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Peter Ramsey: The ‘Rise of the Guardians’ Interview
R
ise of the Guardians is
Peter Ramsey’s first feature
film after directing the hit
DreamWorks Animation Hal-
loween special, “Monsters vs.
Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from
Outer Space.” This project fol-
lowed the feature film, “Monsters
vs. Aliens” on which Ramsey
served as Head of Story. While at
DreamWorks Animation, Ramsey
also served as a story artist on
“Shrek the Third,” and as a story
board artist on “Shark Tale.”
Before joining DreamWorks
Animation in 2004, Ramsey’s tal-
ent as a storyboard artist was on
display while working on a
notable number of live action fea-
ture films, including “Adapta-
tion,” “Minority Report,” “A.I.
Artificial Intelligence,” “Cast
Away”, “How the Grinch Stole
Christmas,”
“Fight
Club,”
“Godzilla,” “Men in Black,”
“Independence Day,” “Batman
Forever,” “Far and Away,” “Back-
draft,” and “Predator 2” amongst
others.
Ramsey’s directing skills were
also honed early, as he served as
Second Unit Director on live
action feature films including
“Godzilla,” “Tank Girl,” “Higher
Learning,” and “Poetic Justice.” A
lifelong resident of Los Angeles,
California, Peter grew-up in Cren-
shaw, and graduated from Pal-
isades High School before
attending UCLA.
Here, he talks about his life and
career, and about being the first
African-American to direct a full-
length, animated feature.
Kam Williams: Hi Peter, thanks
for the interview. I’m honored to
have this opportunity to speak
with you.
Peter Ramsey: Oh, the plea-
sure’s all mine, Kam. The plea-
sure’s all mine.
KW: I really enjoyed Rise of the
Guardians. Let me start by asking
C
O
C ELEBRITY
I NTERVIEW
by Kam
Williams
you what it meant to make history
as the first African-American
hired by a big studio to direct a
full-length, animated feature?
PR: I thought about it a little bit
when I first got the job, but then
rapidly got lost in the work. It
wasn’t until later, when my mom
and dad read that fact about me in
the newspaper, and I saw how it
affected them, that it came back to
me. Since I talk to a lot of groups
at schools, one good thing is that
kids can look at me and have
direct knowledge of someone
who’s doing something they might
be dreaming of doing themselves.
KW: How did you get the gig?
Judging from your bio, it seems
like you’ve been a storyboard
artist most of your career until
now.
PR: Right. I got into film as a
storyboard artist, but my dream
was always to be a director. The
way I was able to get into the
industry was through drawing. As
a storyboard artist, you basically
pre-visualize the whole film
through drawing. So, I spent a lot
of my career doing that with many
different directors. That was really
film school for me, my training
ground, because I got to work with
so many great people.
KW: So, what was your aca-
demic background? Did you study
art?
PR: I’m pretty much self-taught.
I took a couple of art classes in
high school, and I entered college
M
M
U
N
with the intention of major-
ing in art. But I was a little
too young when I started at
UCLA at 17, and I wasn’t
ready for the concept of art
that was being taught there.
I was intimidated by Art
History, and didn’t get it. All
I was interested in was
drawing. I wish I had been
able to hang tough, but I
dropped out after a couple
years. Of course, I did learn
a bunch of that stuff later
on.
KW: Editor/Legist Patri-
cia Turnier was wondering
whether the film is faithful
to the book series it’s based
upon.
PR: An interesting thing
about the movie and the
books is that they were both
being developed at the same
time. The books’ author, Bill
Joyce, in his talks with the
studio, said, “It would be really
cool, if I could do a series of books
about the origins of these charac-
ters, how they came to be and their
backs stories while you guys were
simultaneously developing a
movie about the first time they all
came together.” So, they’re all the
same characters and they share the
same mythology, but the movie
and the books are pretty different.
KW: Patricia also asks: What
message do you want children to
take away from your movie?
PR: The main message of the
film is that you have the power to
create magic through your imagi-
nation and to bring it into the
world, whether that’s in the form
of the Guardian characters who
represent a lot of things we need,
or whether it’s just anybody creat-
ing something. That is the best
way to fight fear. That’s probably
the central idea of the movie.
KW: Why did you tweak these
familiar characters, like giving
I
T
Y
C
Peter Ramsey
Santa a Russian accent and mak-
ing him look a little different from
what we’ve come to expect?
PR: The basic idea behind the
books was to suggest that you
grew up with a made-up version of
all these characters, as if there’s a
secret world alongside our world,
and we’ve never known the whole
truth about it. What you see in the
movie and the books is the real
truth about what these guys are.
And it’s pretty cool, more like a
Lord of the Rings kind of epic,
fantasy world they all operate in as
opposed to the cute, fluffy image
you get from greeting cards. That
was the central idea of the books.
We thought that was pretty inter-
esting and a really fresh way to get
people to take another look at
these characters.
KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles
asks:
Where
were
some
“Guardians” when the hunters
shot Bambi’s mother? I can still
hear the shot ring out all those
A
L
E
N
D
many years ago. How much
trauma-less support can ani-
mation/fable offer young
children without some need
of a degree of reality check?
PR: Wow! I’m not sure
what to do with that ques-
tion. I can’t answer for
Bambi. We have a mom in
our movie. Some form of
reality check? Yeah, I don’t
know what to do with that
one.
KW: Film student Jamaal
Green asks: What is your
favorite film, and is there a
filmmaker whose work
inspired you to make the
move to becoming a direc-
tor?
PR: Omigosh, I literally
have too many favorite
movies to name them all.
But I can throw a few out
there: Kurosawa… Coppo-
la… David Lean… I’m a
huge fan of Ang Lee. And there
are tons of French films I love.
Like I said, way too many to men-
tion.
KW: The Tasha Smith question:
Are you ever afraid?
PR: Of course! Are you kid-
ding? [LOL] But you have to real-
ize that fear is something that lives
in your mind, just like all the pos-
itive things that reside there. The
key is to try to find a balance or a
way for the positive to at least can-
cel out what the fear is telling you.
Most of the time, fear is taking
something that sounds very ration-
al and blowing it out of propor-
tion, and letting your mind run
away with it.
KW: Will you next film be live-
action or animated?
PR: I don’t know. So much
depends on how this one is
received and how well it does? I’d
love to make another animated
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A
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The Seattle Public Library, Beacon Hill Branch,
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December 5, 2012
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