Niven Wilson is an American animator, who shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, and John Kennedy in 1963. Or so he claims. His latest short film, Don’t Shoot the President, suggests that he might be in two minds about that, too. Before it plays at the fifth annual Halloween Horror Showcase on Indy Film Library, he explains the method behind the madness, and the blurred lines between horror and comedy at the heart of his work.
Which artists have been inspirations to you?
There’s tons! I try to draw from different things for different cartoons. For Don’t Shoot the President, the main idea I had starting out was to make something that had the humor of Un Chien Andalou and the pacing of a Looney Tunes cartoon. From there it mutated from scene-to-scene, including some inspiration from Don Hertzfeldt and Fleischer Brothers cartoons.
Was there a particular film or animation you saw, where you remember thinking “I could do this“?
As a kid Tim Burton’s movies were probably where I first got the concept of what a film director does, due to their distinct visual style. But I don’t think there’s any specific point where I decided to spend most of my time making films, I just sort of started and didn’t stop.
How did you learn to animate?
When I was 16, I went to a summer animation program at Cal Arts that taught me the basics of animation. After that it’s mostly been teaching myself and experimenting. I’m still a novice when it comes to “character animation”.
The way I think about it is it’s time consuming but possible to draw a character thousands of times, to make them move, but it’s nearly impossible to draw backgrounds thousands of times – so you need to use tricks. I try to find a new trick and technique that fits the story and style of every cartoon.
Your films often live at a dreamlike intersection between nightmare and comedy; do you think the best horror needs to have something absurd at its core?
I used scenes from my dreams as the starting points for most segments of the cartoon and then tried to link them together in a stream of consciousness. It’s been said that the difference between horror and humor is tone but I think that’s an over-simplification. They can overlap in the absurdity of the uncanny valley but for example, I don’t think there’s much comedy in a jump scare.
I originally intended for Don’t Shoot the President to be purely comedic but my horror instincts took over in a few places. I’m planning for my next project to be purely horror, but we’ll see how it turns out.
Don’t Shoot the President is pretty obviously not an incitement to terrorism. But the world is full of idiots. Have you come under any extra pressure or criticism for releasing the film in an election year – and an election year where two different people have actually tried to shoot a presidential candidate, at that?
I made it public on YouTube as soon as I heard the news of the first assassination attempt. My original plan was to post it around election day, which would have given it more of an association with Biden, but I think Trump himself is enough of an opportunistic showman that he’d recognize the favorable circumstances. It was getting about a view a minute, which is far better than anything else I’ve put on YouTube, until a comment included the word “Trump” and then – by conspiracy or coincidence – the views dropped to nothing. I’d like to think that my cartoons could reshape reality but so far it hasn’t been the case.
You said previously you wanted to make this film more open to interpretation than “the propaganda” of Eat the Rich. It obviously comes with rewards and risks to make art that way. What have been your favourite (or least favourite) audience interpretations since releasing the film?
The most in-depth interpretation it’s gotten that I’m aware of has been on your website. The only public screening of it I’ve been to was a test before it was finished to see if the timing of the gags were working for an audience. It wasn’t in a format where I could really talk to people about it afterwards, but it got more laughs than I was expecting.
It might make it less interesting to include this next part, it’s up to you. But my own interpretation is that it’s about people trying to assert their freewill, in a world governed by the cartoon physics, chaos and repetition which structure comedy.
Where can readers find more or your work, and support future projects?
Most of my cartoons are posted on YouTube, and a bunch of my drawings are posted on Instagram.
Though there probably won’t be much new posted until I’ve made my next project, which will be a feature length horror movie composed of a dozen short films!