web design.

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