Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikael Trench.
Mikael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My love for stop motion probably began when I was a child and would rent the original 1933 “King Kong” from my local Blockbuster. The film captured my imagination like no other has to this day and got me to want to start becoming creative. Not long after, I started watching the fantastic works by Ray Harryhausen, as well as the “Wallace and Gromit” films by Aardman Animations, which only added to my obsession. I would even try my best to stay up till 2 in the morning to try scarring myself by watching “Robot Chicken” episodes on Adult Swim. At this point, I probably didn’t know much about how the actual craft was being done, but I knew it was certainly different from other kinds of films and animation I had been watching. And sparked my imagination unlike anything else.
It wasn’t until I was about 12 that I began experimenting with the medium myself. A close friend of mine introduced me to how accessible the technology was and with that, I started going wild. Whatever I could find-action figures, PlayDoh, my hands-I wanted to animate it. I had fun piecing together these extremely crude pieces of animation and at this point in my life, that’s all it was, just fun. I didn’t think I could make it into the industry and figured that this would only make worth as a hobby.
As high school rolled around, my interests began to shift as my passion for film only grew more. It was towards the middle of my junior year that I made the decision to go into the stop motion industry, with more people praising me on my works and me realizing that I could stand out from the crowd with such a skill set. With this new mindset, I crafted what I consider to be the film that really changed the game for me, 2015 short, “Of Cat & Creature.” The story, inspired by my love for classic monster films, focused on a mustached cat scientist who must fight off a bloodthirsty monster that he had been keeping captive in his lab. While the film is far from perfect looking back (I animated and edited the whole thing on my iPod Touch and sets were made out of painted pizza boxes), I was extremely proud of the final product at the time. What’s more, the film found some level of success, being featured in two teen film festivals over that summer and even being nominated for awards. This blend of telling a story I was passionate about and finding success through it confirmed by goals to continue down this path.
With that, I let my creativity lead me down the road. With the release of “Of Cat & Creature”, I decided to brand my work under Cyclops Animation Studios, inspired by the Cyclops from the 1958 Ray Harryhausen film “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.” For the remainder of high school, I would make two more important films. Also released in 2015, I created a 21-minute long adaptation of the lost Willis O’ Brien concept, “King King vs. Prometheus.” The film put my animation and storytelling skills to the ultimate test, taking a painstaking five months of animating a whole cast of lip-synced characters alongside two giant monsters. While still being pretty crude and never getting into any festivals, the film was a huge hit once I shared it on YouTube and got my name spread around to some extent. Following this in early 2016, I released “The Tree That Refused To Fall,” a film about a pair of lumberjacks who disturb an ancient old tree after cutting down an entire forest and must pay for their consequences. I made the project for my senior project in high school, even though secretly I had been planning to work on it for some time before then. The film was my most acclaimed work yet, being featured in several film festivals and winning several awards in the process. The success of the film also allowed for the very earliest collaborations and teaching opportunities I received, even though many of them didn’t go too far since I still lacked a lot of confidence and didn’t know how to navigate things super well.
Today, I study at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta where I am currently entering my fourth year pursuing a Bachelors in Fine Arts in Animation. Through growing my skills here and meeting with plenty of other like-minded artists, I have found exciting opportunities both on and off campus. For the past few months, I have been President of the Stop Motion Club here at SCAD Atlanta, where I coordinate and lead a variety of workshops and film screenings that celebrate the art form. This position has allowed for a great opportunity to meet with others who love and hope to pursue stop motion in one way or another as a career, as well as a great chance to experiment with the medium further. I am currently doing conceptual work on my senior film, a stop motion project about a cockroach who falls in love with a ladybug.
Outside of school, while most of my personal projects have been put to the side due to time constraints, I have still continued to find ways to stay engaged with filmmaking. My most notable collaboration has been with Club SciKidz, a science and tech summer camp with locations all around the Atlanta area. Back in late 2017, I began working with the organization to help promote their Stop Motion Explosion and Special Effects programs through short films with a trio of characters known as the SciKidz. The partnership was extremely beneficial, as I was able to push the level of detail put into the set design and character models, Currently, I am working with a pair of local filmmakers to help with some stop motion elements for an independent feature film.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Like any artist, there are multiple times where I question if I’m going down the right path. Working in stop motion, especially, the industry is always trickier to navigate and predict since it’s not as much of demanded skill set as other animation mediums. Regardless, I do my best to have faith. I just feel that the hard work and passion I have for this medium can’t go without reward, but at the same time, I don’t want to make my path so narrow that there’s no way to turn back.
For me personally, however, since starting college, it has been frustrating trying to make any personal work of my own. While I’m usually always able to make time to experiment and make little animations over breaks or downtime during school, I haven’t quite had the urge to create my larger projects like back when I was in high school. This is for a few reasons. For one, if I’m passionate enough about a project, I want to be sure that I have all the time and resources to make it as good as possible, and sadly, I haven’t had much luck with either piece falling together when I need it. As I begin to connect and follow more artists, I begin comparing myself and my work to theirs to an unhealthy extent, a habit. It’s hard to believe every other person calling you talented all the time when you know that they haven’t truly seen the best out there. Fortunately, I have been getting over this as I grow more confident in my own skill level.
Cyclops Animation Studios – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Cyclops Animation Studios is an up and coming animation studio specializing in stop motion animation. At the moment, it’s primarily known for the various clay animated short films on YouTube, as well as some collaborations with Club SciKidz. I’m proud that, even though the studio is still in its early stages, there’s already solid attention being given to our work and people who anticipate more of what we have to come. What I hope helps us stand out is the foundation of us being nothing more than artists who have a deep love and passion for both stop motion and the legacy of artists that came before us, hence why the name is taken from the best creation of the industry’s grandfather Ray Harryhausen.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success starts with a solid piece of mind first and foremost. Once you believe in yourself and the work you put out, then you have nothing else to worry about. The magical thing about stop motion is that it’s an art form that embraces the human hand and the imperfection of it all, so it’s a mindset that I’ve begun to bring on to my day to day life as well. I don’t feel that it’s something that I’ve mastered by any means, but I hope to continue seeing what it means and where it will take me.
I do have hopes that my work will inspire others one way or another. Being African American and working in this industry is very rare to see, so if I can make it, then I hope younger people can see that it is certainly possible.
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