Candy Guard | Creating Iconic Characters
In Episode 7 of All Lit Up! we got to chat with the wonderful Candy Guard who has created memorable characters we know and love.In the 1980s, Candy made many short films for Channel 4, for MTV and BBC. This was followed by Pond Life, a fabulous animated series on Channel 4, following the life of our highly neurotic heroine, Dolly Pond.
Listen to Episode 7 of All Lit Up! now, or read on for a summary of all we discussed.
The Success of Pond Life
G - You've packed so many things into your life so far, including Pond Life - which I loved! And that won Best Animated Series in Annecy in 1997. That must have been an incredible honour and event?
C- It was. It was kind of a bit of a shock, really, because we made the series in a bit of a, not a vacuum, but we were just left to our own devices. I wrote the scripts. There was very little interference from Channel 4. And then suddenly we launched the series on the world and the response was absolutely unbelievable. In fact, I wish I could go back and enjoy it more because there were so many things happening. Yeah, Annecy was very exciting. There were lots of awards ceremonies, interviews on the telly, interviews on the radio. So it was kind of quite a surprise, but a lovely surprise.
Complex Female Characters
She is wonderful, like so many of your characters. In your most recent film She’s My Best Friend and I Hate Her, you're unafraid to show how complex female friendships are.
C- Yeah. And I think also a lot of our best friends, for me, the idea was very much about a friend you've had for a long, long, long time, say from school. And if you met now, you might not have that much in common, but you've known each other all that time. So you try and stick together, despite the fact your lives might have gone in different directions. You're very different people than you were when you were kids. So it's kind of about that, really. And again, that's on YouTube.
And I had a very good response from people saying, oh, that's just like me and my best friend or that's like me and my sister. Also people saying, oh my God, this is an awful friendship. I really like my friends. I would never say anything nasty about them.
It was an idea I'd had for a long time. It often is with me. I'm a slow, you know, I have an idea. I try it in one way, I try it in another way. And when I got a chance to do the BFI application, I remembered that idea. And I decided to work on that.
Making Digital Art
You just said you're slow… but considering you do everything yourself, you're absolutely prolific.
I didn't animate on Pond Life. We had 20 animators, so that was the first time I'd been hands-off. I did all the storyboards wrote it, directed the voices. So I didn't do completely everything because I wasn't animating. But now I've learned TV Paint. Finally!
I mean, the last 20 years, I just was still hoping someone out there might have a rostrum and I could still draw on paper. I had to accept that I had to learn a program, and so I'm now doing that again, doing everything myself like I did at college. So it's kind of like I've gone full circle, really. It kind of suits me to do that. You can do it very secretly and privately and then you can launch it onto your YouTube channel.
Do you miss the paper and pens or have you made the digital transition?
It's not the same drawing on a tablet, but I draw on a Wacom, so it's the closest you can get - drawing directly onto the screen with TVPaint. You don't get that feel of pencil and paper, but I've got some quite good tools.
My husband, he's an animator as well, a director, and he made a load of tools which I've nicked. So I've got a soft pencil, sharp pencil... but it isn't the same. And when you've drawn on paper for years, it becomes second nature. I am getting used to it. But it is different.
And all the possibilities with layering… going back and checking… that's liberating?
I'm making a tiny little film at the moment and I've got my layers, my mouth on one layer, my hands on another, but I actually get quite muddled up. And when I used to do it on paper, I'd just go through and do it on paper and I'd have a thousand drawings. In some ways it was sort of faster, even though I was having to trace everything off. There was something very simple about it.
Finding Animation in College
You've always been a writer—did you work from a script or images first?
It evolved with the images. And I think that's where it goes back to strip cartooning. I wasn't a big reader as a kid, but I was very, very verbal and into dialogue and talking.
When I used to write letters, I always used to do little stick figures with dialogue as a quick way of telling a story.
I went to art school and did fine art. There wasn't a moment I was inspired to do animation. There was a moment on a fine art course where everyone else was painting and sculpting, and I was doing tiny little cartoons. They didn’t look like fine art.
A tutor suggested animation and that was a light bulb moment. I could make a film, do drawings, voices, dialogue—perfect.
Dolly Pond in Midlife
Are you doing anything differently now?
I want to bring Dolly Pond back. This is my big thing. I'm thinking the best way is to make something. So I'm making something now. I'm getting Sarah who voiced Dolly. It's called Dolly Midlife and it's basically Dolly, menopausal Dolly.
Who better to have the menopause than Dolly? Because she doesn't give a monkey's. It's not even going to bother her!
Someone asked me recently: is Dolly coming back older? Did she marry Nobby? Did she have children?
I said you're asking all the right questions—these are what I'm answering in my pilot.
So, I'm putting her in this new old new life where nothing much has changed but she's older.
If you could make one film or show to put into the world, what would it be?
Oh God, what a question. I think I'll just have to say Dolly Midlife. It's my thing. That's what I want to do.
Short Film Choice - Hen His Wife / His Wife is a Chicken
"Very weird, totally original with an amazing soundtrack." -
Candy Guard on her short film choice, Hen His Wife, by Igor Kovalyov
You chose the short film Hen, His Wife. And I'm so glad you did! Tell me why you chose it.
I got into animation in the late 80s, 90s, when there was still this huge Eastern European industry. This one really stood out. It was made just as Russia was changing. It's very weird, totally original with an amazing soundtrack. I love things like the hen’s spotty dress—the spots stay still because they're painted on a cel. Very handmade. You can read it as a political allegory, a domestic situation, alienation in the Soviet bloc. I wanted to pick something funny like what I make, but I realised I love films where you’re trying to work out what it’s about.