Like many of his other films, Joao GonzalezsIce Merchantsbegan with an image from his subconscious.
He imagined a tiny house attached to a cliff, and the ensuinganimationand story excited his producer Bruno Caetano.
The short follows a father and son living in a house attached to the side of a mountain.
Ice MerchantsThe Animation Showcase/Courtesy Everett Collection
The pair freezes ice at their home and parachutes down to the valley below to sell their wares.
DEADLINE: Where did the idea forIce Merchantsoriginate?
In this case, it was an image of a tiny house attached to a cliff.
So, I know roughly what the theme of the film is gonna be about.
DEADLINE: Bruno, how did you get involved?
BRUNO CAETANO: So, theres actually a person here missing, which is Ala Nunu.
Shes the third person responsible for this film and animated half of the film.
You guys are gonna like each other.
So, that was the excuse to come together and hit it off.
And from then on, Joao was invited to be a part of the cooperative, COLA Animation.
And Joao came on board and weve been doing stuff together ever since.
DEADLINE: How did you achieve this style of animation?
It all started with sketchbooks on my graphic diary, and that was the main reference for it.
But the animation itself is traditional frame by frame animation that we draw directly on our graphic table.
DEADLINE: Can you talk about your color choices?
Its a very small palette.
CAETANO:There were actually little tweaks you were doing as we went along.
It was very interesting, just refining everything a little bit better until we got to the end result.
Where did the idea for the hat flying off every time come from?
And when Im constructing it, Im thinking that maybe they parachute every time to sell their ice.
And the more I thought about it, the wind would make them lose their hats.
They lose all their hats, but then they buy it the next day like a running joke.
Its a process thats not very common.
He doesnt write a script, he starts drawing ideas.
But its always funny to see how Joao manages to convey to us his ideas.
Its one of the nicest things about this weird process, discovering things as we go along.
