I liked the animation because some of the drawings reminded me of the Japanese animated TV series I use to watch growing up. Not being that knowledgeable about animation, I decided to ask Kan about the process of making an animation piece.

AICN: Can you tell me about the animation filmmaking process?
Kan: The first thing I had to do was draw storyboards. I went through a hand drawn animation process. Then I would scan characters into the computer. Afterwards, I would (use) a computer pen tablet to fill my sketches on to the computer so it was all computer drawn and computer colored. Some of the background was modeled in 3D on the computer, like the car. In the beginning of the film, a car hits the boy.

The overall process is the same as making a film. You still have to have a script and storyboards. I had to cut it together, watch it over a couple of times and see if it works.

AICN: For a short animation, how long did it take you?
Kan: It took me 8 ½ months to make because – it’s kind of a long time – I was basically making it all by myself. I only had help on the music, sound effects…and that was only in the last two months of the filmmaking.

AICN: Does it usually take longer to make animation than live action film?
Kan: It’s kind of hard to say because you can put a lot of work into refining live action films but then you can also just get a DV camera and videotape ten minutes of stuff and there you have ten minutes of tape. So I think it’s a lot easier to make longer live action pieces. For animation, you have to draw every frame by yourself and it takes a while.

AICN: Your drawings reminded me of the Japanese cartoons I use to watch growing up. What were some of your influences?
Kan: I like Powerpuff Girls. My character doesn’t have hands or feet. He just has stubs for arms and stubs for legs. I kind of like that kind of style. It makes it more rounded and cute. I use to watch a lot of Japanese cartoons as a child. I still do all the time. I like that ultra flat drawing style.

AICN: (Reading from the promo postcard) So tell me about this: “Tomato love is a story about a boy in search of his tomato.” What is that all about?
Kan: Well, that’s just something so that people would get interested in (the film) by that one sentence. (Laughs) It’s like an advertisement. (In the movie), the tomato comes out of the blood (that’s flowing out from the boy’s head). He hits his head in the beginning (of the movie) and blood spills out of his head. The tomato comes out of his blood because it’s red and the tomato is red. Then he loses his tomato. He’s really attached to the tomato. It’s been a part of him so he has to spend the rest of his time looking for the tomato because he can’t be himself without his tomato. Everyone has their own “tomato.” (Whatever it is,) it doesn’t have to be a tomato.

“Tomato Love,” which made its Hawaii premiere at the Cinema Paradise, is one of the Best Animation Nominees.

Hmmm, I wonder what my tomato is.
Moon Yun, aloha and signing out.

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