The Kamla Show » John Kahrs On Paperman, Animation & Technology

John Kahrs On Paperman, Animation & Technology

By kamla bhatt • Feb 28th, 2013
Category: Entertainment, Featured, Hollywood, People, Video

John Kahrs won an Academy award for his animated short film Paperman. This was Kahrs directorial debut and his first Oscar nomination. Paperman is a 7 minute black and white short film that combines old and new technology in a powerful and delightful way.

We caught up with Kahrs just as his film was being premiered in 2012. In this interview he talks about how he got the idea to make Paperman, his love for animation and storytelling and technology. (You can follow John Kahrs on Twitter)

There e are lots of people that have combined 2D and 3D technology in their films prior to Kahrs. “But it’s the first film that uses this (I think in a) very novel way of carrying a drawn line and merging them together. I think that’s what’s original about it and it is hard to describe. Its (like) very nerdy and technical but its good,” as Kahrs puts it in the interview.

Kahrs says that he loved drawing figures as a child and drew a flip book for his mother. “Well, I just loved animation and I loved the magic of making something move,” and that’s his love affair with animation began.

And what about the role of technology in animation and storytelling? Kahrs says ”…technology is just means to an end. Really, if a story is not right then the technology doesn’t really add up to. It adds up to something, it can create incredible spectacle, but if the story isn’t there then,” it is going to be difficult to reach the audience.

Kahrs was with Pixar for 10 years where he worked on all the projects from A Bug’s Life to Ratatouille including Monsters and Cars. He now works for Walt Disney Animation headed by John Lasseter.

This interview was filmed in September 2012 at the 2nd Palo Alto International Film Festival.

Photo credit: John Kahrs Twitter account