Filming a sex scene is usually a nervy affair on set. Most of the crew will be shut out, the heating turned up, and bath robes are always close to hand.
The stars of "Anomalisa" received no such treatment -- and theirs lasted a grueling four months.
Eleven inches high and made from silicon, Michael Stone and Lisa Hesselman are the center of what might just be this year's unlikeliest contender for Academy Awards glory. Nominated for Best Animated Feature, "Anomalisa" enters the fray as winner of The Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival -- remarkable considering it was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign.
Or perhaps not, considering the wattage behind the stop-motion film's cast and crew. Written by Charlie Kaufman ("Synecdoche, New York", "Being John Malkovich") and co-directed by Kaufman and Duke Johnson ("Frankenhole"), it enlisted David Thewlis and the Oscar-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh on voice acting duties.
However, arguably the real heroes of this surprise hit are its animators: the tinkerers, the teasers, the artists who after a ten-hour day would walk away with two and a half seconds of useable footage. An animated feature with a distinctly adult tilt, they had to negotiate boobs, bums and detachable penises, whilst remaining true to Kaufman's tender and touching vision.
CNN Style sat down with animation supervisor Dan Driscoll to discover how they created this year's most heartfelt film.
Beyond the frame
Animators construct Cincinnati Airport at Starburns Industries.
Michael Stone, a successful service sector guru, is the disillusioned and chronically lonely pairs of eyes through which we see the world of "Anomalisa." His is a life of business class flights and stops in bland, nondescript hotels. He preaches that the customer is an individual, but to Michael everyone appears the same; an amorphous mob he's forced to negotiate in the lobby and face in conference halls. That is, until he meets Lisa.
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