Tribeca Festival screening gives Cape Breton-born animator something to crow about

A short film by a Cape Breton-born animator Sean McCarron will be screened at the Tribeca Festival in New York City in June.

The 10-minute animated short Corvine is a story about a boy who has trouble fitting in at school because of his fascination with crows.

McCarron has been in the animation industry for over 20 years.

CBC Radio's Mainstreet Nova Scotia reached McCarron at his home in Vancouver to ask him about being featured in one of the world's leading festivals.

Their conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

Where did the story come from?

It started as a crossword clue.

My wife was very good at crosswords and I was struggling to kind of keep up with her and one of the first times I could get a clue before her was crow-like and it was a seven-letter word and that was corvine.

So, I was really excited, but it sparked this idea.

And it reminded me of my dad, who is a funny guy. As I was growing up, out in the yard, he would mimic crows himself and he has a wonderful crow call.

I was telling this to my wife. As I was telling her about my dad, who would stand in the yard and call the crows and the crows would listen and they would start calling back ... I realized then this is a great little character.

It was from there that I had this idea and it just grew. You start asking questions in your head of what this character would be like in this situation [and] what happens if you went to school and maybe all the kids came out calling like a bird as well.

You just keep asking questions. What if it didn't go well? And that's the path I chose.

How much involvement did you end up having when it came to the music?

You have to trust yourself and put your trust in other artists.

You make your film and you put the storyboard in and it's a rough comic book form, you time it out to what you think the action requires, you put in sound effects and you put in temporary music as well just to help the mood.

You give all of that to your composer and you say this is what I'm going for and then Suad [Bushnaq] would listen to that, and she would have her own ideas and she came back to me.

She said, "Look, I'm going to pitch you something. It's a little bit different from what you gave me, but it's whimsical and I think it's kind of the direction we talked about."

She played me the music and the first time I listened to it, I cried. 

Did you see it with any audiences when it started showing at festivals?

It premiered in the Calgary International Film Festival in September last year and I definitely wanted to go see it for the first time with the audience.

I did travel to Calgary. My parents travelled from Cape Breton and they came out to Calgary. I have a brother who's living in Edmonton and he came down and I have cousins there.

It was wonderful. We had a lot of people there that showed up and I got to watch it with the audience.

I love the film, but I'd never shown it to anybody else.

You're sitting in the audience and it starts to play and I couldn't even look at the film. I just kind of sat looking at my feet.

By the midway point I kind of relaxed a bit and you're looking around and people are laughing, they're responding, and they're just exactly where you want them to be, and It was such a relief.

It was just so nice to be a part of that community and to watch a film with the audience.

It was received well and actually went on to win the Audience Choice Award at Calgary Independent Film Festival.

How do you feel that it will be showing at the Tribeca Festival?

I'm excited when I get into any film festival to be honest.

So when I heard I was getting into Tribeca, I was just amazed. It's a massive festival that's so well known and prestigious.

I just am looking forward to going to New York and meeting all the people there and the filmmakers and just the big buzz that's around.

It's just a surreal experience.

The program that I'm in is curated by Whoopi Goldberg and she's going to be there doing question and answer and introducing the films.

It's just very exciting and I'm just thankful for how it's being received now.