We asked him a few questions about his experiences and influences.
What is your experience with animation so far?
'As a child, I liked drawing comics. With a friend, I made the comic Kaas-Trek, a kind of persiflage on Star-Trek, and we would sell it to classmates and buy candy from them. Who framed Roger Rabbit I remember as a delightful viewing experience and otherwise I watched Cartoon Network a lot. Possibly this already influenced choices in my work now.'
'So far, I love working with animation. It broadens your toolbox right away with so many more options. For my documentary about Israeli writer Etgar Keret, we were looking for a way to do justice to this writer's imagination. In his fiction stories, anything can happen. And in animation, anything can happen too. If we had filmed his stories with real people and filmed in real places it would have had a very different character.'
In the production timeline, when does animation surface?
'Animation does have to be part of your plans, because it makes a production more expensive and complex. So if you go to a broadcaster or the NPO fund with a plan, you have to argue why you want to use it and why it is really necessary. In doing so, it is smart to have your editing pretty much ready before you put an animator to work. With the series Grote Vragen, I had an animation made for a scene that was then cut out, which is a real shame, because even if it's only a few seconds, an animator will soon be working for a week.'
Do you understand the language of animators? Can you say anything is possible and quickly see what works, and what doesn't ?
'It does come in handy if you have a little understanding of how, for example After Effects works and what the really time-consuming things are. For animators, this is ultimately often the biggest struggle: many people think that everything is possible in animation, but often it is very time-consuming and can therefore become expensive. Often end editors or producers think a bit easily about it, but if you want a lot of good animation, then there also has to be significantly more money on the line.'
'Whether something works or not... That has perhaps most to do with tone and style. If you are making a documentary, the style of the animation should also kind of suit the person being filmed.'
Are you free in casting animators ?
'Yes. Actually yes! Besides, I like to give animators a certain freedom. I think everyone works better if they can just do what they think suits them. You can steer a bit and, of course, in the beginning you say roughly what you want, but I like being surprised by what an animator comes up with.'
'With Big Questions, the final editors help decide. In terms of camerawork, you definitely have to consider what you want to do. We filmed a scientist in front of a wall so that we could visualise her explanation around her. During filming, you then actually have to see a bit of how it could become when those animations appear around her.'
Do you get specific reactions to the animation from viewers ?
'People like to see animation. It immediately gives a documentary a more playful character. You can't do it with every documentary of course, sometimes it doesn't fit at all, but I do think it will happen much more often in the future.'
Will Big Questions continue?
'No idea! For a science programme, it was reasonably well watched, but the net manager had still hoped for more viewers. Somehow we didn't manage to capture that million-strong audience after all...'
How do you see the future? Can and will you continue to use animation and motion designers, or do you see tools emerging that you would like to use?
I was at a film festival once and someone asked me: 'Why are you still making documentaries? That's a dying business, you should make games!' He promised me golden mountains if I ventured into the game industry. Very occasionally, I think about ordering a Playstation and delving into the gaming world after all, but I'm afraid I'll get hooked on some game or other and never get out.
Do you have any big questions or comments of your own for animation professionals?
'That there are many people who make really beautiful things and you don't see them much on television. That's a shame. But I'm sure more and more documentary makers will want to use animation in the future, and hopefully many more beautiful collaborations will come about.'
'For example, I recently saw the film Feels Good Man, about the cartoonist of the cartoon character Pepe the Frog who was hijacked by the far right. The animations in that documentary are fantastic, the film was also made by an animator.'
Website Stephane Kaas
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