Interview With Leviathan's Christophe Ferreira
Christophe Ferreira made his anime directorial debut this summer with Leviathan, an adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's novels by studio Orange, which presented a great opportunity for us to interview him.
The French-born animator started his animation career in the early 2000s and has since worked on numerous European and Japanese productions.
Q: Leviathan is your first time as an anime director. When you were starting out as an animator in Japan, did you ever think about directing a project yourself?
A: When I first came to Japan in 2003, definitely not. I was just happy to be here, and every day I was learning something new and meeting new people. I started out doing douga (in-betweens), and I had to learn a lot before moving on to genga (key animation). So I wasn’t dreaming of becoming a director but “just” an animator.
Q: When did you get involved with the project?
A: It was around late 2019, just as COVID was starting to spread.
Q: Were you familiar with the novels beforehand?
A: No, I didn’t know the original novels at all.
Q: Did you interact with Scott Westerfeld during production, and if so, what particular kinds of conversations did you have about the work?
A: That was actually one of the first things we did. When we wrote the series bible, we had several conversations with him. Afterwards, we tried to stay in touch as much as possible, sharing production updates and listening to his feedback whenever we could.
Q: You started your career in Japan through the Telecom Animation Film traineeship under Yasuo Otsuka and Kazuhide Tomonaga. Would you say you applied some of these “teachings” to your approach with Leviathan?
A: Unconsciously and in spirit, yes, I think so. But since the project was in 3D, that influence was ultimately limited. With Otsuka-san and Tomonaga-san, I mostly learned about movement through drawing, and Orange’s technique made it difficult to apply that heritage directly.
Q: You are behind the original concept of the Buta TV special that was produced at Telecom Animation Film in 2012. Although you didn’t get to direct it, would you say this experience helped you tackle Leviathan?
A: Originally, it was supposed to be a feature film co-produced between France and Japan, which I was meant to co-direct with Tomonaga-san. We did the pre-production all the way up to a short pilot. I spent years developing it, but things went badly. The French company went bankrupt, and in the end, Telecom received government funding to make a short episode and decided to go ahead without me.
Q: You were also a concept artist for Qubic Pictures’ prior work, Eden. How did you get involved with Qubic Pictures?
A: The first time I came to Japan was in 2001 for vacation, and I visited several animation studios like Madhouse, Gainax, and Production I.G. At the time, Justin Leach was working at Production I.G., and we kept in touch. Later on, when he was looking for a designer for Eden, he thought of me.
Q: You come from a background in traditional hand-drawn animation. What are the difficulties you’ve faced in directing a fully 3DCG anime?
A: The hardest part was not being able to grab a piece of paper and fix a drawing, a pose, or a movement. The only way to get close to that was by discussing things with the animator and sometimes drawing on the screen—but often, for technical and budget reasons, I was told the correction wasn’t possible or was too costly to implement in a 3D TV series.
Another difficulty was that we had to decide a lot of things very far in advance, and later it became nearly impossible to change them. If at some point I realized we needed something but hadn’t requested it months earlier, I was told it couldn’t be done (which I understood). In 2D, if something’s missing from the frame, you just draw it.
We'd like to thank Christophe for taking the time to answer our question in great detail! As we wait to see what he has planned for the future, you can watch Leviathan on Netflix.
Assistance: Sarca, Gerrymelyn Casupang
Tamara Lazic
