In this article we are going to focus on Dennis Fries, a young American student who studies film and television production in New York University. In order to understand his work, it is important to know a little about how he started, how his style is characterized, and where his inspiration comes from.
ST: How did your passion for films start?
When I was a human tadpole, I watched a lot of cartoons and things. You would’ve guessed I grew up in the seventies or had a time machine based on the shows I watched. I loved the works of Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Hannah-Barbera, Chuck Jones, and Jim Henson. They were my idols, and I wanted to be like them – minus being just like them, because I always wanted to be myself. At age four, I think I developed a style on my own, and you could see it based on the contraptions I built and the drawings my mom put on the refrigerator (yeah she put my drawings on the refrigerator, right next = to my grades that got me free tokens at Chuck E. Cheese, what of it?). I hated coloring books because they already provided the characters, and I refused to take art classes because I was afraid that art teachers would cramp my style and diss my cartoons. I started making animations when I got a LEGO studios movie camera for Hannukah when I was eight-years-old. My first was a claymation about a family of ducks that got out of a taxi. My next one featured a dinosaur that killed them. Eventually I discovered that I didn’t just love drawing, building, and animating, I loved making movies and videos too. So I ditched a lot of class in high school to make some movies, and I think that’s how I got into NYU.
ST: Could you tell us a little bit about your style?
I guess you could say that I’m a visual storyteller. Unlike a lot of the “filmmakers” I go to school with, my work really draws upon my obsession with animation, even when I’m doing live-action work. Real things are okay, but they’re better when they’re exaggerated and caricatured – or given life from a good dose of imagination. I love monsters, aliens, and villains, and puppets of monsters, aliens, and villains, and I would rather hang out with them than most humans, as long as I can see in their eyes that they won’t kill me (unless they don’t have any eyes, in which case I’d just have to take their word for it).
ST: Where do you get your inspiration from?
It’s hard for me to think of a time when I’m not creating or getting inspiration for my creations. Although my work is largely fantastical and imaginative, I draw most of my inspiration from real life, and I do a lot of people watching and go to life drawing sessions to hone on my observational skills. My sketchbook has become my best friend that I treat like s**t and scribble all over with a mess of half-baked ideas. When I’m not working on my own productions, I enjoy making puppets and doing animation, special effects makeup, and production design for others, because I strongly believe that films are designed, not just made.
ST: Could you tell us a little bit what your latest production is about?
“MUMBIN: it’s not easy having fur” . It’s a film about a monster that gets evicted from his home and has to find meaning in his life on the streets of a New York City that hates and fears monsters. It features a cast of original puppets that I created, and was made with the help of some really talented people. Check it out. Maybe it’ll make you laugh. Hopefully it’ll make you cry.
By Saul Del Compare
To check out some of his other films, videos and animations you can go to: www.vimeo.com/dennisfries
To see drawings, photos, and other things go to: dennisfries.tumblr.com
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I think that your work keeps getting better and better.
Your work keeps getting better and better..