Cartoon Character:
Shane Acker

See Shane Acker's web site for more about 9. Click "Animation" to see Acker's films Mr. Grenade and The Hangnail.

Visit the UCLA Animation Workshop site and click on "film clips" to see trailers for workshop films.

See Monster House by Acker's classmate Gil Kenan M.F.A. '02.

Q. So you think there's lot of special pressure in your kind of filmmaking?

A. Talk about the most meticulous, anal-retentive, time-consuming endeavor. You’re dividing a second into 24 segments and you’re concerned about everything that’s happening in these little segments. My class at UCLA started off with 14 students and ended with about seven. Animation chooses its own.

Q. Where are you in terms of development on the full-length 9 now?

A. We’ve been developing for the last nine months, and now we’re doing tests with different studios that want to produce the project. I’m working with the writer — Pamela Pettler, who worked with Tim Burton on Corpse Bride — to develop the screenplay. One good thing we’ve got going is that we’ve got a very small team, so we’re not going to get caught up in a bunch of executives making decisions.

Q. Who do you envision watching 9?

A. I want to leave it open to everybody, but you can’t really say that when you’re talking to producers. So our target audience is going to be 14-year-old boys and whoever responds to cutting-edge, darker, kind of retro science fiction. A lot of people are saying they’ve watched the short a couple of times and the more they watch, the more things come out to them. That’s what I want the feature film to do as well.

Q. Give us three words that describe you.

A. Creative. Persistent. Fortunate.

Q. Do you ever get a chance to come back to UCLA?

A. You know, UCLA is a community I’m still a part of. I met my wife there — she’s a set designer for theater. She worked on 9 lighting. I go there all the time and hang out with [his thesis adviser and chair of the Animation Workshop] Dan [McLaughlin ’58]. And I keep in touch with all the guys from Animation. And there are some points — when things get really frustrating — I wish I could just go back to school. You don’t realize it when you’re in it, but that’s it right there: That’s like Nirvana.

Published Apr 1, 2006 12:00 AM