Documentary to feature local animator

Years after their completion, a Bloomfield animator has recently had his early works “rediscovered” by a VHS collector who will now distribute the compilation of short films under the title, “Death Laughs Among Us.”

Township resident John Schnall, who started making animated films in the 1980s, and in 1997 established his own animation company, Quality Schnallity, Inc., said that a few years ago he was contacted by someone who wanted a copy of his “I Was A Thanksgiving Turkey.” As suggested by the title, most of Schnall’s films are playful with a curious point-of-view about death. He negotiated with the caller.

“We went back and forth a bit, eventually agreeing on a price for the tape and I sold my last copy to him,” Schnall said. “I figured that would be the end of it.”

But the man, Dan Kimen, contacted him again. Schnall learned that Kimen had a company, Adjust Your Tracking, affiliated with another company, Vinegar Syndrome, that was affiliated with the Criterion Collection, a big-name CD distribution company. Kimen asked to distribute Schnall’s films, on Blu-ray, with a documentary to be made about him. With all this coming in, Schnall figured selling his last copy of “I Was A Thanksgiving Turkey” was a smart move. Nonetheless, it took him two years to put together his works for distribution.

“That’s over 40 year’s worth of animated madness,” he said. “All told, about eight hours of material.”

Schnall grew up in South Orange and became interested in animation when his fourth-grade teacher provided students with strips of 16mm clear leader on which to doodle with colorful magic markers. Schnall drew a stick figure on consecutive frames figuring to make it walk, and was surprised to see, when the leader was run through the projector, it was a frenetic jumble. This aroused his curiosity.

He was also interested in magic as a youngster. These two interests, drawing and magic, were influenced by a book on a subject given to him by an unsuspecting grandmother. The book was “The Magic Island,” by WB Seabrook.

His grandmother thought it was about magic, but it was all about voodoo. Its black and white drawings were intense and impressed the boy.

He finally learned about animation at Columbia High School, in Maplewood, with instructor George Chase. He attended Drew University for two years and then New York University where, in 1983, graduated with a bachelor of arts in film animation. He worked freelance and got a job as a timing supervisor.

“My job was to translate directors’ notes, frame-by-frame,” he said. “I did that for a number of years and worked my way up to assistant director and got a job with Disney.”

His animation company, Quality Schnallity, is “a very small company,” he said. It makes explainer, music and corporate learning videos. Explainer videos, Schnall said, promote new products.

Human skeletons populate the compilation “Death Laughs Among Us.” In one film, “Grim,” a skeleton gets out of bed and dresses as the grim reaper and enters the work-a-day-world, casting its shadow on unsuspecting figures. One scene is at the beach. Perhaps portending a drowning, a bikini-clad woman ambles nearest the peering Death. Schnall said it was from his interest in drawing that he learned that bones were the underpinning of the human form.

“And when I look around me, I notice mortality around us,” he said. “Working on that film late at night, I listened to John Cale and his lyrics, ‘We’re already dead.’”
John Cale is a founding member of the Velvet Underground.

Schnall’s animations use a variety of media in imaginative ways including live action as in the unsettling “Frankenstein.”

“I certainly like to take a source and look at it from a different perspective,” he said. “What does Dr. Frankenstein do for a day job?”

The sound effects are well-done. For such brief films, it is always surprising the number of crew members needed to pull it off. Schnall provided some of the music and in the Biblical, “The Binding of Issac,” he sounded a shofar. Terrified screams throughout the compilation were provided by his sister, Jennifer Lockhart.

“I do most of the music,” he said. “I’ve been playing music since I was very young and know what I want. When I’m immersed in doing a film for two years, sounds occur to me through the process.”

Schnall is enamored with animation, he said, because it is the only way he can express his thoughts and with its many ways to approach the art, the way he thinks.

“It’s a language I understand,” he said.

  animation, bloomfield